What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Rulakir]

Thinking of this from an IRL standpoint, merging the reflections back would drastically hinder the amount of content they could create and sell to their customers.

I doubt we're going to visit every reflection, especially since they'd need to come up with reasons as to why we'd be limited to small areas of them. It worked for the First because 9/10 of it had been consumed by the Flood, all that was left was Norvrandt. We still have at least 2-3 continents on the Source we haven't explored too.

I also doubt a full rejoining would happen within the WoL's lifespan either, so it's likely a moot point. I suspect we're going to be spending at least one expansion dealing with the 13th in some capacity. I'd be surprised if by the time FFXIV reaches 20 years of age that they don't already have a new MMO in the works if they decide to make another one. Does FFXI still get expansion-like content updates?

[CrownySuccubus]

I doubt we're going to visit every reflection, especially since they'd need to come up with reasons as to why we'd be limited to small areas of them. It worked for the First because 9/10 of it had been consumed by the Flood, all that was left was Norvrandt. We still have at least 2-3 continents on the Source we haven't explored too.

That last sentence is why I can't see them needing any more reason than "The world is, like, really big, man."

The Source alone got away with being the sole setting from Expansions 1.0 - 4.0, being limited specifically to Eorzea for the first three of those, and even as of 6.0, we still haven't explored all of it.

The other reflections could provide content for dozens of future expansion. They have no reason to rush.

[Theodric]

If narratives aren't applied consistently across the board, then I don't consider them to have much in the way of weight or relevance. Especially when the writers themselves frequently backtrack in interviews and insist that players should come to their own conclusions and come up with their own head canon.

As a role-player, it has long been a frustration of mine that the game doesn't have any real consistent elements in play. In many ways, I see the same trajectory that World of Warcraft decided to go down with large swathes of established lore being sacrificed in the name of whatever the writing team decided was 'really cool' at the time.

[CrownySuccubus]

If narratives aren't applied consistently across the board, then I don't consider them to have much in the way of weight or relevance. Especially when the writers themselves frequently backtrack in interviews and insist that players should come to their own conclusions and come up with their own head canon.

As a role-player, it has long been a frustration of mine that the game doesn't have any real consistent elements in play. In many ways, I see the same trajectory that World of Warcraft decided to go down with large swathes of established lore being sacrificed in the name of whatever the writing team decided was 'really cool' at the time.

Yeah. I think it's a symptom of long-running, high budget franchises. Saw the same thing happen with older FF games (especially XIII and the VII Compilation) and Kingdom Hearts.

Eventually, the writers stop going for "a theme" and start shooting for "ALL the themes". Why make players contemplate one emotion when you can try to make them feel all of them all at once?

[SeverianLyonesse]

I doubt we're going to visit every reflection, especially since they'd need to come up with reasons as to why we'd be limited to small areas of them. It worked for the First because 9/10 of it had been consumed by the Flood, all that was left was Norvrandt. We still have at least 2-3 continents on the Source we haven't explored too.

I also doubt a full rejoining would happen within the WoL's lifespan either, so it's likely a moot point. I suspect we're going to be spending at least one expansion dealing with the 13th in some capacity. I'd be surprised if by the time FFXIV reaches 20 years of age that they don't already have a new MMO in the works if they decide to make another one. Does FFXI still get expansion-like content updates?

I think the Thirteenth is the only shard worth visiting at this point. They could contrive a similar reason why we can only visit parts of it. The Void been part of the lore for far longer than any other shard. It would serve as a good balance to the First. I would feel happy and I think the world would feel reasonably complete if we went there and didn't bother to visit the other remaining shards.

[CrownySuccubus]

I think the Thirteenth is the only shard worth visiting at this point. They could contrive a similar reason why we can only visit parts of it. The Void been part of the lore for far longer than any other shard. It would serve as a good balance to the First. I would feel happy and I think the world would feel reasonably complete if we went there and didn't bother to visit the other remaining shards.

We have actually been to the Thirteenth, though.

That's what the World of Darkness raid is. Maybe there is more of it to see, but we've definitely seen part of it.