Why was FFXI so great?

[Eagleheart]

I understand the concept of ascending numbers in a franchised series of games.

What you fail to realize is the important FFXI had to me personally. Ask anyone what their favorite FF is and you'll get a long list and for a wide variety of reason. Many fans of the FF only play their title of choice 1-3 times total. Maybe 100hours if that. I played my favorite Final Fantasy for 4 years. I put a lot of time and effort into it and that means my interests are much more invested.

So when they make a new FF MMO , after burning the current one to the ground mind you, and use the exact same races from the LAST FF MMO you can see how this would be misleading. Taru Taru and Mithra are hardly your standard Tolkien fantasy races. When they imported them to FFXIV it was done so intentionally and to coax over FFXI players into subbing. Well guess what. That means they also subbed a bunch of people with a mindset that has certain expectations. No FF title had the same races from another in the series that wasn't a sequel of some kind. Why should we all just magically expect no one to point out this fact?

Then I have played Final Fantasy XI twice as long as you, and been there through far more changes. So yeah, emotional investment... (>.> )

EDIT: This only reinforces the feeling that the entirety of this thread is nothing more than nostalgia and an emotional attachment to people and times that are now gone, rather like leaving school, or moving to a new hometown. That is understandable, and I do feel for you, but it is not the fault of Final Fantasy XIV.