So, pretty dead lately....

[Gardes]

For people who are frustrated with the state of the game and the direction it is going (no where), I highly recommend you to not only stop the game but also strike it off your might/will/already play list of mmos. Take your friends with you if you can; my fc went from 30 at prime time at hw launch to 0 and I didn't even have to try getting them to unsub. It is liberating.

I have to admit I'm still a tad upset that after waiting for 2.0 launch, waiting even more for the 1st expansion, enduring through the repeating 2.0-2.55 content believing that ARR was just setting up base for the game and after will come the actual content expansion and then greeted with the same repeating stack of content in HW launch. Yes, I've read about yoship promising something similar to what I said but then seeing upcoming 3.1 content (90% of it just rehashed structure), I am very very skeptical. But I'm not depressed about it or even getting mad at these robots insisting that keeping the status quo in game structure is the best way to go, anymore. I personally think at some point you just have to face the music and accept that this game isn't for you but for...for these people. I think it's a win win for all. You won't get as depressed anymore, these people get to do the same thing over and over for 10 years in peace, yoship still gets to make money since apparently there's more of these people than us, who expected more out of this game and yoship doesn't have to think all that hard since he already has the cookie mould to keep repeating the same thing for 10 years.

I made the mistake of believing in the game and yoship though, and bought a batch sub right before HW released and still cant kick the habit of clicking on this website as part of my browsing routine but I'm getting better at it. Some of us managed to stay in contact through steam and mumble, still have no stable mmo to stick to but at least they don't seem as depressed and lethargic anymore and seem to be actually having fun playing other games.

[Mikedizzy]

Behemoth is on and popping every night...no issues here. I have tons to do still.

[Welsper59]

still have no stable mmo to stick to but at least they don't seem as depressed and lethargic anymore and seem to be actually having fun playing other games.

Given that there's a multitude of great games out there to play in general, sticking to only one these days is a rarity. MMORPGs are a formula of game that doesn't blend well with this fact. Attentions will always shift and you'll compare one for the other. From an entertainment perspective of your personal time, you SHOULD do this. Just keep in mind that it's not always applicable to everyone, that it's called "personal" for a reason lol.

I'm always curious though, what exactly did you expect out of this game? I do mean it literally when I say "exactly", as in detailed ideas and methods within reason of possibility. People who can't come to that answer quickly and concisely in hindsight situations have little room for argument that's why, unless the matter is not on the game but rather with themselves. In which case, they'd be hating on the game because of themselves? It happens more often than logically sound. I'm not saying the game is perfect or anything, but... I never come across people who have a firm grasp of reality, understand the long history of the MMORPG genre, AND know what they're referring to when it comes to the "expected more" statement.

[Gardes]

Given that there's a multitude of great games out there to play in general, sticking to only one these days is a rarity. MMORPGs are a formula of game that doesn't blend well with this fact. Attentions will always shift and you'll compare one for the other. From an entertainment perspective of your personal time, you SHOULD do this. Just keep in mind that it's not always applicable to everyone, that it's called "personal" for a reason lol.

I'm always curious though, what exactly did you expect out of this game? I do mean it literally when I say "exactly", as in detailed ideas and methods within reason of possibility. People who can't come to that answer quickly and concisely in hindsight situations have little room for argument that's why, unless the matter is not on the game but rather with themselves. In which case, they'd be hating on the game because of themselves? It happens more often than logically sound. I'm not saying the game is perfect or anything, but... I never come across people who have a firm grasp of reality, understand the long history of the MMORPG genre, AND know what they're referring to when it comes to the "expected more" statement.

Keeping to one mmorpg doesn't mean I neglect other single player games. I still played a lot of games on my vita even when I was playing a lot of ffxiv, especially when I had the drive to make food and potions for my fc. When I said 'other games' I meant online games that me and friends I met in xiv to play together with, co-op games that isn't session based like moba or whatever..but what's going into details gonna do? It won't change anything and either you or someone else is just going to discard what I wrote flippantly. All I'm gonna say is that playing on private servers of old mmos are part of what we're doing atm and it's sad to see them have deeper rpg mechanics than what this game has and be more mmo than this instanced game with lobbies.

[Obysuca]

It's actually the other way around, it would be terrible game design to have everything uncapped, so people just cap out on items in a week, because they don't sleep or do other things, then they will unsub untill next patch, You kind of have that backwards, the game has survived and is even doing well with the current system. Try finding others things to do, Which there is plenty of if you actually play.

