Why don't they change the way we earn Atma? (An honest question, not a rant.)

[Lemuria]

I for one have yet to hear a single person voice a genuinely positive attitude towards Atma grinding, whether in-game or on the forums. It seems to be one of those things which is universally loathed, and with good reason. It's not a fun grind, it's not a worthwhile grind. You literally get nothing out of it for hours at a time aside from about a few hundred gil and some rather worthless GC seals.

And that's where the crux of the problem lies. I think people would be more inclined to enjoy it if Fates themselves were WORTH doing. Aside from a small number of specific fates which drop minions, there is almost no incentive to actually run Fates. That's why these 'forced' incentives feel like clumsy, square-peg-into-round-hole methods to make them relevant.

Fates could have been a way to make the world feel vibrant, like a living breathing world. Instead they're mini-missions that can't be relied on to spawn at a given time, offer no real rewards, and there are no real consequences to failure. That, good people, is why the Atma grind truly sucks. Make Fates interesting, and you've solved everyone's problems at once.