With the Diablo 3 launch just around the corner, it's going to be interesting to see how many FFXI players hang up the gloves to switch over to it (if only for a little while).
Diablo 3 is a pretty huge title/franchise with a lot of market share, but I feel even new yet smaller games are becoming a big threat to FFXI. I personally don't think I'd ever "quit" ffxi indefinitely, but I'm likely going to go on a hiatus to play Diablo 3 for a little while, if for no other reason than the lack of meaningful content in FFXI right now. Most of us forum-goers have seen the thread titled, "The OFFICIAL 'I intend on Quitting, and here is why' Thread" - this is not one of those threads. This thread is more, "I love FFXI, I want to keep playing it, but I can only kill Qilin so many thousand times before it starts to get boring". For that reason, this thread is as much "Hey SE, remember boxed expansions? We love those and are willing to pay $ for them!".
I know FFXI's leadership has labeled Abyssea as a mistake (in that by the end of it, it allowed for such higher stats and game mechanic boosts that there wasn't any room left to grow), but it seems to me they should just look at making a second Abyssea, "Abyssea 2.0". All new items, new stuff to collect, etc - but include some meaningful story and cutscenes to keep it interesting. If they were creative, there could be a connection between the first Abyssea and the new, such that you would get certain benefits from having completed some of that content. I know there are a lot of people who are opposed to Abyssea, but I would estimate there are a majority more who did like it - and if there's any question, they should run an in-game poll like they did for the, "Do you play on a PS2" question that popped up a while back. Regardless of Abyssea 2.0, or some derivative, this game needs a major boxed expansion; including a new character or two, new zones, and a rich story line we can progress through and find some worthwhile loot - or else I feel people will really start to thin out like we've never seen before.
tldr; SE, we need a new boxed expansion!