It was to try something new and experiment with a new change in game mechanics and a new enhanced battle system all set in an online world. They have attracted over 2 million players so far and that isn't for no good reason. So they have made quite a large profit off of it. The game wasn't jackpot but they suceeded in bringing out a very popular MMO to the gaming industry and it starts it's roots with the other Final Fantasy titles if you look at it from a certain angle with it's class system having the traditional classes such as White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Blue Mage, Bard, Warrior, Thief, Dragoon, Dark Knight, Paladin, Monk, Samurai, Ninja, Ranger, Dancer, and ect.

I happen to enjoy the game and I'm content with it, there's a few flaws but they can easily be ignored if you look at most other MMO's because it suceeds most of them and it's only real rival as far as I'm concerned is World of Warcraft which I also played but I didn't get into it as much as FFXI. It's story isn't stellar and lacks any real plot that makes sense, poor controls, the classes aren't too interesting or fun to play, graphics are kind of dumb looking especially for the characters, it's not very challenging since you can solo most of your xp and level all the way to level 60 atleast practically by yourself and it's pretty easy to get end game stuff as long as you have a semi-decent guild and a lot of times your very first raid will score you some loot. It's like a strange mix of Diablo and Warcraft with cartoon graphics whereas FFXI has beautiful 3D rendered graphics. It also depends on what areas you are in as the expansion areas look more vibrant. There's also that issue with your graphics card being good enough to fully bring out it's graphics to it's peak performance.

As far as the story goes, if you took the time to actually engage in it and have a more in depth analysis of it you would become more attached to it and the characters. You would find that they are very well developed and not lacking like you see in a typical game of it's genre. I was actually reminded of Seymour in FFX from one of the villains, in terms of how he spoke and looked. He was the charismatic type like Seymour but at the same time manipulative and insane.

So I doubt Square's mindset was to attract only people who play the MMO genre. Any Final Fantasy fan could enjoy it, I'm one but it ultimately boils down to if you like how the game mechanics are and if you can efficiently adjust to them. If you can't then FFXI probably isn't for you because you have to deal with the mechanics every time you log in the game. You have to be somewhat patient to obtain and purchase the items of your choice, the monsters that have a desired item may take a while to appear and may not always give you the desired item. The economy is something else to look at when trying an MMO, some desired items may not be within your reach due to their price tag and money isn't easy to come by in FFXI, thus you have to have patience and farm for some until your wallet reaches the sum you want in order to purchase that item. I kind of enjoy farming so that's not a big deal for me. It adds to the challenge factor and keeps you busy.

Also, you must take the time to learn how to cope with other players and form groups with them and level up. You can't really level up by yourself which takes some consideration if you prefer to solo a lot or not, in that case FFXI probably isn't for you either. However, there is a class that excels in the soloing field so you could give that a try before scrapping the game.

To me, FFXI is the definitive MMORPG but to each his own ofcourse.

all this is true, but dont overestimate the game, there are now many games that are better in the mmo world, even runescape has 4x the memberships, this is the reason for a updateed mmo in FF14 not just a new expansion pack