OK so this was mentioned in the (in my opinion, downright SILLY "People who don't use wiki" thread, but it gave me an idea), FFXI is indeed, OBSCURE (emphasis) when it comes to who and what you need to do to further progress with any quest. To alleviate this i propose a graphical change of some sort over, around, by, close to, in some proximity to or a blip on the map that represents npc's to whom you need to speak in order to continue with a quest, or start a quest.
Some suggestions:
There is currently an 'unused' tab under markers. I realize that the map markers use these for certain things for new characters, and you can 'mark' where certain NPC's and such are, but if you don't know where they are initially, you run around asking people etc. Anyway, the point is, we could use these markers to go from one NPC to another, so you start a quest, they tell you to go talk to this or that NPC, and when you enter the zone that npc is in, it puts a symbol on your map, a dot, a ?, a tiny Q, ANYTHING that says 'HEY! LISTEN! You need to talk to this npc for whatever reason'. One example, you can start the AF quest at level 40, I'll use bst for an example. How are you supposed to know that you can do that? He doesn't say anything unless you talk to him on bst.... how many people actually run around randomly talking to npc's to find out you can or can not get a quest from them? What if when you walked by him, he had a Q over his head? Meaning he has a quest that you are qualified to undertake, or if you pull up your map up Upper Jueno, there is a Q where Brutus is.
^-- I know you can find all this on wiki, but some people are not good at finding these things for various reasons, and few people are courteous and helpful these days and if you really have no idea what you're doing 'look it up' wont help you much.
Now, I've been playing this game for a very long time, this thread is not for ME, i'm not mentioning it for my sake, i am stating this as someone who has answered the questions "Where do i go now?" and "Who do i talk to now?" about a billion (hyperbole) times. If players had a graphical representation to go by, questing would be a lot more enjoyable for a lot of people. It would also make the game more enjoyable and less confusing for new or returning people.