Does instant transportation effect game immersion?

[Konachibi]

||being bombarded by insults from every side of it's community just because you decided to be a frost mage in PvE ||


FTFY

Ah yes good point (b'.')b

Oh, but blizz buffed up frost mages to be better than fire mages in pve, they're actually a USABLE spec in raids now! :O

Hell has frozen over!
It was the mages that did it!

[Gennosuke]

We stopped debating a page or two back. Now we're using the thread to joke about how silly the debate was.

Yes, i kinda noticed the humor slipping into the thread.. which is nice to see.
I have to say, i also appreciate you're light hearted personality, even though i can see you're on the dark side

But, credit to you, you're style does appeal to a larger crowd, We can all surely learn from each other

[Konachibi]

Knowing a bit of psychology helps too I'll admit.

Two people are argueing, make them both laugh, they will instantly stop argueing and not start again unless one of them says something to incite it's continuation.

Another thing that helped me become the way I am is that one of my friends in rl became an elitist on WoW, in a short matter of time his entire personality changed from someone funny and ok to be around to a rude, insulting and ignorant pig. I swore I would never become like him or the other elitists I've encountered on that game and many others, so I do what I can to be their complete opposite.

Glad to know I'm doing well with that, and appreciate the compliments.

[Gennosuke]

Knowing a bit of psychology helps too I'll admit.

Two people are argueing, make them both laugh, they will instantly stop argueing and not start again unless one of them says something to incite it's continuation.

Another thing that helped me become the way I am is that one of my friends in rl became an elitist on WoW, in a short matter of time his entire personality changed from someone funny and ok to be around to a rude, insulting and ignorant pig. I swore I would never become like him or the other elitists I've encountered on that game and many others, so I do what I can to be their complete opposite.

Glad to know I'm doing well with that, and appreciate the compliments.

It's a shame to hear people and moreso friends being negatively affected to such an extent by a game.
Kinda beats the point eh.

[Jobeto-Rin]

This is actually why I respond the way that I do. It leaves no room for subjugation and it is there for everyone to objectively scrutinize. Your statement is false. This is not a personal conversation whispered in hushed tones behind a lock door, this is a debate on a forum.

I'm sorry you feel that way.

I had a good debate.

I don't know why but I get this feeling of....assimilation from you...I think it's just me.

I want to be able to experience the airship ride with no option.

That is the want I'm fighting for.

I'm curious...what makes that funny?

[Konachibi]

It's a shame to hear people and more so friends being negatively affected to such an extent by World Of Warcraft.
Kinda beats the point eh.

Fixed it for you (b'.')b

Personally if I had been the owner of Blizzard Entertainment I'd have stopped game development at the end of The Burning Crusade expansion pack when I saw that it was turning many people in the real world into mindless vegetables.

Although it's not the games fault and I can't blame really Blizzard for it, they didn't really do anything to try and stop people sinking into a meaningless life of 'wake up, turn on computer, play WoW, use toilet and eat food when necessary, turn off computer, go back to sleep, repeat x infinity', in fact they tried to make the game MORE addictive than it already was, only worsening the situation.
They must have seen and realised that their community was becoming corrupt and rotten, but never tried to stop this from progressing to the point it's at now, where 90% of the games player-base is a bunch of spoilt ignorant brainless little brats that will cry, shout, complain and insult ANYTHING that differs even 0.000001% from what they think.

Did you know there's a Widows Of Warcraft website? It's where wives and ex-wives complain about how the game has sucked in their husbands/ex-husbands and ruined their marriages.

Also if you were to try and have a debate about immersion on the Warcraft forums, you wouldn't get people argue with you, you'd just get about 50 "STFU" replies. That game lacks any possible form of immersion at all. Sure it has a plot, but no one cares, the players and the developers have made the game so easy that being in one zone is exactly like being in another, eventually you tunnel-vision and all you can see is enemies to kill and quest giving NPCs, you stop noticing the world you're running around because you're too busy aiming for more XP, loot and gold. And once you hit end-game there's no point leaving Stormwind because you can access every heroic dungeon through the LFG tool, then you sit around argueing with other people in trade chat till your dungeon invite pops up. The game world is huge, but nowadays you're lucky if you even see 5 people outside of Stormwind or Orgrimmar. That's not immersion, that's the most broken online roleplaying game available.

