Quote Originally Posted by ArtemisSeraphin View Post
4. You mention buying glams, spending money, and only casuals do that, not sweaty gamers. Us sweaty gamers aren't the ones "actually supporting the game" therefore our voices shouldn't count? I've been paying SE a monthly subscription since 2003 when XI came to NA. I've bought physical CE's every single expac--both XI & XIV. I have an embarrassing number of the carbuncle & fat cat plushies, multiple copies of every volume of Encyclopedia Eorzea. I don't stream those OSTs from Spotify; I got the Blu-ray discs. My alts? I've got plenty. And they all have /playdead. Retainers? I'm paying for a few. I bought the Fairy Tale Princess attire just for the skirt. I have a serious problem with buying Carbuncle mounts. Seriously, they release another one of those and I'm in trouble. "Vast amount are showing off their glam..." Why the heck do you think I got into raiding if it wasn't b/c the Allagan Coat of Healing was cute as heck? Why the heck do you think I kept raiding if it wasn't b/c the High Allagan Coat was even MORE cute?

It is perfectly acceptable to be average at AST. But demanding that AST's ceiling be lowered so that your "average" is now "peak" is ruining the game for others. Yes, others who also pay for the game and have sunk, rough calculation, more than $5,000 on it.
I bought a several hundred dollar statue just so I had something to use while I was idling in PF or discussing strats with my static in an instance. I have multiple retainers to help me gather the materials to sell so I can buy materials for tincs and food. I have alts for running split clears, all on the same server for ease of access, so I have to pay the more expensive sub. I raid to get dyeable armour and flashy weapons. The entire reason I picked up raiding was because I wanted the TEA weapons! Just bc casuals buy stuff doesn't mean I don't. I'm not running raw with no glams or raid gear. I spend so much time in this game doing other things, and playing AST was a joy I always came back to. And now it's gone and for what? So the casuals have a fourth braindead healer? I pay my damn sub too, why don't I get a say? Why is me wanting to enjoy casual AND hardcore content by having a job that maintains a complexity and path to optimization while being easy to pick up being denied in favour of people who only want a class for an aesthetic?

I don't get these people...