My Proposed Solutions to Improve Player Retention

So.. I think we can all agree that a lot of endgame players are leaving the game now. Most would probably agree that lack of endgame content is a factor. However I do not believe it is the main issue. The current endgame content for the people that can down 1-4 easily is basically a Monday night raid and done for the week. The extreme primals are literally just mediocre i90 accessories and i90 weapons for alts. If you have already done that for all the alts you care about there just isn't much to do after Monday night.

A couple of changes I think would help bring players back for 2.2 and to stay:

• Make Coil Something you need to continually do.
  1. Change the weekly lockout on coil 1-9 to a Daily lockout.
  2. Drop the loot percentages to total around 50% per chest in each turn. (Meaning 50/50 chance you might not get loot at all.)
  3. Offer two difficulties. The harder difficulty would increase drop rates to 75% per chest.
• Change Crystal Tower to a 3 part raid.
  1. One drop right side gear, one left side, and the third drop an upgradable weapon.
  2. In addition to loot drops, After you beat all 3 you get a token. When you get a set amount (10-15?) you can cash them in and upgrade your i80 weapon to an i90. (Or comparable 2.2 ilvls)
  3. Keep the weekly loot lock in place, but make it per part.
• Add an extreme primal roulette for people that have cleared them.
  1. On completion give 5-7K gil, 200/100/50 tomes (Philosophy, Mythology, Newcurrency, respectively), and a 20% or so chance at a roulette exclusive mount.
  2. Keep the Daily style of the roulette.

The reason for the daily lockout change is because (at least on my server) a lot of decent players are getting left out of coil groups. I feel the reason is that the best teams don't want to split up and help other people because they want to waste their time and lose their spot in the group for the week or skip some of the turns to get their spot back.

EDIT:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alazier

Because they would get their gear from tomes before they ever get the loot from the chest lol.. wouldnt that piss off anyone? I did literally 20 Ct runs for my chest.i wasnt too happy about all that time dumped into the game for just one thing.

---

Adjust my numbers then. 75% normal and 100% for Hard mode? Remember you have 2 chests per turn for 8 people. As compared to 1 chest in ~same amount~ of time as a turn of coil. (Turn of Coil = about 10-15 minutes | Crystal tower = ~ 45-60 minutes)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kuwagami

terrible ideas.

=> even with 50% loot chance, you'll still get 3 times as many gear as you get know. Remember all the threads "This game is dull no content I farm T5 for ages" ? You really want that after only 1 month ? Plus no progression whatsoever would be possible, as you'd have to do T6/7 (for example) each day to be able to try and progress on T8.

I can tell you'll push way more people to the exit by doing that, as for many they will never get a chance to see the top end content unless they create some "skip parties" just like we can see now with Cad or T3 skipping...

=> what exactly is the point of your CT system ?

=> same here, what's the point in the roulette ? People would just try and drop until they get garuda or ifrit to faceroll it and get fast tomes. People are struggling at titan, which will NEVER be run by some roulette guys. Be honest, they drop even on story mode, why would they do extreme mode ?

---

Fair point on the progression. Maybe just give you the option to redo the first turns after you complete them each day. Or maybe only turns 1-5 like that. Then 2 months from now add this system for 6-9.

The point of the Crystal Tower changes is to give Crystal tower a reason to exist. Personally I don't see the point of Crystal Tower right now. Most of my Free company shares this opinion I believe.

The point would be to get people in the fights again and to give them something else to do that is worth their time. I personally can't find or make an Ifrit Ex party anymore and the Duty Finder didn't find 8 people in nearly 3 hours a couple of nights ago.

Also, 30 minutes isn't enough of a penalty. Make it 2 hours or lock them out of all roulettes if they leave or something.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

[*]Drop the loot percentages to total around 50% per chest in each turn. (Meaning 50/50 chance you might not get loot at all.)[*]Offer two difficulties. The harder difficulty would increase drop rates to 75% per chest.

---

Wouldn't that just piss people off?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheUltimate3

Wouldn't that just piss people off?

---

How so? Reduces the amount of gear being put out but you can just run it again tomorrow and try again. They whole point of my post is to keep people playing.

Because they would get their gear from tomes before they ever get the loot from the chest lol.. wouldnt that piss off anyone? I did literally 20 Ct runs for my chest.i wasnt too happy about all that time dumped into the game for just one thing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

So.. I think we can all agree that a lot of endgame players are leaving the game now. Most would probably agree that lack of endgame content is a factor. However I do not believe it is the main issue. The current endgame content for the people that can down 1-4 easily is basically a Monday night raid and done for the week. The extreme primals are literally just mediocre i90 accessories and i90 weapons for alts. If you have already done that for all the alts you care about there just isn't much to do after Monday night.

---

And what vanishingly small percentage of the 1.8m players this game has fall into that category: 1% maybe, at best?

