Quote Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos View Post
Are we playing the same games here? I could have sworn that I’ve been having fun with FFXIV up to this point. I don’t see these faults that everyone else sees, and I’m a Legacy player (I’ve been subscribed to the game since 1.0 early access on September 20, 2010). Some of the content can be flawed by anyone’s standards, but I take no beef for this game. I love the Endwalker post-expansion story as I’m eager to see what happens to the 13th and the Flood of Darkness. If you are going to cherry-pick at FFXIV, you haven’t been invested in the game as long as I have.

Now I’m also a FFXI veteran, and I openly criticize that game and make fun of it, even though I sometimes go back to play it every now and then. To make fun of it, there’s no ambient shadows in the game; the trees don’t even have shadows! But I’ll be damned that the game still is fun and challenging despite how it looks.
I'm having fun so far as well, but the lack of attention the new player experience has isn't very good for the longevity of the product, considering Dawntrail might be yet again a big starting point for many.

Most of my concerns are from a new player perspective, it's gonna be very different from a legacy player's. I'm having to go through hundreds of hours of story content which SE has barely done any effort to revitalize outside of new Última and DS. But the time new players make it to Dawntrail they will run into the same issues I'll run into when I reach EW. I don't believe having the finale of a 10 year saga be over before the cinematic climax to be very good for new players, nor it is the long queues for off-Msq content like Rathalos, Nier Raids or Omega. And don't get me started on the people who can't complete the Bozja storyline...

Wonder why SE doesn't use Gaia more often despite her being a fan favorite and being part of Normal difficulty content?