I just don't get it.

[Deuce]

Is it really that hard to believe that some of us enjoy the game that we play and want it to continue being the same game at its core?

It's not hard to believe and I never said that it was. Also, I believe it's debatable whether or not rapid iLvl progression is part of this game's core.

Is that really a "problem" with the community? Which is more logical to you - someone who enjoys the underlying mechanics for a game that they play and is willing to say that they enjoy it and defend their enjoyment of the game, or someone who hates the underlying mechanics of a game that they play and constantly asks it to be changed into a completely different game?

Here you are mincing words and extrapolating what I said about "this" community, the official forums, and confusing it with the overall community of FFXIV, which due to its size is hard to generalize. My main complaint about this community is not whether or not you enjoy the game. It's about the extreme bias found within these forums. It's about the shouting down of criticism with thinly constructed arguments because someone doesn't agree with the way something is done.

You are making assumptions about what I believe this game needs when I have never said anything to that effect. You're also assuming that I have a complete dislike for this game. If that were the case I certainly wouldn't have been paying sub fees since March of 2012. I have never asked for a completely different game, nor has anyone asked for it in this thread. However, if you view that a desire for improvements upon established systems that are causing longtime players to unsubscribe at high rates is somehow wrong, then I don't know what to tell you.

Are we somehow "sheep" for enjoying something that other people don't?

Also, you seem to be attributing a statement to myself and others about what we've said because we believe that certain systems can be improved upon and/or changed for the betterment of the game. Going back to what I said earlier in this thread, the official forums is full of confirmation bias. This is what I believe is wrong with the forums, specifically, the general discussion section.

Each patch brings more of the same because it's the same game. Surprised? I'm certainly not, and am totally baffled by some of the views expressed in this thread (and others like it).

I'm not exactly sure why you are baffled that there are people who would be unhappy with the direction that the game is going in. Is it because there are so many people willing to voice their criticisms of the game, many of them quite common, that has you baffled?

The other day there was a post on the FFXIV subreddit asking people what their complaints were about the game. There have been several threads like this in as many months since Heavensward was released in that particular community. The most recent thread had more than double the amount of comments posted to it than any of the other most recent popular threads. A majority of those comments were critical of the game and certain design decisions as of late with several repeated criticisms being ones that have been voiced here in the past and presently in this thread.

While this is another form of confirmation bias, I do find it interesting that these complaints are cropping up more frequently in several different places post Heavensward. I believe that anyone who has been paying attention for the past year could tell you that there is an ever growing discontent among the playerbase about certain aspects of the game. Now, it's debatable whether or not those groups all agree about what they're unhappy about it should be noted that these complaints have begun to coalesce into a much larger complaint about the direction the game has gone in.