The current state of the "MMORPG" FFXIV is unsustainable. Here's why

[KhudusQestir]

This is such a weird post when the general consensus I've run into on different social media platforms seems to be that the devs have completely forgotten about casuals and only cater to raiders.

Can you elaborate more on how they're catering to raiders? You're the only person I've seen to say that so I find that weird.
(Or I guess maybe someone else since I have high doubts of a reply from this person)

Not at all. I'm just pointing out that a comment like yours of "bad" is entirely your own personal subjective opinion, not any magical objective fact, and that it conflicts with the overwhelming majority of the actual playerbase's opinion. The closest thing any of us can come to claiming an objective "fact" here would be discussing the main target audience as casual gamers, which there is a veritable mountain of support to show.

People like me aren't "afraid" of change; we just don't want to see a game that hundreds of thousands of people really enjoy get ruined for all of us because a select few elitists want the game to cater to them instead.

That's a bold claim considering there are popular streamers and many many players who are growing old and tired of the game, leaning on taking a break or quitting for good while another side of players who feel the same are speaking out. Have you notice the amount of likes given to those who agree that the game is growing dull and catering too strong to casuals? If you're not afraid of change, why are you against people asking for more change?

Complaining also got us HW raids, which gutted the raid community and basically killed the raid scene for almost 2 full years.

I'm confused about how this is relevant. Wasn't HW raids like over 10 years ago while SE goal was to fix 1.0, make ARR long-lasting for an MMO and have HW be an expansion that offers new content? HW raids were a failure but they made better raids after. What does this prove? Why is this even a relevant argument for what's going on now? This feels like digging.

doesnt like WoW have more players than FFXIV anyway? I know they dont release their sub numbers but I always assumed that even during its low point in Shadowbringersland they still managed to retain a good chunk of players more than FFXIV.

This was a quick google search but considering the amount of people who are pissed at Blizzard. . . I find that hard to believe but idc and am willing to be proven wrong. I do know a lot are upset with FFXIV and going back to WoW but not something I hear or read about very often.

[Atelier-Bagur]

This was a quick google search but considering the amount of people who are pissed at Blizzard. . . I find that hard to believe but idc and am willing to be proven wrong. I do know a lot are upset with FFXIV and going back to WoW but not something I hear or read about very often.

Yeah I was just basing it off the fact that WoW has been ingrained in the mmo genre for so long that it cant ever be topped in terms of playerbase because so many people are dedicated to it. Its only been until recently that people started seeing FFXIV as this big competitor to it due to the jabs taken at Blizzard during the Shadowlands and Lawsuit fiasco being their lowest point. But FFXIV has never been a game that strived to be better than WoW or bigger than other games, just mostly catering to the casual audience and doing its own thing with its retention through avoiding game system burnout that most other MMOs tend to do in order to try to retain their players.