I just want to say that I really really really want to like FFXIV - I liked a lot of things about XI, and I was only put off by A) needing to party to do anything at all and B) the atrociously bad UI. In the first case that declined later, and it seems XIV is a lot better in this regard, but if anything the second point is even worse. I know there are people who don't have a problem with it, and there are games where I have soldiered gamely on through bad design because I found other aspects of the game the effort, but judging from this I simply don't see how I could, at this stage, get much enjoyment out of FFXIV.

No MMO is perfect at launch, but when you've made a successful MMO before, and you have plenty of other examples - both successful and not - to draw on, there is no excuse to make fundamental and elementary mistakes which, unless people are outright lying, FFXIV makes.

I do sincerely hope that with time it becomes something I want to play, despite this. I'm just not confident that it will.