Originally Posted by
Vil
Two completely different games with different lore. The only similarities are the races that look a like, but even their backgrounds are different.
You'd be surprised at how easy it is for some to get into XIV, even with resistance. Back when 1.0 launched, I said to myself many times "no way I'll quit for this" because I had so many years invested in XI it was hard to let go. But let go I did.
I am ten years older than I was when I first picked up XI...needless to say, I do not have the time I once had to be able to sink hours into participating in XI's content. This is one of the main factors that made XIV more appealing. I didn't have to log in to wait 3 hours for a party/alliance to form to go do the latest voidwatch/delve/salvage/nyzul/whateverishotatm
There are many I've met in XIV that migrated from XI due to similar circumstances. XI is a huge huge time sink, but many are reluctant to budge because the XI way is all they've known for years. I kept both my subs going for a few months, but eventually I just stopped logging into XI altogether.
I reactivated about two months ago, and now play as a casual. It is considerably hard to play "catch up" in this game, since, coupled with the time sink and other factors, it has taken me at least a month to even fall into Voidwatch. Adoulin? Haven't even touched it, and I bought it the day it came out. I'm still playing catch up on the gear I missed in my 3 year hiatus.
I don't think tying these two games together is a good idea, since if one falls, the other will fall with it. Nothing wrong with having subs for both games, if you have the time for both obviously. I also don't think XI will suffer when XIV relaunches. There were similar predictions made back when it first launched, and here we are three years later with about the same number of people more or less lol.
Server merging, much like F2P, will not fix the game. One thing everyone has to take into consideration is that this game is old..ten years old. It's kinda like asking someone today to try to get into a PS1 game..its a hard sell when there are newer, better things to invest one's time in. Unless someone is there to show you the ropes, its too much to try and get into. Ten years worth of content for an entirely vanilla player is not very enticing no matter how many freebies you throw at him. Hell, even I felt like it was an uphill battle trying to read up and learn all the stuff I missed in just -three- years lol.
That said, XI still brings in profits, so there is no danger of it shutting down. As long as people are subbing, the game will keep going (EQ is still truckin' along, and its older than XI lol).