Quote Originally Posted by Jeeqbit View Post
That may have often been true of "hardcore MMORPG players", but genuinely a simple glance at Steam over the years has always shown me that people are playing whatever the recent game release/DLC is, as if they are splashing money every few days on a new game/DLC. The design of the game sorta reinforces that SE sees this too.
None of that has anything to do with hardcore MMORPG players. Its all over all kinds of genres. The player base for Helldivers 2, for example, is relatively stable (dropped due to bad patches, but thats a different topic). There is a rather sizeable bunch of people playing Fortnite regularily, and on a more personal anecdote, I have friends who spent weeks on end on city builders or their current survival game.

There is both kinds of players, really, not just the one you have experienced.

FFXIV is not designed with that kind of "Casual" player in mind that you describe, but with the average salaryman, who works a 9-5 job, and then plays a couple hours of their game each day. See for example the return time for your retainer missions, 17 hours. You send it out at midnight before going to bed and it returns just as your workday ends. To keep up with the weekly tomestone cap, you only need to invest like 20 minutes on 5 days a week (Expert Roulette), leaving your weekend completely free. All of these elements are made with the regular working man in mind.