My Proposed Solutions to Improve Player Retention

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Originally Posted by Kuwagami

I think that's your major issue rather than anything else. Are you sure your server is well crowded at all in the first place ? Or are people waiting for 2.2 to come back ? Because on Balmung there are a lot of ifrit/titan parties, and a few Garuda ones, mostly for learning.

Also, if you stay in the cities (especially Gridania) or mor dhona (even wineport), you'll see a lot of end game players because they tend to gather there. The new players are either in dungeons, quests or fating somewhere.

As I wander a lot from not using the teleport, I see a lot of people everywhere, like around 30 to 100 per map. Some levelling areas are less crowded for obvious reasons (no point going in western thanalan or central thanalan besides the storyline for example. also, no point going around limsa except wineport/costa and maybe aleport), but the south shroud, east shroud, north shroud, Coerthas, southern Thanalan and Northern Thanalan are never empty.

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Goblin is a fairly small server yes, but where are the endgame players that used to be here? For example: the leader of the largest FC on the server quit because he was bored. Handed the leadership down to someone and they quit. Endgame players regardless of how many there are are leaving. Also, Duty Finder looks for players on many different servers and again didn't find 8 people for Ifrit Ex in over 2 and a half hours.

Also, just ran through all of the shroud (bar Gridania) and counted 28 people in total. I seriously doubt that many are in dungeons.

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Originally Posted by Talligan

Not really. I was talking about retaining players like me, casual players who most likely make up the bulk of any MMO.

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Oh. Sorry. Yes casuals are more numerous, however, they aren't reliable subs because casual means you aren't serious about it by definition. If you aren't serious about it you may not resubscribe for a couple of weeks leaving a gap in SE's money. Hardcore players are the ones who pay the bills. They subscribe every single second and play all day and push the content to the max. Honestly you need to keep both happy and Hardcore players are apparently not happy if they quit playing until the next patch or permanently.

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Originally Posted by Kuwagami

Also, you'll be in good right to say that "the game is dying" if player base drop after the 1st expansion, ot before...

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Tell that to SWTOR and many other MMO's. Critical adoption time is before the first expansion. Not after everyone's already left and expect to see an expansion have people return when the game is off their radar already. Really?

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Originally Posted by Kuwagami

I think that's your major issue rather than anything else. Are you sure your server is well crowded at all in the first place ? Or are people waiting for 2.2 to come back ? Because on Balmung there are a lot of ifrit/titan parties, and a few Garuda ones, mostly for learning.

Also, if you stay in the cities (especially Gridania) or mor dhona (even wineport), you'll see a lot of end game players because they tend to gather there. The new players are either in dungeons, quests or fating somewhere.

As I wander a lot from not using the teleport, I see a lot of people everywhere, like around 30 to 100 per map. Some levelling areas are less crowded for obvious reasons (no point going in western thanalan or central thanalan besides the storyline for example. also, no point going around limsa except wineport/costa and maybe aleport), but the south shroud, east shroud, north shroud, Coerthas, southern Thanalan and Northern Thanalan are never empty.

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I'm sorry to say Kuwagami, but even I noticed a drop in Balmung's Server Population. I logged in on a Saturday at Peak Time, and was in Mor'dhona, only saw maybe 50 people in the city, and another 20-30 outside of the city. I went around the popular places that you mentioned, and didn't see hundreds, maybe a few dozen but not many.

Only on Monday Night is when I see Wineport full of people, maybe 100+ people. Every other day of the week, I may see 60 or so people there. And just on Sunday, I removed 30 (Deleted) from my friend list. I am sure that states that people on our well populated server are either leaving the server, which is what I hope, or they mailed all their items to someone else and deleted the toon.

And I found out last week, that 15 of my friends on Hyperion have quit the game, after several FC's seemed to have vanished in the last few weeks, with reasons going from economy to end-game. Even I can see that the population is starting to drop. Maybe its pre 2.2, maybe some will return, but I can already tell you, I won't be here for 2.2. Last night in Coil, was the worst time I ever had with 3 Pugs who decided they were all mighty and the pug healers we got just couldn't cut it.

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Originally Posted by FoxiLady

A quick look at my friend list that has only seen one friend log in over the past week indicates a lot of people are not currently playing the game.

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Because the friend list of one player one one server is somehow an accurate indicator.

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Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

I have noticed that on my server we have gone from maybe 400+ people in Mor Dhona around November; to <100 people most of the time. Other areas? In all the outside areas of Limsa Lominsa combined, I just counted 11 people. The game is dying. The percentage of turn 4 clearing players has to be AT LEAST 1/3 by now.

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Because the experience of one player one one server allows him to pull seemingly random fractions out of thin air. And even if that 1/3 was remotely accurate (which lets face it, only someone at SE could possibly know something like that), that would still mean 2/3 haven't cleared T4 by your accounts, which isn't particularly indicative of a problem.

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Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

GOh. Sorry. Yes casuals are more numerous, however, they aren't reliable subs because casual means you aren't serious about it by definition. If you aren't serious about it you may not resubscribe for a couple of weeks leaving a gap in SE's money. Hardcore players are the ones who pay the bills. They subscribe every single second and play all day and push the content to the max. Honestly you need to keep both happy and Hardcore players are apparently not happy if they quit playing until the next patch or permanently.

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casual doesn't mean unreliable sub. and hardcore doesn't mean reliable sub.
it's all up to the player themselves.

These are awful ideas.

Rather than not having loot at all, why not offer gil rewards in CT? Its already a pain having to deal with random people and not get the loot, but then you need to repair gear?

Atleast offer 1000 gil for repair costs.

The question is, are they quitting for good, or just for now whilst more things come out? I've seen a few "I'm leaving the game" threads on my FC forums, but a lot of them are more interested in playing the other MMOs coming out and don't want to pay a sub whilst they are doing so. I expect some of those to return maybe in 2.3 or 2.4 when there's more things for them to do. And I don't think there is any issue with that. As long as a core subscription base exists, that can support the game's development, any surplus that comes and goes is perfectly acceptable.

Sure, SE would love every single player to stay and never leave, but I don't think even they aren't delusional enough to expect that. I'm sure they are aware they have a 3 month patch cycle and that for half of that time there'll be a dip in existing players going. What we don't know though, is how many people come in during that time.

On the topic, though, I think these kinds of changes would make the game less likeable. This isn't the early 2000s any more. Players want to just log on, and do things. Even if they don't see a drop they want, the fact that a drop is guaranteed gives hope that "next time I will get my item". The same applies to the removal of caps on tomes or the increase in acquisition rate of said items; it reduces the time it will take for new/casual players to catch up to the "current" content - and most of these players will always be behind the curve anyway. In most cases, its only those who have burned out the content or are not making the progress they want that are leaving. Yes, some of the game design is a cause, but it doesn't affect the majority of the player base.