Surprisingly, The outdated MMO is WOW, not FFXI/XIV1.2

[ShanXiv]

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is probably the closest thing to what OP is looking for that miiiiight come out in 2018. Personally, I question the longevity of such a game, where the bulk of what the devs have showcased is just a leveling grind, but it could be that they're holding out on the most interesting dungeons/open world content until a later date to generate more hype.

I'm eyeballing the game to see how the "social experiment" as it were pans out, but I'm not sold that people won't just join exp trains like what they did in the old days and rather than socialize with their party members through chat just rip some music on their PC and only make imperative statements about the pulls they're doing rather than small talk. I feel like technology has come so far these days that there's less incentive to talk to others for camaraderie/entertainment when you can literally just suit up some anime on your second monitor and watch that while you're afk sitting trying to regen mana.

I read the replies, and am happy to see that most opinions are more "softer" than before.
Not many people are saying:"XIV 1.x failed because SOMEONE said that it's a 100% crap", or "I've played 1.0 (NOT 1.1x-1.2x),it's crap" or "(Some people told me) XI is only a grind fest" etc.
or at least, are willing to try something new.(XI and XIV1.1x were eye-opening MMO to me, I've played UO,EQ1,EQ2,WOW before.)

Some people seem are getting tired of the "2 dungeons,1 primal,1-2 new glamour,emotes,hairstyles" in each patch,
some people like me, are asking for more, something that is sustainable.

The difficulty and game pace were something that XIV 1.2x had done right IMO.
When 1.0 release, players complained the speed of harvest animation is too slow, SE increased it later.
The gathering in 1.x were some mini-games,(you can still play these min-games in Gold saucer now)
it takes longer to harvest an item, but the items have more value too.

Now, you just select an icon and click it,then you got the item, simple,easy & fast, it saves your time? not really,
because you have to harvet more items to earn the same amount of gil, thats boring.
Gathering in 1.2x is definitely better than 2.0-4.0, there are many such examples.
Someone mentioned "The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak" dungeon in 2.0 alpha, yes it's a better design than what we have now.(what are you thinking SE?)

You mentioned "watch anime while playing the game",
Togashi Yoshihiro wrote some fun MMO stories in Hunter x Hunter comic, because he played XI. Many MMO animes took the ideas from XI,
Why do you need to watch a MMO anime when playing the game? you are experiencing your own，epic advanture story in a beautiful virtual world.

The graphics,ui,movent control of XIV 2.0-4.0 + the difficulty,game pace of XIV 1.2x(not 1.0) + the content design,game depth,community of XI = dream MMO?

[Krotoan]

The graphics,ui,movent control of XIV 2.0-4.0 + the difficulty,game pace of XIV 1.2x(not 1.0) + the content design,game depth,community of XI = dream MMO?

For you. Which is great! but some of us like the way the game is and really don't see smushing another games 'innovations" into this one as an improvement. I found the XI community selfish and elitist and the game pace of 1.2 to be monotonous. I'd be gone sooner rather than later if this happened.

[Maeka]

For you. Which is great! but some of us like the way the game is and really don't see smushing another games 'innovations" into this one as an improvement. I found the XI community selfish and elitist and the game pace of 1.2 to be monotonous. I'd be gone sooner rather than later if this happened.

^^
This.

Everybody dumps heaps of praise on FFXI for it's AWESOME COMMUNITY, but I found it to be full of cliques and very, so very elitist. The harder you make something, the more elitist the community surrounding it will be. I found a lot of people to be very snooty and snobbish, especially those who were into endgame. They looked down their nose at you like you were some kind of peasant and they were royalty that should be worshipped.

Especially BG and the people who frequented their forums. Oi. I remember when ZAM actually existed, and the people in BG and similar linkshells... they had this god-complex like they thought everybody should bow down to them or something.

Especially when you THEN add Job Discrimination to the extreme on top of that. "We only want X Y Z jobs!" and if you're not one of those? You're out of luck, period. Heck, you had some people in XI who would get angry at you just for looking at their equipment, who would use equipment change macros if you examined them, I mean, really? I'd just love to dope-slap them and tell them to get off their high horse.