Before I begin, please, be warned that this is partly a long rant post full of opinions, and that I'm just venting while I try to give my personal feedback for whatever it's worth. If you can't stand that then proceed to leave the thread, as this won't interest you. Also, this is not an "I'm leaving post".

So, in light of the last live letter and of recent and past changes, I want to take a moment and write a post explaining why I started playing FFXIV in the first place and why, with each passing patch, I feel that the game is not welcoming me nor those that might think like myself.

Let's start at the beggining then, explaining what made me come to this MMO. As many of you know, the 1.0 version was plagued with problems and wasn't precisely a success. Back when it was released I was a bit burned from the latest MMO launches, so I waited until further reviews came from this game before jumping in, even if I was a long-time Final Fantasy fan. Therefore, due to all the negatives that I saw, I didn't play the game at all.

Then came Yoshida, and changes started to come to FFXIV too, many of them very well received. Moreover, what really impressed and caught me, was the fact that Square-Enix was willing to take the game and remake it from scratch. In a time where each and every failed MMO was just turned to a F2P cash grab to quickly get money back, this was indeed a very nice change in my eyes. Also, Square-Enix seemed to care about their playerbase and, even if as a company they wanted to make money, they didn't seem to see their customers and supporters as mere walking wallets: legacy campaign, tiered subs with a cheaper option (as you weren't paying more than the average sub in other MMOs if you wanted more than one character, and it was reflected in the tiers' names), etc.

Those were the main reasons that made me decide to give a chance to the game and support Square for the risk that they were willing to make for their "child". I bought the Collector's Edition, and I was pleasantly surprised during the beta. Even with it's flaws, 2.0 came to be an amazing and fun MMO that I began enjoying as I didn't enjoy any other MMO for a long time. During that time Square-Enix was still showing their care for their playerbase and their game, reflected upon the fact that they gave us for free the new digital items (fat chocobo and wind-up moogle) when the new CE was released (PS4 I think it was?), if we already had any of the previous ones.

However, things started to change once we got the (dreaded for some) cash shop. Previous years' items that were available for gil during events since 2.0 launched went away, just to come back for real money in the Mog Station. Sleipnir was introduced as a mount exclusive to the cash shop instead of being included in Odin's trial, as many of us expected. Weddings were shelled in various kinds of premium purchases, locking away behind a paywall things that were showcased during the live letters without giving us any hint that they weren't going to be available for every subscriber that wanted to hold an eternal bonding ceremony. On top of that, additional retainers were introduced to be rented with an additional monthly fee.

Still the game was enjoyable for me, especially with the people I play with, and I decided to keep giving it a chance. Even if I didn't like some of these changes I still had some faith in the team, and I wanted to think that what I was seeing was not the actual direction that they wanted to bring the game to, even if a small part of me was warning me about it. However, with each other patch I've kept seing things that I don't agree with, some of them gameplay wise (the worse ones that I can think of are the grinds on each and every new feature, no matter if it's just a side activity that should be meant to have mindless fun, the whole housing disaster, or the changes to crafting and gathering) and some others related to the Mog Station (like our inventory issues, even after the expansion, while more additional retainers were put for rent).

Today's live letter has been the straw that breaks the camel, and what has made me write this. I can't agree with them not taking any of the suggestions for the housing reclamation system when some parts of it leave much to be desired and will bring more issues, and I can't also agree with them putting even more exclusive glamour items to the cash shop, as if this was a cheap F2P game that depends on cosmetic sales to keep going. I can't agree either to them not being open to something that would potentially save both them and us resources like a glamour catalog, as it gives me the impression that they simply want us to rent more retainers.

Now it doesn't come an "I'm quitting" pharagraph, as I warned on the first lines of this post. I'm willing to wait and see if what I saw today will be intoduced right as I understood, or if I'll be positively surprised and things will change from now until they actually introduce them. I'm also willing to let them surprise me with the others changes, and consider if they make it up for the things that, right now, I don't like. However, if things go wrong, I'll just be able to move on, and away from the game. It would sadden me, but when you don't agree with the overall direction of the game and things keep going that way, there's no point in staying. Vote with your wallet, as they say.

I simply hope that this long post serves any purpose other than letting me write those thoughts. I really want to keep enjoying the game without worrying about these negatives that currently impact, and might impact in the future, my gameplay decisions.