Based on NA FanFest 2026, Do You Think Friends/Players Will Return to FFXIV?

I know people will say "Shadowbringers will bring people back" but I just don't see this happening.

I dunno how I feel about this FanFest. I wanted one thing from the developers and that was to refresh the game in a way that brings people back.

The new "C" Character screen is differently different, but does that give players an incentive to pay a monthly subscription? Can that bring people back?

I don't want to sound negative, but I just didn't feel like they cared about bringing players back. Maybe a level crunch? Maybe skipping Dawntrail? Maybe... anything?

I'm legitimately interested in what people think. A lot of our friends and comrades are gone. Do you think the new job actions are going to bring the players back?

While I'm cautiously optimistic about the new combat design and break away from the 2 min meta, they need something to keep people in the game and not just our log-in, do roulette, log out. Now they're moving towards a week-based system without the daily bonuses, but we'll have to see if this can encourage people to stay.
At minimum, they need something long progression earlier than 8.21 to keep people in the game.

Will this be enough to bring back people, perhaps not, but I think their main concern right now is to stop the bleeding, then they can focus on bringing people back.

Shadowbringers in the free trial might bring new players, at least.


The trailer looking cool or the QoL features might get the attention of some lapsed players. I don't think evolved mode will really move the needle much though, so far it mostly comes across sounding like simplification which isn't very enticing. Maybe that will change once there's a job showcase video and updated website with changes for each job that can be understood.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

I know people will say "Shadowbringers will bring people back" but I just don't see this happening.

I dunno how I feel about this FanFest. I wanted one thing from the developers and that was to refresh the game in a way that brings people back.

The new "C" Character screen is differently different, but does that give players an incentive to pay a monthly subscription? Can that bring people back?

I don't want to sound negative, but I just didn't feel like they cared about bringing players back. Maybe a level crunch? Maybe skipping Dawntrail? Maybe... anything?

I'm legitimately interested in what people think. A lot of our friends and comrades are gone. Do you think the new job actions are going to bring the players back?

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This is why i am concerned too.They did nothing to address Occult creasant. They did nothing to address the mechs in dw instances. The complaints piled up and they did nothing. Certainly skipping dawntrail would have helped. They should not have wasted their time on these 7.5 additions. We don't need a new OC, nor a varient dungeon, deep dungeon what have you.

Honestly, no I think it's going to drive more people away. I know I'm done after this. Most of my FC has quit or plays rarely, I've not played much lately myself because the game has changed drastically since Shb.

I used to enjoy running 8 man raids with my FC, I've not run any recent 8 mans since ShB. I only ran the first 24man raids of EW and DT. I didn't like the stories of them and the game play was horrible. I don't like the Exploration Zone stuff, I barely touched Eurika because it brought back memories of the worst aspects of FFXI for me. I managed to last a little longer in Bozja. The Variant and Criterion Dungeons I tried but disliked because the mobs were not challenging they were HP Sponges.

Deep Dungeons I kinda liked, I did finish PoD and HoH. I lost interest with Eureka Orthos and Never even tried PT. I used to like running dungeons and Roulettes. But the Dungeons became a chore past ShB. Too many overly punishing mechanics and spam to be able to enjoy the runs.

Crafting was fun for a while, The Ishguardian Restoration would have been fun if not for the FOMO and Bots killing the friendly competition. Cosmic Exploration started out ok, but The activities kinda ramped up into no-lifer territory fast and there was really no point to adding the extra planets other than the "Oh that's kinda cool" factor that lasts about the first three times you are there.

Society quests were great. They were a nice pop in, do a few tasks and enjoy a cozy story thing, they were also great for Leveling jobs and just getting out and enjoying the World.

Some people won't agree, but the Community of FFXIV has changed drastically since ShB. There's a lot more Weirdos and Pervs than there used to be, or they are at least much bolder in their actions.

I'm probably gonna cancel my sub for the first time since I started playing FFXIV back in the ARR BETA and let my House go. It just looks like people like me aren't wanted by SE anymore as Customers.

