After nearly a decade, im giving this game another chance.

[Kes13a]

i mean.... you're quite good at paraphrasing ill give ya that, but based off all the strict immovable statements im seeing from this thread alone, these are statements only a spike player would say. "illusions of customization" "the only thing that matters is the most damage" and my personal favorite "if you arent meta, ill kick you"

sorry but how is any of that okay to anyone? i think people might not realise it, but the ff14 core philosophy is pretty toxic on its on principles from just those 3 quotes alone

I started playing mmos with Star Wars Galaxies, which, in the beginning, before WoW, was very much a build your own, yes, there were metas, and people used those. it was a wonderful game in some regards for character progression. after WoW and its resounding success every mmo wanted to be them. the early days of WoW were the start of your "spike" player. which, the way you use the term seem to be very much akin to the "hardcore vs casual" drama baits only using a different term.

like it or not, "spike" players move the money in. in general, people want to play, not mess around with what works best for them. you single out ffxiv as the only mmo that does this and is thus toxic. well, here is a news flash.. ANY mmo where you have to choose a class to start does this. "timmy" "spike" h"hardcore" "casual" who cares, we are all game players and the reality is, if you dont like a game, stop playing it. I am not telling you to leave, but the fundamental game design has not exactly changed since you last played.

we play what entertains us usually, what we have fun with. thats going to be true for everyone, and not something that is exactly the same person to person. I suspect a lot of people would love more skill customization, but just as many would not. corporations, game developers, are in a business. niche games do not get a huge population base, and there are more people out there who just want to log in and play than figure out numbers. thats how it is, if thats toxic, well, blame humanity....