Oh, so we're seriously talking MMOs now? Sure, we can talk MMOs.
I've been playing FFXIV for years. The initial investment is a timesink, but since I've been caught up with endgame for a long while, it's been rather chill in that I can easily take long breaks from the game and return without feeling like I've been completely left behind. I took a whole year break at the start of the pandemic, as work exploded since I work in pharmacy. I recently came back, got caught up again within 2-3 weeks despite being a retired raider, and I'm now taking another break intending to play Pathfinder WotR when it officially releases in about a week, which gives me about 2 months to enjoy it before the next FFXIV expansion launches mid-November.
As far as I'm aware, the producer of FFXIV straight up said that they've deliberately designed the game in a way that they're completely okay with people unsubscribing to enjoy other games, and then come back later with a fresh perspective. I'd say it works - people don't really talk about burnout within the FFXIV community at all, compared to the other MMOs I had been a part of previously. The main feature of the game is its story and world building anyway, which is legitimately stellar enough that it keeps everyone's interest in a way most other MMOs can only dream of having, despite the seeming lack of 'hardcore content' in comparison.
People from more 'hardcore MMOs' like WoW may belittle this type of design decision, but hey, there's a reason FFXIV is breaking records in a traditionally dead period for the game, while the other games are dying and have no hope of gaining that audience back. We're at a period where people are becoming less tolerant of RNG treadmill bullshit, because most people are growing up and have less time to devote to said bullshit.
It's nice to see companies out there fighting back against the notion that the only way to keep a player's interest is to force them to invest so much time in remaining caught up, that any notion of quitting will force a player to question whether their time has been worth it. I've been bouncing around MMOs long enough to easily know when entire communities are essentially experiencing Stockholm syndrome on a massive scale. Six years and counting in FFXIV so far, and not once have I observed that sentiment from the community there.
If anything, XIV's design philosophy has a lot more in common with cRPG design than most of the other MMOs. Especially due to the focus on the story. Though they're still fairly distant as far as direct comparisons go, which is why I'm always bewildered whenever MMOs get brought up on this forum for whatever reason.
