FFXI is like sega saturn. It's not gen 2 nor gen 1. I'm guessing it's not on the list because it came out over a year ago.
I played FFXI quite a bit. I had 2 main characters with about 4-5 classes in their 30's. I personally am finding that WoW's "mid-game" content is a lot less frustrating. FFXI starts to become incredibly frustrating at around those levels due to the fact that there is a very strong min-max mentality and therefore a lot of classes are not desired in parties. Even when I played the desired ones, it was hard to find a group. Furthermore, the more you went into the game, the longer and more time consuming individual quests/missions took.
I spent 7 hours getting to rank 5, and that was paltry in comparison to some of the level break quests that one must do at level 50. Not to mention the seeming exponential increase in experience that would be required.
Now, there are a LOT of things I miss about FFXI. The one thing it had was a variety of content types. Quests versus Missons, BCNM fights, conquest mode, and even their strange form of pvp. Even though there was no real pvp most of the time I played, there was a sense of competition with the various nations, because through conquest you could take over a region. What that meant is allowing you to bind to outposts in the area, and if your nation had the most overall zones, you could purchase certain "conquest" items.
Overall the crafting system was weak in FFXI (too little reward) with the exception of cooking, which had MAJOR benefits. In WoW there are benefits, but there isn't the same variety of effects. In FFXI you could consume "meat mithkabobs" in the early levels and the difference was remarkable.
Those who say that WoW doesn't force groups... there is a LOT of content that is virtually impossible without a group. You could go about 10 levels above the recommended level for that quest, but then you don't get any experience for the fights along the way, and the reward will be relatively minor in comparison.
The PVP system is quite bland now, but you can bet that they are working on this.
The really bad thing about WoW compared to FFXI and other games I have played is that it seems more difficult to find a group than I would like. Maybe I was spoiled by all the FFXI group finding capabilities...
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