Surely Blizzard could have done SOMETHING to the game to try and reduce the 'hardcore elitist' attitude that it promoted so much, and try and twist the game more in the direction of a social thing.

This is why I love FFXIV, you can be as hardcore elitist as you like, but you won't get to the end any quicker than a social player, because you're restricted to 8 battle leve's and 12 crafting leve's per reset no matter how much you try and do more, the only way to continue levelling is to just go out and keep killing monsters for hours on end. Elitists don't want that, they want to gain 10 levels NOW and they want dungeon loot NOW and they want all the rest of the games content NOW, so this game pretty much repels them.

However that also could be the reason it launched so badly. After 7 years of WoW dominating the top spot in commercial MMO's and affecting millions of online game players worldwide, a rather large portion of people who would have been fine 7 years ago have become the hardcore elitists my ex-friend also became. Because of that, there was a smaller overall online game player-base that would enjoy a game such as this, and when the elitists tried it and hated it because they couldn't do everything NOW they went off to review websites, forums, social networks and other forms of internet communication and raged that the game was terrible, simply because 'it isn't WoW'.

Before joining this game I heard a lot of complaints about it from friends, reviews and many other information highways. I can quite honestly say after playing for 3-4 weeks now, not a single bad thing any of those 'sources of information' told me about this game is true. This game is beautifull, it's enormous, it has an amazingly in-depth crafting system, (Something I'm INCREDIBLY gratefull for after 5 years of *collect copper ore* *smelt copper ore* *turn copper bar into sword*) it has quite honestly the most impressive graphical rendering I have seen in any MMO (And I've played Age Of Conan and EVE Online quite a bit) and it simply bursts with potential to be an absolutely mind-blowing and wonderous online adventure.

And another I'm gratefull for in this game, because it deterred most hardcore elitist, I was able to find and join a Linkshell full of really nice, kind and friendly people that have similar interests to me, and enjoy the game even more so.

So really all this talk about 'lack of immersion' in this game actually makes me giggle. I've SEEN and EXPERIENCED a game that truly has a lack of immersion, it's called World Of Warcraft, in comparison, Final Fantasy XIV has immersion coming out of it's miqo'te-shaped ears!

[Quanta]

they didn't really do anything to try and stop people sinking into a meaningless life of 'wake up, turn on computer, play WoW, use toilet and eat food when necessary, turn off computer, go back to sleep, repeat x infinity

It's not the game developer's responsibility to dictate to their own customers how they spend their free time. If someone wants to destroy their life in such a fashion, why should the developer step in, especially when so many other customers can lead normal, healthy lives at the same time?

I'm also unsure how they made the game more addicting. Could you elaborate on that?

They must have seen and realised that their community was becoming corrupt and rotten, but never tried to stop this from progressing to the point it's at now, where 90% of the games player-base is a bunch of spoilt ignorant brainless little brats that will cry, shout, complain and insult ANYTHING that differs even 0.000001% from what they think.

Most of the complaints people made were completely baseless, and were as asinine as many of the complaints in this and other threads. The people who actually had something to say were either well-spoken and ended up having extended conversations with the developers (you know, before they put Ghostcrawler on a leash), or they were posting on forums outside the official ones, where the moderators wouldn't put up with bullshit; either way, you needed solid evidence to prove your point, which meant that you tested the shit out of whatever it was you were talking about before you came forward with the complaint.

Beyond that, most people I ever encountered in WoW were pretty nice, so long as you were A) also nice, and B) reasonably competent with the class you were playing. Issues over builds only ever came into play when you were trying to do raid content, and then, only if you demonstrated that you had absolutely no idea how to make an effective one. A lot of people pre-Cata seemed to think that never getting past the 3rd tier of talents or dumping everything into a single tree made for a more effective character than someone who decided that they'd put most of their points in one tree and the rest in another for a more balanced and specialized character.

