I played Final Fantasy XI for about 2 years. When I left Vana'diel I had about 320 days of playtime. Yes. Within 2 years I had about 1 FULL YEAR inside the game. I can't say it was in vain. Far from it. I was really interested in the whole mythology of the world and I loved adventuring and doing new quests and fighting these big HNMS. 
In fact, that is the reason why I entered Vana'diel to begin with! To fight wyrms like Nidhogg and Fafnir with my friends, to go against monsters that are larger than life and do it with my friends. That I did. I never defeated any of the big important ones, but we fought them. That was enough for me. Then two things happened. I was finally meeting resistance from my other friends. One of them started out with us and never got past level 4 BLM (Black Mage) because he could never figure out how to get his spells. So his ridicule was mostly because he was jealous of our levels, or because he was upset at his own failure. The other was from people who actually did matter. Specially from a certain woman. I was also, kind of upset on where my life was going. I was working this dead-end job with the local news paper (El Nuevo Dia). They are going through rough times there. They kept switching around our times to save themselves from having to pay for work during holidays. Basically the only way I could advance in my line of work was if my superior either retired or died. I really couldn't wait for that long. So I decided to leave it. Final Fantasy XI is seriously for the hardcore. It is unforgiving to anybody who doesn't really spend all of his/her time in it. That woman I was talking about that was preoccupied about my life because of my 'addiction' to FFXI, shes level 64+ in WoW. Obviously, thats a way more casual game. I would spend hours and hours farming just to be able to party to get Merit points. I would spend hours and hours doing Sky runs and making our way through Chains of Promathia to access Sea. When this was not going on I'd be playing with my Mannequin with the new Puppetmaster job class and fending off hordes of enemies in Aht Urghan. It was time consuming. It was awesome. It was addictive. It was a problem. The endgame kept getting bigger and further away. I was never going to be able to make it into the linkshell I needed to be in to be able to fight Jailer of Love and get subsequently owned by Absolute Virtue. I was never going to be able to figure out what was up with the mounted knight that would randomly appear through Bhaflau Thickets. So in August 2006 I left. Now the news that a new boss fight takes about 24 hours to finish does not surprise me in the least, it actually, makes me wish I still had that kind of time and could just spend countless hours without worrying about my job, girlfriend or future. Until we meet again, Vana'diel. Farewell from Morouxshi (75RNG/37NIN) member of RagnarocK, and a proud Elvaan archer from the Republic of Bastok on Leviathan!
In fact, that is the reason why I entered Vana'diel to begin with! To fight wyrms like Nidhogg and Fafnir with my friends, to go against monsters that are larger than life and do it with my friends. That I did. I never defeated any of the big important ones, but we fought them. That was enough for me. Then two things happened. I was finally meeting resistance from my other friends. One of them started out with us and never got past level 4 BLM (Black Mage) because he could never figure out how to get his spells. So his ridicule was mostly because he was jealous of our levels, or because he was upset at his own failure. The other was from people who actually did matter. Specially from a certain woman. I was also, kind of upset on where my life was going. I was working this dead-end job with the local news paper (El Nuevo Dia). They are going through rough times there. They kept switching around our times to save themselves from having to pay for work during holidays. Basically the only way I could advance in my line of work was if my superior either retired or died. I really couldn't wait for that long. So I decided to leave it. Final Fantasy XI is seriously for the hardcore. It is unforgiving to anybody who doesn't really spend all of his/her time in it. That woman I was talking about that was preoccupied about my life because of my 'addiction' to FFXI, shes level 64+ in WoW. Obviously, thats a way more casual game. I would spend hours and hours farming just to be able to party to get Merit points. I would spend hours and hours doing Sky runs and making our way through Chains of Promathia to access Sea. When this was not going on I'd be playing with my Mannequin with the new Puppetmaster job class and fending off hordes of enemies in Aht Urghan. It was time consuming. It was awesome. It was addictive. It was a problem. The endgame kept getting bigger and further away. I was never going to be able to make it into the linkshell I needed to be in to be able to fight Jailer of Love and get subsequently owned by Absolute Virtue. I was never going to be able to figure out what was up with the mounted knight that would randomly appear through Bhaflau Thickets. So in August 2006 I left. Now the news that a new boss fight takes about 24 hours to finish does not surprise me in the least, it actually, makes me wish I still had that kind of time and could just spend countless hours without worrying about my job, girlfriend or future. Until we meet again, Vana'diel. Farewell from Morouxshi (75RNG/37NIN) member of RagnarocK, and a proud Elvaan archer from the Republic of Bastok on Leviathan!