Variance in player skill is hurting FFXIV's itemization design.

[Nalien]

I'd argue catering to the lowest common denominator is worse for the longevity of the game... Itemization in this game is shallow, and while that makes it very accessible, there is only so much time one can spend splashing about in a puddle... People who want to swim will move on to games with depth, and the people who SE are catering to here will just get bored eventually... I've certainly completely lost interest in gearing up in this game, and that's the core of the games progression... There is enough content besides that to keep me interested, but I certainly give zero f*cks about gear these days... Wish that was limited to itemization, too, but it isn't... Dungeons and raids just regurgitate the same template over and over... Thankfully we have something like Palace of the Dead on the way, though I shouldn't get my hopes up... Still, looks far more interesting than any of the current dungeons or raids, and with an independent progression system they can actually test some deeper itemization with it... Depending how they work it, I can see it quickly replacing 90% of the rest of the game IMO, and if that's the case I hope the majority agrees with me and Yoshida can actually see how much more popular content with some depth is... By all means, cater to casuals, but exclusively doing that is a fools game... You have a shallow end and a deep end, nobody wants to stick around in the shallow end forever... People will either grow to want something more, or they'll move to a new puddle...

Of course, it wouldn't be a thread on gear/itemization without me linking this ol' gal...