Quote Originally Posted by Physic View Post
incorrect, they had text based rpgs before
Yes, I know we had MUDs before.

Quote Originally Posted by Physic View Post
combat does not require any charachters and rendering, it merely makes it more immersive and entertaining, heck for a long time in an rpg you never even saw your charachter, just an enemy and some stuff in text box telling you how much your attack did.
You made my point right there. Graphics have a direct influence on the impact of battle. All things being equal, better graphics means a better battle experience.

Graphics do NOT have a direct influence on the impact of trading. At the end of the day, I'm still only exchanging goods. It's the exact same transaction in a MUD as it is in a contemporary MMO.

If FF14 can leverage its graphics to enhance the trading process, then great. However, as we all can see, integrating the graphics engine into the main driver of economic transaction is a liability since the failings of the game engine impact the trading process directly. So far, this endeavor has only hurt FF14 rather than help it.

Forcing a buggy, unstable NPC to act as my middleman isn't working.

Forcing a bug-free, stable NPC to act as my middleman would be fine, but we STILL haven't reached that point yet despite 5 years of development and near 8 months of post-launch waiting.