Why was FFXI so great?

[OJtheLIONKing]

That's because some people have different opinions to you. Most people on both sides of the argument are so sure they're right. Simple fact is we just have different views. I'm sorry that I enjoy the things which you don't, and vice versa. This is probably never going to be reconciled.

Also saying that you're OK with the way FFXI did things is not the same as saying 'there's no other way to do things'. And I'd appreciate it if you'd stop implying I have "a problem" -_-

Hey, it's fine to have different opinions. People are entitled to think that FFXI did some things well that I disagree with, some of those friends I mentioned included.

There's a difference between that and some of the ridiculous worshipful posts I've seen on this forum that treat FFXI like it was a landmark in human history that changed the face of gaming. I think it was a good game, not the best game I've ever played, but good. The MMO community as a whole treats it as a footnote at best, most people don't even know it introduced the modern concept of the auction house. Only a fraction of former players think it was a great sea change for gaming.

And sorry, but no one should spend 18 hours in one sitting on a game. People have died in net cafes with less time spent than that. It's completely unacceptable for any game to design anything to take even a third of that time in one sitting. I'm not one to accuse people of having issues, but I will say that's not a healthy thing to do, without singling you out personally. If you do it and take offense, that's your business.

edit:

Whats funny though is the top guilds in WoW actually get sponsors for killing whatever first. Usually computer related hardware companies.

That's true, and kind of sad. But it's not really Blizzard's dev team itself putting ingame incentives for doing it, it's a third party business capitalizing on it. There's a difference.