also FFXI is zoned to the extreame. So when you jump to a new zone theres a loading screne. That's very dial-up friendly. Remeber in tearms of internet japan is a little behind us, DSL and cable aren't as common over there as here. And this game is a year old so it was made with dial-up in mind, or so Square says.
FFXI is basicaly a glorified Console RPG. It has none of the things I hated about DAoC (like looseing attribute points when you die or rez sickness, or keeping track of equipemt conditions) but lacking custamability (all the fighters are same statwise etc). The game has a more complete, polised feel to it then DAoC. The graphics are amazeing (the low rez is 100x better the DAoC) the world is more fleshed out and the games quests make you feel like your the only one doing them (there are cut scenes, you deal with a story and characters that are of importance to the kingdom). After playing this I don't think I could ever play DAoC again, DAoC is just an inferior product in a lot of ways. And the few things DAoC does do better don't out weight all the sub-par things.
And their going to be adding DAoC style RvR too in a coupple of months.