Also if you were to try and have a debate about immersion on the Warcraft forums, you wouldn't get people argue with you, you'd just get about 50 "STFU" replies. That game lacks any possible form of immersion at all. Sure it has a plot, but no one cares, the players and the developers have made the game so easy that being in one zone is exactly like being in another, eventually you tunnel-vision and all you can see is enemies to kill and quest giving NPCs, you stop noticing the world you're running around because you're too busy aiming for more XP, loot and gold.

Actually, I would imagine a thread about immersion on the WoW forums would end up being much the same as what's going on here. Of course, you're picking the worst place in the universe to ask the question in both instances, so if you wanted a worthwhile discussion on the topic, you'd have to take it to one of the splinter communities where the signal to noise ratio is better because the mods actually give a shit about their community.

And once you hit end-game there's no point leaving Stormwind because you can access every heroic dungeon through the LFG tool, then you sit around argueing with other people in trade chat till your dungeon invite pops up. The game world is huge, but nowadays you're lucky if you even see 5 people outside of Stormwind or Orgrimmar. That's not immersion, that's the most broken online roleplaying game available.

They still had you discover the entrances (at least for a while; don't know if they still do) before you could queue for a given dungeon. Beyond that, the Dungeon Finder arose out of the playerbase's desire to run dungeons with a minimum of hassle. It meant that you and your 2 friends could still run dungeons for hours without one of you having to ground yourself in a town asking in Trade chat; you could go and do other things while you waited for the tool to find the required members. You could still get a group together the old fashioned way and go directly to the dungeon via the entrance if you wanted to...but most people don't do that because, for them, World of Warcraft is simply a game they play for fun, and not to act out their hidden fantasies of being an elf wizard in a living, breathing, realistic and persistent world like so many here seem to want.

Surely Blizzard could have done SOMETHING to the game to try and reduce the 'hardcore elitist' attitude that it promoted so much, and try and twist the game more in the direction of a social thing.

What about WoW isn't social? It's the largest game of its kind available on the market. Hundreds of websites all over the world are dedicated to it, and it alone. Various groups of players play it competitively, whether they raid or PvP, with money and sponsorship deals on the line. The biggest and most epic content requires groups of players to work together to successfully defeat it, especially if they're aiming to be the best on their server. The math freaks that play are obsessed with pulling the game mechanics apart to push their DPS, healing, and damage mitigation to their limit.

This is why I love FFXIV, you can be as hardcore elitist as you like, but you won't get to the end any quicker than a social player, because you're restricted to 8 battle leve's and 12 crafting leve's per reset no matter how much you try and do more, the only way to continue levelling is to just go out and keep killing monsters for hours on end. Elitists don't want that, they want to gain 10 levels NOW and they want dungeon loot NOW and they want all the rest of the games content NOW, so this game pretty much repels them.

Most hardcore players I've known are more than happy to grind if that's all they can do to reach the level cap faster. They're also pretty fair about loot distribution, and don't ninja loot stuff. I have no idea how you ran into so many douchebags. What would repel people from this game is that there's not a lot to do beyond crafting and mindlessly killing monsters, especially once you're capped out.

[Rhomagus]

Okay to start from the top:

To Bled:

