FFXIV, as it is now, from what I can see, as someone who has spent only 2 weeks day in and day out playing it, is a dull, repetitive grind with almost no NPC or PC interaction, a zig-zagging learning curve and the occasional bits of story thrown in. The battles are either easy or impossible based on the level of the monster you are fighting, with no strategy and no thrown in - Con/Thm buff and heal your melee/archer while they spam 1 and the occasional weapon skill. The travel system is ridiculous and obviously incomplete.

The only drive I have to keep playing is to max out all of my ranks. Seeing as I've gotten back into other things in this off week, though, I doubt I'll be playing nearly as much as I was before, because the fuel for that drive was boredom.

The crafting system seems fine for the most paart, but being random makes no sense to me, but then again my MMO experience is limited to runescape, and that's generally an MMO thing as far as I know, so I can't really say much on it.

When I signed up for this game, though, I almost immediately got the feeling that it was almost like an extended beta test, and I promised myself I'd post all of my input on what could make the game

In no particular order...
  • More variety in enemies. Give us lots of new enemies with varied elemental weaknesses/strengths/immunities/absorptions, more status inducers and more statuses in the first place. More variety in encounter groups will almost automatically lead to this. As it is, every area surrounding a camp has maybe three different monsters (almost all of them are pallete swaps too) that you encounter all throughout it. Considering the sheer scale of this game's world map, that is utterly ridiculous.
  • In the same vein as above, spells that alter your character's attack/absorb/defense in regards to the elements. Not only useful to the players themselves, but say there's a monster who absorbs ice imbues you with ice so that your every hit heals it. I'm sure we've all encountered something like this before.
  • Make friendly fire possible. Currently if you change your targets to enemy only and you choose cure, you can only target party members. Let it automatically target one at first, but if I click on/tab to an enemy, let me target it. I really wanted to use cure/regen on those wights in camp horizon and I'm sure they're not the only undead.
  • The introduction of a market wards Item Search Counter-like function that allows you to create parties and advertise them through an NPC. Same for Linkshells. Watching people do leves alone after offering to share and link right at the camp is beyond annoying, and the members of my LS can't be on all the time.
  • Better class/job definition. I believe Carpe and Cairdeas have explained a suitable system that, with some fine tuning, would be for the best.
  • Make starting NPCs more helpful and able to be contacted through your linkpearl. Having someone that can tell you where shops are, where/how to get materials for crafting, little things like that, can really help out a new player. Though some disagree with me and say that this is player laziness, there isn't always a PC around to be asked, and even if there is, you can't guarantee a reliable answer.
  • Make the story quests both more involved and more intuitive. No "Look for NPC X" from one person and then checking your journal and finding out that you're actually looking for NPC Y. Player choices should affect outcome of the story. More story options, more often, and with the ability to take a party with you.
  • Mini-games.
  • Better transportation system. There's been talk of Airships and Chocobos, and honestly, I think such things finally being implemented would make up for the ridiculous Anima recovery rate.
  • More dynamic leves, battlecraft or otherwise, some of which would be inherently group-based. Say player X has to mine mineral Y in dangerous area B and needs protection while s/he is there, doing their thing, or they'll be killed. Instanced "Boss Leves" that are only available every once in a while when some kind of weekly NM is terrorizing some camp. I see this as being like Behest, but available maybe once a week to anyone with the leve instead.
  • Give players and retainers a "Item Request" feature in their bazaar where you put an item you want, how many you want, and how much you are willing to pay for it. Other players browsing your/retainer's bazaar can automatically sell it to you through this option.
  • Player created quests a la some kind of external (square made, of course) RPGMAKER2003/XP-ish program to be handed out via leves or some kind of special NPC. Of course, this is dubious, as SE can't control fan-made content, but this is an MMO. Devote a team to moderate it and this particular feature could lead to something the world has never seen before.
  • A friend of mine has complained heavily about the inconvenience of the menu interface, and how there's no way to go from inventory to actions to configuration, versus the option of pressing say R1 or L1 in a conventional console RPG.