I know that FFXI as a service still has a long way to go before being shut off.
I can't help but feel kind of sad and anxious of when the time is going to come when the game is gone and I can't pop back into Vana'Diel for a nostalgia trip. I'm very happy that Square is treating FFXI as a proper final fantasy title and is making sure that it gets the proppor treatment in the series pantheon (with appearances of shantotto and prishe in dissidia). Unlike the other games in the series, FFXI isn't going to be easily remade or rereleased for when we turn into nostalgia craving old geezers.
So how do you guys feel about this? I would like them to make an archival offline version of the game, but if there were any demand and money to be made off such a thing, then the game would still technically be online and running. Maybe we'll be lucky and the service will go on until the end of time.
Sorry to be a bummer