Would you want account progression?

[Packetdancer]

The game is very good at placing arbitrary walls in front of you to squeeze more money. This causes more burnout in my mind, and not going to play another game is not an excuse for poor design by game developers.

While I agree that they make paying for things a way to have a lot of conveniences, I would also note that the fact that I can do literally all the things on one character also removes a fair number of walls.

I have played more than a few games where you get to have exactly one class per character, and if you want to play a different thing... welp, enjoy starting at ground zero in terms of everything. What content's available, how far you are in the MSQ, what zones you have access to, etc. When I was playing WildStar, I seriously considered trying out Medic. But then I thought "I have already leveled an Exile Spellslinger/Explorer and a Dominion Engineer/Scientist, and have an Exile Esper/Settler about halfway through the game; I lack the energy to level a fourth character from ground zero."

(And then the game went away. Guess I'll never have a chance to seriously try Medic now!)

On FFXIV, if I go "I think I've lost all common sense, reason, and ability to recognize when I'm about to cause myself immense frustration -- let's level black mage!" I can at least do it on the same character, with access to everything I've earned while playing other jobs. Ones I enjoy. (I swear, I only ever level black mage because it changes so often from level to level that I keep telling myself that maybe in another 10 levels, it will change into something I actually enjoy playing.)

Now, that said, there are plenty of other reasons to have multiple characters. Roleplayers often like to have multiple ones, I have a secondary alt here on Leviathan to raid on without screwing friends out of chests, I have a much-neglected character on a different datacenter to play with friends there, etc. But one of the big reasons in any other game is "I've played <X> for a while now, I think I'd like to try my hand at <Y>", and that one, FFXIV lets you do without having to start entirely anew.

(Edit: Yikes, I am terrible at proofreading my own posts when I'm insomniac and it's 1:30am.)