Yep, though I feel it is mostly nostalgia.

The game has devolved to a point where only tryhards and boosters (or people paying for boosts) are having any fun. The rest of us having to wade through the toxic waste they leave behind. The game feels like middle management having control of all the resources and if you're in a lower position you get screwed over.

Ahead of the Curve achievements, gear scores, raider.io, simulationcraft, DBM, perpetually unbalanced classes and specs and mechanics interviews over Discord have ruined the game to a point where I no longer feel I can play the way I want to. Rushing to the point where you're ready to raid and then spend hours reading strategy guides, configuring DBM, applying to groups, is not a fun way to experience end game content while basically skipping all the storylines, and everything that makes the world feel like an actual world.

And most of it is just symptoms, it used to be that bosses had relatively simple mechanics and raids were there to experience crucial battles in the story. People used to just get a group together and try defeating a raid, not too worried about failure. Nowadays people are obsessed with managing away risks of failure.

Being kicked from a group halfway through because your spec has slightly lower DPS for the specific encounter while topping the damage done charts in others is the kind of bullshit that I won't deal with anymore.

Actually engaging with the end game content feels like applying for an entry level position where they require 10 years of previous experience to even qualify.

damn, fellow mmorpg player, feel your pain. FF 11 and FF 14 got me good, but im still gonna do every quest anyway. Although currently in 11 the game for me ends at limit break 3 quest because i had trouble with it last time i played, maybe i'll pick it up again and give the parts i was stuck on another shot at some point. Once im past genkai 3 the rest seems a lot less frustrating. the lb 3 quest isn't really hard, just obnoxious as all hell.