Originally Posted by
Stompa
Well you missed out on the best FFXI expansion. WOTG mission storyline is awesome, soloable, and also WOTG events like campaign are the most atmospheric and immersive in the game. WOTG jobs Dancer and Scholar are also worth taking to 99, they are fun to play and powerful.
Re; your more generalised point about [to paraphrase] "FFXI doesn't tell you what to do", that is because it is a realistic RPG virtual world. In real-life you are not told what decisions to make either, from childhood on up you can be a shopkeeper, doctor, banker or a surfing instructor etc. The choices are open to you in real-life, and the same is true of FFXI. Some options are fairly compulsory, such as levelling and obtaining gear, but a lot of the game is wide open to your decisions on how you spend your time and where you spend it.
Linear games that have low player-input in the decision-making / options sphere, those games suck. They are linear and boring, it is like a factory production line where you are a chicken being plucked, stamped and wrapped and put on a shelf. FFXI is not like that, you are an individual in a realistic virtual world, making your own decisions. That is why it has remained popular for over a decade.