[SUGGESTION] Trying jobs before character creation

[RichardButte]

That said, I expect a "Veteran" in MMORPGs to be able to do two things:

Thing is, you can be an MMO veteran and still not truly know how a class will FEEL to play until you've actually played it.

You can understand every last little mechanic about a class before leveling it and still find it doesn't click with you at higher levels (like I did with MCH...).

There's nothing LOST by allowing people to try max level classes out, at least on a training dummy with some AoEs around. Like I said earlier, it can absolutely work as a carrot on a stick, seeing as how the low level combat is extremely sluggish in comparison to the late game combat.

Most people decide if they are going to play a game by maximizing what the free-trial offers them.

But like I said earlier, the real problem is that the "pressing 2 buttons while waiting for the 2.5s GCD to end" lower level gameplay is absolutely no indicator of what you can expect from higher level combat.

The 2.5s GCD makes sense later in the game, given the number of oGCD abilities classes have and the sheer number of things going on, but early level gameplay is a massive snooze in comparison.

If I had to judge FFXIV only from it's first 10-15 hours of gameplay (without having bought it), I'd shy away from picking it up.

But judging it from endgame instanced combat, I'd absolutely recommend it to everyone.

I have always seen MMOs as a time commitment and if choose to play it cause it has long term value.

...And you don't truly know the "long term value" of an MMO until you get to endgame and see how it plays.

FFXIV has a fantastic endgame, unlike a number of other MMOs. It's one of the few MMOs out there that would WANT players to evaluate it based upon how classes play at max level...