I liked what they had done by 1.23b but the world still felt very empty and barren. Very little to do, poor UI, poor grouping, and many other things that just didnt work. The only thing it really had going for it was, Higher textured graphics (that some people just cant seem to get past) and had developed into a decent battle system. Loved the combos and skill chain-ish system.

To go back to that? My answer is no.

To take the things i mentioned that actually worked and then build a world around it like we have with ARR, I might enjoy that. At this point though, I'm not willing to scrap ARR to make it happen, I dont think it would survive well right now as its own MMO, (not with a team split between two games), at best it would be nice to see FFXI evolve into 1.23b. Come out with a direct sequal of sorts that you can carry over your character, etc. But that is something I would never expect to actually see.