Given that you can change immediately at any point in the game, I think it's fair that they balance that out. However, it should also be noted that these aren't the only stats that determine everything - individual classes also have stats. That's why your HP changes every time you change your job. If I were to change to mage but keep the point allotment as it is, the mage would still have significantly higher MP and significantly lower HP. The point allotments can be adjusted but to think that they make up the bulk of things is to be easily misled. My marauder can take a load of hits off some enemies while using my low-rank fisherman left me extremely vulnerable against those same mobs.

As for the reasoning behind limited point-changes, I am sure it's there - possibly to discourage people from getting the idea that you can just change from battle to battle constantly adjusting to suit the enemy, which for me would take away any challenge from the game. The fact you can change class so easily in this game - my time in FFXI involved a long travel back and forth just to change job - shows that the system is still effective.

Yearg: Like Kaiser, can't say I'm one to defend a game just because I bought it, or because I got CE. I just don't get stressed out easily. I've got a bunch of games I've purchased, disliked (or just not really got into) and not resorted to continuing to playing it and defending it on forums - that's a little too masochistic for my tastes! I tend to just put them away and forget about them, maybe eventually trading them in. But most likely just collecting dust. I am sure that there are some people who defend the game in this way, probably. I feel a little sorry for those people. But if people say they're having fun and it comes across that way, then that's what really matters.

The social side has really started moving along quickly in the last couple of days. While meeting up with enano's character, I met a newbie who didn't even know how to get out of town recently, I think he'd literally just got out of the initial story instances. I helped him out by showing him the way out of Gridania and how to access the map and go to Bentbranch. Gave him loads of /tells and perhaps in time he'll join our linkshell. So far he seems cool, though. I think the social side is what was missing for me - my enthusiasm for the game has increased after I spent a couple of days barely touching the game due to being physically tired in recent times.