Probably private servers. I have a few friends playing on them..not something I recommend, and something tells me talking about them is a ToS breach of RPGfan...
Yes.
Not something you recommend? And why is that? I couldn't care less about talking about private servers for a 10 year old game on its last legs.
Because most of the private servers my friends used were full of assholes who enjoyed hacking, and left one of them with an empty character in the middle of Tavnazian Safehold and no way to leave as he hadn't done the quest to get out. As far as he knew, the guy who did it was a gm for the server.
Also, what are you talking about, XI is far from on its last legs. The company just announced a new expansion, and it's player base is still conpromised of a large number of active players, more than enough for squeenix to maintain a profit. Just because you don't have any respect for the game doesn't mean it's multimillion player base doesn't either.
I may not like FFXI anymotr, but I'd be lying if I said the game was dying.