I guess it's time

[Iromi]

They have no contractual obligation to tell us?

*side note* I dunno if its just me, but based on what I've read the majority of the people in this thread with complaints are all NA data centre based players.

*ponders*

That is kind of counter productive..to have such a successful, high sub game apparently (as some people in this thread are claiming lol) and just not release numbers. Blizzard at one time boasted 13M subs..I never touched the game but even I remember that and thought to myself, "wow, that is impressive." I mean, I am not saying this game is dead or something, no not at all, but I am seeing near empty FC's all over the place, and empty/dead zones on a legacy server

The JP forums are basically the same as ours, similar threads, similar complaints. The only difference is they keep the number of threads limited, whereas over here it looks like multiple threads for the same topic.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

I dont think the game would last long without them, when they leave you start seeing the downward spiral of a game. Some games make it through by going f2p, or condense servers down but then the resources for content dries up.

Next thing you know youre playing on an private server.

Well judging from ffxi, when the subs got down to a certain point they stopped making expansions and just made dlc patches that you had to pay for to play.... I can see the same thing happening here if the sub numbers drop too much .... you have to start paying 10-15 bux for each content patch until they just stop making them.

I don't think that will happen anytime soon though.

[seraf]

Good for you, but you're a casual, of course you're happy.

This thread is mostly a complaint by the hardcore/end-game raiders audience.

Mark my words however, if the formula doesn't change with 4.0 this game will die, and even if they make the changes for 5.0 i'm afraid it will be too late.

ITP: You're only hardcore if you Raid.

I looked up that guys Lodestone profile and he has everything at Lv.60 and probably has thousands of hours of play time invested in the game. Yet because he doesn't do "hardcore Raiding" he is condemned as a Casual and his opinion is void? Please. What makes his thousands of hours worth less than your time invested other than Raiding? This goes for any other long term player of this game as well.

[Vantol]

Okaaay ... here we go (I answered only those, that I strongly disagree with. Unfortunatly I'll need to bring FFXI a few times as example):

- Exploring vase zones with danger. Supremely subjective, in fact I'm almost positive that people would hate running around the world if mobs were a constant threat to them.
It has been done before in FFXI and was one of the best features. Mob could aggro if it sees you or hears you or you are low on hp and etc. There were potions that would neglet some statuses and it was real challange and content itself to get from point A to B. Sometimes (regularly) you actually had to call friends so that they escort you (FFXI did user-generated content before it was invented). That would form relationsships and make this game Multi-Massive. Of course that was only possible in age, when it took 1-2 years to hit level cap. And top gear stayed relevant for 4-5 years. Getting to your distanation would bring you satisfaction like killing Savage floor. And there were hundreds of routes.

- Remove raids and instead add in 8man dungeons that are on pare with raids. (Hard dungeons, not always about hard bosses.) No reason to remove raids. Trash is not terribly interesting to fight through, though I agree it wouldn't be a bad idea to add variety.
Pepperoni farm remembers time, when there was no such thing as "trash". You could get to (almost) any objective in dungeon without fighting a single mob. But every single mob would drop item for crafting or something else important. There always was a choice.

- Removal of tome cap & requirement for obtaining them for bis/removing the tome system. Removing tome cap will simply make it so people spam grind whatever is the fastest way to BiS and then complain about nothing to do. Time gates are necessary to MMOs
No, they are not. It's just lazy design, like character-binding equipment and stuff. I wish they would remove tome system (or any other currency system except gil) from the game, leaving only straight drops. And make 99.9% items sellable. Then we would get real economy.

- Start adding actual 24man Guild FC content into the game. 24 man content is going the way of the dodo in all games. Zerging content isn't entertaining, that's why its always the least popular content.
Again, Pepperoni Farm remembers 64 people raids with higher than Savage difficulty. It was big zones where you would kill mobs, slowly get better gear and slowly make progress through this zone. A few months to clear one, then set it on farm and begin next one.

- Readjustments/complete overhall of the Hunt system. Doesn't need a complete overhaul really, minor tweaks at worst.
Yes, it does. It's meaningless.

- Make relics require alot of gil/player help to finish. Allow all players to farm currency and able to sell it to players grinding out for relic. Asking for one of the best weapons in the game to be farmable through pure gil is absolute madness.
Why? Let's say I'm crafter and I'm really good at it. My "grinding" is making money, just like collection loot is grinding for someone else. Why shouldn't I have an option to pay, say, 750 million and get it? I spent not less time on it (getting money).

- Make Relics best in slot for every patch till next expansion where they need to do a hard quest to upgrade it again. Asking for a casual grind weapon to be the best weapon in the game is a huge slap in the face for anyone who does difficult content.
No one said word "casual". Make it require a few rare drops from Savage, that you need then to craft into something HQ and kill all Primals under 5 minutes with lvl sync and blah-blah-blah. And then you get your relic, which stays bis for 1 year at least. I have said it many times and I will repeat myself,- players (and SE unfortunatly too) do not understand what "relic" means. Simple measurment is: if more than 5% of people get this weapon, it's not relic, it's artifact at best.

- About instant level up potions.
I'm hardcore FF fan and had my own community (paid for ads to get more ppl, made guilds, forum and blah-blah-blah. Also seen not hundreds, but thousands of ppl buy this game, play for 1-2 months and drop it. But that's different story). By the end of 2.0 there were 14 statics who bested Bahamut that I kept track on on 3 different servers (who werel from my country). By the end of 3.1 there were 3 statics, now there is 1. All this happened because of "unsync" system. Players just don't see reason to spend countless of hours, lose their jobs, families and whatever, to accomplish something, that can be done by avarege Carl in 1-2 years. What's the point? So, if SE implements shortcuts or those potions, why should I keep playing when I can return to this game in a few years, pay 10$ and get the same result as the other guy, who devoted all his life to FFXIV?