I basically gave up on DT. Story, characters, pacing, graphic sets that look like some cheap downloads, the list is endless. I quit last year because of DT, and returned later despite DT. I haven't touched any DT content since then, only the older parts of the game. Basically, what I read out of DT, was something like:

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Originally Posted by SE, maybe

We gave up. Before moving on, the seniors handed their vaunted formula to the interns, who are now running the show. Expect a list of same-ish xpacs, until the last player realizes what has become of the game, and we can finally shut down the servers for good.

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But the few things I heard about 8.0 indeed got me hyped - which I hadn't thought possible at this point. That they're finally changing their vaunted formula, that they're taking risks now - this tells me a totally different story:

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Originally Posted by SE, hopefully

We realize our DT approach did not work. Seniors reported back to work, trying to solve the problems by shaking things up. And the interns are now doing intern stuff, as it should be.

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No idea if any of their planned changes will work. But that they are planning changes tells me, they have not given up on the game.

This is my personal opinion of course, but also what I will tell to others. What they will make of it, is totally up to them.

I've actually never considered my friends coming back to FFXIV or any old games, like how no one was interested in the FT before they added Shb so I don't think they will start now. So I have no control over what my friends will or won't do since most of them have quit games or don't own a PC or console like I played FFIXV because I liked playing for my own sake even if no one else cared.

Then I've played a variety of MMO and it's one of the long-term games that I find alot of adults end up dropping since their lives change because of more IRL responsibilities or obligations, so FFXIV is less important to them in 2026 too. Yeah, I know the game itself is always changing and improving over time, but it can't do anything if the said person is now married with kids or decides to change careers now so they have way less time to play.

Also, I know a majority of ppl I met on ffxiv Discord servers are on hiatus, or some have quit the game completely but still want to see the news or chat with friends still there. Then I just do what I can, like whatever small or large tasks I have in-game as personal goals, and be open to making new friends as the time passes, either in NN or just chatting with others in PF.

Lmao u all need to go outside stop with this doom and gloom wait for the other two fan fest and just stop with the whining

I think a lot of people will return, for the following reasons:

• The trailer is exciting, and cleverly makes Dawntrail a useful pillar of it whilst also making it kind of irrelevant (the key and merging the 9th with the Source was the pillar, but we're also basically forgetting the events of Dawntrail at the same time and making ShB/EW events relevant again by using the Azem crystal and tackling the issue of the sundering).
• A lot of people quit over time due to lack of job identity, job uniqueness, the 2 minute meta, and this has been happening since Stormblood but especially since Shadowbringers. It wasn't reflected in the statistics, because the game growth outpaced it. But people who valued rotation depth were quitting ever since then, and that's a fact, and these changes will likely win SOME of them back.
• The game has over time, and especially recently, lost players due to "making it all high-end raid content". So the promise of a third difficulty between Normal and Savage raids will help win people back who felt there was no content for them.
• A lot of people have been quitting due to data centers dying as a result of travel to Aether/Light/Mana for raiding. Whether cross-DC PF/DF will bring people back I don't know, but it will at least stop people quitting due to it, which I believe has been happening at a mass scale - the people quitting haven't talked much but they've subtly felt their data center die and kinda just stopped playing.
• My entire time on these forums, I've seen posts requesting open world content to be useful. It's clearly not an open world game, but SE has finally agreed to focus on this - hunts, FATEs, treasure and such will be changed (less FATEs, but the ones that exist will be bigger and better FATE battles). The weekly reward system will reward doing open world content as opposed to just spamming Expert roulette or hunt trains. Given this has been widely requested for years it may draw people back to the game.

That said, there will be:

• People who laugh off the changes and make negative videos about the changes because farming hate content about FFXIV is what their YouTube channel is about.
• There will be people who don't think the changes are enough for them.
• There will be people who will actually quit due to the changes, believing Evolved to be simplifying the game more (despite this not being the intention of the developers).
• There will be people who, while somewhat impressed with the changes, have already moved on and just aren't gonna actually come back from whatever game or life stage they've moved on to.

