Reasons Why FFXI is Declining

[Afania]

Just wondering why u feel that way and what u don't like about it? I've heard that from a few ppl but imo I am having fun playing xiv. Its fast, there's a ton of things going on, lots of people, and it is beautiful. I like the controls and the game play customization. My only complaint right now is that it seems way too easy, not just leveling but everything I experienced so far hasn't proven to be a challenge. But yet im only lvl 14

It really depend on what you're looking for in an MMORPG.

XIV is linear, very straight forward, and the game scope is small. It often give you tons of things, quests/fate/dungeon to do, and dungeon mechanics are fun for the first time.

The issue is not every players are looking for this kind of linear experience. I think being "immersive" is one very important aspect in MMO. MMO is supposed to be a 2nd world for players to live in, with strong social aspect and sense of living in the world, not just a game where you quickly beat 1 thing to do another.

XIV has very small but pretty map, at first it's new and fresh to look at every pretty locations. Until you keep playing and realized every map in the game doens't feel real....desert is small and full of stuff, but in reality desert should be something like XI, where you walk forever to one place to another, seeing nothing but sand ._. Snowy field is the same. It's supposed to be something like XI, long walk, no camp, no city, where you get lost and actually feel cold. XIV is not like that, you get a snowy field where each town is 2 min of bird ride between each other, and 1000 players killing FATE pop in the middle of the road. In the name of "accessibility and fun", you can head to 1 location to another in a 2m ride and the sense of adventure is completely gone.

Same for character customization, in MMO you're supposed to play however you want, live however you want. In XIV the entire game been telling me where to go next, what to do next, what my job role is. And I can't do things I want to do, until I cleared previous content.

Plenty of players said XIV is fun, because it really tried really hard to give you tones of things to do in very short amount of time. Exciting dungeon bosses one after another. Fate is fast, quests only need a few bird ride/teleport and you can finish many of them in 5 min. But for some reason, I feel I'm disconnected to the game, there are no immersion, just instant gratification. All there's left in XIV, is "What's the boss mechanic of next dungeon?" or "I need to get an Ifrit weapon so I can do Garuda, next exciting boss yeahhhh!".

The more I play XIV, the more I miss old XI. I wish dev can bring old XI back ._. Ppl need to stop bashing designs that doesn't bring instant gratification, because instant gratification isn't necessary zomg awesome, especially for games like XI, which already has another instant gratification competitior.

[vienne]

Afania, you wonderfully worded how i feel about xiv < > xi

[Kuvo]

Afania, you wonderfully worded how i feel about xiv < > xi

I agree, afania has a lot of great points and it made me see them in the game too. I honestly wanted xiv to be an extension of xi but I need to look at xiv as a completely different game. I will continue to play both and see how xiv develops but all your points are very valid.

[Daemon]

Instant gratification games, designs, objectives only serve the purpose to stimulate the serotonin levels of a player. Sort of the same as a drug addict getting a temporary high only to waste their time altering their mind only on the high itself and forget about the harm it's doing them and how they are ruining their life around people who care.

Although that example is several times more hardcore than a game. It's still the same concept just slower and more subtle that people can't see right away.

[Kuvo]

I haven't done much of anything with the new expansion except for unlocking the 2 new jobs but ill tell u that I think I will now. All that new gear and weaponsre so amazing. I love playing the old content still and that gear and weapons would be perfect for the type of gameplay im looking to do..... also me and 2 other friends have been leveling a bit old fashion. We have been doing FoV in all different areas matching our levels. Like the other day we partied in the jungle killing mandies outside kazham. I bit slow in leveling but capped all our skills and its been fun doing so. Started to bring back the low level adventure again.

[Damane]

i played now FFXIV for 3 weeks aaaaand while the game is fun, i cant fathom the community there. so unless my friends of FFXI gather on one server to play in 14, i will pass on that one ¬.¬

[Kuvo]

i played now FFXIV for 3 weeks aaaaand while the game is fun, i cant fathom the community there. so unless my friends of FFXI gather on one server to play in 14, i will pass on that one ¬.¬

Ya, to your point I was doing some random quest and saw 2 other people starting the same quest. So I asked them if they want to join together and do the quest. They said why bother because you can solo 99% of these quest lines. So I get your point about the community. I just wanted to try and meet new ppl but it makes for a good point. On ffxiv there is no reason (thus far) to develop in game friendships based on content.
Xi started to fall apart in a similar fashion. Anything before aby, no one wants to be apart of so no one wants to help or adventure together anymore. Luckily I have 2 close friends that still play xi otherwise I would be gone.

[Byrth]

There has been a 50% drop in NA player logins within the last six months. Several factors are likely to be at play:
* Aging-game syndrome
* Developmental decisions (including the horizontal-to-vertical progression switch)
* The presence of competing games (like FFXIV)

I think that it is not wise to underestimate either of the last two factors, though the first factor cannot be ruled out totally. Based on some data from a mysterious source, I would be unsurprised if the majority of the effect was due to Dev decisions and if FFXIV was a minor effect.

[Damane]

There has been a 50% drop in NA player logins within the last six months. Several factors are likely to be at play:
* Aging-game syndrome
* Developmental decisions (including the horizontal-to-vertical progression switch)
* The presence of competing games (like FFXIV)

I think that it is not wise to underestimate either of the last two factors, though the first factor cannot be ruled out totally. Based on some data from a mysterious source, I would be unsurprised if the majority of the effect was due to Dev decisions and if FFXIV was a minor effect.

FFXIV had a rather huge effect, considering over half of my LS is gone playing it scathered around different servers :/