If the servers are down for a while will people come back?

[TonyMontana]

Considering that the vast majority of people comes and goes regularly whether the game is there or not (even more the ones that you don't, rather stupidly, define "fanboys or "white knights" in an poorly veiled attempt to preemptively flame. Since, you know, most people out there don't devote their life only to one game), yes, they are going to come back.
And if they don't come back immediately, they will on the first patch, or the second, or another that piques their curiosity, or the PS3 release, alongside a whole lot of other people.

Most of the people that were interested in quitting, already did.

So you dont think a month or two of being forced to play another MMO(if MMO play is their chosen means of entertainment) could lead people to quitting FFXIV? As far as you being sure people will come back does that include the roughly 90% of the games population who have quit before the servers went down?

[Abriael]

So you dont think a month or two of being forced to play another MMO(if MMO play is their chosen means of entertainment) could lead people to quitting FFXIV? As far as you being sure people will come back does that include the roughly 90% of the games population who have quit before the servers went down?

First of all, for now they talked about a week. We don't know how the outtage will last, and bandaging your head before it's broken does no good.

The percentage of people that play ONLY MMORPGs is actually quite small. Most people have several ways of gaming entertainment, and many majorly awaited non-mmorpg games have been released or are being released in this period: Dragon Age 2, Shogun 2, Yakuza 3 and so forth.

So no, it's not going to hurt the game in any sizable way. As much as, considering the trends behind your posts, looks like you'd enjoy the perspective.

[TonyMontana]

First of all, for now they talked about a week. We don't know how the outtage will last, and bandaging your head before it's broken does no good.

The percentage of people that play ONLY MMORPGs is actually quite small. Most people have several ways of gaming entertainment, and many majorly awaited non-mmorpg games have been released or are being released in this period: Dragon Age 2, Shogun 2, Yakuza 3 and so forth.

So no, it's not going to hurt the game in any sizable way. As much as, considering the trends behind your posts, looks like you'd enjoy the perspective.

I will most likely be back. Kind of depends on if the wife comes back or not, I dont really enjoy the game nearly as much without her playing it.

You forgot to answer my question about the hundreds of thousands of people who quit the game prior to the earthquake.

[Abriael]

I will most likely be back. Kind of depends on if the wife comes back or not, I dont really enjoy the game nearly as much without her playing it.

You forgot to answer my question about the hundreds of thousands of people who quit the game prior to the earthquake.

I didn't because I didn't notice it, and even if I did, it doesn't really pertain this thread.

But I will humor your question
Those people's attitude towards the game has nothing to do with the current events. Those that quit with the intention of not looking back won't come back even if the servers were up. Those that quit with the intention of keeping a look on the game and coming back when their gripes are fixed or adressed, will do so when such gripes are fixed or adressed.

There's absolutely no reason for the servers staying up for this coming week to have any effects on those already determined attitudes. They already took a decision, and will probably stick to it.
People that will change their mind (either because expectations of improvements might not be fullfilled, or expectations of lack of improvement might bring surprise if improvement does happen). Will do so regardless of a week of outtage.

FFXIV has two possible major events in it's future to bring back people that quit and bring in new players. The release of the PS3 version (that not only will bring many new players, but will also bring back a lot of those that mean to play the game on PC, that, if the game will have improved considerably, will probably have their curiosity piqued by the reviews of the PS3 release and by the buzz between the new players), and a possible release on steam with a sizable amount of publicity and discount. That worked extremely well for FFXI.

In this FFXIV has for sure a large advantage over the many other games that had a bad start. Second chances, in this market, are pretty much precious. Hopefully SE will take proper advantage of them, and at the moment there's no signal to believe that they won't do all they can to.

[Skeeter]

I think the current population left of this game is die hards and will probably stick around. It won't hurt the future of this game more than SE already has. Realistically almost all MMOs that get off to a bad start in the western market never recover. The past few years of failed releases can act as a testament to that. However, SE is in a bit of a unique situation with a potential Ps3 release down the road. If they don't get this game into shape and up to modern standards, and relaunch it on ps3 it won't matter.