"Xatsh... so the chances of the genre having any bit of challenge or in-dept gameplay is pretty much out the window.

The MMO era is over. You have the online rpg era and the MSO(massive soloplayer online game) now. "

100% wrong. Depends on what you call a challenge, most things on FFXI took hours to complete but were just as easy as a lot of the stuff in FFXIV. Only thing that made it seem like a challenge was the fact it took so much time to do. (Time Sink) I understand that you are targeting the genre in general and not just FFXIV but I think the reason they made the NMs easier on FFXIV is because soon they will be adding challenging end game content. Also I think they just made them easier so everyone could have a shot at them before they become obsolete, sure some of the gear will still be good but new stuff will be coming out within a month or two.

So by doing this they let the LS's who aren't as well established be able to take the NMs down and get this gear and also now all the NMs can be taken down by perhaps lower level groups. (Groups from 40-50 range effectively, even though people was doing it prior majority of the time you had majority of 50s or upper 40s) and this gives the lower 40s to 50s content other than that crappy sp grind full time to 50 before you are really effective against NMs. I understand that takes away from us/the current end game LS's but it was necessary. They said from the beginning that the game would have content for both casual and hardcore players but it would not all come instantly. Hardcore content is on the way just stick with the game and keep faith or quit and maybe come back and play in a couple months if at all.