As many know Final Fantasy XI was the first in the series to be an online MMO. I played it for a little bit at my cousin's house and I liked it okay. Never played it long term because I'm cheap, don't like paying monthly subscriptions and generally not that interested in most MMOs to begin with.

What always got me though is why they made a MMO as part of the main series? Is it just to be different for the sake of it? Wouldn't it be easier to just call it 'Final Fantasy Online' and keep it separate from the main series and release expansion packs every couple of years or so like other MMOs? This switching back and forth just seems really unappealing.

Also, how many people played it here when it first came out? Because I heard that the visuals and stuff was very underwhelming at the start until they patched it up or upgraded or something. Any truth to that? Just curious.