Quest based leveling will be more welcoming to the average gamer and even some hardcore gamers then the old FF formula of leveling. Bringing casual players into the game and boosting the population would be a great start for SE and the system does seem quite fun...

On the other hand seems like some logic needs to be thrown at the complainers.

Reading some posts, I fail to see how this leveling system is bad. "Oh they are making it quest grinds and making it too easy" And mindless abyssea style AoE grind parties AREN'T boring? I'm sorry but questing and going through a storyline progression is proven to be far more successful a formula then xp grinding. Don't forget SE is a COMPANY, profit is their number 1 goal. They spent a lot of money on this game so excuse them for trying to make the leveling aspect of this game mainstream and appeal to a larger audience. as a FF game they will have features that will set this game apart from the others and everyone knows that.

People call the questing thing mindless, at least you have the option to see some storyline content in the mix. Unlike all of you people that just grinded everything to 50 in an AoE party. That is far more mindless then questing. At least questing offers some sort of verity then sitting there at a camp and hitting the same mobs over... and over and over again.

Times have changed, Hardcore players are getting the shaft and they deserve it. The problem with all the WoW clones is they try to cater to the hardcore players, fail and don't have the casual players to back up their population and subscription base. Casual gamers are NEEDED, if they didn't have casual players WoW wouldn't be where it is, FFXI would be dead completely... even Call of Duty owes its success to the casual gamer. So you "hardcore gamers" really need to get over yourselves, You are no more important than someone that played maybe 8 hours per week. They pay the same subscription fee as you do.

Now you talk crap about SE for wanting to make a profit? They make a LOT more money by getting casual players into their game then they will hardcore players. Hardcore players will still have their place but casual players are NEEDED in order to make an MMO a success. In order for an MMO to be a success you need a lot of players.

One of the largest complaints about FFXIV is that leveling seemed like a pointless grind. People now in days even the hardcore players will take QUESTING over go to ____ camp and have _____ jobs AoE everything to death.

Casual players are the lifeblood of MMOs, not hardcore ones. Catering to the hardcore over the casual is basically like... having 100 people that want one thing and 10 people that want another. There is nothing keeping those 100 people here and the 10 can't sustain the system by themselves. You HAVE to cater to the majority and throw the minority a bone, not the other way around.

Casual players are the majority, hardcore are the minority. I'd don't see how making leveling more mainstream is possibly a bad thing. Maybe the "hardcore" people are just getting their panties in a bunch... but leveling was NEVER hard in this game it was actually more brain dead and mindless then quest-based leveling

Grind parties are more mindless and pathetic then quest-based leveling.