Really? Opposite here. All my friends are depressed. We're both on servers with the "best" population that rarely breaks 1000 people - a all time low, as it used to average 3200+ earlier this year. Content is easy and accessable...but the rewards are gone. They've made the game so easy that all the content that used to be so exciting because it was a challenge...is gone. I don't know. It feels...disappointing that you no longer need to party. FoV's are boring.

The game is more accessable, but the reason I played FFXI, the feeling of accomplishment - is gone. You can get 99 weapons that max out all your skills instantly, with ease. You can solo Dynamsis, you can make millions of Gil in hours with no problems. NM's have like a 25% drop rate now instead of 2-3%.

Game is old, and I understand why they did it, but the population shows it wasn't meant for all. The dip since the release of Seekers is incredibly noticable. 3200 players @ peak to 1200 @ peak, and sometimes as low as 400-500 players, even on one of the Top MOST populated servers. And you have to factor in what % of those are AFK, or logged on merely to talk to friends.

Vana'diel has never been more cold to me, less friendly...and as boring as it is now. I went and killed a NM I used to hunt, that had a decent drop worth good cash, and I have all the memories of competing against people for it, of getting the drop or not, and bringing friends to split it with, and all the excitement of MAYBE, getting that drop, that literally caused my heart to pound. I went to that NM - killed it, got it's drop. Within the span of 2 hours, I got the drop around 8 times.

It's just...too easy...the thrill is gone in getting stuff. I used to go "Wow! Look @ that 75 in his AF with his Relic weapon!"

You'd see a guy with Excalibur...and it was like "You are fucking awesome!" now you can get it with a few hours work.