FFXIV was never anything but a pure casual centric mmo, but expansion to expansion it is getting more and more casual, and for me it is a huge negative. I have watched everyone I came over with from XI quit this game long ago, 8 people who I brought over from other mmos quit within 6 months because there is simply no meat on the bones so to say. I have watched my guild go from 60 people to 10-20 active 4 times now in ffxiv because the game is setup as a revolving door of players. Maby they will come back some expansion in the future but that does not work for guild and community development, and guilds honestly are the main thing that makes a mmo worth playing. Now I have 4-5 people that still play this game which is the only reason I am still here. And 1 of them is now going to WoW because he has beaten everything and the last expansion added nothing but fluff content.

I have come to accept ffxiv for what it is because it is exactly what Yoshida wants. He wants a game that is ultra casual focused something you can pick up and put down. I highly disagree with his statement based on what I see on many mmo forums, discords, and other mmos I have played. Look at almost every kick starter and such with people throwing their money at indy studios trying to get anyone to make a true full mmo where it is more then just what we see in games like FFXIV and WoW:Bfa. There are just as maby people today as 10yrs ago who want a hardcore mmo, something that is never ending, something that is complex, something that has real risk vs reward. Now the instant gratification mmos, WoW, and several other games brought millions into the genre and the casual playerbase now vastly out numbers the midcore and hardcore bases. So I can see why studios want to focus on the larger population as it brings more money. Same reason some high ups in the industry are saying mobile mmorpgs are the future of the genre...

I say Yoshida is wrong, alot of the people of today are playing games like we are because we have no choice because they are being built that way by default. If you can only play a game for 10-15hrs a week... that is all you can play it. Whether you want to or not. Not saying this style of mmo is all bad though. There are alot of people who want to play a game like this. But the issue of AAA devs and such saying everyone today does is grossly incorrect.