Current ffxi is actually pretty fun on par with any other recent MMO's ive tried (archeage, wildstar, etc.) The quality of life improvments and the stuff that the windower guys have done have me going strong.
Don't need people to do alot of stuff in the game now, however having a close group of 5-8 folks means you can pretty much do whatever you want..
however... they are about to make a big announcement tomorow about the future of XI.... it could go either way lol.