Fan Census: This is embarrassing

[Jandor]

Then why couldn't you have just said that from the very beginning instead of trying this "social experiment"?

It's much funnier for him to pretend that we are all pawns moving in accordance with his master plan.

[Ramzal]

So like we're all in T13 and on phase 4, Bahamut is at 15% and your friend calls. Do you run to wall, die and leave raid then log off immediately, or do you finish the clear? Cuz what I find with the "RL trumps game" mentality is that people often don't know that there are OTHER people playing the game with them too. So before decisions like this are made, at least consider if it's a good time to leave or not... A boss at 15% isn't a good time. (Seriously I've seen this happen before >_> )

To be honest, I would hit that wall pretty quick if I think something wrong is going on with my friend or they need someone to talk to. This game is not that big of a deal compared to real connections with people. I love this game, I really do. Maybe a bit too much. But people who are directly in your life matter so much more than the pixels that are on screen or those in different locations. I'm not saying raid members aren't important but as far as who I would be willing to roll out of bed for at 4am if they need me, a raid is not one of those things. I have a list of the things that matter most when it comes to this, it goes:

Children
Husband/Wife
Yourself
Family
Job
Pets
Friends (RL)
Raid

I've seen some marriages and relationships end because people couldn't prioritize that the raid is far less important than their significant others. Beating Bahamut is awesome and all, but when you end up alone because "The raid needs you," you have no one to blame but yourself. And lets be honest 6/8 people in a raid do not care what's going on in your personal life because they tend to not care about their own personal lives. This thread has proven that several times over.

[desufin]

Everyone always seem to bring up FCoB as the depressing part of the fan consensus and ignore the rest. Is no one else worried that only roughly a third of the population has finished MSQ, amount of active players are dwindling (especially on EU servers which honestly isn't surprising) and if expansion has pretty much locked everything new behind MSQ without major changes, the game is going to be in an incredibly dangerous spot only a month after it's launch when returning players and new players subs run out?

The "issue" with FCoB is pretty much a standard when it comes to hardcore raid content vs. everything else. Only a small fraction ever ends up doing it for various reasons.

[Mugiawara]

To be honest, I would hit that wall pretty quick if I think something wrong is going on with my friend or they need someone to talk to.

This is true, but this is called emergencies. Just up and leaving on something that can wait is kinda rude. If it's urgent like your cat and dog have one heated debated and one combusted
into fire then yea, it's time to say or not say anything and help them out because that's pretty darn serious.
We can't forget that things DO happen, and if it happens out of your control then it just happens...Something as a friend wanna hang-out on that day could of been
prevented by saying you had plans that night. Your spouse is the same situation but they of course prioritize, and you'd ask them about it first.
This is why people make static's times on days that you can probably know everyone is going to meet up. If the person just stands there and says nothing for 5-10 minutes, I know something happened.
I'm sure people having some sympathy in game to understand your pet blowing up into flames is something that needs
to take immediate reaction lol. I was just going off on what she said, there are multiple situations that can happen here so I'm on both sides on this one.

[Songi]

Hopefully the subscription decline means they'll start putting more focus on creating more challenging content across the board that cannot simply be completed by faceroll. The main reason why so few have completed Final Coil is not because of lack of interest. The lack of challenging dungeons and the lolworthy Crystal Tower raids gives players a false sense of security thinking this game will be one giant derpfest.

[Kallera]

Snip

I've done both decisons in this situation in my lifetime.
There is no amount of loot or progression that can replace the shitty feeling of leaving a loved one hanging for the sake of a video game.
I've made rifts with online friends that never healed to help family members in need, because more often than not, the people online are not the people I live with. I don't even know people in my general vicinity who play ffxiv, so the old disclaimer couldn't be more applicable.(where did that go anyway?)

And for all the drama, If an emergency came up in real life I'd ditch the game for it again. If a person couldn't make that decision, then surely they've gone too far.

[Vaer]

Is no one else worried that only roughly a third of the population has finished MSQ, amount of active players are dwindling (especially on EU servers which honestly isn't surprising) and if expansion has pretty much locked everything new behind MSQ without major changes, the game is going to be in an incredibly dangerous spot only a month after it's launch when returning players and new players subs run out?