I would just like to point out Rhomagus you are the one stating immersion is subjective To be fair, even my opposition has already condoned this. I'm not the only one stating it's subjective. thus any discussion concerning it in your point of view would be subjective I've also shown, to some degree, how it can be "objective", to the point of whether it's there or not. Anything beyond that is "subjective" meaning it's prone to bias and is wholly the opinion of the person viewing it. to the matter, so how can anyone on the opposing side objectively scrutinize you in your mind They shouldn't be scrutinizing me they should be scrutinizing my argument. If they are scrutinizing me that's an ad hominem. How can they scrutinize my argument. I'll have to get back to you on that one but there are points of view that one could take that would bolster my oppositions defense significantly but at a great cost. I've already touched on this and as long as they are willing to admit it then they would be right in their supposition, the problem is the manner in which I post may make it seem as if it's a detestable thing, which in my opinion, it is, but if they want to argue that particular point of view then that changes the argument into something else rather than whether or not instant teleportation hurts immersion.... everything you don't like you refer to in your quotes as "no i don't agree" or completely skipThis is the part I completely disagree with you on and I find disingenuous. I got to great lengths to make sure that I respond to every point made in the thread. If I don't agree, I'll state my reasoning to either negate the point, or completely subdue it. In fact, the only time I actually don't put more is when I do agree. If you'd like I can expand on that but I don't think that's necessary., and you chary pick This really aggravates me. I'm not going to lie. Specifically from the poster who quote mined me. It is incredibly frustrating and I honestly don't know why I'm giving you the time of day right now. You do seem sincere in your wants, but I'm still sticking to my statement that you are being disingenuous in your method. Particularly in this quote. what you want to thoroughly explain,It's my argument. I don't cherry pick other points. I do go more in depth when I have a metaphor (i.e. Infinite Jest, Ice Cream kids) or when I'm working to correct one (Basketball). I can go even deeper but I'm already doing more than anyone else here and I've already considered the risk of the TL;DR crowd. The poster I actually admonish the most here is Crica. Her posts are zenlike in their application. I don't always agree with her statements but I only think that's because people use logical fallacies to spin her into the wrong area, but when you look at her logic, it's flawless. Just like all of us (myself included as you so aptly pointed out earlier). I'm going to thoroughly explain my arguments. This is understandable. You should thoroughly explain your arguments. People should thoroughly explain their arguements. I don't have qualms with that. What I do have qualms with is when people completely ignore very succinct direct responses and don't even so much as try to wash over them with a glance, but instead just outright "out of sight out of mind". I thoroughly analyze all of the arguments that I've responded to, at least those one's in which I put red text in the quote. More often then not, the responses without red text either didn't provide enough information for the need to dissect each sentence or just weren't offering anything new, and that's a rarity. Even the one's that don't offer anything new I'll refer them to a point I made before back on any page above when I entered the thread. Those are even easier in that regard. No disrespect and no snarky attitude I'm just making an observation. I respect that. No snarky attitude detected, but your observation was just a weather balloon, not an alien aircraft.

ooooo are you sure you want to use such a absolute word such as never before i post evidence to the contrary? I'm fine with this. I'm fine with being wrong. As I've stated before, I'll gladly rescind any statement in an attempt to make it right. I'll easily bow to a more thoroughly supported argument than my own. If I'm wrong I'm wrong. This rhetoric sounds familiar though. I think I used it when someone tried to make a factual statement about how I felt. I want to be humbled. I want there to be some real point I'm missing to the other side's argument I really do. I'm actually kind of disappointed that I didn't take that side as it's the much more difficult argument to defend. I picked the easy side.

and what does your analogy have to do with your view of subjective material which you state can be objectively scrutinized? [COLOR="#8b0000"]Now I've already admitted to my fault when asking you to cite your sources but you're gonna have to quote me on this one. Try using the whole post and highlighting the particular area. Changing the color or bolding it in this case is okay, just use it to highlight my point not yours. I can read yours just fine. Put it behind a spoiler text so it doesn't take up so much space. I've made a lot of analogies and it may not have applied to subjectivity or objectivity. This is why I ask for clarification. To pre-empt I think I know what you're talking about. This text will be put in blue. When I was referring to how my method allows people to "objectively scrutinize" my arguments, I was referring to how they have the available information that can be directly referenced. For example, they can objectively scrutinize my use of the Infinite Jest metaphor and use it as evidence when making a response. When it comes to matters of subjectivity, or my opinion, it's rather difficult to objectively scrutinize that for it belongs to myself. They can't say that I'm wrong for having a feeling. They can provide an well thought out argument to the contrary, but at the end they can't say that I'm wrong. I've don this a few times myself when I've said some thing along the lines as "That's as far from "wrong" as someone can be in an argument about opinion." Remind me to find the exact quote. Yet, they still can point at the information itself from an objective standpoint. They can claim it's a logical fallacy form an objective standpoint. They could claim it's disingenuous by providing examples that show that's the statement is disingenuous, but we don't disagree that matters of opinion and other "subjective" matters cannot be argued "objectively". This is what makes arguing on such topics so difficult, but logic is there to help find the "line of best fit" if you're familiar with mathematics. Rhetoric is used to persuade and doesn't always utilize logic in it's proceedings.if something is subjective and you state it can objectively be argued We already gone through what is and isn't subjective about immersion. I specifically remember that because I had to look up the word "nadir" as I was unfamiliar with it. I don't think I stated that subjective things can be objectively argued. then are you not stating that the term itself could be objective? Yes. There are aspects of immersion that can be objectively argued. Whether or not it exists or is present is one of them. Some aspects of immerison cannot be objectively argued i.e., the level to which someone is immersed, or this is more immersive than that. These aspects of immersion are subjective and are not worth sacrificing game mechanics (legitimate content) to implement. That's the premise I'm coming from. The premise the opposition is coming from is that travel in and of itself is worthwhile content, and I wholeheartedly disagree. It can be, and I've shown how it can be in my "Future Airship Content Ideas" thread, but that idea was the brain child of negotiation and consideration of the opposition. Thus making your hostile posts (elegantly put posts might i add) Thank you but they only got hostile when the rhetoric got hostile or when someone was making the same logical fallacy despite being asked to cease. to the contrary just silly. Again, just matching rhetoric.Maybe again I'm just not understanding your posts because of the tone the downside to matching rhetorical tone. and your ambiguous word choices create. Understood. I've actually noticed this and was the reasoning for my admission to a particular misunderstanding. It could've been interpreted multiple ways and needed clarification. This is why I love Crica's posts so much.

