The benefits of stats and maps!

There are a few things that I'll address in this post, namely, food, (mini) maps, and well, I suppose stats in general.

Starting with food. FFXI has made the use of food a rather important game play factor. While the descriptions currently in place are fun and amusing and they certainly add to the immersion of the game (in their own way), I think it would be very beneficial if the players could see the numbers.
Meat Mithkabob's are a 30min food that give Str+5, Agi+1, Int-2, Att+22%.
It would be great if I could see these numbers in game without having to check FFXI Wiki every time I want to use a food.

On to (Mini) maps. I can't stress the importance of them. I'm not quite certain why FFXI doesn't have them, seeing as pretty much all of the other FF games have them but I digress. The way the map system works now is kind of cumbersome. There is no real way (at least no way that I know of) that people can easily look at the map without going into main menu. FFXIV took a rather nice step in the right direction by auto-binding the key M for the map and in conjunction with that displays (at all times) a mini map in the top right hand corner of the screen. Another thing I would like to point out that FFXIV did correct was allow you to view the maps you've been to before.

I own maps in game and yet I can only look at the map of the zone I'm immediately in (usually that is, since some zones don't have maps). What if I'm trying to help someone who is in a different zone? What if I have a question about a specific zone? Tough cookies chica, wiki it<--- that is the current attitude.

The game shouldn't fight the player and this small addition would certainly make things easier on players.

Lastly the stats. There are a lot of rather important stats in FFXI- some of which we can (thankfully) see and others, while equally important... not so much.
Stats like Acc, Mgk. Att Bonus, Crit hit rate, and others play a very specific role in the game and I think it is well past the time that these stats (and others, you know which ones I speak of) are displayed out for the players to see.

FFXI is still a growing game with a strong fan base. It has evolved beyond what I think even SE first thought of which is why we (the players) and SE must evolve with it and not against it.
As I mentioned above, these are all small details that I think would make the game even better.

Thanks for taking the time to read this (those that do!)!
=D