Skill-up's

[Dargoth_Draconia]

The game felt like an Alpha because it introduced all these awful new ideas that were never fully fleshed out. It was like they were trying new things just to be new and people hated them across the board. People didn't quit because the game crashed a few times and the servers were a little laggy, they quit because it just flat out wasn't fun to play; because the gameplay systems that were in place were failures.

The game has improved because Yoshida (& co) have looked around at what everyone else did right and he's scoop out a lot of the those "unique" systems that didn't work. Looking forward to 2.0, he's going to continue to do just that. What is being taken from WOW? Pretty much everything that has been hyped so far. The questing system, the new UI, content finder, heavy reliance on crowd control, free companies, easy/hard modes for raids. The only exceptions I can think of are the changes to crafting and summons.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it either. I don't want it to become too much like WOW, but I have no problem with the team taking good ideas from other places. Refinement is, generally, what leads to fantastic games. It's rare that wee see truely innovative games that are nothing more than great potential. FFXI and WOW both took the Everquest formula and made it better. I fully support FFXIV looking back at its elders and doing the same.

I can't agree with several of the falsities your have mentioned. It felt like an alpha because it was released in a not finished state and was very unpolished. A lot of people did quit because the servers were super laggy to the point where mobs would kill you and you can't even target them because of some terrible server issues. Not everyone quit because of those reasons but a decent handful of them did. Actually the combat and all that wasn't too bad and if you go and look at multiple reviews that was one of the things that kept the games score around a 5 (out of 10) and not any lower than that. At the base of it all it had a entertaining combat system to it and personally although I like the new combat better I still miss having multiple base attacks to use at will.

The people that didn't quit because of the server issues quit because everything else outside of combat was not finished and like you said some of the ideas weren't flushed all the way out. So there was no content, leveling up sucked at the time because gaining exp was totally random. Etc etc etc, the list goes on. Even as though things have changes the current engine is what keeps the game from reaching greatness.
Also in response to this: The questing system, the new UI, content finder, heavy reliance on crowd control, free companies, easy/hard modes for raids. The only exceptions I can think of are the changes to crafting and summons. First of all the questing system was around before WoW came out, it is a common MMO streamline to get added into games because it is effective and generally (though opinions differ) a more enjoyable and rewarding system. I already gave you content finder though that is a streamline feature in all the new MMOs these days as well. Free companies? What did that come from? I haven't seen that in an MMO before, especially WoW. Hard modes, I can give you that one as well though it also is yet another streamline feature, something to challenge the hard core players. So anything else besides the common streamlined features that most players expect in a new MMO? I guess I fail to see how that makes a game like WoW. I forgot to address crowd control, really? Every single RPG I have ever played has crowd control in it.