How am I meant to level with a friend now?

[LuxLex]

I thought the argument was that Abyssea brought a bunch of players back .=. There were 500k active subscription accounts in 2008, compared to 330k active characters now-ish...

I don't care whether or not abyssea brought back players. In my experience it has (brought me back and most of my LS back) but maybe it didn't. Who cares? It is fun. That is what I care about.