I guess it's time

[Thayos]

You were the one who linked it, if those numbers have nothing to do with active players why did you post it, facepalm.

Nobody was talking about storyline completion rates until dude brought it up a few posts ago for unknown reasons.

The rest of us are only talking about active players. And that spreadsheet has a column with active players on each server. Add them all up, and you get the total estimated active playerbase.

The decline from 3.0 til now was far bigger than the decline from 2.0 to 2.55

I am pointing out that a year ago, we were all shocked and surprised that so few people had completed the 2.x storyline heading into Heavensward. It was a wake-up call that not everyone cares about pushing through the content -- some people just log in and do whatever.

I don't think too much about how big the playerbase is. Hyperion has a very healthy population, and server pops elsewhere don't affect that.

But if forced to choose, I'll always prefer data over guessing.

EDITED to make this less adversarial, because the person I was responding to probably didn't realize active players were listed on the spreadsheet.

[Zojha]

An active player can simply be a sprout which never gets to complete the story because he got bored, can even be a bot or just people who get hyped and come back but quit rather than completing content.

More precisely: Critera same as the last time, must be above level 21. Any changes to HP/mount/minion/gear counts character as active.
From an older survey of the same person: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...y_730k_active/

If anyone can speak japanese, feel free to compare other numbers o.o

[Thayos]

Thanks for posting that, Zojha.

Wow, look at that. Everything I said was totally correct!

And that's why I prefer actual data rather than guessing. I enjoy being right.

[RLofOBFL]

....

The reddit link says that it doesn't include any players under level 20, so some weeding out has been done, & it is April 20th which was 2 full months after 3.2 dropped.

Again I'm aware the playerbase isn't huge as they try to lead on but it is bigger than you give it credit for & is the second highest subbed paid mmo behind WoW according to the internetz. If it didn't have a good playerbase then why is Yoshi okay with never changing? Clearly it's making them money the way they do it now.

[Andevom]

Yea but difference is while one was down I could do another..easily. In XIV I can do all this crap in a few hours or less and I am done for the week. All those events also could take hours. Dynamis - 3 hours at least.
Assaults - Depending on how long it takes you to gather people, actually go do it and go back and get tags, etc could take hours again
JP midnight? Yea..have to wait, can go do something else
Fish..I never fished, was too busy doing other stuff so I could care less
Campaign medal..yea that is fine, you also had to EARN it within those 5 days
Salvage? That also took hours. Again..an actual Linkshell event and group content. Pray tell me how much FC content this game has after being out for 3 years..0 lol. Also Salvage was 3 days a week.
You forgot Nyzul Isle also...
Limbus - That as well could take anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on gathering, which one you do to and who needed what card..again, took plenty of time to occupy me.
As for the key items..np, I can do one of the many, many things XI had to offer.

You also forgot farming pops in sea/sky and other stuff to do...none of that is in this game, not even close :/

So I must disagree :P in XIV I can cap tomes in a couple hours, I can cap my red scripts in 1.5hr, I can go into weeping city, clear it once in 1hr or so and get my drop, never have to go back in for the week.

I count Nyzul in Assaults since they both required the same ID tag, and this was by no means a definitive list, just to highlight there were plenty of lockouts in that game. Not to mention that those lockouts physically prohibited you from doing content.

XIV has caps, but it doesn't prevent you from *doing* anything (at least not anymore). You may think there's no reason to if you're capped on tomes and stuff, but that'd be a matter of preference and playstyle. And we're certainly not going to change each others minds in that respect^^ Love both the games, but I also think it's fair to point out certain things.

[RobbieH]

More precisely: Critera same as the last time, must be above level 21. Any changes to HP/mount/minion/gear counts character as active.
From an older survey of the same person: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...y_730k_active/

If anyone can speak japanese, feel free to compare other numbers o.o

Even at level 21 is still not accurate, even if it was lvl49 or 59 is not accurate, people can get there and quit, those active numbers don't represent much simply because people can quit, meaning those players might have been active for X amount of time and then quit for good, meanwhile people who cleared story are proof they kept active.

Also, there's bots of lvl50 and lvl60, so again lvl21 limit doesn't mean anything.

