Quote Originally Posted by Karkarov View Post
You legit just suggested perma death in an mmo? No, the end. This is such a bad idea on so many surface level obvious ways it isn't even worth responding to almost. There are mmo's that have this, and they are beyond niche with extremely tiny player bases. There is a lot of reasons for that.

If SE wants "harder content" all they need to do is add optional modes for some content that force the minimum I level while maybe also adding extra or harder mechanics. Which they wont, because they tried harder content in Endwalker and no one played it.
The idea of an optional game mode with a hardcore feature set is perfectly fine for an MMORPG. It's an option within World of Warcraft Classic and is hugely popular. Especially right now with the recent fresh base game servers Blizzard launched as part of WoW's 20th anniversary event.

With this being said, FFXIV's game design doesn't suit a hardcore ruleset. The levelling experience is driven by a cinematic MSQ, not the grinding mobs and kill/loot 10 boars you find in WoW. Now we have softcore options, so to speak, in content such as Eureka and Bozja but I don't see a death penalty being applicable outside of those bubbles.