This game used to have a fun playerbase. What happened?

It was over a decade ago that I made some of my most lasting friendships with some of the most interesting people online. We were bound by a thread of whimsy and a love for all things final fantasy. The social engine of an MMO with the foundation of one of the best RPGs of all time? FFXIV was a mecca for people like me. The seasons breezed past us as balance changes went up and down and expansions came and went. That last part gets kind of fickle though. With new expansions comes a new playerbase, and by the looks of it..... yikes. These days, it feels like like those who want to enjoy the worldbuilding and gameplay mechanics of the final fantasy universe were put in the backseat. Instead, all you have to do is take one look at limsa to see where we've landed. People who have trouble asking for extra ketchup packets are now making cliques over funny numbers on the bad website or acting like this is second life with catgirls. All I'm saying is you don't need to go to Gridania to touch grass. Feel free to step outside, that doesn't cost a monthly subscription.

What happened is that the game got popular, and that meant that "everyone" wanted to play it. Just wait a few years, and much of the locust horde will have moved on to the Next Popular Thing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MistakeNot

What happened is that the game got popular, and that meant that "everyone" wanted to play it. Just wait a few years, and much of the locust horde will have moved on to the Next Popular Thing.

---

They've been saying this for three years...

"I don't like the players of this game anymore so you all need to touch grass" Great thread, my friend.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MistakeNot

What happened is that the game got popular, and that meant that "everyone" wanted to play it. Just wait a few years, and much of the locust horde will have moved on to the Next Popular Thing.

---

I don't think that means much honestly.
XI had the most amazing community back during it's prime years. You met the most amazing people and made lasting friendships. However, when XI fell out of it's prime years and people started moving on to different MMO/games, the community got smaller and quieter. You don't find as many amazing people anymore, even though the horde of people are gone. You will find a good person here and there, but not so much as it was in prime years.

I see XIV being much the same way. Once it falls out of it's prime, people will move on, the community will shrink and become quiet. Finding people to play with and or connect with gets a lot smaller.

The fire nation attacked.

most of what I see/experience actually in game is still okay, forums/social media/anything "outside" of game seems a lot worse lol

The WoW refugees went back to WoW. xD




Cheers

A lot of this comes down to the current design of the game and many QoL features.

Like, you can actually QoL the soul out of a game and community building.

One such example is.. Everyone likes the crafting change from Endwalker where they delayed savage so people could craft - Which is nice for people, but it does also actually take out the networking part of a game, because you wouldn't need to network with people to get the gear. Because why would you when you can either do everything yourself, or get it far, far cheaper from a market without the need to connect to get things on premium.

Same thing with queues.... Why would I go to a part of the open world to queue for something when I have this glorious thing called a duty finder to queue from absolutely anywhere, including Limsa. This is something people don't understand about the 'Limsa AFKers' -- Many of them actually have no reason to leave a city state because the game rarely requires or even asks for it.

We currently have the healthiest playerbase in the history of FFXIV, from my point of view. Watching it continue to grow and become more diverse is quite inspiring

Mass WoW Migration happened and brought their streamers with them.

I dunno, I've been playing with some pretty cool random people these past few days.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JimCasey_RF6

We currently have the healthiest playerbase in the history of FFXIV, from my point of view. Watching it continue to grow and become more diverse is quite inspiring

---

Not growing any more, unfortunately. The peak player count on Steam for Dawntrail is lower then it was for Endwalker launch.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rolder50

Not growing any more, unfortunately. The peak player count on Steam for Dawntrail is lower then it was for Endwalker launch.

---

The reviews for DT are also mixed, so the data probably reflects this.

Is this a low-key passive aggressive reaction to the flak that DT is getting?

If so, the problem is not the playerbase.

ERP/Modbeast/Mare happened.
Now you have a divided community where:

-A very small group does content/raid etc and play the game as a MMORPG but they have to deal with the bigger community aka the second life one who don't play the game at all and stay online 24/7 doing erp spamming venues, advertising modding etc, basically they are playing a version of FFXIV like Skyrim with 2500 mods installed etc, so if you aren't part of that they won't talk to you.

