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

[Babette]

Heavensward has been a terrible disappointment for me :
- Very few new skins.
- Very very very few new skins that are not awfull (as 90% of the skins).
- I don't like the new maps, they are not even "that tall", and have very few details.
- New content can be cleared in 2 weeks. Now we are just farming alexander / Primals / roulette day after day to get the higher ilvl possible.
- housing is still complete shit
- Well done for the new pvp, at least it is real pvp and not "DPS on the tower" mode.

I have the bad feeling of déjà vu, doing the exact same things than before Heavensward...

[Terribad]

WoW lost a lot of subs TO US HERE AT FFXIV

I've seen this statement quite a few times. Not arguing it or saying it's not true because I don't know, where are you guys getting this information?

SE won't even release actual sub numbers.

[Duelle]

I've seen this statement quite a few times. Not arguing it or saying it's not true because I don't know, where are you guys getting this information?

SE won't even release actual sub numbers.

Probably anecdotal info, but it's a nice thought. Kinda like that discussion on the WoW sub-reddit where someone posted the derplander laughing gif and the replies were basically "funny that this is from FFXIV, the game I left WoW for".

[Terribad]

Probably anecdotal info, but it's a nice thought. Kinda like that discussion on the WoW sub-reddit where someone posted the derplander laughing gif and the replies were basically "funny that this is from FFXIV, the game I left WoW for".

Lol That's what I was thinking but didn't want to make assumptions and then there's actual information out there. SE keeps playing around with these "accounts" and "registered accounts" which literally means nothing in terms to active subs. I believe around release they were proud and said it was 300k "active subs". But since they haven't said anything since, it's no where near the 4 million "accounts" they keep throwing around. I think someone on reddit did a really good guesstimate of around 750k active subs.

If we were really getting a good chunk of WoW subs and were really in the millions, they'd actually say it.

[Bishop81]

You know what is the strangest thing about WoW?

Raids.

In WoW there is LFR, it's pretty much CT/ST/WoD/AlexDF - actually it's exactly like AlexDF; an ez-mode version of a raid.

Why was it created? Because raid participation was too low to justify the cost of creating said raids.

Now, for most people the logical thing to do when something is unpopular would be to just drop it - like a TV network and a show with poor ratings. But that is not what Blizzard did. They created LFR and pat themselves on the back at the increased "participation" - the equivalent of paying people to watch your TV show; except in this case it's with loot.

Instead of using player usage data to determine what content to make, they created content to manipulate player usage data - rendering the point of collecting said usage data smoot.

After 2 expansions I got tired of it. I was just there for the loot. I wasn't having fun. In fact I was experiencing all the unpleasantness of raiding (the nerdraging, yelling, and insults) and none of the positive aspects like the sense of accomplishment nor comradery.

I was given repurposed hand-me-down content and expected to be happy. Content designed for a coordinated group where if one fails the whole group fails ... given to what is effectively a PUG put together by a computer picking names at random from a list.

One can only wonder if SE is planning to continue down that same path because in Heavensward I can't really bring myself to run AlexDF.

[Hieral]

Uh... what in FFXIV is gated? O.o

And don't say "All Heavensward content." Getting to that point is a cakewalk nowadays. And pay attention to the plot.

[NamNem]

Of all the reasons for people leaving WoW, gated content was not a major concern. There are far too many catch up mechanics for a person to fall behibd in WoW. The majority of the PvP community left for obvious reasons, people were unhappy with how the game has been dumbed down, WoW is getting old, Blizzard claimed to have banned an upward of 300k+ bots for 6 months. These are just a few reasons. Gated content? No...

[Colorful]

You know what is the strangest thing about WoW?

The only people who had a strong dislike for LFR in Mists were those whose epeen felt threatened that others got to experience the content, and got to have the same gear, but significantly weaker with a different colour. And you know what Blizzard did? Completely butchered it, removed any sense of difficulty it may have posed even if it was very little, removed the majority, if not all mechanics, and also butchered gear progression in LFR. Great idea wasn't it? Lost almost half of their subscribers due to the inability to keep them interested, all because they decided to listen to their 10%. I'm not saying it was the only reason, but it played quite the large part. When raiding is the only thing your game has going for it, why would you ruin that for most of your playerbase?


