Check out the hottest topics from the past week of the FFXIV general forum.

Talk about ending up on a high note! Just a week after what will hopefully be the most underwhelming update in the history of Final Fantasy XIV, a Lodestone update posted earlier today announced upcoming elements of Patch 1.16 -- including new storyline and world quests! The timing couldn't have been better, with many players still feeling slighted over the (non)events of last week.

The three threads chosen for this week's Hot Read Thursday capture the collective moods at the bookends of the past week. The first two threads spawn from a more pessimistic view of FFXIV, based largely on the disappointment of February's second patch. The third thread has the announcement of Patch 1.16, and as you can see by the replies, the mood improved almost immediately. Good to see the party is finally about to begin!

And now, on with the links:

Title: Feeling less confident about the future of XIV

The name says it all. Posted by a player who has generally had good things to say, the original poster felt his faith waiver following the weak Patch 1.15b. Following is an interesting discussion that later devolves into typical back-and-forth arguing, but, for a good portion of the thread, there are many valid points about whether we should still believe in this game. Interestingly enough, a couple friends of mine from FFXI just started playing FFXIV a couple days ago; aside from the lack of quests, they're having a blast. So, should we feel confident about the future of FFXIV? Perhaps it's too early to tell, but I'd pay a monthly fee now if I had to -- which brings us to our next thread...

Title: Hypothetically speaking, April 1st...

Simple question, but purely hypothetical: If monthly fees for FFXIV were charged starting in April, would you still pay? The OP says no, but the vast majority of people posting replies said yes. This makes me wonder how much longer we'll have until monthly fees go into effect. Players are clearly happier with the game than they were awhile ago, but I'd think SE would place a higher value on players having fun than collecting monthly fees -- and implementing fees before the PS3 release could prematurely damage that "fun" factor. And by that, I mean what's better than free fun? Or free anything?

Title: Patch 1.16 Outline (02/24/2011)

Here it is... the update that picked us up again! I'm stoked for this update, which has three of the things I'm most excited about: 1) Quests; 2) Reduced item wear-and-tear; and 3) Impovements to the synthisis user interface. These are three of the major criticisms of the game, all being addressed with just one quick update. I'm most excited about getting quests though, and I'm fully confident they'll be delivered in this update. This is the first time we've been given an absolutely concrete timeframe of when content would be added to the game. It's happening in this next update. Early March. Just a couple weeks away!