Bear in mind that any analysis I offer here is from someone who hasn't actually had a chance to turn on the game yet.

And my 'longing for the good old days'. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot bad about the game that has no doubt been improved, and some other things that I'm sure haven't. It wasn't the slow crawl of XP that I liked, but more the challenge of it. It was a heavily flawed game, but there was a core to it, that simple grinding in one spot, that for whatever reason never got tiring. Sure, I hated waiting for parties. I played a freakin' Puppetmaster. I had to make most of my parties, because no-one would invite me.

That wasn't what I liked though. What I liked was that grinding always felt like a challenge. In most MMOs (heck, most RPGs) grinding is something safe and boring. In FFXI, grinding was always risky, and difficult. Dying and ending up with a net loss of XP was a legitimate risk. But the rewards for good play were nice too. Getting that perfect party together so we never really had to stop playing, and gaining XP like crazy (relatively speaking, of course ) felt really nice.

Grinding makes up a large portion of all MMOs. The story events in FFXI are great. The first time I entered a Promyvion? Holy shit. It was awesome. I felt so badass going into this ethereal realm and having to sit down to discuss strategy with my party. The major events in other MMOs can be great too. But grinding is always such a large portion of the genre that I have to like that for me to play it for more than a month. Back when I played before, grinding was fun and challenging, it rewarded good play and punished bad play. It didn't feel like "As long as you try, you'll do well enough". Yes, I loved the story events, but I liked the grinding too. If I just want to play story events, I'll play a regular RPG.

That's kind of what I'm worried about. If grinding isn't fun anymore, then why play an MMO? Sure, the Promyvions were great. Getting my summons was awesome. But then, the Opera scene, and obtaining the Falcon in FF6 are also great. If I don't want to grind, I don't have to grind, I can just play some other game that only has the stories. For me, what makes an MMO worth playing for a long time is if the grind is fun. If the basic, repeatable objectives are enjoyable enough to play again and again.

Yes, I hated waiting forever to get a party. I hated running into bad groups where I came out with less XP than I went into it. But when I got a good party, I had a lot of fun. And when I got a great party, it was a blast. All the shit I had to put up with back in those days was worth it.

I'm not saying the game has been ruined, just that I'm worried I won't find something to my taste. But again, this worry is from a position of severe ignorance. The game sounds to have changed a lot. I'll see whats available, and what I can do, if I can find something that captures that same sense of challenge and reward that kept me playing for so long. If not, well, I won't leave feeling bitter towards Square. The game is no doubt better, in many ways, than it was. I can think of a lot of games I stopped playing because the developers screw up, somehow. That wouldn't be the case here.