I remember the first couple days of beta, there were like 200 people at Camp Bentbranch. It was so laggy that you could barely do levequests. They took several minutes to spawn for you. And you could see everyone else's levequest mobs so the major areas got pretty crazy. Shouting and chatting galore. So much confusion. And hundreds of crafters spamming Rapid.

Exploring the forest was exciting at first... Then you trekked your way up to Camp Emerald Moss and you suddenly realized what a horrendous dark maze the place was. Felt more like a giant dungeon than a forest.

Probably the most fun to be had was gathering and crafting. And that's sad because Gathering got tedious, and crafting one piece of equipment was a downright chore.

In the first few months after release, I played it very casually. The battle system and levequests weren't any fun at all. Behests were a giant spam fest of 15 people nuking one mob at a time. And you could only get exp if you attacked the mob in some way, so until later EXP fixes, they weren't very rewarding. When I realized that it was much the same at 30-50, I gave up on giving any serious effort to reach level cap. Instead I just focused on what I thought could be fun and/or crafting.

I would leave the game for months at a time, only keeping up with the website news. Patches came and went. Each one reignited some interest in the game to try out the new changes and content. None kept me around for long. It wasn't until the major combat changes came around that I started playing more seriously. I even remade Denmo and rolled Gladiator (a move that cost me my summer heat gear and santa hat). Joined an LS, got to 50, finished the story, beat Garuda, and finished up Hamlet. Then the servers shut down for good.

I've put so much time and energy into this game, and it's still not as much as most others have done. Even if XIV flat out bombs with its release next month (unlikely), I'll be satisfied at least having had this experience.