End the Debate? Hardcore and Regular Servers

[DSX]

the rabbit hole you mention in XI went as deep as the elemental wheel (This mob is a water type, better use my lightning type pokemIMEAN Spell) and the Magic Burst system which was as complex as...Hit spell at this time, this thing happens. and your picture dumbs down XIV to just the abilities while not getting into the Combo system, Cross Class abilites, the Astral Fire/Umbral Ice system which not only effects MP regen but DPS output. Basically the picture removed all of XIV's complexity, and showing XI's "complexity" for the sake of making XI look less shallow than it actually was.

basically if the picture was not biased as it is, it would show both the Aoe and Single target rotation a "Good" BLM in XIV would use. which would look as cluttered as the XI side, but would have more mechanics in it.

As I mentioned before the picture was an example and not about what games it featured in it specifically (maybe seeing FFXI hits a chord with you so you ignored that I said its not about what game was on the left). People tend to mention what what they like personally, and yes the FFXIV side does not mention MP upkeep but look at yourself, you failed to mention how having multiple tiers of the same spell for example furthers the complexity of spell usage in FFXI for example and there is many more example of ignored things on both sides of that picture. BUT again let me explain to you the part of my point you missed:

look at the magnitude of complexity a game can offer in terms of gameplay
based on that you can calculate mathematically how many varieties you can implement in your game, your variety is as good as how complex your gameplay mechanics can go (how deep you made your rabbit hole). FFXIV magnitude of complexity is shallow and only allow for shuffling of simpleton mechanics only. (if you are still hung on FFXI being in the picture at least the base gameplay mechanics depth was deep enough for a lot of things whether the developers used it or not thats up to them and for the players to look forward to while in FFXIV case the game does NOT allow for in depth complexity because the game mathematically cannot produce it).