It's like a "pay-to-beta". It really must be the "Final Fantasy" =(
Do not listen to the fanboys/fangirls. This thing is BROKEN. You would be better off playing ANYTHING ELSE but FFXIV. Heck, most free MMO's are so much better than this that it's ridiculous.
And I'll be honest, you would have had a hard time getting me to play this 10 years ago, let alone now.
If the devs ever fix anything, like adding an AH, getting rid of the lag (oh the lag!), and doing something about the waste of time that passes for a UI, I might consider giving it another go.
There is a lot of potential here, but as things currently are, this game is nothing more than a beta.
Yeah I know new games usually have problems, but usually those problems are in the way of bugs, etc.... not game breaking things like the entire interface of the game, or the lag that makes it take forever to do even simple tasks.