Quote Originally Posted by Amarande View Post

* There's a distinct lack of "mid end" content anymore, you get a choice of stuff that anyone who's got any decent MMO, or RPG, or even video game skills at all is going to squash like a bug, or stuff that requires near-perfect play to even hope to clear. What's someone who's pretty handy with games but has less time and energy to practice and is getting older (I'm in my 40s, I'm not a Monster-fueled teenager anymore. Heck, caffeine seems to barely do me any good anymore either!) to do?

This doesn't even seem to just be a XIV issue either (few games still have a smooth endgame progression instead of this cliff, and the ones that do, like WoW, the middle content tends to suffer from reward-tiering issues).
This is most definitely an issue I'm worried about as well. I certainly can't spend hours a night raiding. (However did I manage to clear MC in early WoW? wtf was I thinking) I'm 38 (hey, I've got 8 more days) and I don't have the time or energy to put that time in.
Since I'm still a sprout and just finished heavensward though; its possible my timing might be that I am always one expansion behind.

(caffeine has never affected me; so I can't do the stay up with coffee thing and never have been able to)