I guess it's time

[Thayos]

At the same time, I feel that people need to stop praising Yoshida for saving FFXIV with 2.0.

I agree we're far enough along in the new FFXIV's life to start viewing Yoshi as less of a rock star and more of a developer.

That said, he has turned out to be a pretty good developer. His version of XIV is maintaining a healthy playerbase, and we're seeing this development team implement new content that breaks the game's usual mold.

The painful truth for some players (not me) is that XIV just might never be a preferred title for hardcore gamers. Yoshi-P was pretty upfront through the remake period that this game was being built for a more casual/midcore audience, and he delivered on that promise. In fact, my biggest problem with this game is that its endgame has too much raid-style content, which doesn't really fit with the more casual nature of the rest of the game -- but Yoshi has taken steps to remedy that during the 3.x cycle.

EDITED TO ADDRESS THE COMMENT BELOW:

I know this is risking a flame war, but:

A masterpiece that is a financial flop is useless when it comes to running a business.

That's kind of a hipster way of thinking, isn't it? For a p2p game to be a financial flop means that nobody wants to play it. So... I don't see how you could possibly have a masterpiece that's also a financial flop, unless you believe that a sliver of gamers knows what's best for everyone... which is a rather pretentious belief.

In fact, that's why so many gamers were burned out on Tanaka, even while he was making content for FFXI. He was often criticized for forcing content upon his players that nobody wanted or asked for, as if he knew what was best for them.

Not saying I agree with that assessment -- I generally had no beef with FFXI -- but it is what it is.