I have been reading these forums every day for a few months now. After 1.21, I finally resubscribed to the game (quit shortly after launch). After reading this thread, I finally felt so compelled to respond that I set up my forum account and am making my first post!

First of all, I want to say that I don't understand why everyone gives Rokien such a hard time. I've read a ton of his threads and honestly agree with most of them - not all, but most. He's just trying to get his opinion out there people. We all know the devs have an uncanny inclination to incorporate player feedback, so out of all the MMOs I've played I think this is definitely the most important place to make your voice heard! Besides, there's nothing wrong with desiring immersion in your gaming experience, and YES things like Anima and Content Finder DO INDEED hurt the immersion factor.

All that being said, I love the concept of Content Finder. It really is a staple of the modern MMO and it should be included in FFXIV as well. HOWEVER, they need to be very careful how it's implemented imho.

Primarily, my concern would be that automatically porting from town (or wherever) straight to the dungeon/instance/whatever absolutely destroys the immersion and lore of the world...it just doesn't make any sense! I would prefer to just be able to find a group, then {Gather Together} the old fashioned way. Even cross server, perhaps we would just get a dedicated chat channel with the other members, then be able to form a party once we reach the instance. MAYBE they could help this factor by having some sort of MAS - Moogle Adventuring Society - whose members across Eorzea seek to help us find friends with whom to adventure! Just let them know what you would like to do and they will do their best to locate others, using their extensive communication network, then tap into your aether and send you all to the location in question. Maybe this would be a cool way to keep the concept of anima, but move it away from its current focus (you can only utilize the MAS direct-portal a limited number of times). Oh lord, now I'm rambling...

ANYWAY tl;dr, OF COURSE it's good to help us find groups and experience content in a more streamlined fashion. Nobody agrees with this more than me, with a busy schedule and limited playtime. But at the same time, I would not want to go the WoW route where I recently leveled a new character to 60 with my wife WITHOUT EVER LEAVING EXODAR (after lvl ~20 of course). This is just lame and personally does not inspire my sense of adventure whatsoever.

I also think the content finder should incorporate lots of additional functionality, like being able to specify a specific zone or quest for LFP. Like, I'm seeking experience points party in Nophica's Wells, or I'm seeking a party for Parley on the High Ground, etc.