Again, I'm kind of left asking what content you want FFXIV to have that others have at launch. You're right in that I'm new to MMOs overall, but I did play FFXI and I did experience the content up to level 40 there, and I still think that FFXIV is currently around a similar level of things to do. I do agree that it's not at the same level, but then, I played FFXI in 2008 with four expansions included. It's fair to say that I expected FFXIV to have a lot less, and I was right. Initially I was full on with the criticisms of how there was no content, but I've pushed on and now that I'm playing class quests, story quests and sidequsts along with guildleves, I'm finding myself doing content more often than I'm grinding. Which I like, personally. Obviously you could probably still get a single class up to rank 50, do all the class quests, all the story quests, all the sidequests that the specific class group (DoL, DoH, DoW or DoM) will allow for you and then feel that the game is empty after that... but I've still not got a rank 50 class, I'm still finding dozens of sidequests and I'm still not being able to finish them all. The class quests are very good for me, including lengthy cutscenes and a lot of lore (although I will say that one or two classes had far shorter sidequests than others, something which should be worked on - but then, it was the same for job quests in FFXI).

As for how hard it is to keep up with the game without playing it, well, yes, I suppose you could do so by watching YouTube and whatnot, but if that's your way of keeping up with a game and how it's improving then I do still suggest actually getting at least one class to rank 20 and having a shot at the relevant quest. Unfortunately I know you (Rostum) use a gladiator and that was probably the most boring of the class quests I've done so far. xD The Marauder one wasn't that much better. I prefer long cutscenes, so I really enjoyed the Miner one. I wish they did these class quests more regularly.

The cryptic updates (I do assume you're referring to the Last Word news updates and the Hatching-tide updates?) are more for people playing the game than not playing. I wouldn't consider them to be anything remotely to do with updates to do with what changes are being made to the game. They're lore, basically. If you're wanting actual updates on the game, wait for Yoshida's posts. If those are what you were referring to as cryptic to you, then okay, I can respect that. They don't explain exactly what is happening. It would be nice if they did, I agree.

It's very easy to say how involved fans are with the development of games these days but this is a Japanese company. GW2, SW:TOR, are they being developed by English teams? If so it's perfectly understandable that they would provide a lot of feedback opportunities to English speakers. But it's insanely difficult to get regular conversation going between the likes of Yoshida and ourselves. It's just not workable without inevitable lost-in-translations scenarios.

Regarding the stats being insignificant, we're due an update in June that will update the battle system. There is also a job system in the works. What kind of systems these will be are unsure, but the goal is to make jobs/classes more unique. With this in mind, I'd expect stats to become more significant going forward. Hopefully.

Outside of Japan, the console MMORPG is almost nonexistent.
That's weird, roughly half of the FFXI players I knew had it on console. =| Many of them had it on both console and PC for some reason, but hey. I do prefer PC, but when the PS3 version is launched I do think they will get more out of it than "just another shot at reviews" - I know many people who have stated that they were waiting on it being released for PS3. You have to keep in mind that not every average joe out there who wants to play FFXIV is willing to upgrade a PC just to get it running. Yes, the PC market for this is massive compared to the console market, but you do need to take competition into account and where there is little competition, there is more chance for success.

I think FFXIV will get to a worthy place because I can't think of any company out there who would have waited this long with F2P before going P2P without intending on it being a success, one way or another. They're obviously determined and since Yoshida took over he has done a lot to show that he is interested in taking ideas from the community. There is still work to be done with regards to communication but I do respect that a Japanese company will always struggle to communicate regularly with English players. They actually have to accommodate for the French and German, too, which probably makes it even more of a nightmare. But yeah, SE have used FFXI as a cash-cow for what, ten years or so? If that's the case then I think they will happily keep plugging away at this until it works, because when it does work, they will have a cow that they will hope will last them for many years to come.

Defence from criticism is something everything deserves so long as people are willing to defend it. That isn't to say it doesn't deserve criticism, very far from it. But criticism without defence? Going by that, the game should have shut down before it even began. As should almost every othe game out there. Everything deserves criticism, but all criticism should allow for a rebuttal/defence, or at least time to make corrections based on the criticism. Optimism? Well, that's another story. I'll say it many times though: If you haven't played up to even rank 20, it's very difficult to take the criticism laid out at the game too seriously. Experiencing content first-hand is the main way to understand how good a game is or is not.