Quote Originally Posted by Edax View Post
People enjoy difficulty things in video games for their own sake. People play Legendary difficulty on Halo without any promise of better gear. In Halo Reach, all the armor that's unlocked is 100% cosmetic (yes I know Halo Reach is not an MMO). This happens in almost all other genres of video games, where players seek out the harder difficulties. The devs didn't need to bribe the players to keep playing the hard content. MMOs are an aberration in this way, the result of trying to copy WoW. That hard content raid gear would be worth a lot of gil on the marketboard, especially if only a few players are willing to do it, and there will always be a demand for it, even if it has the same gear rating as other sets.
And you know how often people played Legendary? Sparingly. Halo lived off its multiplayer component. All those games have one distinct difference you're forgetting. They aren't trying to maintain a monthly subscription. When I played Halo, the only subscription I paid was to Microsoft. Bungie had my $80 and never saw another dime. FFXIV, meanwhile, attempts to make content last for at least seven months. One of the main reasons Ultimate exists was SE trying to find a way for raiders to stop unsubbing in odd numbered patches. Speaking of, Ultimate is content purely for the challenge. Less than 1% clear it. People simply aren't going to do the same content continuously for months on end without a tangible reward. In fact, we'll likely see what happens when content dries up come 4.5. People stop playing. Now imagine that happening within the first month instead of 4-6 months in. You have yet to answer how FFXIV is supposed to keep people interested if everything can be obtained after one or two clears.

As for gear selling. It really wouldn't. Not only would that gear be undercut into oblivion, gil serves no purpose in this game except a self made score board. Regardless, what purpose does the other gear now serve? It's DoA because you can buy a better alternative out the gate, thus crafting gear has no use and no one queues for normal mode.

This is precisely why you don't compare between genres. FFXIV isn't Halo, GTA or anything else but a MMO. The closest comparison it has is WoW, which does things very similarly to FFXIV almost like they're both... MMOs.