I'd say the average player now is maybe lvl 30 or so, but new people start every day, so it's hard to tell. FFXI is a little slow to level after you hit around lvl 18. That's when you really have to find good groups and get out to where there are better monsters. Once you hit 20, I recommend spending some time in Jeuno and Quifim. There you will find monsters that you will be able to get up to 150xpfrom if you're in a good group. It takes me about 2 or so hours to level there. So I guess you're looking at maybe two weeks or so of playing to get to the average player level. But you might be able to get there in less than a week if you play crazy hardcore.