Quote Originally Posted by Preypacer View Post
I remember when 2.0 first launched, this community was rabid in their support and defense of the game. I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers this. If you even so much as accidentally typed FFXI as a typo, forgetting the V - nevermind deliberately referencing it in some way - you were ripped to shreds. Now? People openly make comparisons to and draw suggestions from FFXI, and not only are they not ripped to shreds, but more people are beginning to agree with them.
All games go through a Honeymoon period. Almost every game I have played had it. For the first month or two when Wildstar launched people were talking about it being the best game ever. Clearly since the game almost tanked that wasn't the case.

I might add that personally I actually find the comparisons to FF11 rather annoying but find it rude to rip into people regardless of the reason. Further more you might have noted the term 'White Knight' cropping up plenty indicating that there are those who disagree with some peoples complaints or at least the extent of them.

FF14 isn't FF11 2.0. Its not going to be FF11 2.0. Wether that is a good or bad thing is beside the point. They aren't going to reinvent the wheel at this point. That's just an unrealistic quantity of work. Sure they could allow more than they have now but its not going to be a massive overhaul regardless.

Quote Originally Posted by Preypacer View Post
People are beginning to see how saying FFXI did a lot of things right, if not better than FFXIV, is not hyperbole, and it's not "rose-colored glasses". It's becoming more commonplace to see people making such statements. Horizontal progression is a major one that's often referenced, but not at all the only thing.
I can almost guarantee that if they made the game more like FF11 the forums would be full of a different set of people complaining. Not everyone likes the same thing. There isn't such a thing as a universally popular choice in almost all work.

Personally I find most horizontal progression models become annoying and problematic. I don't want to spend a lot of time tweaking builds to try and find something that works. I hate having to look up guides to figure out how to make a good character, particularly if they are third party. If there is a bad option then I'm of the view that option shouldn't exist other wise its just annoying. I want to play the game, not screw around with a calculator trying to figure out optimal builds. I hate having to have multiple gear sets for different situations and I hate having to get out a calculator to figure out if a new piece of gear with a special stat is better than what I already have.

Quote Originally Posted by Preypacer View Post
It's an increasingly common opinion that 3.0 has been a rehash of 2.0.

People ask for more character customization, Yoshi-P says "nope".

The only things they seem to readily say "yes" to is stuff like new minions, mounts or other such things.

It seems, to me, that SE is slowly slipping back into the "we know what's best for the players" arrogance that got them in trouble with 1.0.

So, between the change in the community around this game, and the change I'm seeing in SE toward it... things really don't seem to be moving in a positive direction for this game anymore. They built up a lot of goodwill with the turn-around of 2.0, but it seems they're beginning to burn through it, and it won't last forever.
There is a 'what's best for players' trap that developers can fall into when designing games and that is a serious issue.

There is also a 'we understand what is feasible in building a game' trap that players can fall into when it comes to their expectations of what devs can and will do.

There is also a habit of people assuming that the majority shares their view. Without accurate metrics this is often a flawed assumption.

More over Yoshi P isn't simply saying nope. He by allowing people to play a large number of different Jobs they allow a variety of play styles through that and rather than try and build different versions of the same job it would make more sense to him to spend the resources on building an entirely new Job that felt different again and so felt like a real alternative.

Now I'm not completely against Horizontal progression but from what I have heard of FF11, I don't think I want to see FF14 end up like that.