servers way more empty now? Still doing the linear gear climb?

[detlef]

I don't think it's accurate to lay the blame on a single cause. For me, and a lot of people I know, the gear upscale IS the primary issue, and I've gone from playing for several hours every day for years to essentially not playing at all.

I agree completely with this. I don't think that there was any one cause, I just think that saying "it's an old game and has been declining for years" is a lazy answer.

It's likely fair to say that the population is always in steady decline because a game like this isn't going to attract new players. However, the current lull in content definitely caused the game to lose players at a faster rate, not to mention how many players left due to the bungled RME fiasco. And at exactly the right time, 14 was waiting with arms open to receive disenchanted FFXI players.

It's actually a real shame because I, among others, thought that a new expansion would revive the game. Instead, things have become quite bleak.

[predatory]

The problem is SE did a few things almost simultaneously, and it had a snowball effect on population. They obsoleted R/M/Es with the release of SoA, and regardless of what some say here, quite a few people did leave over this; They stated, (and later recanted), that the fix to the R/M/Es was going to be to add the weapon skills from those most coveted of weapons onto the newly created delve weapons, which drove quite a few more R/M/E owners from the game; they released FFXIV, which took a significant chunk of the population with it, (but new game releases have always done this for a month or two until the glitter wears off); and finally they failed to add anything significant to stem the tide, even the upcoming November, (which on the outside looks huge) does little to address what I see as the main issue FFXI will never come back from the recent hits it took.

After all the recent hits FFXI has taken, (even if we assume some pie in the sky, all the R/M/E players are gonna flock back after the update- something that most likely will not happen, some will come back sure, but not all), a chain reaction has taken place and as more people left for the reasons stated above, even more people left out of sheer boredom or because they couldn't get things done, and that's where the problem lies, because the ones who left because they couldn't get anything done or were bored, will never come back, to them this game is a done deal, and at this point even if all the people who left over R/M/Es do come back, it will only bring the population back to between 600 and 700 during peak hours on Bahamut, and they'll quickly leave out of boredom.

Expansions are supposed to bring people to the game, not drive them out in droves, but this expansion was so poorly thought out, and executed, that it actually managed to drive people away rather than bring them into the fold. When the Delve weapons were introduced the R/M/Es should have been upgraded to match their strength, the wasn't enough content added to make the expansion self sustaining, and rather than keeping the old gear relevant until there was enough content for the new expansion to stand on it's own, they brushed it all aside with no real plans to revise anything.

Everyone on the FFXI team knew for almost a year that SE was going to be revamping FFXIV, but instead of having a major update ready to compete with FFXIVs release they gave us crap and still have yet to release an update that has any real content, or an update that brings relevance back to some of the older content. Had they made a major content release simultaneously with the release of FFXIV, a lot of the people who went to 14 would have come back to do the new and revamped old content when they grew bored with 14, as it stands right now, there is no reason to come back, and the upcoming November update is doing little in that regard

In November they're fixing R/M/Es and upgrading AF armor to match SoA AF armor, (BFD that should have been done at the release of SoA, and when they added Run and Geo AF); they're adding new reives, (nobody does the old ones why would SE expect the new ones to be any different?); they're updating fov chests and spawn times and drop rates from the older nms so lower levels can get gear more readily, (who really cares? Go naked to 30,then go to abyssea naked until you can get into curor gear at 78, who really worries about lowbie gear other than AF and gear for Maat fights anymore?); they're adding mog garden quests, a default choice to go to your mog garden, and a porter moogle for your mog garden, (I personally could give a rats ass less about mog gardens); they're adding stuff to monstrosity, (never did it so I have no opinion on it); they're adding new bcnms, (I wanted the old battlefields revamped not new bcnms). There's really no actual substance to this update, it's just more fluff. You don't go into a steak house to eat salad, you go to eat meat, and like every update since SoA this one lacks any meat.

[predatory]

Me and a couple friends are coming back after a breaking (one since ToAU, the other since seekers started). Ive only been gone since May, but on a Sunday night around 11pm i noticed that the /sea all turned out around 600~ players on Asura. I know its not the best time frame to check how its doing, but thats the lowest ive seen it in a long time.

Are the servers really that empty all of a sudden? Did 14 put a dent in it? I played 14 for a couple weeks and blew right through it because its another post WoW casual fest and i was bored as hell and was basically done with all the endgame content/was basically done with my relic weapon (yes they are jokes to get in that game). I dont see that people will stick with it, especially FFXI players who are used to games with a lot of depth.

My reason other than FF14 for leaving was how the content was in seekers which was turned into a very linear gear climb (which is what 14 has and its awful and dull). Have they stuck to that still or are they spreading out the good gear between events?

There were 600 on asura? Wow, that's at least 100 more than we have on saturday during peak playing hours on Bahamut, and upwards of 200 more than are on some days during the week, and it's not just 14 that's causing the population drop, 14 is just an excuse many use, it's a combination of the whole rme thing, outdating gear, a poorly planned expansion, and just plain nothing really fun to do

Edited to add: on Bahamut

[Camiie]

I'm just going to reiterate that I didn't quit playing because of the new gear grind. I quit because of the lack of variety in endgame content, and the complete and utter uselessness of all but one of my jobs. I was left with one job to play and 2 events that would garner me progress. The jobs I hadn't leveled either didn't interest me or required gear that I didn't feel I could realistically obtain. So basically if there wasn't a Delve or Skirmish run going on there was nothing enjoyable for me to do.