Quote Originally Posted by Skiros View Post
FF14's open world does not encourage, incentivize, or reward exploration. Other than sightseeing logs, which give measly rewards if you actually organically explored rather than following a guide, there's almost next to no point in exploring the world.
...
Exploration should be a big feature during the MSQ as you get to learn the lore of the land.
Your ideas are based on the premise that an 'Exploration' activity would not be reduced to following a guide for the rewards you've suggested. Any activity in-game has multiple guides, video and text, before the first month of an expansion has passed.

I 'explore' the world in an organic fashion while leveling through the zones. The MSQ provides access to the world in general. The side-quests provide access to those places whose existence comes as a nice surprise. I go back to places I've discovered and do other things (mostly involving gshade screenshots and commentary on tumblr and twitter).

You are under the mistaken idea that everything you do in-game should be rewarded with loot. And yes, I've played That Other Game where there was an achievement for reading almost every 'interactive book'. There was also an achievement for exploring every corner of the map. And one for completing every single in-game quest, on both sides. Everybody used guides to get those achievements, as it was extremely difficult to figure out what you missed in order to complete them.