Player retention without PvP...? How? I got access to a new duty, ran it 4, 5 times. After that it’s pretty much boring. I got all the equipment I needed from it. (I was still getting exp which was nice but if you’re maxed at 80 that’s not a factor). Then you sit around and wait for the next patch/expansion for material you’ll finish in a week.

The open fields are pretty much a complete waste of server space given how they’ve set it up. You can literally spend 30 seconds - 1 minute to kill a monster in an open field and get 500 exp, or you could go into a duty, anything your teammates kill you get 100% of exp. so you’re nuking 4-5 monsters at a time (I’m a black mage) and getting like 2500 exp instead of 500, in addition to 4 people attacking the monster instead of 1.

I’d be curious how long it would take to get class viii materia in your equipment and advanced melding extras.