Me mates are not coming back until they see the changes implemented into the game.

easily will go up but question is will it retain. Evolved system is interesting (having whole kit by lvl 50 sounds amazing though and far more enjoyable), New extreme (idk official name so that's what my group has started to called it) raid tier looks to be amazing idea, ilvl sync between all jobs as max level, weekly with a 1 week catchup if you are busy for that week, also though we don't know the detail new gear progression system. Honestly so far on paper it looks like a big success...now can they execute it?

They will probably give it a try, but if they will stay is another question.

People will return

But the question is how long they will return for and whether they can actually retain those players again... Like all of this is new... But like anything it really depends on how well it actually holds up over time..

Like it can be fun for the first 10 hours maybe... But how well is it going to hold up after 50 hours... 100 hours... 200 hours...

Some things I feel like it's playing a semantic game "Hey we're moving from a daily system to a weekly system" -- The existing system is ultimately already a weekly system, if you think about the fact that the tome cap is done weekly rather than daily, and dailies are just 1 of several ways to facilitate that.

I guess we'll have to see how the remaining fan fests are -- But the point still stands on how well is it going to play across several months.

I think it may push some people away. Changing a playstyle after 12+ years in this way may not be appealing to older MMO players who like having a lot of buttons that they use in specific situations and don't really need the game to simplify everything further. I understand we are keeping Reborn mode but to me it seems obvious they will remove it at some point. Along with the decision to make it inferior, making adoption of Evolved to feel pushed.

I'm a White Mage player and I didn't find playing a healer challenging or needing any of their stated simplification.

I'm on the fence about weekly tasks and only needing one set of gear for the most part. I just got weekly tasks in ESO for their new battlepass and they are already grating if I get a bunch of choices for content I don't care about. People said they are like mogtomes and I already ignore those since it's just focused on stuff I don't feel like doing half the time.

Guess a big wait and see.

Sure, of course it will bring players back (and likely bring new players in as well. There still always be the curious and there will always be the people who noped out of Dawntrail with the intention to return afterwards. And, frankly, in some (many?) cases it wouldn't even matter what Evercold did because there are a lot of people who say they hate the game now but won't really ever quit.

Now, whether those new/returning players stay and all of that will depend on exactly how well Evercold does things with everything it's changing. It might bring in new players and it might turn some old players away. We don't know that yet.

All that said, I do think they still need to consider some sort of new starting point or at least including a story/character skip package to be included with purchase of the game. I am 100% a story lover that feels everyone who plays should experience the entire storyline, but even I can't/won't deny that having literally hundreds of hours of game to get to just to see what's current or to play with your friends can be a bigger turn off than any question of quality level in the game.

I love the game yet I can't recommend it to anyone because of how long the MSQ is and how skips are a band aide fix (the idea of skipping to play with friends and doing story in your own time is less than ideal because you're already spoiled on so many fronts). If they truly wanted new players they would have split the MSQ into a second arc and allowed new players to start there. If a player that loves this game can't recommend it, what difference do things like free trials extending, or improved gameplay truly make. It feels a little anecdotal. Not to say that my opinion is the end-all be-all but I'm definitely not alone in this.

I don't think people are going to fall for Yoshida saying "next path bro" again.
It has to be "this patch bro"

I only have one friend who has quit FFXIV for reasons that can be reasonably addressed, and Evolved Jobs immediately caught his attention, he plays on Steam Deck and he was feeling the pressure of a limited controller set up, which made the game unenjoyable, so he is guaranteed to be coming back next expansion, whether he will stay is another question, but he can be rather fickle as a person, so it is likely he will come and go even if the game is literally perfect for him.

While NA fanfest had a fantastic showing for once, it'll still be an uphill battle getting long time players who quit to give the game another whirl. It's always much harder to get people who finally gave up or simply moved on back on the hype train enough to want to reinvest. So I suspect they'll take the wait and see approach and we may see numbers steadily climb if Evercold is a marked improvement rather than a huge inflex of players right at launch.

I've already seen some positive interest from some people in terms of potentially rejoining the game. That said, I think it depends on how the expansion is when it releases, and how well it's received. We won't know until the expansion comes.

I agree with many of you that it'll be hard to get old players to return. Maybe people are just waiting for Dawntrail to end, I don't know yet.

The "middle difficulty" will definitely interest people who found Savage to be too hard.

