More Horizontal Progression please

[Fendred]

I used to say the same thing, and I still agree with you in principle, OP. After having looked over other expansions to games that were well received, I think the real issue is that MMORPG designers are approaching their expansions with the wrong philosophy. An expansion should never "build over" what is currently there. An expansion should be a soft reworking of the whole game so that the old and new material work as a seamless whole. FFXI's model isn't perfect, as others have pointed out, yet FFXI's model is much better at maintaining a symbiotic relationship between expansion material than WoW's model. WoW broke its old content beyond repair, yet FFXI's content has remained far less damaged by time. While Path of Exile is a slightly different genre, it's recent expansion, PoE:Awakening, follows a design philosophy that is far more benign than the philosophy used to produce Heavensward. I think they could learn a thing or two from how GGG chose to do their expansion.

[Suggestion]

FFXI's model isn't perfect, as others have pointed out, yet FFXI's model is much better at maintaining a symbiotic relationship between expansion material than WoW's model. WoW broke its old content beyond repair, yet FFXI's content has remained far less damaged by time. While Path of Exile is a slightly different genre, it's recent expansion, PoE:Awakening, follows a design philosophy that is far more benign than the philosophy used to produce Heavensward. I think they could learn a thing or two from how GGG chose to do their expansion.

I really don't think FFXIV and WoW can be compared as far as time goes. WoW is 10 years old, FFXIV 2 years i think. Already ive read forums and people complaining that content (including me in some various opinions) that old content is well old already. That we want things fixed from what they are. Then we have people saying no way we don't want to re run old content leave it be. WoW has had plenty of time to break their old content, while FFXIV is already showing signs of "Old content is Bleh". Just my opinion on what i read on the fourms.