- Add in endgame content related to the main story. (Not a side story quest not really related to the main story.) Castrum Meridianum and so on? Unless you mean like Binding Coil or Alexander? In which case, that involves several main characters on both fronts. It seems pretty related to the main story of the game, just not required to progress?
Make it required for progress. Make it. Again, in FFXI like 50% of first expnasion (on which were based patches, new fights and stuff) were locked behind fights, that were much harder than current Savage. It was like locking gates to Ishgard and all Heavensward content behind whole Coil (without echo or level nerfs). Was it harsh? Yes. But you just can't imagine the feeling stepping your foot in those new zones after months (2 years for me, I was slow) of hard work. And those who actualy were able to get there would be praised in cities and asked to tell stories of those new zones (for real).

That is what I call "exploration"

- Slow down the combat a little bit when your adding in more actions into the game. (Balance the GCD a bit more) GCD is already slow compared to almost literally every other MMO. This is a lrn2play issue.
It's not slow, it feels slow because there is no communication in party (because combat system in this game is the worst I have seen for long). Again, in FFXI you had to type "Doing Savage Blade by macro. When it says 3 secs, start casting Flood, and when it hits I'll position myself between mob and THF for a few seconds, so he can Trick Attack me" (random ability names). And you had to type it 2-3 times per EACH mob, all the time. That is if you wanted to be efficient of course. Now go to Savage and ask people, what did they eat today and try to keep conversation (to simulate situation) and then tell us GCD is too slow.

- No more Normal mode versions of Endgame. Normal mode versions of end game were literally added in order to provide more casual players the opportunity to see the story. Removing the ability for less skilled players to see story lines seems like a terrible idea.
It kills motivation. I'm actually all for making MSQ THE hardest content which requires best gear and skill. It will set goals for many players. Currently there is close to no point in getting stronger gear. Or doing anything in this game at all ...


P.S. Sorry for my bad Engrish

[ZorySantill]

The biggest thing you keep talking about is comparing it to FFXI. I'm sorry but that wasn't a successful game. It was a fan favorite, but that's it. It was borderline dead. This game is drastically different, and that's good. If this game was anything like XI, most of us wouldn't even be playing it. XI still exists, go back to it. It just had a huge sale on steam even. Most of those ideas that came from XI are awful. Like, god awful. So few people getting to even see new content? Not able to ever finish your primary story content for 2 years? That's awful. You talk about this game having content issues or anything like it and use that as a comparison? XI was just a fun experiment. One that did NOT pan out so they went for something more profitable, something more people would actually enjoy.

[Vantol]

The biggest thing you keep talking about is comparing it to FFXI. I'm sorry but that wasn't a successful game. It was a fan favorite, but that's it. It was borderline dead. This game is drastically different, and that's good. If this game was anything like XI, most of us wouldn't even be playing it.

I'm sorry, "most of you" are those 5 people? I think we could live with that.

And, yeah, FFXI was, is and most likely will stay as the most profitable game in SE history.

Not gonna comment more on this, because you seem to be trolling or just veeery ignorant (no offense).

[ZorySantill]

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/06...tasy-xis-peak/

This was 3 years ago almost.

[Vantol]

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/06...tasy-xis-peak/

This was 3 years ago almost.

Yeees ...
1. That's "paid subscribers", not the profit from game lifespan. Now let's sit and watch FFXIV to last for 14 years (not).
2. If you read this thread, there are calculations, that by 2015 this number droped to 200k subscribers. And that would be one of the reasons this thread (and many others) exist.

P.S. Also this article actually says, that out of 1.45 million people who bought this game, only 600k (<50%) decided to keep playing after free month. On release. Considering all those tomes and dungeons being fresh and interesting, full of hope and promises. That sounds to me like horrible result.

[ZorySantill]

Yeees ...
1. That's "paid subscribers", not the profit from game lifespan. Now let's sit and watch FFXIV to last for 14 years (not).
2. If you read this thread, there are calculations, that by 2015 this number droped to 200k subscribers. And that would be one of the reasons this thread (and many others) exist.

P.S. Also this article actually says, that out of 1.45 million people who bought this game, only 600k (<50%) decided to keep playing after free month. On release. Considoring all those tomes and dungeons being fresh and interesting, full of hope and promises. That sounds to me like horrible result.

Assuming that FFXI had 600k subscribers for all 14 years (completely absurd assumption but lets go with it) it comes out to $15 a month, multiplied by 14 years, multiplied by 12 months, or roughly $100 million.

Looking exclusively at box sales, reported 5 million accounts created as of July 2015, lets assume they went for about $30 average counting sales and so on. 5 million accounts times $30 per account is $150 million. Already more than 14 years of FFXI, and that's not counting a single subscription, nor is it counting any purchases of Heavensward, or even sales for someone playing PS3 upgrading to PS4, or to PC and so on.

[Vantol]

Allright, but FFXI wasn't free to download. So add here box sales, 5 expansions and 6 addons. And also link to those "5 millions".

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that FFXI wasn't even close as bad as you want it to look, even from profits point of view (though, there are great games that don't make money, and horrible games that make hundreds of millions).

Also: 600k bought FFXI, 600k played FFXI for 14 years (or whatever the number is). 5 millions bought FFXIV, 200k played FFXIV for 3 years. What are we even discussing here?

P.S. There was actually a chart with FFXI subscribers if someone isn't as lazy as me to find it