With that said there's some hope in some of your responses, which I enjoy.

I really hope that this expansion will be the one where everyone comes back.

I know my friend is not returning. And I already told them that for me 8.0 is basically the make or break for me as my own interest is low.

That to me, evercold really needs to be the expansion that does a lot of work to entice players to comeback, not just 8.0, but its whole expansion. Not just the job gameplay but like like the story, the voice acting, the side content, the dungeons and raids and trials.

I've got a few friends who are interested in coming back. After mentioning evolved mode, their interest's piqued. One of them is talking about resubbing beforr next patch. Whether they stick around for the next expansion is yet to be seen though.

However, I'd say the people who are/were on the hate train for Dawntrail and quit along the way, will more than likely not return. I honestly don't want them to either.
I'm hearing a lot of folks doom about the evolved combat system before they even get the chance to try it out. People are allowed to be skeptical but people are scared of change. All the news could bring alot of people back while simultaneously pushing alot of players away. We'll just have to wait for more updates.

Some have already returned, but I do not expect the majority to return until the October time frame as it will give them plenty of time to do the MSQ and any catch up they need to do.

A lot of people come back every expansion. What matters is if the expansion can hook them and keep them playing. Dawntrail failed on that with it's lackluster story and very little changes and addition to jobs, even though combat design was a definite improvement.

We'll have to see if Evercold's story, Evolved Mode for old jobs, and other changes and additions are able to hook returning players immediately.

I expect a lot of returners, but as far as new NEW players... aside from Switch 2 users, I don't expect ShB or EW numbers again.

Ever since I started playing ARR I was always under the assumption that new players didn't mind the 300+ hour of MSQ in the way of reaching endgame or the solo focus. But one of the most common complaints I heard from people I know who quit before reaching the climax of 6.0... Is that you can't play the MSQ with friends and the time commitment to be done with it is excessive.
Yes there are duties that are fun to play with friends who are new across every expansion, but they seem to generally feel like "catching up" is a priority, but the catching up experience is largely solo, and not very interactive.

My point being, they're going to have to do something about the MSQ experience. It being so solo-focused, having all of its field zone portions being ridiculously easy, and consisting mostly of long stretches of reading and watching when you're not doing the next MSQ duty... That was OK for a while. But now it's five expansions of that... It's not the most engaging giant time commitment you can give to new players.

I don’t think many brand new players will appear although the Switch 2 version will probably bring some in, but I think all the system changes plus the story which looks pretty intriguing will bring a good few returners out. I certainly know some people who haven’t played since 7.0 gearing up to return for 8.0.

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Originally Posted by Wyldkat99

Some people won't agree, but the Community of FFXIV has changed drastically since ShB. There's a lot more Weirdos and Pervs than there used to be, or they are at least much bolder in their actions.

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God, YES ! How can people not agree with that ? I feel like the community changed so much socially since SB/ShB too. Before, it felt more genuine. Everyone was rowing in the same direction. People were nicer/friendlier, more socially active (not in an ERP kind of way that we see so much nowadays), there was less weirdos and pervs like you say. I see a lot of that kind of people almost every time I log in.

I read something some months ago theorizing about that and how the game used to be played majorly by people with certain personalities/ personality traits/ tastes, but then when it became popular during covid/shb, it got diluted, that landscape changed with the amount of new players the game got (and because of other reasons too, obviously) - hence the shift in that feeling.

You know, it just occurred to me there's a chance they have to make dungeon content compatible with NPCs for Duty Support.. so ... encounter design may not change much...
...

Well, it's a wait-and-see situation for most of us since we're still lacking critical information until the next two Fanfest, and a wait-and-see if any of us stays long term based on what they do with the existing concerns and feedback.

My former ingame friends weren't even interested in watching the stream. DT was a massive disappointment, so Evercold has to deliver twice as much to convince. I am not seeing much of that at the moment.

Despite all this, there are always people who come back for a new expansion, play a couple of months and then return to hiatus, so yes, there will be a good chunk of returners.

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Originally Posted by yesnt

My former ingame friends weren't even interested in watching the stream. DT was a massive disappointment, so Evercold has to deliver twice as much to convince. I am not seeing much of that at the moment.