and trust me my posts are sincere Don't doubt this.and I'm not pretending to know less then i do (disingenuous)... I question this and my motivations stem particularly from the "cherry picking" condemnation in the post prior. The posting method I employ is to show precisely that I'm not cherry picking. It's not easy but I feel it's necessary as people often use this argument to sidestep points or to feint ignorance in order to press their agenda even further by pointing out things that don't actually pertain to the argument at hand (which most of this post does unfortunately but this is a response to a derail. I'll go wherever I'm called out. Nitpick away.)

P.S. you do i believe sincerely try to explain and discuss every point but attempting to claim you are something you are not (just short of a perfect debater with your word choice of "i never") I never made this claim. That I'm sure of. I know I'm not a perfect debater, but I think I put forth significantly more effort here to understand the opposition than anyone but that's a subjective opinion. is just what gets on my nerves. You shouldn't let it as I've never claimed I'm a perfect debater. and this has happened more then once in our conversation, You'll have to point these out so I can correct the mistake. to be truly humble you don't need other people to humble you but rather you humble yourself. I'm humble enough as is, but I'll welcome it when it arrives.

To Jynx:

The airship being instant does nothing for immersion either, I agree, but my suggestion adds convenience while retaining the game mechanics of anima and varied content while your proposal just asks for "immersion" content, which is shallow in my opinion. it litteraly is just as immersion breaking as a 0 anima warp.I agree, but a 0 anima warp not only removes a game mechanic (anima resource management) but also flies in the face of the following lore statement:

However, being broken down to the aetheric level can take its toll on one’s body, and rest is often required after several consecutive jumps, especially as the distance becomes greater. As a precaution, most city-states strongly discourage over-teleporting, as it can lead to irreversible damage...

They can't explain away how two people board the same airship and arrive at a latter date. Unless they split the harbor to be able to dock two ships, one with jets and one thats moved by the sheer power of slowness. This actually is my suggestion on the "Future Airship Content Ideas" thread. I know you've read it as I've included your suggestion about Triple Triad into it. You essentially have three different ships. Whatever caters to your gameplay needs at the time and offers a plethora of opportunities for content. Konachibi's suggestion on Personal Airship takes that idea even further. Airships as travel only is shortsighted and lacks, as I've said before, legitimate content.

Unfortunatly neither make sense... The airships are currently a redundancy that's not needed until they add content. This I disagree with as there are several people complaining about their lack of anima, and the very lack of a Final Fantasy staple. They need to introduce it asap as long as it's stable but even just it's skeleton will help satiate the needs of many Final Fantasy fans. I'm all for putting a gil sink to combat inflation as well, and I think the instant airship is a perfect substitution for the time being. They do need to expand on it though. I don't think making airships only a travel method is good enough and at the very least they need to include an option to enjoy the ride.

To Jobeto-Rin

I'm sorry you feel that way.

