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The reason it's unpopular is because it's too much like FFXI.
Before you all tar and feather me, hear me out.
FFXI is a very mature MMORPG. It has existed for eight years. Most of the worst block/crash/gamebreaking bugs have been long since fixed, and those bugs and missing features that remain are things the player base has grown accustomed to.
The players of FFXI are used to FFXI.
But now FFXIV comes out, and it's full of bugs, bad UI decisions, poor interface and clunky game mechanics. This would be more forgivable if the game could stand on its own as something new and original, but it's basically FFXI Redux.
Those players coming off of Blizzard's incredibly polished cash cow World of Warcraft--and this is what Blizzard does well, take tired old ideas and buff them to a blindingly radiant shine--are disappointed at how juvenile and primitive the UI, interface, controls and gameplay mechanics of FFXIV are. (Especially, especially, especially because they're PC users.)
Those players coming off of FFXI are conflicted, because it's FFXIWITHBETTERGRAPHICS! ... AND MORE BUGS! So they're frustrated and impatient, because FFXI already exists in a vastly less buggy state! Because FFXIV is too much like its predecessor, FFXI players are not willing to spend time playing "more of the same" with a huge increase in brokenness, bugs, crashes, blocks, NO FUCKING AUTOATTACK... and other braindead design decisions. Way too much of a tradeoff just for shinier graphics and a less-intuitive class system.
And why would they be, when they have basically the same goddamned game, but with loads more content (even if they've already completed most of it, there's still more in FFXI than its successor!) and far less crippling bugs, design decisions and whatnot.
If FFXIV was not FFXIV, but an unrelated, new, original IP that Square-Enix created that had nothing whatsoever to do with FFXI or Final Fantasy in general, I think people would be a bit more tolerant of the problems (the Final Fantasy series has such a reputation for being extremely well-made titles), especially the former FFXI players. (If all of that was true and it was still in beta, I think everyone would be more tolerant of the problems it has.)
Thems be my two bits.
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