Despite all this, there are always people who come back for a new expansion, play a couple of months and then return to hiatus, so yes, there will be a good chunk of returners.

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Well hopefully they'll have the difficulty staggered a bit for more fun experiences for the casual player. We will have to see how that goes.

I think there would have to be a substantial rework to the quest system for my friends to come back to the game.

Its just too boring for them and I can't really blame them. MSQ is just currently too much Walk -> Read -> Walk -> Read -> Interact with 3 things -> Read

No, they won't.

Some will, some won't, MSQ andies will come back and then leave. Cycle as usual.

Personally as someone who has been subscribed for 5 years straight these changes will be chasing me away. I have cancelled by sub after seeing the first look if evolved mode.

Taking away synergy actions aka buffs is a bad move. It was extremely satisfying in high end content to coordinate buffs with your party for a juicy burst where you could easily shave 10% off the bosses health. It rewarded playing well together as a team and separated groups who played well together as a unit and those who didn't.

Before anyone screamed "2 minute meta hugger" at me I believe many of those who don't like the meta didn't interact with it all that much they were casuals who logged in for roulettes and normals and thought in between 2 minutes was boring because they weren't setting up for burst or pooling resources and just wanted big attacks all the time. "2 minute meta" amd "job identity" have become buzzwords imo for "anything I don't like about a certain job."

Evo mode has taken so much identify from the jobs they showed and not added any back. I will focus on bard as a phys ranged main. Losing RNG is catastrophic. Bard has always rewarded fast decision making anf spinning multiple plates with its rng and dot system. You could refresh dots early and lose a tick or risk one more brust shot and proc RA and then have to decide on whether to refresh dots and risk overriding that proc or send the RA and risk dots rolling off before the GCD roll over is finished and you can hit iron jaws.

The play 3 songs in any order to get lego and spend lego on big attack is just new SMN. It even appears to have a 60 second loop like SMN. 8.0 is not about identity its about making an easy mode dispite what the devs said (hell they themselves said the world easy like 5 times in the panel) so that they can and draw back in the players who left in 7.0 as well as new players on switch 2 and console.

As I said before this Ted talk I am gutted and feel like even if these changes draw in 1 more person to return they may have lost me as a long player who did all content from dungeons, to extreme, to savage
, to ultimate right down to finishing.

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Originally Posted by Hanzz96

Personally as someone who has been subscribed for 5 years straight these changes will be chasing me away. I have cancelled by sub after seeing the first look if evolved mode.

Taking away synergy actions aka buffs is a bad move. It was extremely satisfying in high end content to coordinate buffs with your party for a juicy burst where you could easily shave 10% off the bosses health. It rewarded playing well together as a team and separated groups who played well together as a unit and those who didn't.

Before anyone screamed "2 minute meta hugger" at me I believe many of those who don't like the meta didn't interact with it all that much they were casuals who logged in for roulettes and normals and thought in between 2 minutes was boring because they weren't setting up for burst or pooling resources and just wanted big attacks all the time. "2 minute meta" amd "job identity" have become buzzwords imo for "anything I don't like about a certain job."

Evo mode has taken so much identify from the jobs they showed and not added any back. I will focus on bard as a phys ranged main. Losing RNG is catastrophic. Bard has always rewarded fast decision making anf spinning multiple plates with its rng and dot system. You could refresh dots early and lose a tick or risk one more brust shot and proc RA and then have to decide on whether to refresh dots and risk overriding that proc or send the RA and risk dots rolling off before the GCD roll over is finished and you can hit iron jaws.

The play 3 songs in any order to get lego and spend lego on big attack is just new SMN. It even appears to have a 60 second loop like SMN. 8.0 is not about identity its about making an easy mode dispite what the devs said (hell they themselves said the world easy like 5 times in the panel) so that they can and draw back in the players who left in 7.0 as well as new players on switch 2 and console.

As I said before this Ted talk I am gutted and feel like even if these changes draw in 1 more person to return they may have lost me as a long player who did all content from dungeons, to extreme, to savage
, to ultimate right down to finishing.

