Quote Originally Posted by DPZ2 View Post
1.0 was a disaster on par with the release of, oh, the Marvel's Avengers title. I suspect the losses of the latter title resulted in the sale of Crystal Dynamics.

Square Enix shut down the servers for 1.0 and used an entirely new engine for 2.0. The game was basically rewritten. It is currently popular, unlike 1.0.

You don't want an update to this game, you want SE to wipe out what we have now and produce the game you want. Considering how long it took to get the remake of FF7 out the door, and how long FF16 has been in production, I can't see this game becoming what you want in any time frame you'd approve.

I'll be happy to see the changes they make in 7.0 and 8.0, but I'm not holding my breath that your particular wish list will serve as the basis for either of those releases.

Frankly, the "Open World" you seem to remember from 2.x can never be replicated -- there are more data centers, there are more worlds in each data center, there are a heck of a lot more zones to play in after 5 expansions. It's been the nature of longer running MMORPGs for the last 30 years. (Well, the successful ones, anyway)
Actually current FFXIV isn't at all like ARR. Back in ARR dungeons and raids were designed differently and one only has to run LOB to verify it (some dungeons were even reworked to put them in line with the current steamlined design). LOB isn't even in the 8 man raid roulette.