VIII wasn't one of the popular FF games in comparison to many others, that's why it wouldn't drive up popularity, why do you think they went with a 'materia' system rather than 'junction' system? It doesn't mean VIII was a bad game, just means in comparison to the other FF games, it wasn't that popular that seeing Triple Triad added won't cause people to join in droves lol.

That's why I said the only real issue with it was the contagious rule system, that's really the only thing that make for a bad implementation of it since in an MMO environment you have to allow every player to have an effect on something.