This is unfortunate. In FFXI, does everyone remember their first time hitting 75? (this is pre-level cap increase ofc.. no abyssea etc). There was an immense feeling of satisfaction!
You spent so much time leveling, and doing subjobs etc so that you could advance into endgame. You had to WORK to get into the HNM/Namis/Limbus/Einherjar scenes. Some people just leveled jobs like nin/dnc, BST, SMN so they could enjoy solo content for themselves @ 75, which still took work.
Nowadays, it seems that getting to the level cap is a piece of cake, then you sit around and wait for a content finder to group you with randoms and go smash out of one few copy+paste dungeons.
I want to have to put in work, people learn their jobs completely, and venture out into the world of endgame, then hit the ground running. This spoon-fed content just isn't half as fun as what MMO's used to be. And not only that, I want to experience content with friends and a great community, not random people that a content finder put me with.
Remember the excitement of your linkshells first Einherjar win? Your LS's first CoP-Namis win? Remember when the upper tier shells started doing their best to smash down Pandemonium Warden? The successes you experienced with people who you knew and enjoyed being with intensified the success, moreso as compared to beating a random dungeon with people you don't know.
/edit. We are going off topic! I appreciate the support, but lets try to keep this on the subject of HNM's!
I'm guilty of straying off topic too
Hopefully the Dev's will notice the immense amount of support in this thread and give us a Dev Comment.