We all know that the forum is an echo chamber and the moment you dare criticise XIV people tell you to go play somewhere else and take your ball with you. Especially when you mention either XI or WoW. Imagine players from 1.0 said tthat. Come to think of it, they did. But that defines a fanboy. Been playing since closed alpha so I should know. haha

I personally think OP makes some very valid points that are well articulated. I won't deny it, I really like XI and I'd wish for XIV to revert a few changes back to how it used to be. It's become a really boring game outside of the story and doing a dungeon/trial for the first time.

However, I remember shouting for a party in XI for 7 hours in Jeuno because that was the life of a BLM and I don't want to experience that again. lol

Overall, though, I'm leaning toward XI with just a few QoL improvement but I share a lot of OPs views on the subject.

It's like in XIV you're not even allowed to think for yourself. You get a equip best gear button, every quest tells you exactly where you need to go, you can access pretty much the whole game without leaving your house, and thanks to raiders we aren't allowed to have synergy with classes anymore. And don't get me started on AST cards (my main).

And talking about shallow things, the overworld... /sigh Itself an actual crime. The way it's underutilised I mean. Apart from being blatantly undergeared there is no threat there. Like none. I don't want to call 5 friends only to be able to traverse a map but c'mon. I can chocobo through everything. Eureka was such a good step in the right direction. I have high hopes for the Bozja front or whatever it's called.

I could go on for longer but I'm at work. (damn lol)