As much as everyone likes to complain about this, FFXIVs lengthy main quest, and the issues with alts.
Remember FFXIV is basically the /only/ healthy subscription MMO in western countries at the moment besides WoW. Perhaps they they have accomplished that that, but not following all the decisions and policies that other failed subscriptions MMOs have done. Lots of people play FFXIV, and it is a game that people often say can't exist. I hear often from media outlets that subscription MMOs are dead.
Could they do better? Assuredly. However comparing it to other MMOs besides WoW (and WoW basically just coasts along on inertia, so few lessons are to be learned there anymore) is sort of a strange exercise because all those MMOs have failed in their original goal to be subscription. I think the choices that you may not like, come of the fact it's a lone wolf in a F2P market, and that means its a different animal.
Cases like GW2 are a different story, as they were built from the ground up for a different finance model.
Remember FFXIV is basically the /only/ healthy subscription MMO in western countries at the moment besides WoW. Perhaps they they have accomplished that that, but not following all the decisions and policies that other failed subscriptions MMOs have done. Lots of people play FFXIV, and it is a game that people often say can't exist. I hear often from media outlets that subscription MMOs are dead.
Could they do better? Assuredly. However comparing it to other MMOs besides WoW (and WoW basically just coasts along on inertia, so few lessons are to be learned there anymore) is sort of a strange exercise because all those MMOs have failed in their original goal to be subscription. I think the choices that you may not like, come of the fact it's a lone wolf in a F2P market, and that means its a different animal.
Cases like GW2 are a different story, as they were built from the ground up for a different finance model.