Well now, I was in the mood to talk on just this subject.
Now, let's be entirely fair here: Comparing FFXI as it is now with FFXIV is not fair at ALL. Most of us who played FFXI until recently had at least 1 level 75 job (Or 85, or whatever the cap is now). FFXI has had 4 major expansions, and 6 add-ons, which have added a staggering amount to the game. The game world was wide open, and we could range from the lonely fields and shattered landscape of Tavnazia to the exotic lands of Aht Urghan, to the otherworldly planes of Limbus, Luminoria and Dynamis, to the floating city of Tu'Lia, and even to the past.
NONE of which you'd be doing at level 20.
So let's be TOTALLY fair in our comparisons here. How much 'exploring' could you do in FFXI from 1-20?
FFXI 1-20
For your first 10 levels, you're basically confined to the zone immediately outside of your starting city, and then very constrained parts of it. Beastmen roam all over, ready to deliver death to anyone who dares to wander out of their weight class to see what's over that next hill. Even when you ARE where you're supposed to be, there's always that one heavyweight lurking around ready to jump you and punt you back to your homepoint.
So you grind for 10 lonely, boring levels. How does your gear look? It's brown. All of it. Your gloves, your boots, your tunic... your SWORD. All brown. If you're unlucky enough to start in Bastok, your surroundings are brown too. And even your opponents are brown!
There are some connected zones, like Palborough Mines or Ghelsba Outpost, but they're crawling with beastmen. Going in there without expensive Sneak Oil and Prism Powder is guaranteed death until you've gained a few levels, and given that beastmen are meaner than a similarly leveled rabbit, say, tangling with them in their local home base probably isn't the best leveling strategy.
But you struggle through, pushing through to Konschtat/La Theine/Tahrongi. HERE'S your big payoff! You catch a glimpse of the Crag, the gigantic, monolithic white structure that is a sentinel of an ancient civilization. No apparent entrances or exits, but there is a teleport platform that you can attune to, allowing you to return at any time!... provided you can find a white mage willing to teleport you there.
And then you're eaten by the Tremor Ram.
Since you didn't set your HP at the guard at the last zoneline, you go all the way back to your starting city, missing a respectable chunk of XP. You make the trek again, and start the long process of grinding more levels. If this is pre Zilart/COP/TOAU/WOTG, there are no handy field manuals, and even the EP mobs give you a rough time. If it's current, it's still a bit of a grind, and you'll probably be making multiple trips out.
Sometimes you might discover a neat cave or even a passage leading to another zone... and die from massive undead aggro in Gusgen Mines, or the Goblins or Slimes in Ordelle's Caves, or maybe you found a Scorpion in Maze of Shakrami. Of course, there's plenty of beastmen where you're leveling too, happy to wander over while you're fighting that sheep and take your head off. And forget about running away; Unless you can beat them to the zoneline, they rarely give up the chase.
But you get to level 12. After a long run back to town to upgrade your gear, you're ready for the dunes! Your gear is now a slightly different shade of brown. You head to the dunes and... hey! They put a guard right there! How handy! You can set your homepoint right here!
Oh, but wait! Your city doesn't control Zulkheim, so that'll be a couple of thousand please!
But you're in Valkurm Dunes! The gateway to the other cities! Now you can visit San d'Oria or Windurst, right?
WRONG!
See, to get to Selbina to take the ferry, or to the zoneline to La Theine, you have to run the gauntlet of goblins to a cave that connects your part of Valkurm to the rest. But, this cave is full of bats. Bats that aggro. Bats that can easily kill you at level 12. If someone has cleared them out, you might be able to sneak through, but if not, the passage is too narrow to sneak past. Hope you bought some of that expensive sneak oil! More likely you'll need to pick up a party and level yourselves up to 14 or 15, then go through as a group.
If you're coming from San d'Oria it's worse. Because now you can get to Selbina, only having to dodge a dozen or so Goblins patrolling the road along the way, but that aforementioned cave is the passage you have to take to get to your leveling grounds. And chances are your party is already on the other side. Fun!
Windurst gets the MOST fun, since they have to run the gauntlet through Bubumiru Peninsula to Mhaura, then take the ferry across. But hey, it's a beautiful ferry ride, right? Lots of scenery going by, a chance to glimpse Windurst from the coast, that's not a bad thing, right?
... Well, until you open the doors to the deck, and the Sea Horror reaches through and rips your head off before you even know it's there. Or heck, even a Sea Monk. You're not even a mouthful for either. Back to HP for you! That'll teach you to stay in the hold and not look around!
But once you're finally there, and join your party, it's all good, right? Well, hope you brought everything you need, 'cuz it's a LONG trip home! And if this is pre-WOTG, there's no moogles in Selbina, and there's definitely no Auction House, so if you run out of food or need to upgrade or change subjobs, you're in for another jog home. There is the Outpost Warp, if you remember to do the quest, but if this is pre-WOTG, you aren't high enough level to use it.
