When the game first launched, I waited in line for the CE when it came out, installed the game, and was extremely dissapointed for 3 main reasons:

1) Most unintuitive game ever. Everytime I tried to do anything as I would in every other mmo, it was super confusing and hard to figure out in FFXIV.

2) On top of reason #1, they had all but an absent tutorial system that explained a few features but not how to actually play the game. Which was in complete contrast to the Final Fantasy series as a whole.

3) It seemed that SquareEnix took a very elitest attitude towards the whole thing. No official forums!? Made it seem like they didn't care about their community. And the Lodestone had absolutely nothing helpful!

This is why I came back after 8 months:

1) SquareEnix has convinced me that they really care. The forums, dev blogs, producer letters, and free game time, show me that they honestly care about letting their community know that they realize what is wrong and they want to fix it.

2) I realize now, that part of the dissapointment was the expectations I had. SquareEnix kind of did it to themselves by making such quality games over the years; I expected FFXIV to be of the same calibur, so the let down hurt more than most. Now I am coming back to a game in which I have a better idea of what to expect.

3) Although I still think the game is extremely lacking in tutorials, at least compared to the usual FF fare. And although I also think it is still unintuitive (but definitely improved) I can see that this is a game that is much different than other MMOs. At least to the new player, this game requires you to come into it with a lot of patience, and time to "smell the roses" sotospeak.

Take EVE for example. A great game, and although it has fantastic tutorials, it is still tough for a new player to wrap their head around. But once you figure it out, it's not that complicated. FFXIV is similar in the sense that you cannot come into it like it's just another MMO in which you start it up and hit the ground running. But (and this is hopeful speculation) I hope that once I figure out some of the less intuitive aspects, that I find it fun and enjoyable.