I tried to play FFXI a little while back, and walked away thinking it was the worst game I ever played. It was so unfriendly to a new player and the interface was absolutely horrible. The game gave me no indication of what I should have been doing or whether I'd be able to handle a particular dungeon at my skill level. You had to rely almost entirely on help from the community to figure out what you were doing. It played clunky and wasn't the least bit fun. I can understand that maybe people who played it from day 1 and got into a good group might have had a totally different experience, and maybe the endgame was entertaining, but as a new person trying to get into it years later, I couldn't have been more put off.

OH, to stay on topic, I am 100% open to the idea that FF 14 will be a decent game despite how I feel about 11. I just hope they give it a much more clear system to hand out tasks, quests, etc, and give you direction about where to go. It doesn't have to be like WoW in terms of gameplay or anything.