And Valkurm is a lovely place, with long sandy beaches, palm trees, and Bogeys! And for the adventurous among you, there's the zone into Gustav tunnel. If you get past the aggroing bats in the tunnel, you'll be in a mysterious passage, full of goblin/undead aggro death.
So, after all this, you FINALLY get to level 20. Now it's time for the run to Jeuno, and if you don't have a high-level friend to escort you, get ready for a really fun run! One mistake, and it's back to HP because the stuff you'll be trying to sneak past can three-shot you! And you're still too low to know invisible, so time for more expensive powders!
But wait! You forgot about the subjob quest! If you don't have any high level friends, have fun getting that magicked skull! And then you get to do all this again for your subjob!
So, in total, you've barely managed to see 5 zones, and all of it nervously and obsessively watching for something that might kill you. Travel is slow, and full of the same harrowing trek... it'll be a few more levels before you can make the trek without a Chocobo and be sure of no aggro.
FFXIV 1-20
Right off your surroundings are more interesting, and far less dangerous. Your first trip is to a base camp, where you can set your homepoint, gather with other adventurers, and make getting KO'd a little less painful in terms of travel time. As you progress, you move to new base camps, which you can teleport to at any time, saving time.
Your starting gear isn't much more colorful, but to be fair, it's starting gear. But the options open up quite quickly. Weapons are probably a little less impressive that the FFXI options, but the armor is MUCH better. As is the fact that the options are much wider, allowing you to create a mix that works for you, and even make a 'look' for RP purposes, even if the gear includes stuff that's far too high level for you. Reds, blues, greens and shiny, shiny metal all show up early, diluting the brown-ness. Too bad you have to repair it occasionally, but if you have the right crafts leveled, you can plunk down right on the spot and do it yourself.
The opponents initially are still pretty brown, and getting your butt kicked by a rat or marmot is possibly even worse than getting stomped by a rabbit. But you've already got puks, moles, and although they're out of your level range at first, gigantic crabs, ants, goats, and dragonish lizards. Aggro is there, but there are safe paths to take, and skirting it isn't nearly the crap shoot it is in FFXI. Essentially, if you stick to the roads, you will generally be safe. Safe enough to make the run to the other starting cities even. The base camps provide waypoints along the way that you can attune to for free, and once you've attuned to one, you can teleport to it at any time. While not practical due to your limited anima supply, it's great if you're in a hurry, and want to get somewhere fast.
The ferry ride is easily accessible right from Limsa Lominsa and is... boring. To be fair, it sucks. There's no aggroing mobs on deck now, but there's also no scenery, and in fact, no sense of motion at all. And it's usually raining. Thankfully, they don't make you pay for the yawnfest.
There's also a notable lack of towering ancient monoliths. The aetheryte is supposedly a relic, true, but it's so commonplace as to be mundane. Also, straying from the beaten path can quickly take you into aggro death territory.
However, leveling is quick, and thanks to levequests, actually profitable. and there are lots of little caves and nooks to explore. There's not as much there yet as FFXI has currently, but there's promise of things to come.
***
In closing... FFXIV is a new game, and so far we've barely gotten out of the Dunes, so to speak. We've hardly gone far enough to judge. However... how much had you accomplished by level 20 in FFXI? Leveled a job and sub, maybe gotten your chocobo license? I've made myself my first sword, and got XP for it. My character is much more rounded, has much cooler-looking gear, and though I've died quite a bit, it doesn't feel as onerous.
Yes, FFXIV is a much easier game than FFXI. But I don't think it's fair to say there's less to explore. It's just less dangerous to explore it. FFXI tended to herd you where it wanted you to go and be by filling all the peripheral places with nasty death. Even the areas you were SUPPOSED to be were full of slightly less nasty death. Vana'diel comes across as a dangerous place.
That may be a good thing. That may be what you prefer. And that's why they're still running FFXI. FFXI is a much more hardcore game, and it will remain suited to those who want more of a challenge and struggle.
But all of the issues you've cited with FFXIV? I've had many a friend who cited the very same issues with FFXI, and who never got past level 30. I told them the really good stuff doesn't start until later levels, but they weren't willing to deal with the frustration and grind.
So in summary, BOTH games are pretty desolate when you're level 20. FFXI has a lot more polish, seasonal events, etc, but it's had 8 years to develop that. Prune away all of the stuff added by RoTZ, COP, TOAU and WOTG, and I imagine it was a pretty empty place on launch too. Especially for a level 20.
At least in FFXIV if your friends start in a different city, it won't take a couple of weeks of level grinding before you can safely meet up with them.