I had a good debate.

I don't know why but I get this feeling of....assimilation from you...I think it's just me. That was intentional. It's synonymous with the Borg. Data also speaks coldly. That's the nature of logic. My position is more flawed when it's backed by appeals to emotion. It leaves room for ad hominem attacks and unnecessarily clouds the debate or, the pursuit of the truth.

I want to be able to experience the airship ride with no option. I don't understand why. I still do not understand why the experience just isn't enough for you.

That is the want I'm fighting for. I understand, but it's snuffing other people's real life time constraints and enjoyment in the name of a shallow, insatiable, and ultimately subjective purpose where, in the end, you are responsible for how immersed you become. I'm not sure of your age but the new generation may not realize that the old generation can be just as immersed in their video games as the new generation is in theirs. To some people from the older generation, the new games bring it into the realm of the "uncanny valley" and ultimately it hurts immersion. That's where content is too real and it breaks immersion by breaking down your suspension of disbelief inadvertently as the content is juxtaposed more closely to that of real life, making comparisons even easier to catch between the two. Being lost in your imagination will always be a better substitute than realistic graphics in terms of immersion. That is the goal when creating immersion in games. Realistic graphics just help support it.

I'm curious...what makes that funny?Arguing over video games, in some circles, is inherently childish. The way the statement is juxtaposed could be seen as a hilarious contradiction.

[AngryNixon]

They must have seen and realised that their community was becoming corrupt and rotten, but never tried to stop this from progressing to the point it's at now, where 90% of the games player-base is a bunch of spoilt ignorant brainless little brats that will cry, shout, complain and insult ANYTHING that differs even 0.000001% from what they think.

This is an absurd exaggeration. You need to do your homework before you throw these baseless accusations around here. It's 0.000002%.

Also everything Quanta said. Especially the very last paragraph in regards to the way elitist players handle loot distribution. Elitists worth their salt take their loot distribution seriously. And by seriously I mean fairly to a fault. Any reasonable elitist knows that the progression of the whole is inseparable from the progression of the one. If you want to be the best in an MMO (where one might assume progress requires a group) then the entire group has to be the best, not just one person in that group. Only a selfish prat (who would have been a selfish prat in any situation), not an elitist, would act that way. I do wish people would stop confusing hardcore players and elitists for these crazy selfish anti-social instant gratification players. "Elitists don't want that"... You must have run into a great many douchebags as Quanta put it... A great many indeed.

[Konachibi]

By any chance do you play on American servers?

All my experience was from the european servers. We had an uncountable amount of incidents where players that were put into our parties through the LFG tool would roll need on absolutely everything. In fact the final month of me playing it I don't think I ever went a single day without seeing at least one or two ninjas in a dungeon party.

The lack of socialbility I encountered on Warcraft was simply that almost anything I said would be picked apart and insulted, no matter where I said it. I did my best to get along with the 50+ players in the guild i was in, and though many were 'ok' I would never label any of them as a friend, they simply didn't seem to care at all about other people outside of that other person being in a group with them so as to obtain loot. Basically, driven by selfish desire. Ultimately I felt no desire to talk to anyone when I was playing because I felt that my 'light-hearted' personality had no place in the everyday conversations they had. I especially could never mention anime, EVER! The second I mentioned anything even remotely anime-based, be it guild chat, local chat, trade chat or any other kind of chat, I was verbally beaten down to the point where I wished I had the power to ban all of them from the game permanently just to do the server a favour.

||The math freaks that play are obsessed with pulling the game mechanics apart to push their DPS, healing, and damage mitigation to their limit.||

It was these people I found the worst. Most dungeons I went into, if there was a DPS Deathknight or Paladin in the group they'd spend the whole dungeon spamming the party chat whenever they were at the top of their Recount. They were quite often the ones that rolled need on every single drop.

||They still had you discover the entrances (at least for a while; don't know if they still do)||

No they don't anymore, you can now instantly queue for any dungeon of your relevant level regardless of if you've been to the entrance, or even to the zone it's located in.
Biggest problem with this was when I got alts to BC content. If ever there was a wipe on Hellfire Ramparts, which was horribly common given that Deathknights basically started at that level and they all thought they could tank without the tanking skills they didn't have yet, most players had absolutely no clue as to how to get back into the instance to recover their corpse, therefore the first wipe there was usually the last.

