ESO doesn’t require you to buy the latest expansions to play them, they only require you to have an active subscription. Buying the expansions gives you the option to play them without the subscription.
FFXIV took after WoW, so no surprise there, but they also haven’t thrown away their earlier expansions either - in fact, to properly enjoy it, you should play through them in order, otherwise you are just rushing to an endgame of fashionwars for no reason.
The real reason this model persists is because MMO devs realize that they can milk a lot more from MMO addictions than from normal games, not because it needs to be.
FFXIV also has this model, and tbf, every sub-based MMO. ESO, for instance, also requires you to buy latest expansions to be able to play it.
ESO doesn’t require you to buy the latest expansions to play them, they only require you to have an active subscription. Buying the expansions gives you the option to play them without the subscription.
FFXIV took after WoW, so no surprise there, but they also haven’t thrown away their earlier expansions either - in fact, to properly enjoy it, you should play through them in order, otherwise you are just rushing to an endgame of fashionwars for no reason.
The real reason this model persists is because MMO devs realize that they can milk a lot more from MMO addictions than from normal games, not because it needs to be.