Now, let's be entirely fair here: Comparing FFXI as it is now with FFXIV is not fair at ALL. Most of us who played FFXI until recently had at least 1 level 75 job (Or 85, or whatever the cap is now). FFXI has had 4 major expansions, and 6 add-ons, which have added a staggering amount to the game. The game world was wide open, and we could range from the lonely fields and shattered landscape of Tavnazia to the exotic lands of Aht Urghan, to the otherworldly planes of Limbus, Luminoria and Dynamis, to the floating city of Tu'Lia, and even to the past.
NONE of which you'd be doing at level 20.
So let's be TOTALLY fair in our comparisons here. How much 'exploring' could you do in FFXI from 1-20?
FFXI 1-20
For your first 10 levels, you're basically confined to the zone immediately outside of your starting city, and then very constrained parts of it. Beastmen roam all over, ready to deliver death to anyone who dares to wander out of their weight class to see what's over that next hill. Even when you ARE where you're supposed to be, there's always that one heavyweight lurking around ready to jump you and punt you back to your homepoint.
So you grind for 10 lonely, boring levels. How does your gear look? It's brown. All of it. Your gloves, your boots, your tunic... your SWORD. All brown. If you're unlucky enough to start in Bastok, your surroundings are brown too. And even your opponents are brown!
There are some connected zones, like Palborough Mines or Ghelsba Outpost, but they're crawling with beastmen. Going in there without expensive Sneak Oil and Prism Powder is guaranteed death until you've gained a few levels, and given that beastmen are meaner than a similarly leveled rabbit, say, tangling with them in their local home base probably isn't the best leveling strategy.
But you struggle through, pushing through to Konschtat/La Theine/Tahrongi. HERE'S your big payoff! You catch a glimpse of the Crag, the gigantic, monolithic white structure that is a sentinel of an ancient civilization. No apparent entrances or exits, but there is a teleport platform that you can attune to, allowing you to return at any time!... provided you can find a white mage willing to teleport you there.
And then you're eaten by the Tremor Ram.
Since you didn't set your HP at the guard at the last zoneline, you go all the way back to your starting city, missing a respectable chunk of XP. You make the trek again, and start the long process of grinding more levels. If this is pre Zilart/COP/TOAU/WOTG, there are no handy field manuals, and even the EP mobs give you a rough time. If it's current, it's still a bit of a grind, and you'll probably be making multiple trips out.
Sometimes you might discover a neat cave or even a passage leading to another zone... and die from massive undead aggro in Gusgen Mines, or the Goblins or Slimes in Ordelle's Caves, or maybe you found a Scorpion in Maze of Shakrami. Of course, there's plenty of beastmen where you're leveling too, happy to wander over while you're fighting that sheep and take your head off. And forget about running away; Unless you can beat them to the zoneline, they rarely give up the chase.
But you get to level 12. After a long run back to town to upgrade your gear, you're ready for the dunes! Your gear is now a slightly different shade of brown. You head to the dunes and... hey! They put a guard right there! How handy! You can set your homepoint right here!
Oh, but wait! Your city doesn't control Zulkheim, so that'll be a couple of thousand please!
But you're in Valkurm Dunes! The gateway to the other cities! Now you can visit San d'Oria or Windurst, right?
WRONG!
See, to get to Selbina to take the ferry, or to the zoneline to La Theine, you have to run the gauntlet of goblins to a cave that connects your part of Valkurm to the rest. But, this cave is full of bats. Bats that aggro. Bats that can easily kill you at level 12. If someone has cleared them out, you might be able to sneak through, but if not, the passage is too narrow to sneak past. Hope you bought some of that expensive sneak oil! More likely you'll need to pick up a party and level yourselves up to 14 or 15, then go through as a group.
If you're coming from San d'Oria it's worse. Because now you can get to Selbina, only having to dodge a dozen or so Goblins patrolling the road along the way, but that aforementioned cave is the passage you have to take to get to your leveling grounds. And chances are your party is already on the other side. Fun!
Windurst gets the MOST fun, since they have to run the gauntlet through Bubumiru Peninsula to Mhaura, then take the ferry across. But hey, it's a beautiful ferry ride, right? Lots of scenery going by, a chance to glimpse Windurst from the coast, that's not a bad thing, right?
... Well, until you open the doors to the deck, and the Sea Horror reaches through and rips your head off before you even know it's there. Or heck, even a Sea Monk. You're not even a mouthful for either. Back to HP for you! That'll teach you to stay in the hold and not look around!
But once you're finally there, and join your party, it's all good, right? Well, hope you brought everything you need, 'cuz it's a LONG trip home! And if this is pre-WOTG, there's no moogles in Selbina, and there's definitely no Auction House, so if you run out of food or need to upgrade or change subjobs, you're in for another jog home. There is the Outpost Warp, if you remember to do the quest, but if this is pre-WOTG, you aren't high enough level to use it.
