Make each patch progressive= increase player retention

[AzraelX]

I think the “Catch up” patches are doing more harm than good. Many raiders get BiS on patch 1 , unsub, skip the “catch up” patch, and may resub patch 3- if they are still interested. That leads to loss of revenue and player retention. Each patch should be progressive- besides a “catch up” path- allow it to be horizontal progression. 24-man raids would be a great start to midcore content- midcore aka like Thordan EX.

So what do you guys think?

[Iromi]

Agreed...we need more horizontal progression..something to justify all the work put into these long grinds and effort.

[Lemuria]

Please... SE... anything is better than gear which is made redundant after two patches. Remember when people cared about Darklight gear? Remember when people actually saved up tomes for artifact gear? All of that gear is reduced to mere glamour now, and much of it is now too much of a pain to farm.

Cap the item levels, and start putting some imagination back into equipment. FFXI made gear interesting and fresh. Despite the naysayers claiming it was 'all about the best builds and having the same gear', it wasn't. I was there and the gear was as diverse as the players themselves. Sure, there was equipment people coveted but they worked bloody hard to get it too, making that awesome stat worth the wait.

Let us all remember what Yoshi apparently learned from the ill-fated 1.0:

- Don't forget your roots.
As much as you might hate it, FFXI was part of those roots, and one of the most successful MMO's ever made. It lasted 10 years for a reason!
- If it isn't fun, you're doing it wrong.
Relic = not fun.
- Never forget the fans.
Even the most hardcore players can't ignore the problems forever.
- Aim to amaze.
We've had the same vertical grind ever since ARR first launched, and you keep changing the tomes out to make old content redundant.

This was their own presentation. How quickly it seems they have forgotten the lessons they learned.