You are much more optimistic than I am BoB, I really feel the awful release and the move to what has basically become an expanded Beta that went public has really hurt the image of the game. Why come back to pay for a game that was so terrible at its launch, its original design team had to be stepped down, the head CEO apologized for it, and its free subscription was expanded indefinitely to use anyone willing to play it for free as Beta testers? Unless they start implementing designs and elements that could give WoW a run for its money, I don't think a game with this much of a tarnished reputation is going to somehow comeback in full force. I think some will come back, but there is no guarantee they will stay if the game is just "good". If SE wants XIV to be a success then they seriously need to bring in PR for the next couple of significant patches like they did for 1.19 and show the gaming world that not only has XIV overcome all of its problems, its now a must have MMO experience. They lost the chance to capitalize on name brand recognition, now its going to have to survive on its merits. At this point I would say that XIV might at best become a modest success but I'm already going to bet that it won't be as successful as FFXI mainly because it has too many factors going against it.