I was actually partially serious when I asked if people were still playing FFXI... I just don't hear aything about it. I mean, I'd imagine someone was playing it somewhere, but it's definitely dropped out of the spotlight. I don't go out of my way to find information about games other than EQ1; a very good indication of the success of WoW is the fact that despite my EQ1 tunnel vision I still hear about it all the time. I hear about EQII as well, but only rehash of how much it truly sucks. When I bought my copy of DoD Tuesday, the guy at the game stop counter even mentioned that EQ1 was outselling EQ2 in that store.
Guild Wars is already fading fast from my radar... every once in a while a news article or a post reminds me that CoH or SWG are still around. Hardly anything from Final Fantasy though, which, given its reputation, does not upset me. I figured that game was officially pronounced dead when the new PS2 was released with absolute zero support for the hard drive. Have they released any expansions for it?
Anyway, as to the original topic... I feel for ya. I'm sleeping or at work during most patch times, since I have an East coast 8-5 type job, so those really only affect my /afk baz trading. That wasn't always the case, though... I've sat through many a patch thinking of all the things I could be doing in game instead. Although it does still drive me nuts that, after spending an hour driving around to get a new expansion, I have to spend another hour installing and patching before I can play it...