-The new players or returned ones that doesn't fill in both communities and quit as long they are done with current content and comes back after a big patch.

Hey now you can both be a modbeast and do content / care about gameplay. Those are not mutually exclusive.

No shade or insult intended: But maybe this just isn't the game for you anymore? It's perfectly natural to outgrow things and you shouldn't feel bad for letting it go if its clearly making you this unhappy.

There is a definite shift in the community into a polarized state, the hardcore raiders get more hardcore and gatekeep more based on their websites, 3rd party tools, required gearing, etc.
Then on the social side it becomes more and more gated by mods, discord servers, social groups, linkshells, etc.

It's sad to see but the casual MMO gamer who comes in after work to play a few hours and chip away at some goal or duty while they talk is a dying breed. Either you play for the story and unsub or you go fully into one of the hardcore groups.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Araxes

Mass WoW Migration happened and brought their streamers with them.

---

WoW players showed up during Sproutbringer, some stayed till Endwalker, and then most that still wanted WoW went back to WoW Dragonflight. Those that got sold 100% on the game stayed, but not sure if it was that much in the end (the game tends to create plot watchers rather than constant subscribers).

And if anyone is wondering what happened - the same thing as what happened during WoW Shadowlands - at some point people got so fed up with the game that it blew up. MMO playerbase always has some level of addictive relationship with the game and will not quit or even react when signs of bad content show up. The bad experiences have to pile up to create a reaction but when they do it will be on a much higher level, backend by emotions and the relationship nature of it.

Also, both MMOs (if not all in existence) have the same problem with expansions - they become a template and everyone gets used to a template while still expecting more. Devs want to innovate and prepare the game for the next 10 years, yet they are bound by the template - wherever it's planning, ideas pitching... Players want a cool new expansion yet they want to optimize, they want to get the best experience so they prepare based on the template, and if they get exactly that they may feel disappointed from their overoptimisation and also lack of surprises in the content. And when an MMO sneaks in something new outside of template walls not only does it have to be really good content but it has to fight against the template - like we got Island Sanctuary which got recked by an Excel sheet to then not rapidly react to players feedback - and in the end players requested more of templated solutions (which may or not be actually better, but players related to a known thing they liked which is pushing devs from trying out new things that are risky vs going for what was, is safer, but less exciting, less likely to grow the game).

The game never had a good community because even in ARR you see the same toxicity you see now.
But arguably it's gotten worse over the years. Borderline impossible for people to get into hard content with how absolutely terrible the community is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MistakeNot

What happened is that the game got popular, and that meant that "everyone" wanted to play it. Just wait a few years, and much of the locust horde will have moved on to the Next Popular Thing.

---

This. The community as a whole is still better than other popular options, but the whole things has degraded one way or another. Even as a hardcore roleplayer, the roleplaying community has devolved and degraded in quality of content. I've just moved on at this point.

It's not FFXIV or MMORPG specific.

Every game tries to maximize player retention and grow the playerbase at any cost now because infinite growth is the only thing that matters to shareholders.

Disagreeable gamers have always existed, but there are more of them present in your games now, that's all. There's nothing to shake them off anymore. And you leaving the game because of them isn't enough of a disruption to the cash flow to make a difference.

It's like how companies actually have no incentive to fight scalping behavior but rather plenty of incentive exists to encourage it. It's guaranteed sales even if it's going into a warehouse somewhere to never see the light of day.

The worst gamers you know are the most reliable subs. That's it.

The playerbase hasn’t gotten ‘meaner’, it just got ‘bigger’. Which, unfortunately means your likelihood of coming across a complete asshole has also became bigger over time lol. Proportionately though I wouldn’t say the community during any particular expansion was more/less ‘toxic’ than now. There was just less people for it be noticeable

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rolder50

Not growing any more, unfortunately. The peak player count on Steam for Dawntrail is lower then it was for Endwalker launch.

