I wouldn't mind FFXIV becoming a WoW clone in the casual/hardcore appeal if...

[Gokulo]

lol, this is gona spin you right round , but hold on

I understand that it would make sense in the game , as they can taylor the storyline to w/e they like, howerverI IN GENERAL, it just wouldnt make sense. I enjoyed XI because of its relivance to reality even in a fantasy realm. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and mine would be ; that to strech the reality of the situation in the current realm would be folly, as its realy hard to tie into a game, based off of fantasia , sci fi star wars genre. Not to mention trying to sell it to a gamer crowd that is content with genres staying within their realms. If I want to play star wars, I will play star wars, If I want to play knight in shining armor, I will play FFXIV. LOL , if my interpritation of how this real should exist, gets stretched beyond the limit of my own personal comfort zone, I will lable it as "not fun" and find a game that better suits my personal preferances. This is all Im saying. I dont think it to be unreasonable to expect a certain limit to wich SE will strecth the practicality of the realms existance.

I think one will find , everytime advanced civilizations invade or influance primitive civilizations , the ones with the better weapons win the conflicts of intrests. To suggest that my cobalt armor stands a chance agains a light sabor that cuts through titanium like a hot knife through butter, would be , imo, a stretch too far. I love the Final Fantasy games, but even my sense of what is acceptable has limits. Genres exist for a reason, to mesh them carelessly , I belive , would ruin this game on many levels.

But thats just my humble oponion. I would hope SE and Yoshi consider being tastefull when developing the game further.

Steam Punk is a genre too and it combines these two things, sorry. Plus it's a combination that has been used in FF previously (XII for example). No one is saying there will be light sabers, but the Garlean Empire has been said to be technologically advanced since the very first time they were mentioned. It's not like S-E has suddenly decided to incorporate s-f elements into the lore. The only thing is that until now there weren't many things in-game that would show that side, for which I would blame the 1.0 ver. and it's hangover story.

Of course you're entitled to your opinion, but saying that they aren't showing taste because you don't like the setting they have chosen for their game is ridiculous, sorry.

Personally, I don't know how come you never came across any similar settings, since there are many great examples of it in literature, movies or video games.

Additionally, mixing genres is always acceptable to a degree, that's how new genres come into life too. I don't know where do you get your ideas from.