Running out of leveling content.

[Alhanelem]

When I played wow for a year all I did was leveling, nothing else at all.

The difference is WoW planned for people like you. You get bits and peices of story as you level. In FFXI, the story is something you do after you level (as you don't get muhc/any EXP while doing it).

they don't have contacts to do other things

Most of us had no contacts when we started. That's no excuse. I had no contacts. I met people and made friends in parties. I am now part of an endgame linkshell as a result. I've done most of the storylines. You don't need to be hardcore to meet people and do stuff. You just have to be willing to engage people.

The beginning of the end of an MMO is the capping of the basic content, many are holding on for the level cap increases and after they cap those

We went 7 years with no level cap increases. It wasn't a problem for any of that time. Why is it suddenly a problem now?