I should add that in FF14:
1. You are never lost, at least not for a very long time. The game bend over backwards to spell everything out for you. And the icon cannot be large enough to point out that there is a quest and this is what you should do next. There are so many pointers to let you know where to go and what mobs are in your quest objective.
2. You do a lot of quests for your first job. You can tackle second job and craft job after you reach level 10 and do your first job quests. Then it's a matter of switching weapon and you can become your other jobs - which also come with their respective quests. Hunting Guide has its own level, once you complete one list, a more difficult one will start, which you will need to party with others to complete.
3. Once you level your second jobs, you can use the Hunting Guide which is basically a list of Kill X mob these many times for XP. You constantly move around and never stay in one place for too long. The Hunting Guide mob will have its own icon so you know which one is available. The icon disappears once you completed the quest.
4. FATE will scale depending on how many people are doing it so it won't be too easy or too difficult. Lots of FATE happening all the time, which is great and you will never run out of this. 400 different ones are planned at launch. You can find them easily with your map, it listed how much time left so you know which one is worth your while and what level it is. You will be level capped if you are too high - this way you always get experience and you can help out other people.
5. I have not yet try dungeon but it seems it will be very much similar to WoW dungeon style. Hope the auto join grouping system will be as good as WoW. Instead of AFK and shouting, they will auto sort you to join dungeon. And you can still xp while doing quest. Great addition if I may say, you will never get bored for too long.
6. Crafting is improved tremendously. You get your own spawn point so you do not have to fight with others over resources. It has an auto finder to show you the nearest spot to farm and it replenish quickly. Farming is such a joy and relaxing, no more stress over fighting it out with other people. You can just explore areas and farm at your leisure. Recipe is listed automatically, no more looking at wiki.
7. It is extremely beginner's friendly. You are given many starting gears and more money than you need. Every gear is spelled out so you are not lost. You have separate bags for gears and items. Items are sorted automatically for those of you who are neat freaks.
8. The game is FAST!! You get your flee ability, and it is not 5 mnts cool down. Your walk is basically running speed, so getting to one place to another is a zippy. Everyone can home point every 15 minutes. Everyone can teleport around (using your gil) to any places you have attune to. No more tele taxi. Airship is INSTANT!! The areas are huge - if you like exploring you are in for a treat. It is big and massive with so many nook and crannies and shortcut.
9. Each jobs are capable to solo to some extent. There will be mix and match skills from any jobs you previously leveled so the customization are there. As a healer you are never feel useless and cannot solo, the difficulty will ramp out after level 10 and you better be familiar and creative with how you use your abilities.
10. We also get a director who plays the game, and plays other MMO games :) and will do whatever it takes to please the audience. More hardcore contents are on the pipe. More jobs coming, one new race (Viera it seems) coming soon. Magitek from FF6. Chocobo NPC to help you (can act as tank, healer or dps).
Since I will get the PC for free - I am debating if I should get the collector edition for PS3...$40 more for book, CD, behind the scene dvd, and vanity items (which looks rather nice).