Sort of makes you happy that Final Fantasy XIV didn't have a running in-game calendar like Final Fantasy XI did. If you were to attempt and go for full-blown immersion based off the actual world calendar, you'd basically be playing a hundreds-year old character whose life seems to fly by at one hour per day, give or take a few real-life minutes. 
In any event, it may very well ultimately depend on the amount of roleplay that you do. If you're a very heavy player who has scenarios and scenes coming out the whazoo after about two years of playing, treating those two years like, well ... two years, may be the best option, because trying to figure out how to condense so much activity in to just a year could be troubling. On the other hand, a lighter roleplayer who isn't at it so much may go with the option that dictates that everything which has happened with them happened inside of just the 1< years that 1.0 took place in. But that's only going off the possibility that Options A and B are the only two options available.
The crux of the issue, in the end, seems to fall on what you said at the end involving 'others'. The way time works in an MMO, beyond the fact that night and day whiz by from a game mechanics standpoint at a staggering pace, just varies too much between players to really work well unless you are working on a specific storyline with someone where you are figuring out things like time passed, time spent together, et cetera. It's not something that can be dictated or forced upon others, really, without risking the possibility of discontentment and disagreement, especially if there hasn't been some sort of hammering out of details prior.
Seems like the safest bet is to simply handle time in a very general, almost vague manner, where specific dates or elapsed periods of time are left out of casual, non-storyline'd roleplaying.
In any event, it may very well ultimately depend on the amount of roleplay that you do. If you're a very heavy player who has scenarios and scenes coming out the whazoo after about two years of playing, treating those two years like, well ... two years, may be the best option, because trying to figure out how to condense so much activity in to just a year could be troubling. On the other hand, a lighter roleplayer who isn't at it so much may go with the option that dictates that everything which has happened with them happened inside of just the 1< years that 1.0 took place in. But that's only going off the possibility that Options A and B are the only two options available.
The crux of the issue, in the end, seems to fall on what you said at the end involving 'others'. The way time works in an MMO, beyond the fact that night and day whiz by from a game mechanics standpoint at a staggering pace, just varies too much between players to really work well unless you are working on a specific storyline with someone where you are figuring out things like time passed, time spent together, et cetera. It's not something that can be dictated or forced upon others, really, without risking the possibility of discontentment and disagreement, especially if there hasn't been some sort of hammering out of details prior.
Seems like the safest bet is to simply handle time in a very general, almost vague manner, where specific dates or elapsed periods of time are left out of casual, non-storyline'd roleplaying.
A friend to the end to depend on you can.
I walk through the sea, swim through the sands.
To the edges of the earth, to your rescue when you hurt,
Only thing I learnt is I'm not Superman.
~Giant Panda - Strings
I walk through the sea, swim through the sands.
To the edges of the earth, to your rescue when you hurt,
Only thing I learnt is I'm not Superman.
~Giant Panda - Strings
