Community in this game is unbelievable.

[Sunarie]

No one ditched just in a flash, Reputation matter in FFXI, unlike FFXIV. Remember waiting for replacement don't you? i guess you met lot of those bad players huh? i hardly saw much like that, maybe it has to do with the groups people we associated with.

Bad player(the trolls and disrespectful) in FFXI were treated like a dog with rabies.

FFXI community was in fact much better compared to FFXIV, maybe because they required you to strategize a lot, or maybe because Most of the NA's picked up on the JP's gaming respect for individuals, idk. That is lacking in FFXIV for sure.

I can tell you about my 4 yrs HNM career (i believe i was the 14th NA server wide to obtain Ebody back in early 2005, where most of the NA were still fighting sky gods, the name is Synapse) but i think that is depressing, it was nothing but drama, then again, i see many people use HNM scene as FFXI to bash in these forums, so not surprised.

I have to disagree with you. Your evidence is anecdotal, as is everyone else's (including mine). A lot of people, myself included, had very bad experiences with FFXI. You're discounting all them just because you found a nice group to play with. No, people didn't leave straight off, but there are plenty of parties that were quick to kick people when the exp per hour wasn't being met. And plenty of parties to kick and berate people who didn't have the proper classes leveled. I joined several years after the game came out, and I can tell you finding help as a newbie was not the easiest thing, and folks went straight to insults above help more often than not when I was clueless about something (where to level, and how to get there being a prime example). I didn't last very long in that game, so I didn't even get to the whole NM portion of it (though with spawn camping, stealing the tag/kill that I've heard stories of, combined with the elitism I experienced just trying to level I don't think it'd be better). Without friends, and after launch, that game was horrific. Just as I imagine being a new player with no friends in this is. You're sure to run into some jerks that want to kick you out of a run for it, or berate you for what you don't know.

I don't see anyone bashing FFXI. I see a lot of people trying to point out to you that it's just like every other MMO. Experience is going to vary, and just like in FFXI where your best bet was to find a group of nice individuals who had your same ideals and goals. People you got along with and found it fun to play with. The exact same goes for FFXIV. I have never had a problem with the community, but I mainly stick to my FC and a few pugs here or there. I don't do Primal duty finder things. I do Duty Roulette, and the large majority of those go over fine. The pre-made (non duty finder groups) I have done have never had the problems people mention where folks drop immediately.

The only thing I will say (and again, this goes for -any- MMO) is that finding said group of people was easier when duty finders didn't exist. People from the same server actually ran together on a regular basis and that's how I found a few of the guilds I use to run with in my WoW days. That's also true of Rift prior to it having a dungeon finder, and any other game that has included one.