The game needs to open up

[Ath192]

You're comparing apples to oranges. Elden Ring is a singleplayer game that appeals to a certain demographic of players. That sort of player looks for things like no quest marker.

Do you know what would happen if XIV took away the quest markers? In no time flat after expansion drop, someone would have a mod putting them back in. There would be websites with coordinates so players could get their questing done quickly and easily. XIV players and a lot of modern MMO players in general like QoL features. MMOS were very niche 25 years ago. The thing that made them more widespread was accessibility. So the things that old school MMO designers put in to lengthen the time someone had to play the game, like difficult travel or obscure quest references and no map markers, fell to the wayside because that wasn't what was going to make their MMO attractive anymore.

I played elden ring, everyone I know that plays FFXIV played Elden ring, except 1 person actually. Plenty of older MMOs didn't have quest markers either as people have pointed out. Did you play elden ring?

We can extrapolate the following information from this:
1. Elden ring appeals to a similar demographic of fantasy RPG players since even Yoshi P released Dawntrail by 1 week after Elden ring so his playerbase could have time to play it.
2. It's clear players are no longer enjoying FFXIV being so accessible it no longer has any difficulty or engaging content or interesting jobs
3. Things have changed, QOL features no longer make this MMO attractive and instead players are clamoring for gameplay and depth

Simply put, they have made the game so "convenient" you don't even have to play it most of the month you pay your subscription for it. Nothing is static, and tastes change, even in the MMO world.