I actually agree, to a point, that there is not much in the way of a "key gimick" in FFXIV ARR, and I quite love the way ARR is shaping up. It does sort of feel color by number. At the same time, that coloring has a lot of polish and nuance.

I believe that it is going to come down to a gamble and a question: Can the dev team pump out high quality story and content fast enough to keep fickle players interested in this MMO as opposed to the other 7 mechanically similar if not identical MMOs. Personally, I don't worry about the Story beyond the first patch. What worries me is the content at release.

We already know that content at release is going to be relatively limited. A lot of stuff is "coming in the first patch". In essense, the dev team is going to be gambling on the content they have to keep new players around until the "real" content can be released. I have high hopes, but only time will tell, and I don't blame people for getting a little worried.