Abyssea wasn't perfect by any means but Abyssea did make things more enjoyable imo. VW was... ok... besides the stupid low drop rates it would have been fine, they just basically ended that though, abyssea in general just got hit hard for anything outside of Seals/+2s/Emps/gear farms, FCs basically cost alot more since you cant do blinkers, xp parties have no incentive for high level well geared players. Many new events in general either don't last long enough, or are so screwed up they become more of an annoyance than fun, that is if you can even get the group together for them!