So, as we speak, I've got the game downloading.
I played it during Beta some and rather liked what I saw, but got such precious little time and now I see a -50% sale and I'm like "you know what? Why not?".
So now that I'm about to go into an MMORPG, I came here and looked through the stickied threads, but did not find the answer to my main questions about the game:
1). Did they implement any type of automated market system yet? During Beta, I remember reading that there was no Auction House and that Bazaars were the only method to sell things (and something having to do with NPC helpers or something...).
2). If so... how good are the markets usually? Can a player expect to reasonably function in the market, or is this more like the old FFXI where everything you'd want to buy is priced at a point that would cause for hours upon hours of farming to get enough money to buy it, meanwhile things you'd get don't sell for very much at all?
3). How about self-sustainability, the ability to craft everything you need for yourself with some mild work?
4). How heavily "Group Required" is this game? FFXI was so bad that you could not do much of anything without at least a 3 person group. I'm not expecting a single-player game here, but it'd be nice to function on my own once in awhile when nobody is available.
Which brings me to my last question (sorry about all the questions):
5). How good are the Looking for Group tools and/or how many jobs are either in too much demand, or not enough demand (many jobs in FFXI weren't really all that much wanted, while some jobs you couldn't live without last I played)?
When I played Beta, it looked like they really came a long way in making an awesome game, but that was only the first few levels; some of the MMO demons rear their ugly heads only in later levels or endgame, so I was more curious of what I was getting into.
Either way, $25 + $30 or so for a couple months isn't a bad price at all so even if I end up not liking it enough to stay for all the Endgame stuff, I'd still get my money's worth out of it.