Seems to me like the biggest mistake was designing the game to rely on the PS2's devkits rather than building it for PC and porting it over... Then again, like it's been pointed out many times already, they weren't expecting the game to last as long as it did. I remember reading an article years ago that seemed just as shocked then that the game was still running.

I was never able to spend much time on FFXI until recently, and I'm taking a short break (MMO overload and RL situations), but I can sympathize with those who don't want to see the game's story come to a close, or even see the graphics change one iota (I have a similar attachment to the city of Kelethin in EverQuest, hated what they did to it in EverQuest 2's expansion). Would be cool if/when SE makes a third FF MMORPG, that it was a full blown return to Vana'diel. I know, not likely, but a gamer can dream, right?