To those who played FF11...

[Fawkes]

The content was more varied, when a new expansion came out it didn't always feel like doing the exact same things with a different coat of paint.
And you could bring more varied groups to most content, so it made sense to have a big LS.

Jobs felt unique and diverse. And they had a lot more depth to them. And they weren't tied to a single weapon type.
There were lots of fun event weapons, and XIV will never have that.

[Mirakumi]

Honestly, I miss the danger you feel when exploring the world/environments. Back in 1.0 there were only certain areas you could reach if you did some sneaking but even though it was a test your ground sort of feel. Things which I love from other games like Xenoblade Chronicles - a sense that some bad ass enemy is going to pounce on your face and you wouldn't know until you had to traverse said area. I'm not asking for like a whole map of higher level monsters but more of a oh to get to this area you might have to sneak past this group of high-level monsters. Something like that. I hope you get my meaning...

[SendohJin]

you know the community thing is on the people the play the game, not the how the game is made =p

this is not true. XI forced community on people.

first, the gameplay was really slow, there's tons of time to type in party and linkshell during combat. there's nothing else to do when resting for MP besides making small talk.

second, the game was impossible to do things by yourself and there was no duty finder. you had to network with people, help them accomplish goals that didn't benefit you so that you can ask them to help you in case you needed people in the future.

[Myrhn]

you know the community thing is on the people the play the game, not the how the game is made =p

I think is both. FFXI force you to work in a group and was very hard to even level solo, except with very few jobs at least before the books and trust. So people were more close together and if someone was a very bad player your name will be remember and people would notice and stop parting with you. Thats what i think, in part, brought the community together there. In FFXIV you can be an ass and with the cross-server party finder is very difficult to remember that person and can also kick them and almost never see him/her again so people dont really care how other perceive them.

[Myrhn]

Jobs felt unique and diverse. And they had a lot more depth to them. And they weren't tied to a single weapon type.
There were lots of fun event weapons, and XIV will never have that.

Penta thrust SAMs were awsome

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

I would say FF11 felt way more like a multiplayer RPG. You needed to team up with other players and strategize in order to tackle almost all of the challenges in FF11. In FF14 you just queue into duty finder and roflstomp your way through everything with very little strategy involved.

The one thing in FF14 that felt like the old MMOs was coil of bahamut, and they nixed that very quickly by adding the LFR-style raid mode.

[Gemina]

I stopped playing XI around the release of ToAU, so everything that has happened afterwards I am mostly unaware of such as the use of Trust NPCs. I also have to admit FFXI and myself did not part on good terms, so I have remained salty all these years. I'll try to remain non-biased though.

FFXI is anold MMO and SE's first for this franchise. A lot of what we see in XIV is a result of the mistakes they learned from. There are TONs of things that I remember from that game that would not bold well with the standards of today's gamers. However, I can still remember some things that I do feel FFXI did better.

Social interactions between players were more commonplace

Music in the outside zones were absolutely amazing. I believe most were composed by Nobuo so no surprise there.

Dungeons were not linear, and VERY dangerous. Usually only the BCNM circles located deep within the dungeon was instanced for the boss fight.

Promyvions. Nothing else needs to be said if you experienced these.

The summoner job. You don't summon an egi, you summon the damn primal and command them using many of the same attacks they use against you when you try to acquire them.

That's about all I got for now.

[Ryaz]

Teamwork... while there is some synergy with buffs and the like, for the most part performance is very self oriented. There was nothing like the feeling in FFXI, playing a Samurai especially, of nailing a couple of skill chains with your team followed by a well-time ancient magic burst.

[Embercrisp]

I started FFXI a few expansions in, but I loved how you didn't get baby sat for everything you did. You needed to interact with people which I guess some could say would be a downfall. But in my opinion it made the community that much more awesome. FFXIV has a awesome community but I'm sure a few of us have ran into bad apples here and there. FFXI also felt like a actual WORLD you were discovering and felt like every zone was alive. I guess the most important thing was the Jobs. Before Abbysea you had to grind your job up. If you was a mage you had to grind for your spells or if you was a ranger you had to buy or craft your arrows. If you were good at your job you were well known. People looked up to you and you were respected.

[Niqote]

Real support classes