Thanks for posting that, Zojha.

Wow, look at that. Everything I said was totally correct!

And that's why I prefer actual data rather than guessing. I enjoy being right.

You're not right, read my post above.

The reddit link says that it doesn't include any players under level 20, so some weeding out has been done, & it is April 20th which was 2 full months after 3.2 dropped.

Again I'm aware the playerbase isn't huge as they try to lead on but it is bigger than you give it credit for & is the second highest subbed paid mmo behind WoW according to the internetz. If it didn't have a good playerbase then why is Yoshi okay with never changing? Clearly it's making them money the way they do it now.

Bots lvl50 and 60, never seen them? I'm sure you have, do you really think gold spammers make gil just out of low lvl bots? I could farm low level mobs and make no gil, they're leveling them up. -.-

[Thayos]

You're not right, read my post above.

Nope, I am right. And you are repeatedly wrong.

The data for that spreadsheet was taken over a three-week period. It's not a running total. So people who quit before the survey period aren't a factor.

That survey was for active players only. That story clearance data is for active players only.

Everything you say here:

Even at level 21 is still not accurate, even if it was lvl49 or 59 is not accurate, people can get there and quit, those active numbers don't represent much simply because people can quit, meaning those players might have been active for X amount of time and then quit for good, meanwhile people who cleared story are proof they kept active.

All of that is completely invalid.

[Iromi]

I count Nyzul in Assaults since they both required the same ID tag, and this was by no means a definitive list, just to highlight there were plenty of lockouts in that game. Not to mention that those lockouts physically prohibited you from doing content.

XIV has caps, but it doesn't prevent you from *doing* anything (at least not anymore). You may think there's no reason to if you're capped on tomes and stuff, but that'd be a matter of preference and playstyle. And we're certainly not going to change each others minds in that respect^^ Love both the games, but I also think it's fair to point out certain things.

Oh of course This game to me just seems to be missing a few things...I would much at least like some FC content, or stuff not to be DoA ; ; That would be a start..

And the daily lockouts are tidous chore list stuff thats designed to incentivise you to keep logging in everyday. Eventually it just makes you resent logging in at all because the chore list has become negative reinforcement.

That is exactly how I feel.

The decline from 3.0 til now was far bigger than the decline from 2.0 to 2.55

An active player can simply be a sprout which never gets to complete the story because he got bored, can even be a bot or just people who get hyped and come back but quit rather than completing content.

Accept it if you will, the player base of this game is very low.

As for population numbers even worse, population include alts, so no point going that way.

This. I can't tell you how many people join my FC or LS as sprouts and then never return.

The population is getting lower, all you gotta do is log in and look around...shoot, even on their own yearly financial report, SE said they expect a decline in subs from this game due to no expansion and stuff for a while..but hey, these folks know best. Better then SE i guess

[RobbieH]

Nope, I am right. And you are repeatedly wrong.

The data for that spreadsheet was taken over a three-week period. It's not a running total. So people who quit before the survey period aren't a factor.

That survey was for active players only. That story clearance data is for active players only.

There you go:

Seriously, I would like to know where you got that number(over 800k ACTIVE) especially because you are stating "that were not bots".

I think on some website it showed that the population peaked at 770k or something (including bots).
The same website that said the population fell to 200k after some months.

found the links:
http://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/46515415.html
http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/luckybanc...f/ff3d0a5d.png

[Thayos]

I think on some website it showed that the population peaked at 770k or something (including bots).
The same website that said the population fell to 200k after some months.

But you're comparing apples and oranges here.

We're talking about active players RIGHT NOW. And we have data that gives a data-driven estimate from two months ago. And we've had a patch since then. You're being crazy for clinging to this notion that the game's playerbase has dipped from 600k+ to 200k in so short of time.

Also, you are quoting data from a completely different survey and from a completely different time period. And what does "some months" even mean? Can you quantify that?

Do you know anything about the methodology of the (irrelevant) surveys you posted? Did those figures attempt to filter out bots by not counting active characters under level 21?

You can't be any more irrelevant.

Everything I've said is still 100 percent correct.