Lackluster Graphics in FFXIV

[Abriael]

I stopped reading your post after this statement.

Too bad, because the whole post proves you wrong (selective reading mh?). And you may not like the statement, but it's true. Dynamic lights need to be placed,and even more so manually tweaked (or you'll see stuff like out of place shadows that pass through the environment and horrible glitches like that, that are quite well known in MMOs that include that kind of effect) or you think they magically appear by themselves?

You seem to have a very, very simplified idea of game development. Something like "oh yeah, all effects are just a toggle, add a line of code so that they are enabled and they magically appear".

I'm sure many developers wish you were right

I'll give you a little "educational" piece of advice. To distinguish between effects that require just a toggle, and effects that normally require much more work, go to your NVIDIA or ATI control panel, and check what you can force on the engine. Those are the effects that can be simply "toggled" in most engines out there.
It's not a 100% comprehensive list, but it's a very good place to start. You'll notice that Ambient occlusion is there. Reflective Water or dynamic lighting are not.