Do you really want to see Sky 2.0 in FFXIV?

[Jynx]

Except that's what CoP and RotZ were. None of the fights were really difficult, aside from learning the mammet/airship fights, I can't think of an area that I was legitimately stuck on. I'd say that To Kill a Raven was harder than most of FFXI's content. Nael Hard being miles more difficult than lol kiting kirin.

To Kill a Raven was incredibally easy compare to something like the airship or snoll, hell even the Promyvions were a decent challenge. The utter lack of preperation required defeats To Kill a Raven being called "hard" because you can just bang your head into a wall until it breaks (The fight is located in a town for crying out loud)

FFXI being called hard is like calling Demon's Souls hard.

So, a game isn't hard when it's hard? It is unforgiving but you never could say Demon/Dark souls was unfair it punished you for being stupid, in a rush, or just not being smart about things. FFXI was much the same rarely was a fight "Unfair" (Snoll Tzar outstanding, and Promy-dem) But it put a good bit of pressure on your group to preform knowing that it took you more than 12 seconds to get to the fight.

It wasn't, it was just unforgiving. I'd rather have legitimately difficult content over content that's the equivalent to tearing out fingernails.

Stated above, the journey is part of the difficulty. You may call it "Tedious" but it was a effective method of making sure people didn't just walk into a serious fight non-chalantly, it's also perhaps why you feel it wasn't a problem finding people who could "basic reading comprehension" Because the game pretty much weeded the utterly inept out instead of giving them unlimited outlets to continue to be bad. It's part of why punishing bad play encouraged people to get better instead of the game we have right now that encourages people to be as lazy as possible. Christ people wear AF well beyond it's usefullness because being skilled in your class and your gear choices doesn't mean as much as it did in XI.

lol what. You need a party of members with basic reading comprehension and who are attentive, which this game lacks.

This has nothing to do with the low game population it's a symptom of the system they run. Easilly and readilly consumable content with no overarching challenge encourages people to stay bad. The funny thing is the few "Hard" things in the game have such a high barrier to entry as well that playes who want to become better, but aren't at that level yet it's extremly hard to learn when no one gives you a chance.

I can imagine if AV or CC didn't depend on nothing but speed-runs and the best of the best just to accomplish such a feat, or hell having a dungeon with pretty good gear with less harsh requirements for the "Good stuff" appearing gives those new players a chance to grow. This was never a issue in XI because the level curve made most people very comfortable with the roll they played in a party (Dynamis, Limbus, whatever you knew what you were capable of at the end of your leveling cycle) Again a sympton of making level 50 a laughably easy feat.

People may not agree that the "Grind" was the best thing hell even I think it was a tad long, but what we have today? (and presumably in 2.0) is a far cry from making leveling a even meaningfull task.

Yeah, I would. You earned it by completing the storyline. Sorry it wasn't time consuming and tedious, I guess?

Again I've explained that just because something was time consuming it doesn't make it tedious. ROTZ and CoP when released (Especially CoP) had some great challenges that took more than just your time. It took some brainpower, networking with friends, Battle finess, and a hunger to reach the end. XIV lacks the challenge, it lacks the discipline, it lacks the satisfying goal of a job well done.

(Again the final fight you earn has a rediculous barrier of entry as it was designed only for the best of the best, leaving the people who could finish the story withing breaking a sweat left to languish with no real middleground to work with.)

*edit*

Sorry for the long rant, but I hope you see where I'm coming from, and before anyone tries I'm not asking for the exact mechanics or layout of XI quests. I just want a real challenge that has a curve from easy to hard as players grow with the game.

Unfortunatly I feel due to the nature of the "MMO standard" Yoshida is reaching for we wont ever have a game with a real difficulty curve. It will be a race to 50 in the easy-breezy system we will assuredly have in place made for everyone of all skill levels to complete. Then a either easy end-game event, mixed with gurelingly difficult content for the real rewards. They have yet to show the abillity to have relevant content for lower to high tier play growth, Skirmish was a good step in the right direction but it's very small chunk of a larger problem.

It's not that they are doing anything wrong, I just feel the developement team lacks focus on the real issues the game faces and is only dealing with whatever they have infront of them at the time. I have faith in 2.0 but there are of course ways I feel the game could move that I would prefer as a gamer that perhaps the dev team isn't thinking about and at the end of the day that's what we are here for to give them feedback on how we as players think the game needs to evolve.