I'm also confident the upgrade to PS4 was free initially as well.
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As others said, you may want to check your sources before you make such wild claims.
I DO agree on one point though. The menu's and such for retainers and whatnot is RIDICULOUS! I'm so tired of clicking my way through the damn menus and putting things away. It takes 5 clicks just to rent a chocobo porter. 1 or 2 of which are chat box skippers. Totally worthless clicks.
Forced dismount to talk to an NPC is great! Otherwise there would be a bunch of jerk offs standing on top of NPC's just for the hell of it.
Well you made it to 50 so I guess you got your free month's worth at least.
So many inaccuracies in your OP. Don't think I'd even want to see whatever your three sites are as they may further incorrectly represent this game.
I have never heard WoW or Everquest to be considered sandbox. Ultima Online one of the defining definitions of SandBox but not mentioned sure... But really interesting.... :D
FFXI was Pure Grinding, my post says Grinding or H&S, its just an example
also edited Sandbox/Themepark, to make easier to understand, Sandbox mean Open world where you can go anywhere and do anything. if you want to categorize any game now days they would not be in one Category... as of wow and ffxiv would be one a "Fantasy, open world with quest, following a Theme from previous games in the series" would you rather write all that or simple put as Sandbox or Themepark?