Quote Originally Posted by Lauront View Post
There's a few here and there trying to revive the classic MMO formula (Pantheon, AOC etc.), but it remains to be seen how well they do. Certainly for SE, based on what Yoshi has said before (here and here), he does seem to think any future MMO would be more in the direction of an action-based, lobby style game.
I'm very curious to see how the more 'traditional' MMO's do, especially since they'll be launching with some rather impressive looking graphics in addition to advanced character customisation.

They won't appeal to everybody, of course, but I do suspect that a decent amount of those playing FFXIV are, in fact, largely doing so because the MMO market is rather stagnant at the moment.

Even having left WoW long ago before it became trendy to ditch it, there's a lot of stuff from that game that I miss from it that FFXIV simply isn't providing. Distinct starter zones for each playable race being a major example, as well as less focus on 'wholesome' content which is usually just an excuse to bring laughably low stakes and zero consequence to the table for many major characters.

I also have confidence that if one of the upcoming competitors happens to do well, then the healthy competition will cause FFXIV's development to suddenly overcome many limitations holding it back as well as bring more content to the table with staying power. As is often the case when a business finds itself on the defensive.