I'm not one who is overly emotionally attached to this game. I enjoy/ed the crap out of it. At the same time, I'm ready to see its descendant come and put it to rest. Even when starting the game I knew that my character wouldn't last forever. That's purely naive. I don't really understand those who want XIV to die or never be made. I don't understand those who feel like all of their work is being thrown away. It's like befriending a very old neighbor and then feeling like their death was BS and somehow negated the memories you had with them. I will still have my memories of FFXI when it's all over and that's fine. That said, for those hard-up enough, the game will stick around probably for a good while to come and well beyond FFXIV's release.
Now to a point that does give me pause. The clanging of the death knell has roughly had its date set. We'll get another year of content. They are currently finishing out WotG and have these little mini expansions coming out of which they are nearly halfway through.
This leaves them a bit of time to finish up things, but it seems almost unlikely there will be another boxed expansion, that is, another full expansion. For me, this causes a fairly huge problem.
FFXI's story is massive and overarching. I've been watching through CS videos (over here) to jog my memory and for the pure sake of their awesome. There are huge hints forward in the storylines at all times.
SPOILERS BELOW
Even mid-CoP there is mention of Alexander and most of ToAU hints at him until you find out he is truly the linchpin of that particular story arc. Before that, so much of pre-Zilart, and then Zilart lead into the storyline of CoP.
So what am I hot and bothered about?
Without another full expansion we'll be missing out on every seeing things like the Mithra homeland. While this one is okay with me as it's merely mention offhand quite often, there are other places that are strongly hinted at in the plot.
The Far East is a huge setting that has been talked about nearly since the beginning of the game. It's where Tenzen is from. It's where Gessho is from and where he says he will meet you in the future. We know of the affairs of the Far East and their implications on the near east of Aht Urghan. We know the name of the leader (mentioned very late in ToAU). Also, Phoenix originates from there. Phoenix is one of the 5 terrestrial avatars. We can control 3 and have fought 1. Will they really just leave Phoenix as some essence on Tenzen's blade forever without us ever going to the source?
Having so little time left and them seeming to step away from large released makes me wonder if they will finish out what they've started.
What are your thoughts on what will become of FFXIs gaping plot points?
What are your thoughts on leaving a game you've put so much time into to potentially start another?