Should anyone else be interested in the thoughts of returning players, there is a thread I made elsewhere (effectively to keep my fellow forum members at EoFF up with how things are progressing) here. To summarise, I do see the differences and I think this game is really going places.

One thing I will say about FFXI that I think FFXIV can learn from is that the quests could be much better. I think it's partially down to the little quest summary that you get when you begin quests. I feel this makes us all very lazy and can take away a bit of immersion. In FFXI, I could go up to someone who would tell me that they are really wanting a certain item but they don't have it. Now, I learn this from what they are saying, not some quest that I have been told to do. I can go and get the item, and give it to them, and get my reward. Simple and realistic. In FFXIV, I know there will probably be a very long-winded explanation but I just want to see the quest summary because quite frankly FFXI is, well, very long-winded! If this quest summary didn't occur, I'd not have a clue what to do next without, you know, "listening" to the person who gave me the quest. I think FFXIV could do with adding some simple little tasks like you can get in FFXI that don't require you to use up one of your 16 current quests, stuff where an NPC you talk to just tells you about how much they wish they had an item, and you can trade it to them and they can be all happy about it, perhaps trading you back a reward, but without the need for you to officially start an official sidequest. If that makes sense...