There's an interesting article over on MassivelyOP today that talks about how this game may end. Not story-wise, but in general. It used FFXI as a comparison, a game that is still around but is in a quiet maintenance mode.

And it got me thinking.

According to the forums, of course, this game is terrible and in real danger of dying despite the fact that the real world outside of these forums objectively goes against that grim assessment. (The game keeps wracking up awards and more importantly, is still growing in population, as the article points out. Which is the only metric that really matters.)

Now, these forums are not unique in its negativity. Pretty much all games, specifically MMOs, have pretty awful forum communities. The only other MMO I've played that had a decent forum community was LOTRO, but that was a long time ago. I have no idea how their forums might be today. (That truly was a great community, though. From top to bottom.)

And here's the point. I read a lot on here about how the game is too easy, how SE isn't really trying anymore, etc. Yet on the forums and subreddits of other MMOs, such as WoW and ESO, they consistently praise FFXIV's accessibility. They do complain about features being locked behind the story, but they give the game high marks for not being raid-focused and for having dungeons that are relatively easy to complete.

But that relative ease of the game is exactly what people here complain about. The very things that have made FFXIV the current market leader are the things people here would like to see changed. Which honestly makes me very grateful none of you are running SE

I am curious, though. Based on everything I've read here, what do you really want to see in FFXIV's future? Keeping in mind that everything they've done up to this point has REVERSED the trend that FFXI followed in terms of hitting a downward slope after the fourth expansion. Shadowbringers brought more people to the game.

But what would you change that would honestly help the game overall? Not just for a subset of hardcore players?