Quote Originally Posted by Stormfur View Post
I can't help but shake the impression that XIV is going down two very divergent paths -- one for people who enjoy MMOs, teamwork and community, and the other for people who prefer solo gaming -- and never the two shall meet.
It already does this to an extent.
Crafting and gathering are solo content. There are those who only craft and gather, and there are those who do both, crafting in downtime between raids or patches.
Blue Mage is new content to appeal to those. The causal crafter gatherer types who dont want to raid, those who want sonething to do and work towards when theyre not raiding, etc.

There's also no reason blue has to be purely solo. Theyve made it so thats possible, but i expect blue mages parties to run ibstance content or chain mobs like Eureka, to grpup together and increase their odds of learning a new skill, will be a big thing.
This type of gameplay will actually be more social, because you dont just plop into a preset role slot, do your job, then leave. Each blue mage will have different skills, you'll have to communicate in order to coordinate.