Quote Originally Posted by Quesse View Post
You can sit there and have your character powerleveled to almost 50.

You can press one button 1000's of times to level your craft to 50.

Has SE given up?

Think of a single-player RPG whose combat and leveling experience was so enjoyable, you actually craved more! Think of how satisfying it was to gain a level and have access to more powerful abilities, spells, equipment. Think of what drove you to attain more for your character.

This type of experience is completely lacking in FFXIV and instead of fixing it with superior gameplay, SE has simply thrown in the towel. They've decided to simply make leveling a stupid easy no thought required process which is only a means to an end. In doing so they have sucked the life out of the RPG experience, which is to grow your character and gain satisfaction from doing so - to take your character on a journey.

There are no journeys in FFXIV, only destinations.
Levelling was never the focus of any RPG, and you're foolish to make it seem bigger than it actually is. The most important part of RPGs has always been the adventures you have, not the numbers on some sheet of paper. The growth of your character should be a fluid one that you only really take note of when it actually happens, and forget about it the rest of the time; unfortunately, the lack of content at pretty much every point of the game only serves to remind the player that they're on a road that has very few detours and little waiting for them at the end. Still, what little there is at the end is about the only thing that makes the game worth playing, but not to the point where people should have to slog through the barren wastes that is currently the early and mid games.

The problem, in other words, is that the journey is a long and boring one.