Anyone Sad about the games Decline

[Maxthunder]

No, it's crowded. I walk down the street in Ul'dah by the summoning bell and there's quite literally *dozens* of people right there just grinding away at crafts. I can't go anywhere without seeing other players, usually several other players. I'm not seeing fewer people, I'm seeing more. I can't sign on during prime time without having to wait for space to open up. It's crowded.

Crowded? Cities are crowded because players are not out doing anything in the open world not to mention seeing you can just Q up in town for a dungeon dosent help but again just because you think a zone is crowded dosent mean we are not loseing subs. The issue is duty finder begin able to Q up anywhere w/o having to go to the actual dungeon makes the cities crowded. Yes we are loseing subs due to various reason, mostly because the game lacks in any real challenge as well as long term content.

[Conradus]

Crowded? Cities are crowded because players are not out doing anything in the open world

Gee, I guess all the people I see out in the open world doing things must be illusions. I'd better get my eyes checked.

[Maxthunder]

Gee, I guess all the people I see out in the open world doing things must be illusions. I'd better get my eyes checked.

Why dont we get the actual sub info from SE you will see players have stopped subbing. Just because you see players dosent mean that the game is not losing subs.

[Eekiki]

Why dont we get the actual sub info from SE you will see players have stopped subbing. Just because you see players dosent mean that the game is not losing subs.

Why don't we get the actual sub info from SE? You will see that they gained subscriptions last month. Just because you say the game is losing subs doesn't mean the game is not gaining new players.

See? I can wildly speculate, too!

[Velhart]

Why dont we get the actual sub info from SE you will see players have stopped subbing. Just because you see players dosent mean that the game is not losing subs.

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/10/...g-in-december/

There is always lost subscriptions and new ones to take it's place. It seems like new subscriptions are more in favor than lost ones currently.

[xXHalloweenTrixXx]

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/10/...g-in-december/

I hope Bot accounts wasn't included xD.

[Conradus]

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/10/...g-in-december/

There is always lost subscriptions and new ones to take it's place. It seems like new subscriptions are more in favor than lost ones currently.

Game, set and match. We have actual data, and the actual data says the game is growing like gangbusters.

[velrek2013]

Game, set and match. We have actual data, and the actual data says the game is growing like gangbusters.

That does not prove anything currently. We do not know how many of those accounts are still being played to date, many of them could have purchased more game time, gotten bored and stopped playing; they still would have an active account. I may pay a monthly sub for example, however I play maybe 10 hrs a month since end game is currently lacking. I would be much more interested in seeing some stats on the amount of time players are playing the game and if so what activities they are doing.

[Hyrist]

Crowded? Cities are crowded because players are not out doing anything in the open world not to mention seeing you can just Q up in town for a dungeon dosent help but again just because you think a zone is crowded dosent mean we are not loseing subs. The issue is duty finder begin able to Q up anywhere w/o having to go to the actual dungeon makes the cities crowded. Yes we are loseing subs due to various reason, mostly because the game lacks in any real challenge as well as long term content.

Speculation, and bad speculation at that.

You're making conjectures without any evidence to back it up, worse, you are again, ignoring the basic facts of life of MMOs.

Subscription games lose subscriptions constantly. The matter of concern comes in retention percentage and the gain vs loss balance of the game. Yes, we're losing subscriptions. We have since before subscriptions began. We're also gaining subscriptions. Right now, the retention rate of subscriptions make it so our gains outweigh our losses by a wide enough margin for us to net an additional half million than we we had to begin with. Meaning we have a net gain of 500k subscriptions in spite of the purported loses you're professing are such a concern.

You are also speculating as to the reasons for these losses, which again, you have no raw data to back up from. SE is more than capable of implementing an exit survey to determine these factors for themselves. Your speculation is not substantive enough to attempt to argue it as fact, you're simply listening to the vocal minority and parroting their reasoning.


And again, you have not addressed the crowds upon crowds of people in the normal bottle-neck locations that are active: Namely, the popular FATE hubs. These are still VERY active at all the well known points.

As far as "Real Challenge" and "Long term content." They both exist. The complaint at large is that the peak of the challenge content is currently unbeatable, and the "Long term content" is too grindy - which comes to absolutely no surprise to me as a veteran MMO player.

It all boils down to unreasonable players expecting the impossible: Wanting challenging content but complaining when they get it. Waning long term content but not liking the fact that it actually resembles work.

This is a catch 22. There's no way to make this content satisfying without making a random generator dungeon, and even that will get boring as soon as players figure out the parameters.