A lot of people make other characters since you can have up to 8 per server if you pay for standard. I have two alts that are 50 that I haven't bothered to get through the MSQ since I haven't been actively gearing them at all really.

Active players dwindling is pretty normal when it comes to pre-expansion lulls in these types of games especially since there is barely anything to do if you have been keeping up with the content. I myself have been playing other games and others I know have done the same while waiting for the expansion. It's one of the worst times to play if you are a progression player. If there is a looming gear reset, (especially since they also nerf things in this game pretty often) then people have less of a reason to play if they value their time. Some people take time off so they are refreshed and not burned out doing old content when the new content releases.

[PandaPause]

Yup. Both camps don't realize the other side is right too.

Entitled elitists: rawr! Group wiped. Gaem over! /rage quit. N00b wasting my time. There's no way I had anything to do with that wipe I cleared this fight (once) already! It's all those noobs fault!

sure champ.

Entitled casual: rawr! Stupid elitists won't search me out and make a group for me! I'm really skilled, so it's not my fault I can't win! I just need someone to give me the chance but they never do!

Sure champ.

Entitled 'it's not MY fault' idiocy runs deep in both trenches war camps. That's why that whole debate is dumb. It's not someone else's fault. If you can't seem to succeed, maybe just maybe it's yur OWN fault. Not all the dumb scapegoats people make up to support their idea that they are more special than they are.

[Veqluna]

This is true, but this is called emergencies. Just up and leaving on something that can wait is kinda rude. If it's urgent like your cat and dog have one heated debated and one combusted
into fire then yea, it's time to say or not say anything and help them out because that's pretty darn serious.
We can't forget that things DO happen, and if it happens out of your control then it just happens...Something as a friend wanna hang-out on that day could of been
prevented by saying you had plans that night. Your spouse is the same situation but they of course prioritize, and you'd ask them about it first.
This is why people make static's times on days that you can probably know everyone is going to meet up. If the person just stands there and says nothing for 5-10 minutes, I know something happened.
I'm sure people having some sympathy in game to understand your pet blowing up into flames is something that needs
to take immediate reaction lol. I was just going off on what she said, there are multiple situations that can happen here so I'm on both sides on this one.

+1
I think everyone just picking on each other to much in this thread , I think everyone know that if it emergency call then no amount of loot in this game going to matter.

[desufin]

Hopefully the subscription decline means they'll start putting more focus on creating more challenging content across the board that cannot simply be completed by faceroll. The main reason why so few have completed Final Coil is not because of lack of interest. The lack of challenging dungeons and the lolworthy Crystal Tower raids gives players a false sense of security thinking this game will be one giant derpfest.

Did you completely miss one of the main points of the consensus? People don't WANT challenging content. The incredibly vast majority doesn't do Coil. There's various reasons but it being "too hard" is frequently one of them as it cannot be facerolled with 7 other random people with 0 organisation (some turns can be but T5, T9 and T12/T13 are major road blocks for the non-hardcore).

A lot of people make other characters since you can have up to 8 per server if you pay for standard. I have two alts that are 50 that I haven't bothered to get through the MSQ since I haven't been actively gearing them at all really.

Active players dwindling is pretty normal when it comes to pre-expansion lulls in these types of games especially since there is barely anything to do if you have been keeping up with the content. I myself have been playing other games and others I know have done the same while waiting for the expansion. It's one of the worst times to play if you are a progression player. If there is a looming gear reset, (especially since they also nerf things in this game pretty often) then people have less of a reason to play if they value their time. Some people take time off so they are refreshed and not burned out doing old content when the new content releases.

A lot of players dwindling before expansion sure, however my concern wasn't solely about that other than it is according to the consensus more prominent on EU servers but that the fact that out of all players, 801k has finished the old 2.0 story (Ultima Weapon) but only 300k has finished 2.5. SE has repeatedly pointed out that 2.5 story is needed to be cleared to go to Ishgard and so far everything they've shown is in Ishgard and beyond.
This isn't an issue for ME but it sets a dangerous mood for how well the expansion will be received and how many will stay beyond their free/resubbed 1 month time if they are stuck playing catch up for a long time before they actually get to experience the expansion. If you can't see that, you are blissfully ignorant and that's your choice. I rather hope it means SE sees it too and have big changes in store for new and returning players so they don't give up because they can't play the content they paid for.