What was FFXI like when that first launched?

[Tanaya]

FFXI was garbage >.> NA/EU got to see it with the first expansion, but there was not nearly as much to it prior to that.

Yea, nothing is a total masterpiece right at release, not even every single player games.

Problem is FFXI, when first released in 2002, was only in Japan. NA/EU got it when the "beta test" ended and if I remember right that was in 2004. The game still had massive amounts of problems but it was still widely appealing.

FFXIV released worldwide, with a bigger gaming market, a much bigger campaign advertisement, and most of all as a successor to FFXI. A lot of the mistakes in FFXIV has happened in FFXI as well, but XIV barely had anything at all upon release. Most of all the game was virtually unplayable due to a terrible laggy UI and the Market Wards not having a search function, and all you could basically do is grind to rank 50 and hang up the game.

FFXI may have been garbage but FFXIV was a complete train wreck and all the passengers died on board.