edit: Yikes, get past the depressing title and continue reading please
MMO veteran here, been playing these games since 2001 and have noticed how and why games flop or succeed. By succeed I'm not talking about 12m+ subs, FFXI maintained 500k for 10 years... and in my honest opinion, that's a success story.. the problem with XIV lies in the variety and enjoyment of playing..
It's happening, the stats show there are more players after the free 30 days, but people are starting to drop like flies.. I'm seeing more and more cancelling sub threads, less people in zones and longer duty finder queue times.
I'm also noticing more people in shouts claiming they are bored, they won't last long and 2.1 is not enough to keep them playing.
Square-Enix, you spent 3 hard working years to turn this game around, don't let it go to crap because of small minor changes that need to be addressed... believe it or not, most of us want this game to be enjoyable, we want this game to be populated and successful... listen to us, there are soo many great suggestions on these boards but all you care about is miqo'te behinds? really?
1. Experience Points
Fates are the only viable option for leveling alts once you have finished the story and 90% of the side-quests, this is not acceptable. Spamming tab and your AoE ability for 50 levels isn't fun and I'm seeing a lot of terrible 50's that don't know what half of their abilities do.. why? because they spammed fates the entire time. Sure, some people can pick up a 50 and know exactly how to play it, but not everyone is a "pro gamer" these days, especially when MMO's these days attract a lot of casual players.
Dungeon EXP should be buffed to make it a viable alternative, this will help players learn their class and will provide more variety to the system, it's also a great way to promote your incoming MVP system, get on it!
Guild Hests should reset per class, not character..
Leves should offer triple the EXP they currently offer and have more "bonus objectives" tied to them.
Those 3 suggestions right there will help with alt leveling, fates are boring.. period.
2. Dungeons and Tome Farming
Make an option to queue for ALL dungeons, and if you're level 50 using this option, you will level-sync if a low-level dungeon pops, you will also receive 100 Philosophy Tomes at the end of the dungeon. This will help low-level players stuck in the story queue-times and will also give variety to level 50 players that are sick and tired of CM/Prae/WP/AK... variety is GOOD, it's a win/win situation.
Again, this will help promote your MVP system and give more variety to level 50 players.
3. Client to Server issues
As of right now, most people are using VPN software to avoid AoE, simply because your connectivity with players and the server is really bad. I'm seeing a lot of people fail Titan because the server isn't recognizing their movement. This needs to be addressed by your tech-guru's, not much more I can say about this..
In the end, MMO players want more variety.. and I'm not strictly talking about "End Game" for a game that prides itself in "you can be every class" you need to really give us more options to level these classes, fates are a drag and sometimes I can barely last 30 minutes before yawning and turning the game off... and most people will agree with me on this matter.
Thank you for the time, I appreciate anyone that read the entire thing.