Quote Originally Posted by AttacKat View Post
Sorry to the nay sayers, but I believe I need to agree with the OP on this issue. Y-P has already mentioned months ago there will be information in ARR's UI that will need us to create our own custom UI interfaces, such additional combat related info.

Unless this is going to happen by magic, I fail to see how it can happen w/o add-ons/tools.
If you look at MMOs with addon capabilities what are the common ones?

1. Threat Meter, aka Enmity Meter - XIV 1.0 has one and ARR has two of them.
2. DPS Meter - This isn't necessary nor is it necessary at launch because people force these meters onto players. Reason it's not necessary? If you know how to play your job your don't need an add-on to tell you where/why you suck.
3. "Warning" Notifications - This is one of the "play the game for you" addons that doesn't need to exist, ever. It tells you what move an enemy is about to do and how/when to dodge/counter it.
4. "Added Windows" - There's more than enough on ARR's Screen.

So having addons is nice, but it's not a need. It's a want...which is something this community confuses in concept very heavily.

there can be wealth of in-game information that website developers can extract and make ARR fan sites much more useful. IE: item price trends, sales history, in-box notices, guild events. mob drops/rates ... are just some of the possibilities.
FYI: FFXI had plenty of websites that did this using the old fashioned method of using your brain and calculating. So unless I've played the wrong game, I'm pretty sure I didn't need to install any addons to utilize those websites that tracks that data, nor did I need it to see when an enemy is about to to do an attack or when I get a tell or message.

www.ffxiah.com for example.

It is time to move FFXIV away from that old single player functionality era and bring in other interface possibilities to make the game a world class MMO.
Actually, keeping it a "Single Player" is what will make this Final Fantasy. It will be an MMO but it will (should) have the feel of the Final Fantasy games while being an MMORPG much like FFXI, it was community driven where you depended on people (you know, like a FF game your characters always depended on each other?). Doing otherwise you're basically stating SE should make this like every other lifeless MMO on the market, which they are doing so don't worry, and by lifeless I mean one that's devoid of a good community.

Why play ARR when you can play other established and sometimes free MMOs for the same experience? So really, having it is nice but it's a far cry from a need. Most MMOs need add-ons because their default design is horrible. Very few MMOs I've played for example actually told you an enemy is even readying an attack, i .e "(Boss) readies/uses Painful Head Smash", this is why that addon even exists.