Something needs to be done about the empty open world

[hobostew]

Why is this an issue?

95% of things that you need to do in the open world, you can solo - the exception would be S rank hunts aswell as the special FATEs.

I understand that some people like games that have a focus on huge open world content - but FFXIV isnt one of those games. Hasnt been since 2.0 at least - I cant speak for 1.0 since I've never played it, but I guess we can all agree on 1.0 and anything past ARR being two different games.
So yeah, if you're looking for an open world MMO, FFXIV isnt that and never wanted to be that. Its not broken, its by design.

IMO if the game isn't going to take advantage of the open world then those resources put to creating them should be moved to creating instanced content. As it currently is all the effort that goes into these zones are largely a waste after you finish the story.

[Vidu]

IMO if the game isn't going to take advantage of the open world then those resources put to creating them should be moved to creating instanced content. As it currently is all the effort that goes into these zones are largely a waste after you finish the story.

I'd disagree - there is still content in these zones (FATEs, hunts, maps, gathering, sight seeing logs, beast tribes...), its just not the amount of content that people who favour open world style content over instanced content. Besides that content, the zones also add to the general atmosphere and seeing how the story is a big part of this game, its worth building the zones for the story alone. After all, we're here to save the world, right? Need a world for that first...