And Valkurm is a lovely place, with long sandy beaches, palm trees, and Bogeys! And for the adventurous among you, there's the zone into Gustav tunnel. If you get past the aggroing bats in the tunnel, you'll be in a mysterious passage, full of goblin/undead aggro death.
So, after all this, you FINALLY get to level 20. Now it's time for the run to Jeuno, and if you don't have a high-level friend to escort you, get ready for a really fun run! One mistake, and it's back to HP because the stuff you'll be trying to sneak past can three-shot you! And you're still too low to know invisible, so time for more expensive powders!
But wait! You forgot about the subjob quest! If you don't have any high level friends, have fun getting that magicked skull! And then you get to do all this again for your subjob!
So, in total, you've barely managed to see 5 zones, and all of it nervously and obsessively watching for something that might kill you. Travel is slow, and full of the same harrowing trek... it'll be a few more levels before you can make the trek without a Chocobo and be sure of no aggro.
FFXIV 1-20
Right off your surroundings are more interesting, and far less dangerous. Your first trip is to a base camp, where you can set your homepoint, gather with other adventurers, and make getting KO'd a little less painful in terms of travel time. As you progress, you move to new base camps, which you can teleport to at any time, saving time.
Your starting gear isn't much more colorful, but to be fair, it's starting gear. But the options open up quite quickly. Weapons are probably a little less impressive that the FFXI options, but the armor is MUCH better. As is the fact that the options are much wider, allowing you to create a mix that works for you, and even make a 'look' for RP purposes, even if the gear includes stuff that's far too high level for you. Reds, blues, greens and shiny, shiny metal all show up early, diluting the brown-ness. Too bad you have to repair it occasionally, but if you have the right crafts leveled, you can plunk down right on the spot and do it yourself.
The opponents initially are still pretty brown, and getting your butt kicked by a rat or marmot is possibly even worse than getting stomped by a rabbit. But you've already got puks, moles, and although they're out of your level range at first, gigantic crabs, ants, goats, and dragonish lizards. Aggro is there, but there are safe paths to take, and skirting it isn't nearly the crap shoot it is in FFXI. Essentially, if you stick to the roads, you will generally be safe. Safe enough to make the run to the other starting cities even. The base camps provide waypoints along the way that you can attune to for free, and once you've attuned to one, you can teleport to it at any time. While not practical due to your limited anima supply, it's great if you're in a hurry, and want to get somewhere fast.
The ferry ride is easily accessible right from Limsa Lominsa and is... boring. To be fair, it sucks. There's no aggroing mobs on deck now, but there's also no scenery, and in fact, no sense of motion at all. And it's usually raining. Thankfully, they don't make you pay for the yawnfest.
There's also a notable lack of towering ancient monoliths. The aetheryte is supposedly a relic, true, but it's so commonplace as to be mundane. Also, straying from the beaten path can quickly take you into aggro death territory.
However, leveling is quick, and thanks to levequests, actually profitable. and there are lots of little caves and nooks to explore. There's not as much there yet as FFXI has currently, but there's promise of things to come.
***
In closing... FFXIV is a new game, and so far we've barely gotten out of the Dunes, so to speak. We've hardly gone far enough to judge. However... how much had you accomplished by level 20 in FFXI? Leveled a job and sub, maybe gotten your chocobo license? I've made myself my first sword, and got XP for it. My character is much more rounded, has much cooler-looking gear, and though I've died quite a bit, it doesn't feel as onerous.
Yes, FFXIV is a much easier game than FFXI. But I don't think it's fair to say there's less to explore. It's just less dangerous to explore it. FFXI tended to herd you where it wanted you to go and be by filling all the peripheral places with nasty death. Even the areas you were SUPPOSED to be were full of slightly less nasty death. Vana'diel comes across as a dangerous place.
That may be a good thing. That may be what you prefer. And that's why they're still running FFXI. FFXI is a much more hardcore game, and it will remain suited to those who want more of a challenge and struggle.
But all of the issues you've cited with FFXIV? I've had many a friend who cited the very same issues with FFXI, and who never got past level 30. I told them the really good stuff doesn't start until later levels, but they weren't willing to deal with the frustration and grind.
So in summary, BOTH games are pretty desolate when you're level 20. FFXI has a lot more polish, seasonal events, etc, but it's had 8 years to develop that. Prune away all of the stuff added by RoTZ, COP, TOAU and WOTG, and I imagine it was a pretty empty place on launch too. Especially for a level 20.
At least in FFXIV if your friends start in a different city, it won't take a couple of weeks of level grinding before you can safely meet up with them.