FFXIV better stop doing what WoW's doing, because its losing millions of subs.

[LunaHoshino]

There arenew player post on reddit almost daily that left Wow for ff14 and not one of them have stated that gated content was their last straw.

Based on reddit responses a lot of ppl like some gear gated content b/c it gives people something to reach for. And ummm wasn't the tome cap here since 2.0?

Yeah, the most common answer I've heard from the people I know who have jumped ship (or are strongly considering doing so) is "It's not the game I loved anymore" - that the entire atmosphere of the game has changed and that Blizzard has largely ignored player feedback on things.

[Kaedan94]

Losing subs to ff14.....

This.

WoW isn't losing subs because of gated content, they're losing subs because the overall quality of the game is dropping/becoming out of date... and there's a better alternative in FFXIV. WoW is about 11 years old now... it's just getting old. And Blizzard isn't helping themselves by doing things like releasing an expansion based on Kung-Fu Panda.

That being said... it still has 5.6 million players. That's more than FFXIV has or any other MMO on the market.

[Belhi]

Gating isn't one of WoD's problems. Its got bugger all gating. Hell, you get a free lvl 90 character with the expansion. WoW has never had much gating.

WoD has many problems. Gear availability and Gating aren't one of them and if they were they would be buried under the many other issues.

[SDaemon]

5 new dungeons, 3 raids and 1 actual major content patch in its lifetime. WoD didn't have extreme gating, it had extreme lack of content. The next WoW expansion is being revealed tomorrow and WoD has been by far the worst expansion in terms of content, not gating.

[Goodberry]

I am one of the WoW "refugees".
OP, I assure you that gating content is no reason whatsoever for WoW's impressive sub loss.

The Warlords of Draenor fiasco is a sterling example of three Golden Rules:

- Always listen to player feedback, PARTICULARLY THE NEGATIVE ONE.
- Never lie to players, or in any way treat them like idiots. We may behave like idiots at times, BUT WE USUALLY AREN'T.
- Never remove existing game features unless to replace them with DEMONSTRABLY BETTER ones.

[Colorful]

Content gating is definitely not the reason WoW is losing huge amounts of subscribers, that isn't to say it isn't an issue for things in FFXIV. What could have been fun things that you do while waiting in queue like Triple Triad, play with friends, or just have some fun in Chocobo racing were turned into huge grinds for MGP. Cards being gated by ridiculously annoying drop rates + unfair game rules, etc. It's like someone comes up with a fun idea for FFXIV, and then sends it to another person who then ruins it. 1,000,000 MGP for a mount is more than ridiculous.

[Gunspec]

WoW bled subscriptions because they launched a new expansion (for $10 more than earlier expansions) and then didn't support it with content updates for over seven months. THEN they announce that the first content patch would be the last (and only) one of the expansion, and that everyone gets to farm one raid for a year until ANOTHER expansion gets pushed out. Somewhere in there, they added twitter support and tried to claim THAT was a major content patch.

Basically, SE would have to leave us with Savage Alexander for 6 months, no 24 man raid, dungeons or story content, release Alexander part 2 in March 2016, and then tell us to enjoy it because they aren't going to add anything else until 4.0 a year in the future. They would not address any of the hanging plot points (scions, ascians, dragons), they would shoehorn the warrior of darkness AND the warring triad into the Alexander raid, and they would ask us to wait patiently another year for a hyped up 4.0.

5 new dungeons, 3 raids and 1 actual major content patch in its lifetime. WoD didn't have extreme gating, it had extreme lack of content.

At the same time this silliness was happening, FFXIV was getting 3 dungeons a patch, either a 4 boss raid or 24-man easy-raid per patch, and a primal boss fight in addition to new story updates. Simply put, there were better alternatives to WoW for content, so people left.

See what happens when you make things more accessible? All those casual players that don't have time to play much, and therefore need LFR and LFG are leaving to go play other games.

Players who don't have much time wouldn't be adding themselves to subscription figures in the FIRST PLACE if it wasn't accessible. They didn't lose interest because it was too accessible, they left because there was no content. The developers are the ones who lost interest first.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

People are leaving WoW because they are done with it. See what happens when you make things more accessible? All those casual players that don't have time to play much, and therefore need LFR and LFG are leaving to go play other games. They will go back when the next expansion hits, burn through the content in 3 months and start leaving again.

Hopefully FFXIV won't make the same mistake of sacrificing fun and engaging gameplay for the sake of accessibility.

[jomoru]

People are leaving WoW because they are done with it. See what happens when you make things more accessible? All those casual players that don't have time to play much, and therefore need LFR and LFG are leaving to go play other games. They will go back when the next expansion hits, burn through the content in 3 months and start leaving again.

Hopefully FFXIV won't make the same mistake of sacrificing fun and engaging gameplay for the sake of accessibility.

MY GOD someone who's arguing the exact opposite of what the OP says.. How can you possibly do that when her insight is so clear and pure? How can it be possible that someone might read WoW is losing stuff for making stuff too accessable I don't see how anyone could possibily have gotten this idea. Does the op know other people might think this way?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

People are leaving WoW because they are done with it. See what happens when you make things more accessible? All those casual players that don't have time to play much, and therefore need LFR and LFG are leaving to go play other games. They will go back when the next expansion hits, burn through the content in 3 months and start leaving again.

Hopefully FFXIV won't make the same mistake of sacrificing fun and engaging gameplay for the sake of accessibility.

Hasn't WoW become more casual friendly in the years? I seriously doubt it bled subs due to "lack of time" for its players, otherwise FF14 would have been bled dry ages ago. As everyone else already pointed out, WoW was just too slow to push out new stuff and what happens when nothing gets updated? People stop caring and find something else to do.