Not if SE actually added better content, rather than MSQ that gets completed in 1-2 hours and then being stuck with 2 dungeons for 3 months or so >_> Like I said, theres been plenty of times in other mmos where everything is uncapped yet people continue to stay, even if they grind it all out as much as possible. It also helps if XIV didn't encourage everyone to be solo / not social. A community is staying power too.

So yes, the formula they're doing is a terrible game design. Know why? The proof is in practically every mmo to come out since 2005 doing this same exact formula and dying out in 1-3 years, sometimes less. Now take a look at pre-WoW mmos who followed a different formula, most of those are still up and running after 13-16 years. Take a guess why and tell me which one has "terrible game design", the ones that die in 1-3 years or the ones that last 13-16. I can bet you 100%, if XIV didn't have FF in the title, it would have died out a year ago or gone f2p. A name being the reason a mmo is kept afloat doesn't make it a good mmo.

And guess what, people already unsub until the next patch because of the caps and lack of content. And no, it's not doing as well as SE would have you think. The signs are all there that it's not and perhaps even going towards a f2p model. Remember early on, Yoshi said he'd rather pull the plug than go f2p, then shortly around 2.2? or so, did a 180 and said they'd look into f2p. Then out of no where, cash shop.

And I have actually played, I've played since 2.0. There really isn't much to do, especially considering SE outdates crap as fast as its out, over half the game is obsolete atm and HW didn't really add anything new, it was just a big patch we paid $50+ for. Judging by your join date only being a few months, I can see why you'd say theres other things to do >_> But for people from 2.0 and 1.0, there really isn't.

Let's not forget that a bit after 2.0, Yoshi said they were just setting the foundation, then the real content would come. Well, it's been 2 years. Where's the real content? It's just been rehash after rehash of the same stuff update after update.

[MrBinary]

Between the release of Phantom Pain and the new school year starting up, one really should expect a drop in active players for a bit.

[Jetstream_Fox]

Between the release of Phantom Pain and the new school year starting up, one really should expect a drop in active players for a bit.

Phantom Pain destroys this game in every aspect, even grinding to make the best Mother Base is a more enjoyable experience then XIV. Even having Sutherland do the voice for Boss is a better listening experience then the entire voice cast for XIV. You're also forgetting Halo 5 is around the corner as well as Fallout 4, this game is basically about to have a second calamity with how many people are going to leave. Unless they quickly drop super quality content within 2 months XIV is going to be hurting a lot more than it is now.

3/4 of my company are gone and I haven't logged in more then 15 minutes this week I believe, between Until Dawn and Phantom Pain, I don't even notice XIV in my ps4 library anymore. More so despite the games lackluster content Destiny is also getting the Taken King and I'm sure that'll also hurt the player base maybe not as bad, but the fact that there are many high profile games coming out very soon, things just aren't looking good for Eorzea sadly.

There is a lot they could do to fix this drought, but it just seems like the devs just focus on one game and turn a blind eye to the fact multiple potentially game killing releases are on the way. It's like they don't understand when XIV came out the only thing that faced hitting it hard was Destiny and Scrolls Online, they should have continued their blessings with Destiny having a bad launch and Scrolls online a even worse one. I believe that if Destiny actually pulled off it's launch like Bungie did for Halo, this game would have likely been crushed in terms of the ps3/4 community not playing it.

[Colt47]

Well they bombed themselves with how they handled end game grinding. They put two dungeons in Expert roulette and made it the most efficient way to get ESO, thus forcing people to do that or run alex until cap. Then they did the crazy item drop thing for Alexander for getting armor set pieces. There is basically nothing to do at end game worth talking about.

[Adrasteia]

I think the current end game blues are a combination of them trying a bunch of different things (the new raid structure, the new endgame crafting structure, etc.) with mixed results and general ol' fatigue after putting their first expansion out. These guys and gals were putting in 80+ hour weeks to get the thing done, and while it's pretty dang great, I can't help but feel they bit off more than they could chew in their first expansion outing.

[Lexia]

So yes, the formula they're doing is a terrible game design. Know why? The proof is in practically every mmo to come out since 2005 doing this same exact formula and dying out in 1-3 years, sometimes less. Now take a look at pre-WoW mmos who followed a different formula, most of those are still up and running after 13-16 years. Take a guess why and tell me which one has "terrible game design", the ones that die in 1-3 years or the ones that last 13-16. I can bet you 100%, if XIV didn't have FF in the title, it would have died out a year ago or gone f2p. A name being the reason a mmo is kept afloat doesn't make it a good mmo.

Current day players would have a fit if the game was say more like XI a pre-wow mmo. For player base in general the saying "reap what you sow" comes to mind.