Final Fantasy XI features a more-developed world and better story than just about any other game in the series. From a narrative standpoint, the game is phenomenal, and while I never completed the Wings of the Goddess story (I quit two years ago after playing on-and-off since NA launch), while I was playing it was shaping up to be the best yet. There's even a new expansion coming out and the game's over ten years old now; that's pretty damned impressive.

More recent expansions (specifically the Abyssea set of six mini-expansions) drastically changed gameplay. When the game's director (Tanaka) left to take the helm of the development of Final Fantasy XIV, the new team began to shift away from the type of content that had existed before. Specifically, for the first seven years of the game's existence, it was very much part of the old guard in the MMORPG genre: punishing grind, party-based to the point that soloing of almost any kind was impossible, and endgame requiring rigorous scheduling to get 32 people in the same place at the same time. Abyssea changed all that, making grinding out the levels from 30 onwards a breeze while also increasing the level cap to 99 so that a majority of the existing content could be completed in smaller groups with less (or no) difficulty.

While the game has certainly become a lot more approachable due to these changes, whether it's easy to start fresh ultimately depends on your goals in game. Do you want to play around with friends and experience the story-based content? If so, that's probably doable. That said, the reason I've never gone back is because I like pushing endgame and going after the best gear there is. Anyone who's played an MMORPG can tell you what a stat-whore I am. When I quit, I left with two jobs at level 80 (which was the cap at the time), and both were fantastically-geared for that level. Just two years out, the only thing that stopped me from going back was the thought of playing catch-up on all the existing content. In an aging MMORPG, I determined that to get caught up to everyone who I want to play with, it was simply too much work to try and catch up on trials of the magians weapons, Abyssea equipment and tier three artifact armor, and Voidwatch gear. With a new expansion out, there's going to be even more new stuff to catch up on shortly. And what's worst? Tanaka is back at the helm of FFXI after he was removed from FFXIV because of the awful launch. Voidwatch already shows a return to the older philosophy of more unforgiving content that's more difficult to just pick-up-and-do.

I will always recommend Final Fantasy XI for anyone who wants to experience a new world and story. It's certainly some of the best work that Square Enix has ever done in that regard. There's ten years worth of content, and they've tweaked a lot of the old endgame so that it's now set-up for smaller groups of higher-leveled players, which will make getting gear out of it easier than it was back when I was playing. But ultimately--for the experience of playing an MMORPG, I say pass. If you really want to experience an MMORPG with a community and fit in and be in the thick of things instead of constantly playing catch-up, join a new game. Jump in on FFXIV:ARR when that comes out. Hell, jump in on Guild Wars 2.

Maybe someone from around here who still plays (Bleys?) will contradict that, but I would have a hard time advocating that anyone join a ten-year-old game.