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*leaves before something is even out of development and before playing the finished product to form a genuine opinion*

It's important to leave feedback, which you have done, quite repeatedly on multiple threads at that. But now you are using the unsub buzzword to try and gather attention from whomever SE has in charge of reading these forums. Lets wait for them to finish cooking instead of declaring DOOOOOOOOM. I say this as someone who does all content as is excited to see the finished product. I'm excited for an improvement to battle content that doesn't follow such a rigid 2 minute fight formula. I want them to cook up some neat content. I want change.

I think pretty much 90% of the people I know who left the game have settled in other games already with no intention of returning, and that is fine.

the narrative online on Reddit, such as r/mmorpg and r/lfmmo, are very mixed about final fantasy 14 for every good news or positive thing there comes, there is always 2-3 negatives slapped ontop. If the word of mouth and online sentiment online is always going to be negative, regardless of what square enix does, it's a lose- lose situastion. Will it bring players back/make new players play ffxiv? In my opinion, depends on the narrative and sentiment that comes of this when it's released. But it seems some people are very dedicated to hating the game, as far as Reddit goes at least. Not that i understand it very well. As a new player i thought this fan fest was packed with good stuff and things to look forward too.

In my opinion? It feels kind of unfair that ffxiv are held up to such impossible high standards. Why if blizzard had held a blizzcon with even half the goodies this fan fest promised ff players. they would cheer so loud you'd hear it on the moon. With ffxiv it seems things are never good enough for some people.

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Originally Posted by Anwar

the narrative online on Reddit, such as r/mmorpg and r/lfmmo, are very mixed about final fantasy 14 for every good news or positive thing there comes, there is always 2-3 negatives slapped ontop. If the word of mouth and online sentiment online is always going to be negative, regardless of what square enix does, it's a lose- lose situastion. Will it bring players back/make new players play ffxiv? In my opinion, depends on the narrative and sentiment that comes of this when it's released. But it seems some people are very dedicated to hating the game, as far as Reddit goes at least. Not that i understand it very well. As a new player i thought this fan fest was packed with good stuff and things to look forward too.

In my opinion? It feels kind of unfair that ffxiv are held up to such impossible high standards. Why if blizzard had held a blizzcon with even half the goodies this fan fest promised ff players. they would cheer so loud you'd hear it on the moon. With ffxiv it seems things are never good enough for some people.

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That's not true at all. The housing addition in WoW gained praise all over. Hell I don't play and even I have a house. Squeenix is not held to higher standards, they are held to SUBSCRIBER standards. It's up to we, the players who do pay subscriptions to this game, need appeasing. And we've lost lots and lots of players, which is genuinely unfortunate.

- WoW solved the housing issues of XIV.
- WoW solved the leveling issues of XIV.

And I don't play WoW, I play XIV.

I just don't see how the game has become more accessible for players who have been away for several years.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

I know people will say "Shadowbringers will bring people back" but I just don't see this happening.

I dunno how I feel about this FanFest. I wanted one thing from the developers and that was to refresh the game in a way that brings people back.

The new "C" Character screen is differently different, but does that give players an incentive to pay a monthly subscription? Can that bring people back?

I don't want to sound negative, but I just didn't feel like they cared about bringing players back. Maybe a level crunch? Maybe skipping Dawntrail? Maybe... anything?

I'm legitimately interested in what people think. A lot of our friends and comrades are gone. Do you think the new job actions are going to bring the players back?

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Probably for expansion release or a bit before that. If your friends left because of some issues with the game, they might come back if the way those issues are being adressed pleases them. If they're just burnt out of the game, it will depend of their time away from it and how fresh 8.0 feels for them.
If anything, expansion releases always bring back people.

As for your comment about the character screen, there's no way to feel hyped or doomey because they've literally just told us that it's gonna be a weekly-based system rather than daily. The unknown is how those weeklies will work, what's the progression system tied to it, how content rewards will mesh with this system, etc.
Level crunch would probably do nothing, if anything leveling is easy in this game, it's going through MSQ that's long. They could probably trim down on fluff quests in HW and SB. And skipping Dawntrail won't happen.