I played for a long time, and actually I still do play from time to time. My oldest character is Garrison on Odin server, a paragon of Job A.D.D.:
(WAR37, MNK72, THF36, WHM12, BLM2, RDM3, BRD15, BST5, DRK25, DRG52, NIN32, PLD62, SAM58, SMN 15, RNG 12)
I actually thoroughly enjoyed the game and 90% of the palyers were decent folks. It was my first MMO and still holds a special place for me. The only reason I'm not as active in it as I once was, is mainly due tot he fact that I met my ex-fiancee in it, but due to unforseen and really unavoidable events in the game of life, we had to part ways, so it's just not the same without her
But, in all honesty, FFXI is a solid game, the thing is it doesn't cater to a lot of the tastes of western players. As a very general rule of thumb, how shall we say, "Eastern" (e.g.: China, Korea, Japan) developed games tend to be very much a grind-fest, with major rewards much further apart, they're typically more time-intensive and very group oriented, almsot to the poitn of excluding solo play. Whereas in most western style games, solo play is almost always an option, the pace of the game is faster and achievements and rewards happen fairly quickly and not all that far apart along the line of character progression.
I'm sure there's a sociology paper in there somewhere, but those are jsut the tredns I've ntoiced in playing games from both sides.