I honestly don't get the hate between the two communities, either. I enjoy them as two different games. Moreover, I consider XIV as FFXI's baby, and that's the kind of affection I have for it. Think of XI as a wise and old mentor and XIV as the promising, but still inexperienced pupil. I am proud of both.

I often have to remind to the others who on FFXIV talk poorly of XI, that it is probably thanks to FFXI if XIV even exists still. If FFXIV had been SE's first MMORPG, with how bad it did, they would've probably given up and said "we can't do this, let's stick to single player FFs."...

But instead, they had FFXI to look back to. The proof that Final Fantasy can be an excellent MMORPG series. It is probably the success off FFXI that encouraged the company to give FFXIV a second chance as A Realm Reborn. And look how far it went.

It will never be LIKE FFXI, and that, I have accepted. It was made to appeal a new, more casual generation of players, and for such it needed differences, but the inheritance of FFXI is clearly in it, and it's what I like of XIV. It's like a big What If of FFXI to me: "What if male Mithras were playable?" "What if we could sit on chairs?" "What if we could ride other things than chocobos?" "What if Tarutaru were shaped like pears?"

I am glad it's not just like FFXI, because it still gives me a reason to play the MMO I started with back in the far 2006, and I couldn't be happier to~