I can agree that there could be more diversity, but I am still getting a sense of adventure. Granted, my highest toon is 30.

My friends and I started in Ul'dah. We did Black Brush leves for a bit, and got a main class to 10. We stayed in the area a bit, leveled a couple of other classes, and introduced ourselves to the crafting system. Then, I started my storyline and enjoyed it thoroughly. At about 11-12 with our main classes, we decided to see what the other areas had in store, so we made it an adventure, and walked across Thanalan to the boat to Limsa.

We arrived in Limsa, it was totally fresh and new. We picked up some leves and made our way to Skull Valley. Once we arrived there, we did some investigating. We ended up going to the beach area with a few pugs, and chaining crabs for a bit in between leves to see if the old "FFXI exp party" was still intact. Although our choice of mobs wasn't great, we saw that if we found the right place, we could indeed have a good ole' fashioned pulling party. That got us kind of excited, so at about 15 we went to find what was going on in Cassiopea.

When we got in, there was a lot of danger, and we were killed by an NM bomb. We had had the old fashioned "if I get a few more levels we can come here and explore" vibe. So that's exactly what we did. We got to about level 22, and immediately picked up several other LS mates for a full party, where we were able to pull off some of the leves in cassiopea, and chain pull bombs for exp in between. We had a great sense of accomplishment.

Then, we decided to see what else was out there. I went into Copperbell (and was almost immediately destroyed) again giving me the "look to the future" attitude. I then surveyed Nanawa, and found that there were some very appropriate mobs in there, and saw a JP group chain pulling Cursed Eyes. We were about 25 at that time, and decided Nanawa would be a perfect next step. As with Cassiopea, we grabbed some leves and went to form an eye-party.

After going in a few days, we explored Nanawa further. At that point we started killing skeletons and doing behests inside the mines. We stayed there till about 27-28 (some of us were still 24-25). Again, we underwent a "scouting mission" to the Black Shroud to see what the dungeons there were all about. This was the first time I'd seen the shroud, so it was totally new.

We went in one dungeon (forget the name, the one that isn't Mun Tuy) and were totally owned. At that point, we decided to check out Mun Tuy hoping for an equivalent of Nanawa. After some close calls with a couple of NMs, we found a sweet grinding spot right in between a room of gnats and a room of wights. We have been doing leves in there the last few days and SP partying with wight pulls.

We have our eyes on advancing to the deadlier Copperbell soon, and possibly the other dungeon in the Shroud. We are feeling accomplished.

Last night, I took a trip north in Thanalan to attempt to get to Mor Dhona. I was amazed at the scenery changes, and the dangers inthe north of the zone. You pass through a cave, and come into a canyon area lined with vegetation and classic mobs like Goblins and vultures. I had to strategically maneuver my way through the area, avoiding Dreamites and some other crazy looking desert creatures. I narrowly escaped death from lvl 71 dragon of some kind, and finally arrived in Mor Dhona.

For the breif time I was there, I was amazed. Now, our LS has our sights set on the next level of progression in Mor Dhona.

So far for me, it's been full of adventure. We have taken the initiative to explore, break away from the guild leve/behest grinding, and make our own adventures.

I think people get stuck in the camp-to-camp grind and don't really explore the game and try out new things. At this point, I'm playing catch up on my storylines and crafting skills - always leaving me with a lot to do when I log on. And then the LS gets together, and we do our SP parties and exploring together. I'm looking forward to leveling other classes in Nanawa, Mun Tuy, and Cassiopea, and eventually gaining enough strength to take them into new areas.

Sure, I'd love prettier maps, but I feel like a lot of players aren't going to any lengths to find and enjoy the "sweet spots" that the game has to offer. When there are more dungeons, zones, and things to do... the game will be utterly amazing. But don't be so quick to write it off. You can adventure into new territory, find sweet camping spots, walk into dangerous situations, and discover new things just as I was hoping.

The crazy thing to me is that we find these awesome spots for parties to get SP, and nobody is there. Nobody has taken the time to go, and it's not because people aren't playing. There are 10-15 people sitting in the camp doing nothing. The eyes were giving us behest-level SP (400+) and so were the Wights. It was waaaay more efficient than standing around waiting for a behest... and nobody seemed to even know about it.