and that you can't schedule your life around the game.
Not everyone has the luxury of scheduling their life around FFXI anymore though.
Granted that advancing in FFXI only takes 2 things - scheduling your life around it and more play time
5 people with a regular schedule not interrupted by RL that also need the content and are capable and geared enough to do it? Yeah, that's kinda the hard part. I know I'd get more done if I stayed awake 1-3 AM NA peak hours, but can't.
IDK, these things definitely sound to me like "I have too much stuff going on in my real life and FFXI is too demanding of my time". I guess you didn't explicitly say that you don't have time for XYZ event specifically, but you definitely talk about how FFXI wants more of your time (or specific parts of your time) than what you're willing to give it.
Me: Hey K123, you wanna join my team in a pick-up soccer league?
K123: Not everyone has the luxury of scheduling their life around soccer
K123: Getting good at soccer involves two things: scheduling your life around it, and playing it a lot
K123: You need to find 12 players to field a team, not get interrupted by other activities. Sure, if I was available from 5-8pm every night, I could become a better soccer player, but I can't do that.
Me: OK, if your time is too valuable to spend it playing soccer, I understand.
K123: I didn't say my time was too valuable to play soccer, please quote me saying that.