My posts over on Gamefaqs on this...
Heh I know the feeling, I've finally joined a second LS one for high level stuff, but I'm still thinking of sticking around mostly with my original. I was the second member of it and still talk with alot of the old friends there.
The part of the story that hit home is exploring Rise of Zilart for the first time. That is my big plan for Chains of Promethia. I'm trying my best to level to 75, not so much because I want to be big and bad. But because I want to be the highest level possible and then just explore the new areas. fight new monsters, find new quests. Just have fun exploring again, seeing what is out there for the first time. Getting to be one of the first people to enter new areas untouched yet.
There is something that is touched here, and to me thats why there is the sadness. I've felt this for a long while, call me crazy or not, but places even in games have their own ghosts. Everything you do and see in the game leaves a small imprint. Take a few moments while walking through any place in the game and just imagine what it was like in the past for others, or even your own memories. Many lives and many people have traveled through the game and seen many things.
This is a phenomon*sp?* i've felt with other games. I've spent alot of time playing om Muds, and Mucks and other text based games long before I joined FFXI. And there is a feeling you can get going back through old areas, remembering times past, people you don't see much any more, or likly never will. The ghosts of the past, the memories and friendships you've had. I still hang out at some of my old mucks and muds, afraid to disapear like those before to just be distant memories of friends.
Some times you have to just step back and remember what brought you to where you are. Leveling is fleeting, but the memories of friendships will stay with you all your life, even if you forget some part of you will remember, and some day down the road so might you.
FFXI is only a game, something that could be whiped out in a second by a virus or such, but the memories and the people that make up it can never die. The true heart of FFXI isn't leveling, isn't the coding, it isn't the money. It's the friendships, the people and the things you do and see. The game can be destroyed, but the heart never will.