Quote Originally Posted by Eekiki View Post
This is another thing that separates FFXIV from other MMORPGs. The design and marketing of this game targets not only MMO veterans, but players who have never played an MMORPG. So far, it's working. I've seen more than my share of people in game who say this is their first MMO.
Yup. I can actually attest to this, since I'm a new MMO player. FFXIV is the first MMO I've played past the initial trial period, and this is for a variety of reasons. The most important, though, is that they managed to make the game very accessible to newcomers by not having any type of serious grind - which is, funnily enough, what FFXI people seem to bitch and moan about the most - and making the combat classes very streamlined and easy to jump into, along with making level progression engaging but not making it take very long (something else FFXI people seem to hate). I hate hate hated FFXI and dropped it after my first playing session, and vaguely enjoyed WoW before not subscribing after my free trial was up, but FFXIV is the only game that managed to hook me past the "oh, I'll give this game a try" period.