More Horizontal Progression please

[Sandpark]

I don't stand around and do nothing.

if I don't have something to do at any given time, I *gasp* log off and go do something else.

The XIV devs were always aware of XI's tendency of this. You see many things in this game implemented to cure this.
Duty finder, fates,changing jobs/skills/gear on the fly, popped NM in 1.0, short duration dungeons, roulette.

Had this been a decade ago, you wouldn't have very much choice in what games were available.

That's another thing folks forget about those older days. There was next to no competition. Everquest was the *only* game of it's type for a while, and XI never got big marketing. Asheron's Call(first one) didn't get much either, and it never really had a big population.

These were niche games. If they had 100k subscribers, they were lucky for the longest time.

Me? If i spend long hours in a game, I want to do it because I'm having fun. Farming rare drops? Not fun. Sitting on my arse waiting on respawns? Not fun. The reason I *don't* play those games is because they felt like a chore. If I don't have a reason to log in every day, great. Gives me an excuse to go outside.

They weren't niche because they were more boring or easy. It's because they were hardcore.
I consider GTA casual to midcore, it sells millions upon millions, but in terms of playtime I usually set these games down for a good while after beating the main story and twenty hours of destroying stuff. And that is fine since the devs don't make more money by me playing longer since it isn't sub based.

Dark souls is hardcore, not everyone gets into them but it sells around 2 mil or so. You can spend around 200-300 hrs easily playing the game normally.

Both games make money but because there is no sub, how long we play has no consequence on content getting developed. XIV either has to sell millions+ copies per expansion or create deep, relevant, long lasting content to keep people subbing.

If they get lazy and just throw in filler, repetitive content, or padding, gamers today are aware and will unsubscribe eventually if things don't change due to lots of choice today.

Farming rare drops and monsters could be fun and not be just sitting on your arse if done right. Like an actual hunting system with deep mechanics involving tracking, trapping, learning eco systems, meta.
It could be an active and visual system.There could also be a system of interacting where drops could be coaxed by you.

The problem is here there either is no system in place or it is done in a static, menu based % game with not enough resources to keep it being active.

General mmo mentality is:
Consume the main course(story,unlocks,gear)then log off till the next meal.
Not many stay long for the sides(meta,side content,expanded stuff)if the sides are lean, tasteless, or common side items.

The content needs to bring the:
Breadth
Relavence
Engaging
Active
Depth
Time respecting
Honed

Also no bread is good without butter, butter makes everything taste better, butter is variety.