This game is amazing, there is so much to do. Anyone who rates it below a 6.9 probably has the attn. span of a sandwich.
Copied from http://whren.livejournal.com/98646.html, this is what you can do in FFXI:
- Missions (city, Zilart, Promathia)
- Crafting (a whole new game unto itself; high level crafters hold as much respect and as much power -- in the form of economic power -- as HNM people with HNM gear)
- Chocobo digging (sounds silly to put here, but chocobo digging is like a craft in itself)
- small NMs that don't require multiple alliances to defeat (non HNM people can still camp Sozu Rogberry, for example)
- ENMs (plenty only require a party instead of many more people)
- BCNMs and 1-party KSNMs (nuff said)
- Sea farming (all the items obtained from the In The Name of Science quest can be gained in a small party or solo)
- Limbus (18 man only)
- Dynamis (normally, this would be classified as a hardcore raiding type thing, but somehow FFXI's playerbase has managed to 'mercenary-ify' it, meaning even a casual high level can join a mercenary Dynamis shell, do some Dynamis, have a chance at AF2, and have no commitment other than Dynamis twice a week).
- Garrison (plenty of social linkshells do this as a small event)
- Expeditionary Force (if you're really serious about promoting your nation)
- Merits (this places both HNM people and non-HNM people on the same level; to work for one goal: getting limit points)
- helping others and lower levels out (in WoW the game is such that lower levels don't NEED your help; in fact it would slow them down)
- level another job (about the same as leveling an alt in WoW, only that once you get it to a decent your character has more versatility -- eg. whm to 38 for teleporting yourself)
- leveling your NPC and doing related NPC quests (any high level can do this either alone or in small groups)
- making gil (in FFXI, gil is more useful than gold in WoW, because about the only thing you really want to buy is your epic mount, and after that you can only spend gold on mediocre AH items compared to raid items. In FFXI, you can never have enough gil -- see point 3 below. So you never really feel like you have absolutely nothing to do, you have a goal to look forward to. "Oh, I'm saving up for such-and-such item.") -- gardening, harvesting, excavating, mining, logging.
-Besieged (hundreds of people in the city of Al Zahbi using strategy and brute strength to protect the city from hordes of beastmen)
-Assault Missions
WoW has (for those not in a large raiding guild):
- smaller instances that don't require 40 people to defeat (eg. Upper Blackrock Spire, or UBRS)
- Battlegrounds PVP (only if you're up against people who raid, you're going to lose because their gear shoots out sparkles while you still have to polish yours)
- level an alt character (only so many you can do, and these don't carry over to your main character)
- gain honor points by killing members of the opposing side and up your rank (which doesn't do a lot except make you look important)
One might say "Well, WoW hasn't been out as long", and while this is true, WoW also got to see an MMO with a massive amount of content before it came out, and had plenty of time to include a massive amount of content. WoW focuses on making the player FEEL like he's getting somewhere, but with little to no effort. Getting to 60 in WoW takes about as much effort as getting to level 20 in FFXI, and even then, you feel more accomplished in FFXI when you complete your Chocobo quest and your subjob quest than you do getting to level 60 in WoW. Please, if you're going to review this game, make sure you've at least gotten to level 60 with a full set of artifact gear and Rank 6 before you try to pass off your opinion as valid. Most of you guys haven't even touched this game.