The initial impressions of Open Beta seems to be largely negative from everything I'm reading on other sites & forums.

I think people assumed that with all the trial & error for FFXI, Square would have a much better handle on what works and what doesn't so that FFXIV wouldn't have as rough of a start as FFXI did.

I'm not too bothered though. I'm more excited just about the social aspect of the game rather than game mechanics anyway. And I never had trouble with the controls in FFXI (which apparently, are very very bad?) so the complaints about the game controls (which seems to be a big issue for people) kinda go right over my head. I don't like what I'm hearing about the game being labourous and a chore though. That's the opposite of what I was hoping for. But we'll see.

I still think it'll be a ton of fun playing a shiny new MMORPG though.