Where do you see FFXIV in 5 years?

[Leonas]

If they do manage to have major content patches every 3 or so months like they predict ( Dungeons, etc. ) Then I can see the game going strong for a year or so. After all, they have the franchise name Final Fantasy all over it.

I mean hell, Star Trek Online survived forever on a P2P model, a couple of years I think, before themselves switching to a F2P model thanks to being bought out by PWI. Star Trek Online had all of absolutely nothing to do endgame except 3 dungeons/missions. For years. But it kept living, because of the name.

[t00nc3ss]

Five years is too far long away for any sort of rational guessing, technology is moving at a rapid pace and the landscape of gaming changes with it, with gamers in tow. The more poignant question is how the game fares one year from now.

Various and numerous problems need to be attended to, most should have never been an issue in the first place. Yes yes I understand that FF:ARR has only been out mere weeks, but for all the research Square did between 1.0 and now, too many things fell through the cracks. (I tried to start listing a short few problems, but it's impossible to not write entire pages detailing them. Plenty of threads here already do). The issue is going to lie in how and when Square decides to address these problems. So far it does not look good. Other than spambots and hackers the rest of complaints are from a gameplay aspect, and this is where it gets tricky.

FF:ARR is a Japanese game. Sure it was tweaked and molded for a more Western friendly look and feel but Final Fantasy, since it's inception, has been and always will be a Japanese game first. Japanese gamers are very very different compared to gamers from the West. What is long and tedious to us might not be so to them; example: People whining about AF2 cost being so high, to them it might just be the norm farming tedious instances over and again for months to get the pieces, for no more a vanity aspect. In their society there's a general proverb, "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down." It's looked down upon to complain unless it's super important.

So now, does Square cater to their own people, loyal customers to a fault? Or to the general Western players, who are more vocal but (admit it) whiny playerbase?

[sasakusaku]

Not sure...I am hoping to be playing some other MMO like EQ Next (please please be good!) because I can't picture FF 14 having much staying power considering the current amount (or lack of) end game content and the 3+ months wait per patch. To be successful in today's MMO world, you have to be on the ball go well above the call of duty to keep people around for the long term....which I am not seeing here as of yet. GW2, for example, has gone that route; it's still wildly popular and successful so it can infact work.

Yet other than coil, I have more or less reached the gear/content wall here in less than a few weeks...that's kind of meh if you ask me. Each their own opinion?

People can say I am whining and maybe they are right, however I can list a ton of MMOs that came and went all due to the issues I have here. It's like clock work so there is quite a bit of proof to back me up.

So hopefully SE takes the concerns seriously and not ignore them; you have to keep people around or they leave for good. Losing customers in any business is not a great idea, especially in the MMO genre. Who can argue other wise?

If the devs and fans of this game desire it to be niche and only played by a smaller amount of players, then continue down this road by all means.

[Chrysania]

Five years? No clue.

I will be somewhat surprised if, in 12-18 months, they're not sending it into f2p/highway robbery cash shop mode. There's nothing here to keep a substantial playerbase entertained, and the content they are talking about just isn't likely to cut it.

I'm suspecting it will do better than 1.0 ever did for about the first 3 months. How SE does its thing in that span will determine a great deal about how many of its fanboys subbing presently like diehards remain thus.

I strongly suspect that they're not going to do terribly, but neither will they do anything amazing. I think they'll try playing it safe and wind up locking ARR firmly into niche mediocrity. ARR will never replicate XI'S longevity, because XI hit its stride in a very different market climate, and it retained a very out-there breed of gamestyle that the market had no cause nor incentive to cater to anymore.

The hardcore getting game is dead, and its characteristics are not heartwarmingly nostalgic for the overwhelming majorities. Todays games are tilting the table even further away from that style of game for better or worse as well.

The 12 year old that's playing WoW with his dad here in 2013 will eventually be a very differently motivated gamer in 2018 than those of us that grew up with pacman set into a pizza hut table, a stack of quarters we begged off our parents and nothing except a high score on a list OTHERS WOULD SEE AT THAT TABLE to shoot for.

Most of us here aren't that old. But even if Everquest 1 was where the mmo magic dazzled you like it never has since, its a swiftly fading paradigm of gaming. It is, in fact, pretty dead. Casually social games with lots out social components but a largely solo core experience is the now.

In five years? ARR will be very buried in irrelevance. It copied what was fatigued and worn out five years ago too well.

[silentwindfr]

we can't judge, but if each patch content (every 3 month) is as big than the 2.1, bring more story, class, level cap and thing who know.

[VahnValbosce]

...and the ability to craft universally worthless items.

1. I now refer you to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVDqzSBUhKY
^ Lv70 crafted gear is better than DL and some pieces on par with Allagan gear.

[Roris]

Fighting Heartless alongside my husband Sephiroth while riding Cloud's bike and it only cost me $60 in the cash shop.

[setsua26]

The big PVP will be out and limsa will have a 5 year winning spree, the hippies of grid will beg for it stop but it won't lol. Ul'da will eat it's self alive with greed and envy. On the PVE side of things I have no idea but I see the same having a great story.

[Nocte]

With far less dissatisfied players. And with less players. And with more content. With perhaps an expansion title or two.

Unless SE's other sales perform dreadfully and cut FFXIV's budget to an absolute standstill.

[Hed]

And yet most if the replies have been declarative rather than speculative... And my comment stands where I "think", you "think", wher Mr. Gooblotz "thinks" something will be in 5 years is so much farting in the wind.

While this may be true. YOU the reader already know it's a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question. The responses are declarative and since no one can really know and the subject matter is already put in to context they are STILL speculative.