---

EW launch was still in the middle of the "WoW exodus," so it's not an accurate comparison point. Need to look for when that group moved on to start getting accurate data again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Striker44

EW launch was still in the middle of the "WoW exodus," so it's not an accurate comparison point. Need to look for when that group moved on to start getting accurate data again.

---

Cope 10char

Plotwatchers, rpers, normies, raiders... long ago, the four nations lived in harmony, then everything changed when the dev nation attacked.
The nocturnal sect astrologians were completely eradicated...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lotlizard

It was over a decade ago that I made some of my most lasting friendships with some of the most interesting people online. We were bound by a thread of whimsy and a love for all things final fantasy. The social engine of an MMO with the foundation of one of the best RPGs of all time? FFXIV was a mecca for people like me. The seasons breezed past us as balance changes went up and down and expansions came and went. That last part gets kind of fickle though. With new expansions comes a new playerbase, and by the looks of it..... yikes. These days, it feels like like those who want to enjoy the worldbuilding and gameplay mechanics of the final fantasy universe were put in the backseat. Instead, all you have to do is take one look at limsa to see where we've landed. People who have trouble asking for extra ketchup packets are now making cliques over funny numbers on the bad website or acting like this is second life with catgirls. All I'm saying is you don't need to go to Gridania to touch grass. Feel free to step outside, that doesn't cost a monthly subscription.

---

You're remembering visiting the ice-cream truck when it was a novelty for you and the other kids in the neighborhood. It's not a novelty anymore and lots of the kids on your street moved away and were replaced with new kids, but you can still get the ice-cream and the new kids play different music and watch different TV shows but they're still kids enjoying themselves and having fun with each other.

Can't say I ever got that sense of community given I started in 2022 and was on a low-pop server, so I always had to data center travel to do stuff with randoms I would very likely never see again. Even now being locked on Dynamis I'm just counting down the days until I can DC travel again because I'm not really interested in bonding with all these "new strangers" over here, lol.

I do question if this supposedly "peak" social experience ever existed though given that people have been using cliques and plugins to filter each other since... well, every MMO ever. I'm sure you even had your diehard "if you don't love 1.0, you don't belong here" fans back then too and think *everything* that came after "ruined it all". When you have this many people in one place, you're going to encounter all kinds of different folks, and just like in real life it's not always easy to find the ones you'll mesh with. There was probably never an all encompassing utopia in this game then, but rather some very enjoyable and memorable spheres to play within, but over time other spheres formed up and now perhaps it *is* harder to find the ones certain people would like to visit or even stay in. Harder, but not impossible, I would hope for those seeking some manner of community or even just camaraderie.

Everyone is 14 years older than when 1.0 launched. We all have many more responsibilities, including families and careers. Putting up with the requirements of working to maintain an acceptable life and dealing with the general stupidity of humanity in is bound to curtail the overall joy experienced on a day to day basis.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AddictedToWitches

The game never had a good community because even in ARR you see the same toxicity you see now.
But arguably it's gotten worse over the years. Borderline impossible for people to get into hard content with how absolutely terrible the community is.

---

Pardon me, but are you a "scab" healer (a healer who will continue to heal in lieu of the current healer strike), or a healer who will heal my scabs? Just asking for a friend here

Game still has a fun playerbase.

Thing is, they're playing the game rather than flinging their fleeces around the forums.

Try focusing less on what you don't like and finding what you do. The community's bigger now than it was; snobbish raiders and Lominsan loiterers are just two drops in the bucket. The friends I've made since I started playing seriously only a couple years ago, and the folks in my FC, are very much like the community you described. It's not hard to find.

most of my interactions in-game have been good, either you're deliberately seeking out rude people/communities or you're spending too much time on social media which is intentionally divisive, made to farm rage clicks, and sow petty discourse

Huh, FF fans really dont have a sense of humor beyond omg urianger talks fancy xDDDDDDDDDD