Loosing players after update?

[Roris]

I think subs are just evening out, just like all WoW clones cut from the same cloth like ARR is. Active subs will most likely hover around the 500k mark and go lower or maybe higher at times, regardless of how many accounts and "adventurers" there are.

Thing is most MMOs don't need millions of subscribers to stay afloat, just look at XI with their lower than 500k subscribers still getting substantial updates every month, not just every 3 months and their monthly patches have more content than ARR's somewhat monthly 2.x5 and 2.x8 patches. Legacy servers will obviously always be the most populated, because of the people playing on them since 1.0. Most people will have an attachment to their characters and the game by now and will stay around for a long while.

That core group of loyal players is what drives pretty much every MMO regardless of their age, financial model and server populations, and of course you also have the usual minor band of apologists who'll defend anything and even if a game suddenly started charging $1 per dungeon run they will call you entitled for not wanting to pay.

Whether this inevitable drop in players will be good or bad for the game will depend on how they handle it. XI has been doing great adding and tweaking a lot of features and content to what a couple of people around here would otherwise call a dead game, even Everquest is getting its 21st expansion soon. There have been very few MMOs that have completely disappeared and failed, so it's very likely ARR will still be around even with a huge drop in subscribers, for better or for worse.

[Obysuca]

just look at XI with their lower than 500k subscribers still getting substantial updates every month, not just every 3 months and their monthly patches have more content than ARR's

Not to mention XI's content stays relevant for far longer, which is a good thing. Unlike XIV how once the next update is out, the previous content is obsolete and dead. It doesn't help that SE seems to focus on vanity content on XIV, rather than real content :/

Oh and No FC members for me considering I only got a two person one. :P

Well, your post wasn't bad :P Unlike most people who jump into topics and skip over what most people say, sometimes changing it, then going "You're wrong! Quit assuming stuff! Waah Waah Waah!" etc lol And my FC is down to only two of us too :/ We used to be a decent size one but the last few months have dropped us down to only 2-3 on

[Lillia]

@Roris; I wanna hug you after reading that comment... :<

[SDaemon]

I honestly don't know how people can sit here and deny the fact, XIV is losing players and quite quickly. It's fairly obvious, just by taking a look at all the populated places that are almost ghost towns now and the lack of anything on PF / hunts, compared to a few months ago.

>_> Now to sit back and watch the butt hurt people come in and try to argue with me, with high chances of them dragging their FC members in to attack too lol Because that's all people do on the forums when someone posts valid points or good ideas. "What's this? That guy is correct on the issue? Better attack him and bring my FC members in to help too"

Where are these ghost towns? O.o

Since you are being uber defensive I'll leave it with that question. But seriously, where are these ghost towns?

[Obysuca]

Where are these ghost towns? O.o

Since you are being uber defensive I'll leave it with that question. But seriously, where are these ghost towns?

>_> Try playing on a non-legacy server. Mor Dhona only has about 10 people in it, even during prime time hours compared to a few months ago when it was so packed, you couldn't see yourself in the crowd. I haven't seen people crafting near market boards in months and the housing wards are pretty dead empty too, maybe only 4-5 people. Also only 1-2 things on PF all day.

The lack of content is mostly to blame. Each update, you can finish the whole amount of content in the first day or two, then just grind the same dungeon for 4-5 months.

[SDaemon]

>_> Try playing on a non-legacy server. Mor Dhona only has about 10 people in it, even during prime time hours. I haven't seen people crafting near market boards in months and the housing wards are pretty dead empty too, maybe only 4-5 people. Also only 1-2 things on PF all day.

Exactly how long does the game need to be out before people stop trying to compare the population of legacy and non legacy servers like there is a significant difference between the two? There are non-legacy servers with more population than legacy, its a moot point.

[Atomnium]

*snip*

I'm myself a veteran FFXI player so I agree with your statement, on a side note I doubt anyone would be dumb enough to attack you about what you said, for sure XIV is a different game BUT both come from the same game company, they should have re-used the good ideas coming from XI in the XIV aslong it doesn't directly interract with a different battle mechanic (which leave many good things/ideas from the XI to put there).

Keep in mind FFXIV isn't dead yet, we will be able to tell that (hopefully not) when the expansion come out, FFXI only had storyline to shadow lord for about 1 year and half before CoP and zilart came to save the day, maybe it's going to be the same for XIV.

[Obysuca]

on a side note I doubt anyone would be dumb enough to attack you about what you said

You'd be surprised lol I've had people attack me for very very little reason. I've even had people go so far to skip 90% of what I posted, quote a single word or two and go off assuming something completely different

[Atomnium]

You'd be surprised lol I've had people attack me for very very little reason. I've even had people go so far to skip 90% of what I posted, quote a single word or two and go off assuming something completely different

I know I did this to poison the well, disliking hating trolls and know how to make them run away from a forum (I had a troll Master).

[MageBlack]

-snip-

I understand where you are coming from and how things may seem like ghost towns compared to a month or two ago. There might be other reasons for a particular area that used to be crowded to no long seem as busy. At launch, you couldnt even get a claim on a lady bug out of the gates cause, thats where every one was at that point. Eventually people progressed and the main clump moved further and further up the ladder. When FC housing was implemented, again it looked like people were missing, but many of them were busy in the new wards and housing (those rich bastards...) or in dungeons trying to get money for a house. Now again a new housing patch dropped and while the prices are high, people have more time to get money for them and the wards are once again quite busy. Also, there is the usual ebb and flow of the player base. New content gets dropped in the major patch, people come back to check it out, play it, then drift off until the next patch. In addition, there have been some big title releases recently that will naturally draw some people away for a time (Destiny, ArchAge) as well as school starting up this month.

Now this is not a general rule or anything, just some circumstances to consider when making the claim that " the game is dying/the game is hemorrhaging players" as some people put it. As though this is some kind of fear they are using to try and validate the changes they want as some kind of savior to the games success. I am inclined to see what the census says regarding population vs subs vs active accounts. But even that is not a completely accurate look at the actual population in the game because it cannot properly take into account extenuating circumstances such as RMT or people who log in once a week for 30 min.

Personally, I see the game have its ups and downs but i don't see it dying off completely. People like to blame things on "PS limitations" but if anything it is something that would do more for keeping the game alive than to kill it in the long run. It is an almost completely untouched medium for the MMO genre and will have people playing who might not normally. I feel the game has at least drawn in a stable crowd that will be sticking around for quite some time to come. The devs have plans outlined all the way up to 4.0 at the very least, if not further by now. So barring any major disasters, like all their servers somehow being physically destroyed, I don't see the game disappearing or going free to play. And the game would be shut down before ever going free to play.

Just my 2gil.