More advanced battle system please!

[Enkidoh]

Problem is we live in a Brondo chugging, 'Ow My Balls' watching generation of MMO gamers. Yoshi wanted and got this game to cater to the lowest common denominator just like WoW did. He didn't come into this project to make a compelling, deep, complex game. He came at this with let's make this as Tinker Toy easy as possible so we can rope in as many people as possible. Ever wonder why when you watch the Academy Awards 90% of the awards go to films no one has ever seen? Because the greatest films are watched by only a very small number of people. The general populace wants simple characters, explosions, gratuitous sex and violence and that is what puts butts in the seats.

In this day and age what puts butts in the MMO seats is: ridiculous ease of entry, repetitive grind to catch a carrot on a stick, and LOTS of near naked women. FFXIV has all of this in spades. Yoshi read the demographics correctly when he took over the project. He made the quintessential Chicken McNugget MMO and people are eating them like they are going out of style. Unfortunately asking for more complexity would be like asking for complexity and character development from Twilight. It doesn't sell son!

I hate to use the word 'hipster' here, but that is the only way to describe this attitude. That's culture for you - no matter what the media, a fictional work costs money to make, and a couple of minor fans will not cover the bills associated with production. Even games these days cost more than films to produce and market - hence the greater chance that if a game fails to meet a certain sales target, it will often result in sending it's developer (and sometimes publisher as well) to the wall, just like if a book fails to sell a certain number of copies, a TV show fails to reach a ratings target after only a few episodes, or if a film fails to pull in enough tickets at the box office.

Also, an unpleasant truth, is most so called 'cult series/films/books' were, surprise surprise, actually created for the so-called 'lowest-common denominator', only to fail to hook it's intended audience for whatever reason and instead be picked up by a small, loyal but incredibly obsessive fanbase. Then word of mouth gets around and suddenly the original intended audience looks at it again and says "wow, this really is good!", and it finally achieves the mainstream popularity it wanted, leaving the 'true fans' angry that they weren't listened to and thus start hating it simply because it's now successful and popular. Sound familiar?

This is basically how you see FFXIV. Really, I can't understand why people don't just let go of this smug, 'I-liked-it-before-you-did' attitude, and just enjoy the game for what it's worth, battle system and all. After all, the whole point is to have fun right?