World of Warcraft died because the developers only catered to casuals and world prog

[Ronduwil]

My work is very taxing and exhausting. I also play FF to have fun and relax. You know what I don't find enjoyable or relaxing? 15 minute runs taking 25 to 30 minutes. Carrying people who want to do the bare minimum because their fun is more important above all else.

Sorry you view more time in the game as more work. Our perspectives are clearly very different. If I'm playing 15 minutes or thirty minutes, I'm just happy I'm playing. That's what the game is all about: playing. If I'm in a fight and everyone else dies because I'm the only one who knows the mechanics, I'm happy to solo the boss and receive the commendations later. I'm even happy to provide tips to the other random players in the group so they can be more helpful next time around. I don't sulk and complain that I carried everyone on my back because they didn't "work" as hard as I did. I don't demand extra bonuses for my excessive effort. I don't insist that SE nerf everyone else's rewards to punish players with worse reflexes or that they increase the difficulty even further to get everyone to step up their game for the sake of an arbitrary baseline that I've established.

You don't have to be in a static, download a parser, do research on optimization and perfect your rotation to be midcore.

Well said! I'm glad we agree.

I don't partake in any of that. But having low expectations that are still higher than "healers dont need to dps and dps only need to press their 1-2-3" does not make someone hardcore or an elitist.

It doesn't make you hardcore, but it does make you elitist. If you don't like running MSQ roulette as White Mage, then do Astrologian. Or equip your best gear so that you can get into a higher level raid and manage lillies. You do you. Please quit insisting that SE force everyone else to do the same.