What is this I don't even...

[Preypacer]

On one level it is their opinion and, however much I might agree or disagree with it... it is what it is.

However...

I will say it reads a bit like many forum posts I've seen. They make a token effort to "sound objective", but you can tell in their tone and choice of phrasing, as well as what they choose to focus on (primarily negatives), that their mind was made up well before they even demoed the game. They went into it wanting to ultimately tear FFXIV down, to undermine SE's efforts, to put their personal favorite game (obviously GW2) on a pedestal, and to try and dissuade people from checking XIV out.

When you've decided what your narrative is beforehand, it's a piece of cake to cherry-pick and twist things around to support it. I could do it to GW2 - or any other MMO - just as easily as they did to FFXIV. It's not difficult. It's rather lazy, actually.

Despite their attempt to exasperatedly complain about things as though they were issues with the game, much of what they noted are ultimately personal quips. The map system? Personal quip. The questing? Personal quip (I don't personally enjoy the questing style they're using either, but many people still do). And so on.

And seriously... They expected a "reward for their effort" in soloing a FATE that was far enough below their own level to be soloable? Really? Entitled much? That's someone looking for easy-mode gameplay if ever I've seen it.

They were put off that finding where they had to go required some effort on their part, and wasn't just laid out for them? Well, cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it.

The recurring comparisons to GW2 really paints a clear picture there. I agree with others who've pointed that out. They're a fan of GW2, whatever their reason, they feel they need to tear down FFXIV, and they wrote a shitty article to do so.