Most of the MMORPGs in development are becoming far more experimental in terms for their game play. Action elements are taking larger roles resulting in faster, more varied game play. The typical trinity of damage dealer, healer, and tank is quickly dissipating (although, as I understand it, FFXIV has done a better job keeping up with that) and it's hard to tell where that's going. Star Wars: The Old Republic is looking to bring in an unprecedented level of interactivity with an actual story by bringing in full voice acting throughout as well as conversations including your entire party and NPCs.

My concern is that FFXIV is spending too much time fixing things by going backwards (such as introducing what appears to be a very slow auto-attack mechanic) while other games are pushing the genre forward. They're playing it safe, which is understandable, but it could hurt them in the long run. About the only thing that Final Fantasy XIV does that other games typically don't is the ability to play multiple jobs on a single character, which is really the only innovative thing that Final Fantasy XI ever did. Hopefully the job system brings something more interesting to that mechanic, though.