Your thoughts on the direction of this game?

[Hurlstone]

I am a relatively new player to the game, with a few months under my belt and only two level 50 jobs at the moment, but I seem to be enjoying it! The patches have impressed me with their amount of content, specifically when it comes to the continuation of the main story. I am enjoy the dungeons/trials and shockingly the in-game community has been nothing but friendly and helpful from what I have experienced. So as far as I can tell, I am enjoying the direction the game is taking.

It will be interesting to see what the next expansion will hold for the game. That will probably give a clearer indication of where Yoshi and the team are going.

I should perhaps mention that I am a former XI player, started in 2004 when it was released in the UK but stopped playing around 2006-7 because I disliked several elements of the game (Lack of solo content, the only way to level was to party and kill monsters etc).

[Velhart]

Depends, As a resident of the continent of North America, do you count zilart an expansion?

You didn't answer my question. How much content did FFXI have before it's expansion? Japanese release.

[Barimu]

You didn't answer my question. How much content did FFXI have before it's expansion? Japanese release.

Calm down, I wanted to specify what you wanted. FFXI had 28 dungeon type areas, and 21 wilderness type areas. You had to level in a party making a community. Gear wasn't outdated every 3 months and was useful for a while. People knew how to play their jobs by the time they hit max level.

[Magis]

You didn't answer my question. How much content did FFXI have before it's expansion?Japanese release.

Here /10char

Original Areas
Cities in Original Areas

Bastok
Jeuno
Mhaura
San d'Oria
Selbina
Windurst

Wilderness Areas in Original Areas

Batallia Downs
Beaucedine Glacier
Behemoth's Dominion
Buburimu Peninsula
East Ronfaure
East Sarutabaruta
Jugner Forest
Konschtat Highlands
La Theine Plateau
Meriphataud Mountains
North Gustaberg
Pashhow Marshlands
Qufim Island
Rolanberry
Sauromugue Champaign
South Gustaberg
Tahrongi Canyon
Valkurm Dunes
West Ronfaure
West Sarutabaruta
Xarcabard

Dungeons in Original Areas

Altar Room
Beadeaux
Castle Oztroja
Castle Zvahl Baileys
Castle Zvahl Keep
Crawlers' Nest
Davoi
The Eldieme Necropolis
Inner Horutoto Ruins
Fei'Yin
Fort Ghelsba
Garlaige Citadel
Ghelsba Outpost
Giddeus
Gusgen Mines
Horlais Peak
King Ranperre's Tomb
Lower Delkfutt's Tower
Middle Delkfutt's Tower
Monastic Cavern
Ordelle's Caves
Outer Horutoto Ruins
Palborough Mines
Qulun Dome
Ranguemont Pass
Upper Delkfutt's Tower
Yughott Grotto
Zeruhn Mines

Standard Jobs:

Warrior
Monk
White Mage
Black Mage
Red Mage
Thief

Extra Jobs:

Paladin
Dark Knight
Beastmaster
Ranger
Bard
Summoner

There was also quests, main city missions, including Shadow Lord, as well as BCNMs, NMs iirc. Reminder that a lot of the gameplay was focused on leveling your character, so getting to the higher level dungeons took a while.

[Krr]

Calm down, I wanted to specify what you wanted. FFXI had 28 dungeon type areas, and 21 wilderness type areas.

I culled the non-answer parts of this post. What activities were available in these areas, other than running (roughly) the same leveling party configurations and strategies?

[Amberion]

You didn't answer my question. How much content did FFXI have before it's expansion? Japanese release.

Let's see. BCNM, HNM, NM, conquest... add standard things to that. The biggest difference was that content didn't become obsolete after the next patch or even expansion.

[Mcshiggs]

You didn't answer my question. How much content did FFXI have before it's expansion? Japanese release.

Comparing the amount of content between the two games doesn't make much sense, since the content was different. Both games you can level, but XI it took longer. In XIV once you get max level, you can also get cross class skill, XI had the subjob system, but XI also had to where you had to level up your actual skills, if you didn't ever use an axe, you sucked with it when you would try to use one. You can say that the amount of time required to do something doesn't add to content, but I disagree, leveling in XI was an event all in itself, you had to form parties, you had to travel there, it was dangerous, kind of like how coil is XIV, and that is kind of sad, that at level 10 in XI, you got the same kind of feel from end game content in XIV, only without the instance. Leveling in XIV is a joke, you can take a class from 1-50 in a weekend if you get after it. AF quests in XI took longer, leveling crafting took longer, story missions were hard and dangerous, you didn't get an echo buff if you died on a story mission like you do in XIV. XI weren't handed maps, you had to buy/quest/find them, some don't consider that content but I do.

You could also ask how much stuff in XI was still relevant when the first expansion came out, compared to how much stuff will be relevant in XIV when the first expansion comes out? Those boots you can get at level 10 will they still be in your armory chest next year, how long did people wear the leaping boots?

[Meier]

Let's see. BCNM, HNM, NM, conquest... add standard things to that. The biggest difference was that content didn't become obsolete after the next patch or even expansion.

Yup. I know the JP HATE how the content is obsolete after each patch. Seen the same thing said on our side for the most part. Hoping they change it soon, there is little to no incentive to build my character knowing the stuff will be obsolete so quickly.

[Tupsi]

I culled the non-answer parts of this post. What activities were available in these areas, other than running (roughly) the same leveling party configurations and strategies?

Eco-Warrior, Conquest, BCNM, NMs, HNMs, Quests and Missions (people say this is content in XIV so it counts for XI as well.) Expeditionary force (early form of campaign/besieged/reive), treasure hunting (open world required gaining keys.) So comparatively, it's basically the same as XIV on Launch - ARR however had the benefit of borrowing 1.0-1.23 content for its launch content while throwing in a few new things...but a lot fo XIV's content is one time throwaway content, to put it into perspective:

If BCNMs were in XIV ARR, you'd do each one once then never touch them ever again for the rest of the game unless SE forces you into them. That's taking into consideration none of the updates just before zilart as well.

[Dude]

I mostly give the development team a pass for 1.0-2.0. They did what they had to do.

However, when 3.0 comes out, we should all know where this game is headed. They cant do any major changes until they release it. I feel like a lot of the time sinks they are installing now, are just buying them time before the expansion.