Well, okay, so there's an in-game manual. That helps with understanding the concepts, but it doesn't help with retention; probably the opposite actually, skillchains are a lot simpler in execution than they are in theory, but if all you get is a long dry explanation you're never going to know that, and it's probably like twenty levels before you first have a reasonable capacity to even try to do one, if you're in a party with somebody who knows the skillchain chart.

"More than what we had" isn't a shining endorsement. When I started, I had gained three levels before I even learned I had starting equipment, because you didn't start with it equipped and there was no indication that you should check your inventory for that stuff. The last person I tried talking into playing quit in an hour because just figuring out the interface was too difficult. Don't praise an experience that's like walking barefoot on hot coals just because they removed the broken glass.

Also bear in mind that we're not competing with FFXI 22 years ago. We're competing with modern MMOs. Most players are only going to be on one, maybe two at a time; if somebody decides to check out FFXI and the first two hours are boring and confusing, but then they try World of Warcraft and they're having fun in those first two hours, World of Warcraft is the one that's getting monthly subscriptions.

If FFXI had a strong base of new players who would interact with each other and create a sense of community, that might be enough to keep people playing. That's what we had, and it seems to have worked, after all. But it doesn't. I don't think anybody new joins FFXI without one of the old guard players saying "check this out, no I swear it's great." That's not remotely the same, that's just joining to hang out with one person, it doesn't create a compelling reason to stick with FFXI. Almost the opposite, since they won't be playing the game, they'll be getting rushed through it - "go here, do this, talk to this guy, okay let's go to Qufim, sit still while I get you to the level cap" - to get them to where they can actually play with that friend. They'll reach level 99 never having really experiencing the game, it'll just be this weird almost obligation to their friend.

I wonder what would happen if Square-Enix did a sudden big advertising push to pull in a fresh player base, and sent all the new players to a new server with no established characters; would they be more inclined to stay, with that feeling of all struggling together? Would they build the kind of community that kept us all here and playing? Or would they just get bored and all quit?