Why is there so much angst over this issue? If you get in an xp party and grind it out in an efficient manner you should be rewarded. Most of us have played MMOs before. I don't need 3 months of grinding to figure out how to properly play a tank, mage or melee class. If a plethora of mid-level content that was fun and engaging existed in the game I could see your point about leveling being too fast. We don't have that. Where's all the fun to be had? its the l45 instance, l45 Ifrit battle, spiritbonding your gear to get materia, the 3 beastman strongholds. Tell me why it should take months for my friends who's just joined the game to access all of this when there's barely anything to see along the way.