The game doesn't have any expansion yet, so it's hard to compare it to FFXI. But it's definatly true that many areas in FFXI felt like empty zones because there was almost no content attached to them. This really better in FFXIV. Another thing is that FFXI zones where more opened. FFXIV has alot more trees, stones and so on in the zones, this gives a feeling of smaller zones compared to FFXI also. And yes the most important part is traveling, this was much harder in FFXI. I think for a base game without expansions, they did really well in FFXIV.