is this game near the end of it's life?

[SpookyGhost]

I don't know if there's a word for it, but I've noticed a common trend in XIV that I think is pretty funny. At first, everyone's fine with the game - they like some things, they're indifferent about some things, and they dislike some things. Overall they're pretty pleased, so they continue to sub. Slowly people start to fall off in 2.0 due to the repetitive grind of tomes, the weekly lockouts, and most importantly the wall that was T5. A lot of people were fine with the grind for tomes, some saw it as a fun activity, and a lot of people didn't raid. Some did raid, but they were fine banging their heads against T5 so they continued subbing. Time marched on, changes were made, some that made people happy, some that made people upset to the point of unsubbing. Sometimes people who did unsub would come back, sometimes they'd stay, and sometimes they'd leave again.

And here we are today. A grand majority of the people still subbed to the game are the people who have stuck through, who haven't been affected by the changes to the game or the repetition of the patch cycles. They still enjoy X, Y, and Z so they'll continue paying their sub. But... what happens when SE comes for X, Y, or Z? Will your opinion on the game start to falter? What happens when SE comes for X, Y, and Z?

It's interesting, at least. Seeing people defend and defend, never faltering because all the changes don't affect them. They're still happy! They're still enjoying the game! If you don't enjoy the game... well, just quit! And people will. SE built this game with an expected playerbase of very little, which is why their initial budget was so low and why it hasn't changed since. It will keep going downhill because they don't even care if they lose you, they'll keep taking risks as long as the playerbase eats it up and accepts it. Eventually they'll push too far, maybe they'll ease up, maybe they won't. The game certainly isn't "dead" yet because most of the playerbase who are still around are happy with what they've got. One day they might not be, but that day isn't today.