Perfectly balanced game , The 1 game you will need for a very long time. It will grow on you, you will become add
Myself i am a WoW hater but i have played it and i hate it for my own reasons but thats just my opinion.
FFXI has a long game life span, theres 18 jobs, and you can gain up to 75 levels on each + Merit points (Stat bonus points acquired from exping after lvl 75.) It would take you probably at the least 1 or 2 months to reach lvl 75 on 1 job, myself i still haven't gotten lvl 75, my dragoon is stuck at lvl 52 and theres no tanks or healers out there, the only real downsides to this game is that you got to be patient, you will have to wait for a party, and RMT's Who basically camp all the Nms (Notorious monsters) which drop valuable items, In my opinion its easier to make money fishing moat carp or doing BCNM's. The ability to change your main job/class and sub class (you can obtain a sub job/class at lvl 18) makes this game even better, so theres no need to remake another character if you want to play another role in the party, just go to the mog house and change your job and start leveling, I dont think anyone in this game has ever got lvl 75 on all jobs, end game of this would be getting lvl 75, but id say true end game and mastery of it would be getting everything, all lvl 75 all quests maximum fame, and then you get regular updates with new quests and events (recently added chocobo raising =).) This game is perfectly balanced in all most every way, every job has a role in this game and everyone that ended up hating this game and quitting it to WoW is probably stupid, whiney and impatient, believe me you will not like this game if you are really impatient or not in for a challenge, this game is pretty much the hardest mmorpg i've ever played, allthough i would say leveling perhaps is a lot faster than other mmorpg's once you get into a good party.
You'll find most WoW kiddies or people who don't like this game quit the game about lvl 10-20, which is quite low (and also in valkurm dunes.) Which is no where near where the fun starts and that is probably the most boring part of the game, but if you keep at playing the game you'll be lvl 25 in 2-3 days after getting lvl 10, if you keep playing the game you may find it boring you may find it exciting, if your a dd job you could stick on the tv and watch the tv while you auto attack till you get more skills or into battles that require more concentration, eventually you'll find time flies by when you play FFXI, as did i, i played from about 1pm to 5am and it only felt like 10 mins for about every hour.
The gamepad support this game also has makes the game even more enjoyable as most mmorpgs require you to use the keyboard and mouse, (Like WoW.) But ffxi is very compatible with pads, and the controlling and total game play experience is enhanced with a pad as you could pretty much play with 1 hand or feel a lot easier not having to press any keys on the numpad. So go buy a XBOX 360 Controller for Windows or something plug it in, configure it on FFXI and play with it, most mmorpgs cant allocate the right analog stick or controls feel buggy or too fast or you cant change the buttons (Lineage 2 is one of those games that don't suit game pads well, nor can you change the buttons or axis.) But with FFXI plugging in a pad makes the game feel exactly like a console game with nice smooth and calibrated (Yes analog sensitivity is nicely added so you can run or walk at a certain speed =) . )
The game doesn't feel trashy at all, it feels more realistic, WoW looks like a bunch of cartoony **** with blob shadows and bad looking models and tiled textures.
FFXi is more built for realism, the scenery and characters look more realistic ( Please forget about the fact of cat girls, long necked elvaans and tarutarus.) but in the fact of everythings pieced together well, the nice economy, the nice community (And the scummy community of RMT and scummy people lol.)
FFXi will grow on you, you may not like it at first, but at least play it for 6 hours a day if you can or spend all your free time on it, learn from other people and get at least to lvl 30, i don't recommend going straight to a advanced job once your lvl 30 though, i recommend leveling to at least 37, but if you want to get more into the game get to lvl 50 because then you will find the game more interesting with more stuff to do as some people get lvl 30, get advanced job then quit while in dunes yet again. The game does get more fun although slow and boring at the start, you could say this is the games own way of kicking impatient people and whiners out of the game without having to ban them because of violations of whining and shouting and cursing.
The only people that like WoW are Kids who go on about "RAID RAID OMFG IM N00B" WoW is a obsessive game for kids who are impatient and want to reach lvl 60 in 2 weeks and do crappy Raids which i never hear wow fanboys stfu about, Raid Sucks get over it lol, Funniest thing is that most people that quit ffxi go to wow, then i get them on msn saying about how much "WoW Pwns way better than ffxi" because they have lvl 60 char and doing raids all the time and all this crap which i dont really care bout because they quit ffxi at lvl 15 because it was too hard for them and took too long to level Lol.
FFXI allways makes me want to come back at it for more, even if i never reach lvl 75 (all my friends have gotten like lvl 75 im still not past 52 lol..) Ill still play the game generally because its fun and i spend most of my time socializing on it, i suppose FFXi is a game for people with lives, you may say they dont have a life for playing the game all day but what is a life to be honest, Its a social living, and ffxi is a very social game so i suppose youd have no life to sit there all day playing a game, but if its ffxi it would be a different matter as you could play it with your friends, have a good time from home with say 6 friends or something all of you get ffxi bring over your pcs and network them up together and all play on ffxi and EXP together with a pack of beer.
Best thing about ffxi is that basically every item a enemy drops is sellable (apart from unsellable/exclusive items like quest items.) so a bat could drop a wing and you could get a stack (12) of them and sell it in the Auction house for 1k or something, or trade the wings in for fame at san d'oria, or use them in alchemy. Every item is useable, sellable and has a purpose with quite a fast range of items, quite a huge database of enemys and different npcs, quite a lot of spells and abilitys.
Overall id have to say, Graphics are great and realistic based, Sounds are great quality and realistic sounding, Bugs are minimal there ain't many left i think, Community is nice, The game is hard and challenging and requires patience but has a very long lifespan for 1 game (+ 3 expansions and maybe more to come.).
As a hardcore Final Fantasy Fan (Not fond of Sony though, they sux =3. )
Id have to say FFXI is the best FF made, and possibly the most challenging, long lasting best mmorpg out there (Others would argue and say WoW, But all the people that play WoW are kids anyway rofl who are impatient to level and want to play with a bunch of cartoony or rather crappy looking models.)
FFXI Pwns, go buy it and sign up for it, price is good for buying the game and monthly fee isnt expensive either.