What went wrong? Is it the game or the grenre?

[Battlewrench]

So I decided to start playing FFXI and so far, despite the low population and the fact that the trial version doesn't let me talk to anyone, it seems more like a FF game and I feel a sense of adventure in the world that I wanted to feel in ARR. I honestly think I'm going to sub XI and see how that goes, and maybe check out ARR again when it gets another update

I'll encourage you to try what I consider the golden age of MMOs. Some of the past MMOs like everquest, XI, and others really help with a sense of community. When I rejoined XI some months ago with some friends I still managed to get another linkshell and do some endgame content. My friends stopped playing again (abby killed it for them) and so I started looking for more people to do content with. The big difference between XI and a game like XIV is people want to bring you to higher levels, they want to help gear you, and they want to help you. It may not all be generous because by helping you they help themselves because you'll end up helping them complete the content. The older games tend to be slightly less helpful with showing you what to do or how to do it, but you can usually find players willing to help you instead. This is just my experience though. Some people hate the experience because they can't end up finding anyone and sit around not being able to complete the content. It can be rough but if you find a group of people then I think you'll enjoy it much much more. I think you'll have a better shot finding people in a game like XI though.

Edit : problem with XI now though is you have to power through some early levels to get to the point where other people are.