If SE goes down the same route, I can see them losing plenty of subscribers, and quickly. Even as of now, with Alexander, there's very little content in terms of end game progression. Run Alex for 5ish weeks, get that gear, and then run the roulette... for 3 months until 3.1 hits, and then run another 4 boss raid that's even easier with no harder option, for 3 more months until Alexander part 2.

[Khalithar]

One thing people are forgetting about WoW, is that it's numbers have never gone down or up gradually, it always trends towards spiking up or down. Whenever new content or a new xpac is released their numbers suddenly spike, then when people get bored or devour the content they unsub until the next new thing. If you've been playing WoW or at least following it's patch cycle, you'd know their newest xpac has been particularly bereft of content, more so than any of their other expansions in the past, as a result most players have very little reason to keep playing right now and that's why subs are at an all time low. I'd say let's see what happens to their sub numbers when Legion is released. If I had to guess, I'd say we'll see their sub numbers spike again, then when the (inevitable) content drought hits their subs will drop once more and then a thread like this will pop up. The cycle never ends.

Edit: I don't personally play WoW anymore, but I follow their patch cycles and their development, keep an eye on any new features they add as well. I tend to follow MMO's in general as none of them exist in a vacuum, it's worth following what others games are like and how they're doing. =)

[Bishop81]

The only people who had a strong dislike for LFR in Mists were those whose epeen felt threatened that others got to experience the content, and got to have the same gear, but significantly weaker with a different colour. And you know what Blizzard did? Completely butchered it, removed any sense of difficulty it may have posed even if it was very little, removed the majority, if not all mechanics, and also butchered gear progression in LFR. Great idea wasn't it? Lost almost half of their subscribers due to the inability to keep them interested, all because they decided to listen to their 10%. I'm not saying it was the only reason, but it played quite the large part. When raiding is the only thing your game has going for it, why would you ruin that for most of your playerbase?


If SE goes down the same route, I can see them losing plenty of subscribers, and quickly. Even as of now, with Alexander, there's very little content in terms of end game progression. Run Alex for 5ish weeks, get that gear, and then run the roulette... for 3 months until 3.1 hits, and then run another 4 boss raid that's even easier with no harder option, for 3 more months until Alexander part 2.

I have done every LFR that ever came out.

Mist LFR still required people to obey mechanics ... of course with a random group of people, the results were 50/50.
WoD is the polar opposite. You can practically sleep walk through the whole thing.

LFR, the vast majority of the time, is only capable of invoking 2 types of emotion, Rage or Boredom. Neither is what I would consider positive.

By WoD HFC I couldn't bring myself to do it anymore. The same thing happened when I hit Lv 60 in Heavensward. Only ran through Alex DF twice - including the first time to clear the story; the second was to give it another chance but I don't think it worked, I simply don't have it in me anymore. Even if you put iLv 500 gear in there I probably won't do it, it's just more damage and will be obsolete in a few months anyway. It's just not fun.

One thing people are forgetting about WoW, is that it's numbers have never gone down or up gradually, it always trends towards spiking up or down. Whenever new content or a new xpac is released their numbers suddenly spike, then when people get bored or devour the content they unsub until the next new thing. If you've been playing WoW or at least following it's patch cycle, you'd know their newest xpac has been particularly bereft of content, more so than any of their other expansions in the past, as a result most players have very little reason to keep playing right now and that's why subs are at an all time low. I'd say let's see what happens to their sub numbers when Legion is released. If I had to guess, I'd say we'll see their sub numbers spike again, then when the (inevitable) content drought hits their subs will drop once more and then a thread like this will pop up. The cycle never ends.

Edit: I don't personally play WoW anymore, but I follow their patch cycles and their development, keep an eye on any new features they add as well. I tend to follow MMO's in general as none of them exist in a vacuum, it's worth following what others games are like and how they're doing. =)

Long term it's on the decline. If you ignore the short-lived spikes, you will see it's downhill after WotLK.