I have been with this game for a while, and remained positive and hopeful, in fact I still am to some degree... But watching this game crumble before me has been one of the most disheartening things I've ever had to endure. For those of you who may feel similar, hear my story.

I've been a diehard SE fan since I was first introduced to RPGs well over a decade ago, and an FF fan just as long. I've enjoyed almost everything they've produced, at least in part. FFXI was incredible, I had played some F2P MMOs before it, like Ragnarok Online and Guild Wars but FFXI was a whole new ball game. I stuck with it for 7 years. You don't do that for a game that's just "ok".

Then due to friends leaving, and RL setting in, I left, but a year or two later I hear of FFXIV, how it's just as epic as FFXI and yet is catered to casual gamers (since I don't have the time I used to) and I'm stoked for it. I spend a year in anticipation with a preorder for the CE paid in full, then we get served a beta that is "meh" with some enjoyable aspects but overall underdeveloped. I figured by release they would jack it up considerably. They didn't. Upon release we received the same beta we'd be playing for months... and so the hate rained down and the path of destruction began.

I stuck with the game, all the while trying to enjoy what little it had to offer, thinking to myself "it's okay, I'll just rank up my stuff, build some cash, and be totally prepared for when the game gets good!". Then they changed the dev team, I thought "this is it, we will start getting the real deal now" but everything was slow and most of what they added I didn't care about. The bugs and whatnot were things I could live with, it was the total lack of content that was hurting me, an issue that never got addressed. Then the devs gave us a few teasers, NMs, U/U gear, a handful of lifeless quests, concept art, and empty promises of epic tales to come. So I waited in anticipation. Nothing. So I waited some more. Nothing. So I waited, concerned and anxious. Nothing. Suddenly, a patch!

I encouraged the other members of my original trio to return to FFXIV and experience the game again. They were extremely disappointed and quit again (and these are diehard fans like myself) within a week or two. It was then I realized that the only things holding me here were nostalgia of FFXI, and hope for a bright future. So I reluctantly left to join my friends as we ran around testing F2P MMOs. Sadly, many of these (though poorer in graphics and less than epic storytelling) had considerably more content to offer than FFXIV ever did. I just had to accept that I would never experience another MMO with the same caliber of quality that FFXI had.

I still log in to FFXIV every few days to look at the wards, run around town for a bit, maybe craft a little, but it all feels so lifeless and without purpose so I soon log out, sad and disappointed. I also check the Lodestone daily, hoping for something that will be truly Earth shattering. Nothing. And so I look upon the dust at my feet that was once a game with great potential and promise, and I cry inside at the thought of what might have been.