One Year Later: (Very) Basic Features FFXIV Doesn't Yet Have

FFXIV launched in mid-September of last year, and we're getting close to the one-year mark.  No, I'm not talking "basic" features like mounts (which are currently scheduled to appear in patch 1.19, expected to show up around the one year mark).  I'm talking the most basic features expected from a game, like being able to tab out of fullscreen without crashing it - things that have been standard in PC gaming for fifteen years.
Here's a brief list of a few very, very basic features FFXIV still lacks at ten months.

• Player mail.  Currently, there is no way to contact offline players or communicate - at all.  In 2011, Square Enix has not yet mastered this rough equivalent of "email".

• Delivery system.  Often used in conjunction with the above, there is currently no way to deliver items directly to players (or to mules and alts, which is a common procedure games like WoW and FFXI, where it's even sanctioned and promoted by Square Enix).

• Text-based search.  The Market Ward search function does not allow you to actually search for items by name.  If you're looking for, say, a Spiked Bronze Labys, you must go to the Item Search Counter, choose the appropriate market area for that item, then choose the appropriate category.  Don't know which it is?  Then you need to manually check areas and categories until you find it.  Which brings us to the next big issue...

• Detailed item search.  Right now, any class can equip most pieces of armor.  However, there's no easy to way to search for, say, all available equipment for a given level.  If you're just checking to see what's available, you need to check multiple areas (Armorfitters, multiple Tailors, Jewelers, and Clothier) with multiple categories (Helm, Full Plate, Gauntlets, Headwear, Armband, Pants, Masks, Hats, and a dozen or so more).  Similarly, you have Helms, Masks and Crowns, all for the same slot and same level range, but they are all listed in three different locations.  But it gets worse...

• Instant purchases from retainers.  Again dovetailing with the above issues, players have to manually locate a Retainer's physical presence within the Market Wards to purchase an item.  What is a standard thirty-second or less process can take several minutes  as you jump across multiple wards, multiple loading screens, and waiting for Retainers to load (only for the one you need to be on the other side of the ward, requiring another ten seconds to run to it).

• Guild features.  FFXIV has linkshells, which allows for a global guild chat, but any serious management options are not there.  There's no perks, banks or level (Rift had all three of these within three months of it's launch). 

• Tabbing out of fullscreen.  Despite being not just a very basic MMO feature but an extremely basic feature in PC gaming from the last dozen or so years, ten months later you still cannot, unless you want to crash FFXIV.  And if you accidentally hit alt + tab at a bad time and your character ends up dying, or you try to fire up another game after FFXIV crashes from tabbing out and find SE still has control over DirectX and your other game won't launch?  Ask a fanboy, it's your fault for not paying more attention, and the problem was entirely avoidable!

• In related issues, Windows UAC crashes FFXIV.  Yes, you must choose between security and Square Enix.  Ironically, the only way to play fullscreen and leave UAC on is to use third party programs - third party  programs which Square Enix expressly forbids and actively pursues!

• Tab-through targetting.  If you want to switch your targets consistently, you need to press the cancel command twice just to get to where you can adjust things freely.  And Square has done more than three slow-paced updates already on "fixing" targeting.

• On the same note, if a target disappears via things like burrowing into the ground or teleporting as part of an attack or even simply morphs into something else, you lose your target on them and must retarget them, which is especially troublesome in close fights where timing is important.

• Drawing weaponry while moving.  If you wish to attack something, the player character stops, pauses, draws their weaponry, pauses, and then allows you to move again.  Going back to passive mode is a similar affair.  (1.18, when it releases later this week, will implement this, almost a year later!)

• Point and click sales.  Selling an individual item to an NPC is literally a multi-second process.  Manually *scroll* to item.  Click item, wait a second, sales menu pops up.  Click sell.  Choose amount.  Click sell.  By default, the next item in the list then pops up, which is helpful if that's what you desire to sell, but if it's not, you must cancel out of that box and then scroll again to the next desired item.

• Extra menus.  Most MMOs allow you to default to the entire stack, and use a key command - something like Shift + Right Click - to manually bring up the extra menu as desired, but in XIV's case, you must choose "How many?" every single time, whether dealing with a sales NPC or your storage Retainer.  It's simply another random, awkward step in an already awkward process.  All in all, the process takes varying degrees of several times as long as WoW or Rift.

• In-game video settings.  FFXIV allows you to adjust some minor video settings from within the game, but even doing basic things like changing the resolution or allowing sound when the game is in the background require using a different program,  "Final Fantasy XIV Config", which can't be utilized while running the game.

• In a similar vein, you can't adjust your gamepad in-game, either - even though the interface is allegedly designed around accommodating one.  You've got to close the game application entirely to open the Config program, yet again!

Keep in mind, this is a company with massive financial backing and a team with almost ten years experience on a successful MMO which featured most of these things.  They've also said numerous times that fixing the game is a priority.  Yet, ten months later, they're missing very basic features.