Abyssea And Its Effect On Players.

So lately I have been having some thoughts and wanted to share it with you all. So ever since Abyssea has been released it has basically changed this game completely, including people. I don't intend for this post to be a "abyssea killed ffxi!" but generally about its effect on players and what you have noticed changed. I find that a lot of people have become more hardcore than ever... It seems SE's general idea was to make the game more casual friendly, not requiring a giant LS to do everything (not to say a giant ls doesn't accomplish things faster) and more laid back about items due to insane ease with blue proc and low AH costs. I also find there is a lot more cutthroat activity amongst people in regards to popping NMs through the ??? system and how people generally treat each other.

I find in my observations that people aren't being more casual but hardcore.. Spending upwards of 9 hours+ a night in the same zone to "cap" people out on items and emperial weapons. What are peoples thoughts on this? When you look at a LS's web page or accomplishments and see they have something like, "tonight we got all 50 of x items in 9 hours farming, great job and congrats to the upgrader!" What goes through your mind? NINE HOURS in a single zone doing one activity over and over? Does this sound like a game or a job to you? Did we see this in the past?

I don't even think this was that much of a widespread issue until Abyssea was released. I know there were sects of people doing this on a normal basis but now it seems very widespread. Abyssea has made people more hardcore and spend a lot more time playing the game, maybe the allure of how easy it is or overpowering enemies with atma or something I can't think of. Sky or Sea were never typically this time consuming, people didn't want to spend 9 hours a night farming triggers for the gods or JOL and such, they typically farmed one or two pop sets for the LS. Kings/HNM didn't take that long either, afk until a window and claim > kill > leave. It just seems there is so much focus on completing so much so fast with Abyssea and the amount of time spent inside is alarming.

So any thoughts on this? I think the game is starting to change for a good majority of players and it's pretty evident with how long they spend in Abyssea. These are just my thoughts and I still have fun with the game, but I just ask how can some of you out there enjoy the game when you treat it like a job? Clock in 9 hours and finish x items so that you can clock another 9 hours to finish y for MR z?