I've been playing this game since last week now (well, whenever I can actually log in) and about the best I can say is it's a competent WoW clone.

There's nothing outright bad about the game and it's entertaining enough, but there's nothing special or memorable about it either. I admit I'm only level 16 at the moment (mainly because I can't log in when I want to) so I haven't experienced everything, but I really don't see a reason to pay a monthly fee for the game once my free trail goes away.

Massive kudos to SE for making FFXIV into something playable and even something decent, but I haven't seen anything that makes me want to pay a monthly fee for this game. I want to pay even less when I just spent the last 10 minutes clicking the screen trying to log in only to eventually be met with the can't populate character list error and have to give up.

-edit-

I'll expand a little-- FFXI was a different MMO.  You set out with a purpose and did that.  The game had its flaws but it did many things to make it stand apart from everything else out there.  That is why it was as successful as it was.

FFXIV tries to be just like WoW with a Final Fantasy flavor.  They aren't doing anything risky and just looked at what every other MMO that tried to be like WoW and copied them.  It's a better game for it, but it's nothing special.  I haven't really had to interact with a single person, I just log on, do quests until I'm bored, and then log out.  In FFXI I had to be social and get help and help people from nearly the get-go.  In FFXIV I might as well be playing a single player game.

I'm enjoying myself for the most part and, again, it is a well done game, but there's no reason to play this over any of the other no monthly fee MMO's out there.

have you not seen the videos I put up? And, I didn't know WoW have Magitek mount blowing stuff up lol. You're Lv16, you're still in the tutorial learning levels of the game.

The Magitek is cool, but at the end of the day it's just a mount.  It was fun watching that but is it really worth the hours you put into the game and the monthly fee?  I doubt it.

A Realm Reborn is a good game, I'm just going to wait until it eventually goes Free to Play to bother wth it.

Don't hold your breath, because like FFXI that will not happen. Anyways you're Lv16, nothing really worth remembering stuff at that early levels. You'll see my point when you level up more, and when you team up with groups. In the end of the day the game feels more like a Final Fantasy title more than a WoW in my humble opinion.

I never really got into WoW, so I'm not sure how much FFXIV borrows from it. What I will say is that it's premature to make up your mind after playing through only level 16. It's an MMO - for better or worse, it takes a long time to come into all the content the game has (and maybe that's poor design).

I will also say that I've heard the exact opposite of your opinion; some people seem to think you have to rely too much on grouping up. *shrugs*

i am enjoying myself in ff14, i know i am in the early stages of the game and all. but this game still has a long way to go to get a hold of me, like ff11 did. i got hooked from ff11 right from the beginning. i will work on this game for my free month, then will decide if its worth my time investing after that, i certainly hope since i havent found a mmo to replace what ff11 gave me in spades.

I got to play a nice bit yesterday, but today I have been trying to log in for 4 hours wtf! Mad annoying.

i was fortunate than , because i was online playing for 3 hrs straight. :)
what server are u on mad55?

i havent logged out in over 12 hours, sure everyone hates what i do but it means i get to play the game. woke up and grinded for 2 hours before school. now when i get home i can do another story mission =)

Im on the Coeurl Server, what about you?