I guess it's time

[Thayos]

While Tanaka took a lot of flack for his choices in XI I would like to point out that FFXI was at its peak players during his lead of it and subscriptions sharply dropped AFTER he had left XI to work on XIV due to sudden changes in direction (Abyssea comes out, progression changes from horizontal to vertical progression) alienating a large portion of its dedicated player base and never recovering which may be why YoshiP is hesitant to take any chances with drastic changes in this game.

Great points.

Also, right around then is when SE finally (officially) announced FFXIV (we'd known "Project Rapture" was coming, just not when), and that alone changed the entire dynamic of whether to keep investing time in FFXI.

Another note... as much as I enjoyed campaigns in WoTG, I feel like that's when the exodus started. Abyssea didn't help, but players were turned off by the use of reskinned zones and the slow trickle of content during that expansion cycle. It took like three years for the entire storyline to be implemented. And then came Abyssea (before those three years were up), which just kind of sealed the deal for folks who'd been hanging on.

But yeah, if Yoshi-P suddenly announced that FFXIV was going horizontal, he could easily risk a backlash from people who've made this game their home based on its more easily accessible, less-intimidating vertical design.