What I find hilariously sad is those people who say xiv should branch off have the original xiv at release(which they claim they would pay for) and have yoshi-p's version. I only bring this up because I see the surface of that idea being touched upon here. I do not understand how ANYONE could want what final fantasy xiv was at launch. I know its like... an opinion but come on... xiv at launch was complete and utter crap and everyone knows that - hence why there was such a quick staff change when it launched. I don't remember how many months after release that took but it was QUICK, and thank you SE for it. because I sure as hell wouldn't of been here today along with a lot more people not including those who left initially probably forever.
They are smart in doing this welcome back campaign. My friend is going to come back on May 9th to try it - and if not then hes going to give it another shot at 2.0. It is the best thing they can do to get people back.
I also think the damage was already done so bad that 2.0 should even shed the XIV name, and just go for Final Fantasy Online. let it be the first of that. Then with future FF MMOs they can do FFO2, FFO3 and such. That will also please the non-mmo playing crowd as we dont take up their mainline #'s. AND yes I am serious about rebranding it. I think it will let people know it is truely a new game