Mr. Naoki Yoshida, have you forgotten your own "Three Easy Steps to Failure"?

[Calysto]

1 - the graphical update was wasted on XIV, it was still great before.
FF7 remake is a thing, but it's a complete remake not just a coat of paint.
It should have been FFXI getting an update (graphics on par with 14 and "modern" UI), not 14.

2 - Writing aside, the rpg aspect of the game is getting stream-lined into an action/ddr boring mess for "balance reasons"
The gameplay diversity butchered into a few flavors with different colors of sprinkles.
For DT, most job got one(1) extra m&m as topping.
A while back, we had interesting flavors mixed trough AND a specific topping. Chocolate and Caramel worked great ; Mustard didn't ; Mayo was strange but interesting. These are now removed for artificial coloring.
Bringing back writing, the lack of job quests & lore leave these favors bland because "Writing quests for 20 jobs is too much work". I don't think it's more work than the graphical update, and in 10 years you'll just have a shallow story and outdated graphics.

3 - "Job homogenization" has been a problem since ShB. Thousands of complaints, mostly unacknowledged for 7 years, and we got a "it'll be for 8.0".
Except you lost and kind of trust some of us had for that to works.
We gave feedback for years here, yet they almost always go with their idea and back it with "players feedback" that comes from nowhere.

[Eyrilona]

Thousands of complaints, mostly unacknowledged for 7 years, and we got a "it'll be for 8.0".

You know you are in a weird market when them responding to complaints after seven years still actually makes it one of the faster response times among the large MMO companies, no?

[BakoolJaJa]

You know you are in a weird market when them responding to complaints after seven years still actually makes it one of the faster response times among the large MMO companies, no?

No. Because that's not the case. The whole "ffxiv devs are great at communicating" was always such a meme. Even Destiny devs were faster and better at communicating. Their equivalent of live letters releases every week. GW2 devs address complaints faster. OSRS devs have surveys and address complaints faster. WoW devs it depends. Probably same level of speed. As in sometimes they don't address anything for many years, and sometimes they do collect feedback from their beta testing and actually fix/change things. At least they have beta testing though. FFXIV you don't even know what kind of slop you'll get before it's too late. LOTRO and DDO address complaints faster, and that with the 2 devs they share between those MMOs.

What MMO does not address complaints faster? Only completely dead ones like SWTOR? I mean, sure, if that's the bar we're setting for ourselves.

[Eyrilona]

No. Because that's not the case. The whole "ffxiv devs are great at communicating" was always such a meme. Even Destiny devs were faster and better at communicating. Their equivalent of live letters releases every week. GW2 devs address complaints faster. OSRS devs have surveys and address complaints faster. WoW devs it depends. Probably same level of speed. As in sometimes they don't address anything for many years, and sometimes they do collect feedback from their beta testing and actually fix/change things. At least they have beta testing though. FFXIV you don't even know what kind of slop you'll get before it's too late. LOTRO and DDO address complaints faster, and that with the 2 devs they share between those MMOs.

What MMO does not address complaints faster? Only completely dead ones like SWTOR? I mean, sure, if that's the bar we're setting for ourselves.

You are right, and I should have narrowed it down to 'conventional MMORPG companies', because MMORPGs are the only kind of MMO games I play. I never occurred to me that the MMO label also applied to MMOFPS games like Destiny which to me feels like an entirely different genre and I will immediately agree, indeed more responsive. The particular example I had on my mind at the time of my comment was indeed World of Warcraft's reputation for how long they'll delay taking complaints about the direction of the game seriously.

But you're even more right, even within that definition there are faster innovators I just hadn't thought off. I'll completely take my loss on this one. Have a Like

[Tatiana]

1 - the graphical update was wasted on XIV, it was still great before.
FF7 remake is a thing, but it's a complete remake not just a coat of paint.
It should have been FFXI getting an update (graphics on par with 14 and "modern" UI), not 14.

Have to disagree with this one, every time I've come back to FFXIV for the past couple of years after playing newer games, XIV has looked more and more outdated and it's aging graphics were more apparent than ever. A graphics update was absolutely needed for an 11 year old game they intend to try and keep competitive on the market for another decade. They obviously messed up with certain character model faces so they do need to address that, and seeing as parts of the graphics update aren't even implemented yet (many textures and materials still are highly pixelated and ugly), it's not really fair to assess the totality of the graphics update til all of it is implemented. Sure, FFXI getting an update would be cool for anyone who actually still plays that game, but that isn't the title they're really trying to push forward in the way that they are with XIV.