Quote Originally Posted by ZenAero View Post
And where are you getting those statistics? no where. that is what I thought. Don't just throw around numbers. Then again, the casual player base could be growing because the hardcore players are bored and leaving haha.
A while back, Blizzard released statistics of how many players did raids. For Black Temple (the toughest at the time), it was less than 2% of players who even stepped foot in it, and those who beat it were statistically irrelevant. That's when they realized they were spending WAY too much of a percentage of development on something so few players even saw. They then switched gears, made easier to pug raids, and later LFR. If not for that, they then would have to have stopped making new raids. The "hardcore" are always a minority that should be and will continue to be ignored, it's just good business.

FFXI was never "hard", or challenging, and i don't know where you people get that from. While leveling, barely touch keyboard while auto attacking (much slower than global cool down here) and only going after mobs that are "easy prey". They are all so spread out in huge empty zones, there is no risk of aggroing other mobs anyway. With trust npcs now, it's even easier.