a pretty serious question

[Gilthas]

FFXI had an NM system that worked because they dropped specific items (sometimes pretty good items, but mostly low level things) and were claim=credit.

The NM system of FFXI did not work. As bad as hunts currently are, they're still better than what we had in FFXI.

And yeah, I do see a lot of the bad things in FFXI making it's way to FFXIV. While I personally have no issues with the current relic quest since I like having a big objective to work for, other recent additions to the game are giving me that "bad thing that was in FFXI" feel:

- Forcing specializations in Desynthesis. In FFXI we were forced to become a specialized crafter. FFXIV was awesome in that we could level every craft on a single character. Then people started whining on the forums about having too much competition when selling stuff, and that the economy was bad because things were cheap. And now we have specializations that serve no purpose beyond allowing a select few players to jack up prices.

- Chocobo raising requiring items that can only be obtained from gardening. There's simply no way that the land that is currently available in the game will allow every player to be able to raise a chocobo even if they just fed them once per day. The issue with Magicked brooms was just crazy and fortunately they're going to correct that mistake. The chocobo feed problem will at least be solved with personal housing having gardens.

- Dyeing relic gear. The item requirements for this are simply ridiculous.

- Getting the 2.2 Fishing rod.

In the end, the battle portion of the game doesn't really have any real grind issues (compared to FFXI at least). Probably because that's what Yoshi-P likes the most so he is more directly involved with that.

Side activities like gathering, crafting and chocobo raising? Yeah, the FFXI developers are having a field day.