For the rest of us, the VAST MAJORITY, clearing T4 is a far-off dream so there's nothing wrong with the end-game for us. Don't let these forums fool you, they're a very, very, VERY small percentage of those playing the game and the views here are a gross distortion of the reality of the majority.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KraggyKor

For the rest of us, the VAST MAJORITY, clearing T4 is a far-off dream so there's nothing wrong with the end-game for us. Don't let these forums fool you, they're a very, very, VERY small percentage of those playing the game and the views here are a gross distortion of the reality of the majority.

---

KraggyKor nailed it with this. Myself and my three friends are quite happy with ARR - one of which is on the PS3, the other two and myself on PC. We enjoy the game and, while we don't praise it as perfect, it's definitely a lot of fun, so we'll be here for awhile. ;)

terrible ideas.

=> even with 50% loot chance, you'll still get 3 times as many gear as you get know. Remember all the threads "This game is dull no content I farm T5 for ages" ? You really want that after only 1 month ? Plus no progression whatsoever would be possible, as you'd have to do T6/7 (for example) each day to be able to try and progress on T8.

I can tell you'll push way more people to the exit by doing that, as for many they will never get a chance to see the top end content unless they create some "skip parties" just like we can see now with Cad or T3 skipping...

=> what exactly is the point of your CT system ?

=> same here, what's the point in the roulette ? People would just try and drop until they get garuda or ifrit to faceroll it and get fast tomes. People are struggling at titan, which will NEVER be run by some roulette guys. Be honest, they drop even on story mode, why would they do extreme mode ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KraggyKor

And what vanishingly small percentage of the 1.8m players this game has fall into that category: 1% maybe, at best?

For the rest of us, the VAST MAJORITY, clearing T4 is a far-off dream so there's nothing wrong with the end-game for us. Don't let these forums fool you, they're a very, very, VERY small percentage of those playing the game and the views here are a gross distortion of the reality of the majority.

---

Are you trolling??? Do you honestly think that this game currently has 1.8M ACTIVE people playing??? Yes I am very sure they have sold 1.8M copies of the game but I am also pretty sure right at this minute they have way less than that actually subbed. 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.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KraggyKor

And what vanishingly small percentage of the 1.8m players this game has fall into that category: 1% maybe, at best?

For the rest of us, the VAST MAJORITY, clearing T4 is a far-off dream so there's nothing wrong with the end-game for us. Don't let these forums fool you, they're a very, very, VERY small percentage of those playing the game and the views here are a gross distortion of the reality of the majority.

---

Don't be ridiculous. I am rarely on the forums. 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.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

Don't be ridiculous. I am rarely on the forums. 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.

---

The game still has to drop until it gets to a comfortable long term player base.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

Don't be ridiculous. I am rarely on the forums. 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.

---

Every MMO has it's launch boost in numbers, simply because ppl want to try something new or the marketing/media hype.

Or they might add more to the horizontal progression, and by that I mean content that is not as mind-numbing after 2 weeks like CT or Coil T1 to (arguably)T4 (arguably) is.

I would personally loathe going back to anywhere near 1.0 drop rates. There's RNG in place already and that made me skip a few weeks of getting CT gear for alt jobs cause .... How shall I put it.... Boooooring! It's not a question whether content is easy or hard, or if the drop rates are good or suck. If it's not engaging, I might start skipping doing stuff sooner rather than later. I'm "not coming back" (not doing some of the content) because it's a game of Simon Says to me. Repeat the steps in exactly the same order to win. No variations to fight, no surprises => I'm sleepy.

Thankfully, there's still of other activities in game which I enjoy doing, no matter how silly or pointless they might seem to everyone else :3

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KraggyKor

And what vanishingly small percentage of the 1.8m players this game has fall into that category: 1% maybe, at best?

---

Quote:

---

Yoshida:
Well, the number for daily active user count can be misleading.... The peak time for Japan and oversea countries are different, for example. But if we simply look at the number of people logging in every day, I'd say we have about 500,000 people world wide.

---

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-FFXIV-and-DQX

What 1.8m? Anyway,

Quote:

---

For the rest of us, the VAST MAJORITY, clearing T4 is a far-off dream

---

Which is why they nerf content into the ground, for those who for some reason can't clear T4 even though it's far easier than 1 and 2 (normal way.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

Don't be ridiculous. I am rarely on the forums. 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.

---

you kidding right ? It's not even sure that 50% of the players have a relic... 1/3 of people with a relic maybe. Not 1/3 of all the population.

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

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tupsi

Quote:

---

Yoshida:
Well, the number for daily active user count can be misleading.... The peak time for Japan and oversea countries are different, for example. But if we simply look at the number of people logging in every day, I'd say we have about 500,000 people world wide.

---

What 1.8m?

---

you surely know that 500k daily connection doesn't mean 500k active players ? Not the 1.8 million keys sold, of course, but we might be around 800k at least.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

So.. I think we can all agree that a lot of endgame players are leaving the game now. Most would probably agree that lack of endgame content is a factor. However I do not believe it is the main issue. The current endgame content for the people that can down 1-4 easily is basically a Monday night raid and done for the week. The extreme primals are literally just mediocre i90 accessories and i90 weapons for alts. If you have already done that for all the alts you care about there just isn't much to do after Monday night.