Also, I was on a roleplay server. There was absolutely no roleplay going on anywhere, and when a couple of people did pop up and begin roleplaying at least 5 people would instantly run over to them and insult them until they either logged out or moved elsewhere.

Quite often I'd get laughed at when entering a dungeon just for the gear I was wearing, I'd be insulted just because I was playing a gnome named Gnibbles, healers would call me a 'paper-tank' and leave the moment they entered just by taking one look at my health bar or equipment, even though I'd run the dungeon perfectly 2 times already that day.

Y'know I thoroughly shocked one person on it once. I was making +HP rings to boost my jewelcrafting, and I saw a Paladin tank that didn't have any rings equipped, so instead of selling two of them to the vendor, I offered them to him. He was so shocked that someone had offered something to him politely, free-of-charge, at first he thought I was going to do or say something nasty if he accepted the trade offer. It took me a few minutes to explain that I really did just want to give him the rings for free just to be nice, as they'd benefit his tanking.
When I told my guild this a minute later however, all most of them could say was "Haha what a noob not wearing any rings as a tank" or "wtf ignore him and sell it". They didnt understand that I'd much rather give something away to help a fellow player than sell it to benefit myself, after all, the person I'm nice to today could be the tank I do a dungeon with tomorrow.

||I'm also unsure how they made the game more addicting. Could you elaborate on that?||

I can elaborate on that. To make the game more addictive they added much more PvP and PvE based content. The PvE content was made to be easier, faster and more rewarding. This caused players to be able to run through 20+ heroic dungeons a day and by the end of a week be in a full set of tier gear no problem. Ready for raiding.
Raids also were a cake-walk, it was easy to go into one and faceroll it. Because all classes were as simple as *press specific numbers on keypad in a constant loop* you could literally just stare at the battle going on and not really use any effort at all. It's been shown many times that sometimes the simpler video games were the most addictive, it didn't get much simpler than Wotlk raiding.
Ontop of that they have hundreds of collectable mounts and pets, as well as achievements, they were 'reasonably' easy to aquire but may just take time to get hold of. People (including myself) would waste days going back to old content on new maxed alts so they could get these.

Lots of content is indeed a good thing, always having something to do is always a good thing, but having it all in a game that has the worst player community I've ever experienced can REALLY make make a person give up on humanity, which I did many times over the 5 years I played the game. I stuck at it because I didn't like how other MMO's tried to clone it, because they always failed at it or simply had too many bugs in their game to make it playable without also being annoying, other MMO styles such as EVE Online I could enjoy for a bit, but once I got deeper into it and experienced the ruthlessness of how I was expected to play first-hand I couldn't carry on, my personality isn't suited to that kind of merciless ferocity. (I lost an abaddon to a gang of pirate-players that I'd just bought by buying a PLEX for £13 and selling it for 300 mill to afford the ship and fittings). I'd have played FFXI but when I tried that it simply confused me, it was so much a different style to what I was used to in WoW that I'd find myself glaring at the instruction book every 5 minutes just trying to make sense of what I was meant to be doing.
Granted FFXIV is also nothing like WoW in most of it's aspects, but I was desperate to finally get away from that horrid game so I poured my heart and soul into learning how to play this game.
Of the few things I've done in my life that I can proudly say I'm truly glad I did, joining FFXIV and finally putting WoW behind me defenitely sits in the 'top 5' list.

So they can have their WoW expansion packs and Star Wars: The Old Republic and Tera Online and all the other upcoming MMO's but I'm going to choose to happily ignore them. I love this game, I love the linkshell I'm in and the people that are in it, I love where the game is going with it's patches and content updates, I love that I can talk freely about my hobbies and interests without having someone always put me down, I love it's more upbeat appearance and music (most MMO's tend to look quite grim (WoW, Age Of Conan, Warhammer Online, or simply too colourfull (Fly For Fun, Luna Online, Ether Saga) and I'm most defenitely here for keeps.

Oh and as this thread shows, I also love chocobos