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As much as I enjoyed XI back in the day, I realize that the enjoyment back then came more from the community than the game itself. Though the game was still brilliant it was often brutal and frustrating. So if we're talking about the game itself I would say the peak era for XI is right now. The endgame content available these days is more challenging and fun than the old content.

I think the enjoyment that you felt came because the game was exactly and deliberately designed with player interaction in mind (in the spirit of EverQuest). FF14 has been shifted into a single-player MMO, very much like WoW; although WoW was more like EverQuest as well in the beginning, where you came to a point where it pushed you to interact with other people, but Blizzard made it more gentle. Both EQ and FF11 aren't/weren't really gentle about that at all; you either start to interact and play with others or you're fucked. Which is part of their charm.