What did you like more in Final Fantasy XI Online oder Final Fantasy XIV (vanilla)?

[OranKells]

I get nostalgia pangs for the olds days of XI occasionally but I simply do not understand the constant need to compare a this to a 20 year old game built for a 56k modem and a ps2 engine.

Both games are a product of their times, of the environments they found themselves in.

XI had a more old school RPG elements. It feels more like a table top D&D game or Everquest. The game was grindier, more RNG. More time sinks and this was expected. Endgame was more horizontal. People who played these games were enthusiasts and I don't think the casual/hardcore endgame dichotomy existed in XI the way it does in XIV. combat speed was slower and more deliberate simply because that's what average internet speeds could handle.

I'm not gonna beat the dead horse of what did and didn't work in 1.0. But XIV plays more like WoW on the surface because, like it or hate it, is(was) a successful and popular game. Things are faster because they can be. Things are brighter and colorful because technology has improved to allow it to be. There is a greater desire to appeal to the average consumer. A lot of things are streamlined to remove the illusion of choice you'd have in 11. This is the natural evolution of the medium; influenced by whatever came before it, but comparing the two is apples and oranges.