How is this allowed?

[Hallarem]

100% wrong. To say the culture hasn't shifted is just a flat out lie.

Obviously there has always been ERP, but the playerbase as a whole has never been this clubbing/RP/ERP focused in HW.

Maybe cause the game was fresh / challenging and actually had a lot of things to do back then? Just a guess

[Red-thunder]

Maybe cause the game was fresh / challenging and actually had a lot of things to do back then? Just a guess

There wasn't that much to do, but the thing is the things that you can do were all fresh and challenging. I remember when going into an alliance raid is a dice roll on whether you'll time out. So many wipes on Mhach and Dun Scaith, a few times I even saw timeouts. Jobs were also pretty complex back then.

What happened back then was that a single dungeon or alliance raid had way more staying power and was much meatier just because of the friction.

FF14 removed all the friction: in job design, in encounter design, and in progression. So now the usual content is just boring even on day 1 and doesn't have staying power.

I've seen people say the pandemic is to blame, considering everybody had to stay indoors for the most part

but there definitely has been a shift, and it seems to become increasingly more popular
maybe popular isn't the right word, but you see more and more venues crop up

Ye definitely. So many people just use FF14 for only socialization now. Not that socialization is bad, but in HW the socialization revolved around an actual game.