Rewde, welcome to the boards. Now... lemme see if I can give you a little bit of insight as well.
I have no clue about EQ1. But, like someone before me, FFXI was my first MMORPG. If I must compare them, I'd say EQ2 is much more fun. Here's what I like about EQ2:
1. Experience Points. While I'm a roleplayer that doesn't really think getting to the higher levels is more important than "living" in the world, I'm glad that one can get a goodly (yes, goodly) amount of XP when questing (this is great!), grinding (mob after mob after mob after... no thank you!) and visiting locales of note (Whoo, I found the Claymore Monument, I get XP!). Questing is what got my Guardian to level 22 and my Predator to 18. I never did level grinding. If you don't go out fighting all the time and rest a bit, you even get bonus experience points the next time you adventure.
2. The world. The lands are very nice and realistic. Characters and equipment are cool. And with a good computer system, chain and plate armor is sweetly drool worthy.
3. Combat. I love soloing not because I'm anti-group, but because I'm a solitary character. Not having to rely on grouping for any sort of advancement, is something I like. I hate the forced grouping in FFXI. Being able to use abilities as long as I had the energy for it is much better than taking a beating and waiting for a TP gauge to fill up. HO's are much better now but must also be executed quicker.
4. Crafting. I love it and hate it. I love the challenge since in FFXI all I had to do was choose what I wanted to make and pray that it worked (whacky factors in a successful craft is bull... stuff). I've noticed that there is a bit more randomness in crafting than before, but most of the quality is still in your control. I hate crafting because of the tediousness of all the sub combines. Then there's the interdependancy issue, which recently had a good shaking to.
5. Housing. I like the ability to invite friends over to my room (my house when I can afford the blasted thing, if ever). In FFXI, we can't. Too bad you can just buy a plot and plop your own house in the spot. But, hey... it's till pretty good.
6. Quest journal. Explicit information for each quest. Only a few of them have been vague enough to make me want to come to this and the official forums to look for information.
Now, for virtually every point, they can be put to WoW and be valid as well. But I won't get into that since you're just asking for EQ2.
EverQuest 2 is a great game. It still needs to be ironed out but if you start now, it's still pretty fun.
I would recommend seeing if you have friends currently playing EQ2 and then playing around with their character, or better yet, make a new character if they have the open slot (only 4 character slots by default, 8 total with station pass). Granted you have a free month, but still, $50 on a game you won't play if you don't like it? Ehhh...
*edited because monotonous wasn't the word I wanted to use.*
Edited, Tue Feb 15 19:51:22 2005 by ArcosKojin