Quote Originally Posted by Kazimir View Post
I won't argue with your assumption that the game is still going because of these points, but it being too hardcore isn't why the game population started to die in the first place. I know this is an individual experience but I knew a lot of people on my server and not one left the game because it was too hardcore. Most MMO's just get boring after playing for 6-7 years. But even that isn't the real reason why it died.
Every game gets boring after a while. That's not the problem and it's almost inevitable. The problem is that successful games get new gamers costantly in order to replace the ones that left. That's what stops the population bleeding everywhere.

Final Fantasy XI always had the problem to be very, very unfriendly towards new gamers, and that mean that people left due to boredom and no one replaced them. That's why they removed/drastically reduced the timesinks, to make the experience of upcoming players much smoother and accessible, restoring the influx of new players to replace the old ones that were inevitably lost.
That's why FFXI did *not* die.