The bond between the player and the character

In FFXI, you created bonds with the people you played with. Your character represented you, and theirs represented them. After years of play, you were YOU, the story was experienced by you, not your character, because you were your character. The game allowed for that level of immersion. Hours camping, fighting, exploring, and so on. Not hours, years. That's why you saw posts nearing the start of FFXIV saying "I'd pay for a figuring of my character in my af gear" or "i'd even settle for a poster". Because the character was not a character, it was who you were, when you were exploring vanadiel. It's why FFXI spawned videos like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARghlVjBab0

And FFXIV has the same potential. I've surely started in the year I've been playing. The quests, story, experience points, shopping for gear, talking to people. I finished my npc quest a few days ago, and it felt like I made a new friend. It's immersive. And sure, some people will never view games that way, and that's fine. But I, and a lot of other people, view it that way. And ffxiv will be the same way.

Don't get me started. I'm still trying to retire my XI Alerith after 8 years... I didn't realize I had an emotional attachment to him until recently, and certainly not on this level.

Whenever I took a break, it was always "I'll be back in x number of days/months". Now that I'm trying to move him to full retirement, it's a lot more difficult than I thought.

This bond is why the older MMOs have such huge populations that wont leave
and why warcrafts population wont die anytime soon

even people who HATE the game cant get themselves to quit cuz they are so attached to their characters at that point