Yep, even the once-mighty XIV has gone that way as well. Good job Matsui...

God forbid devs make content that's worth doing for more than just gear that's not going to last anyway.

This is the kind of nonsense I hate and I make no apologies. Back in XI's hay day there were countless players who had everything there was to get in Sky or w/e event you wanted to do, and they STILL did it - to be social and have fun with friends. It helped that the devs purposely didn't release new gear to obsolete older gear so that players would always want to at least try older content. XI lasted a solid 7+ years with a healthy 500k subs because of this, in spite of its many, many, many flaws.

I have no delusions about the game, it had a lot of problems and was absolutely entirely too hard in some respects. But it was also fun and engaging and was purpose designed to foster a healthy & collaborative community. Crafting sucked. Losing EXP on death sucked. Partying was a mixed bag because while EXPing itself in groups was fun, getting that party set and the long grind were a pain (it wasn't the partying itself just the mechanisms involved). But we stuck through it because Vana'diel was a genuinely intriguing world teeming with lore and endless content. The graphics were actually pretty darned good too for what was a fairly early PS2 game.