A couple of changes I think would help bring players back for 2.2 and to stay:

• Make Coil Something you need to continually do.
  1. Change the weekly lockout on coil 1-9 to a Daily lockout.
  2. Drop the loot percentages to total around 50% per chest in each turn. (Meaning 50/50 chance you might not get loot at all.)
  3. Offer two difficulties. The harder difficulty would increase drop rates to 75% per chest.
• Change Crystal Tower to a 3 part raid.
  1. One drop right side gear, one left side, and the third drop an upgradable weapon.
  2. In addition to loot drops, After you beat all 3 you get a token. When you get a set amount (10-15?) you can cash them in and upgrade your i80 weapon to an i90. (Or comparable 2.2 ilvls)
  3. Keep the weekly loot lock in place, but make it per part.
• Add an extreme primal roulette for people that have cleared them.
  1. On completion give 5-7K gil, 200/100/50 tomes (Philosophy, Mythology, Newcurrency, respectively), and a 20% or so chance at a roulette exclusive mount.
  2. Keep the Daily style of the roulette.

The reason for the daily lockout change is because (at least on my server) a lot of decent players are getting left out of coil groups. I feel the reason is that the best teams don't want to split up and help other people because they want to waste their time and lose their spot in the group for the week or skip some of the turns to get their spot back.

EDIT:

Adjust my numbers then. 75% normal and 100% for Hard mode? Remember you have 2 chests per turn for 8 people. As compared to 1 chest in ~same amount~ of time as a turn of coil. (Turn of Coil = about 10-15 minutes | Crystal tower = ~ 45-60 minutes)



Fair point on the progression. Maybe just give you the option to redo the first turns after you complete them each day. Or maybe only turns 1-5 like that. Then 2 months from now add this system for 6-9.

The point of the Crystal Tower changes is to give Crystal tower a reason to exist. Personally I don't see the point of Crystal Tower right now. Most of my Free company shares this opinion I believe.

The point would be to get people in the fights again and to give them something else to do that is worth their time. I personally can't find or make an Ifrit Ex party anymore and the Duty Finder didn't find 8 people in nearly 3 hours a couple of nights ago.

Also, 30 minutes isn't enough of a penalty. Make it 2 hours or lock them out of all roulettes if they leave or something.

---

Player Detention!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kuwagami

you kidding right ? It's not even sure that 50% of the players have a relic... 1/3 of people with a relic maybe. Not 1/3 of all the population.

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

---

Other worlds must be vastly different than Goblin then. I would be willing to say that 75% of players are at endgame on Goblin. (That play disciple of war and magic) If not then where do they go? They must have a secret pre-50 zone or something, because I never see more than 50 players outside of Mor Dhona and Wineport a day.

I can tell you why I don't play very often (~ once/month now) and still haven't hit 50. I work at a computer all day, every day so for me to spend more time on my computer when I get home it needs to be something exciting. Final Fantasy XIV, while it looks fantastic, has some really cool class and crafting systems and unique ideas the bulk of the game plays like vanilla WoW, but much easier. The instances are dull and unexciting, the quests are from 2005 and even the vaunted storyline quest is mostly boring fetch and travel quests interspersed with the aforementioned dungeons.

Quite frankly, it's boring. I *want* to like, I want to want to play more. But as it is there's nothing here that my other games (both single player and multiplayer) don't do better.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

Other worlds must be vastly different than Goblin then. I would be willing to say that 75% of players are at endgame on Goblin. (That play disciple of war and magic) If not then where do they go? They must have a secret pre-50 zone or something, because I never see more than 50 players outside of Mor Dhona and Wineport a day.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

The point would be to get people in the fights again and to give them something else to do that is worth their time. I personally can't find or make an Ifrit Ex party anymore and the Duty Finder didn't find 8 people in nearly 3 hours a couple of nights ago.

---

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.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Talligan

I can tell you why I don't play very often (~ once/month now) and still haven't hit 50. I work at a computer all day, every day so for me to spend more time on my computer when I get home it needs to be something exciting. Final Fantasy XIV, while it looks fantastic, has some really cool class and crafting systems and unique ideas the bulk of the game plays like vanilla WoW, but much easier. The instances are dull and unexciting, the quests are from 2005 and even the vaunted storyline quest is mostly boring fetch and travel quests interspersed with the aforementioned dungeons.

Quite frankly, it's boring. I *want* to like, I want to want to play more. But as it is there's nothing here that my other games (both single player and multiplayer) don't do better.

---

I feel you pain, but wrong thread? lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OrganizationXIll

I feel you pain, but wrong thread? lol

---

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

Quote:

---

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.

---

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.

Quote:

---

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.

---

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.

Quote:

---

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...

---

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?

Quote:

---

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.

---

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.

Quote:

---

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.

---

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

Quote:

---

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.

---

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.

Quote:

---

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.

---

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.