Unofficial Census 2016 for FFXIV

[Stormrider]

Since SE have been fibbbing about 3 months using 16 weeks instead. A16 week cycle between 3.1 and 3.2 and 16 weeks for 3.3 puts 3.4 Sept 27 or Oct 4. Then the question is a 3.5 if we get a 3.5 that would be Jan then a spring launch closer to 24 months. That is a lot of time left and what people feel is pretty low point now. I doubt we are getting another ninja to bump subs up.

500k is healthy and people don't quite seem to value the gaming dollar the same as others, so cash shop makes up for lost subs and also doesn't cost them a lot bandwidth. Years ago I had seen an article about MMO costs and why 10 dollars has to be the minimum due to bandwidth and server costs before any actual game play is developed. How that has changed I am not sure most MMOs don't really talk about costs or gaming sites aren't interested in the costs to run one.

[Kosmos992k]

Given the utterly appalling completion rates of the raids, perhaps the take away from this is, don't spend so much on developing raids, or don't make them so stupidly hard and punishing.

I wish that someone at SE would go take a look at the White Knight Chronicles extra dungeon Vellgander, it used a fairly simple layout, but yoe effectively fought 2 layers of respawning mini-bosses and trash to enable 4 switches that allow access to the main 'boss' for the floor,which could have included one or more bosses, a couple of mini-bosses and/or high level trash mobs.

[Ibi]

Now, if you were to compare trend lines from 2015 vs. 2016 (in line with the cycles of 2.x and 3.x), I'm guessing you'd see there are slightly less players overall right now, and SE definitely needs to address that. But the population is still healthy enough that I'm not at all worried.

Courtesy of my spectacular Excel and MS Paint skills and the numbers in Kaurie's post:



X-axis shows days since general access started.

[Kai_Lee]

I hope 3.4 do not drop in oct. That is too far.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I hope 3.4 do not drop in oct. That is too far.

We would've had a trailer for 3.4 by now if the patch was going to be released before October.

[KarstenS]

Now, if you were to compare trend lines from 2015 vs. 2016 (in line with the cycles of 2.x and 3.x), I'm guessing you'd see there are slightly less players overall right now, and SE definitely needs to address that. But the population is still healthy enough that I'm not at all worried.

And one important point should be: How to motivate more "veteran" and "new" players to raid. And how to get more new players into it at all. The entry level of Coil was ways easier than Alexander. If they don't want to make it easier, they need to bring additional content rigth at the launch of the expansion, to fill the gap in difficulty.


Another point:

I'm not against a story mode at all. But when we compare current savage with Coil, the old system was ways better than what we have now.

Beside "we down it, because we want do down it" it had unique gear and an epic story you could only see, when you do the raid as it was. There is to much missing in Alexander Savage.

There should be no gear reset with each raid tier. The BiS gear of the last cycle should be the starting gear again for the next raid tier again (like with Coil). Yes, it is a little head start if you want to see it like this. But look at the amount of time the groups progressed in the raid. It would be fair to give them some advantage.

[Noshpan]

Apparently I'm an inactive player because I haven't beat the MSQ... Even though I've been busy with leveling alt classes. *eye roll*

500k is healthy and people don't quite seem to value the gaming dollar the same as others, so cash shop makes up for lost subs and also doesn't cost them a lot bandwidth. Years ago I had seen an article about MMO costs and why 10 dollars has to be the minimum due to bandwidth and server costs before any actual game play is developed. How that has changed I am not sure most MMOs don't really talk about costs or gaming sites aren't interested in the costs to run one.

The first EverQuest game never exceeded 500k and yet it was considered insanely successful. The problem is that these days people compare an MMO's success to the highly successful anti-EverQuest, aka World of Warcraft. If an MMO can't reach 12 million subs, at WoW's peak during Wrath of the Lich King, then that MMO is a failure. Which is just silly. But I find doomsayers to be silly in general.

[FunkyBunch]

We would've had a trailer for 3.4 by now if the patch was going to be released before October.

It'll probably drop after FanFest. Too many people would be upset if it dropped before.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

It'll probably drop after FanFest. Too many people would be upset if it dropped before.

Very likely. Just saying that an October release would have generated a trailer a while ago to build up the hype.

[Thayos]

And one important point should be: How to motivate more "veteran" and "new" players to raid. And how to get more new players into it at all.

I see this as the game's biggest problem -- endgame is too focused on eight-man raiding, which just isn't accessible to the masses.

This game has a great FC system, but there's really nothing you can actually do with your FC. There needs to be a greater connection between endgame events and FC participation. We need events that are accommodating to groups of variable sizes and abilities, where newer/more casual players can still participate in battles that still require skillful play by the more experienced players.

Raiding is so prohibitive because everyone must be perfect. For most people, the rapid-succession death train just isn't fun, and actually learning the fight scripts is incredibly difficult without a static (which many players don't have the time for).

I'd love for SE to rethink it's approach to endgame and de-emphasize raiding. We need an endgame that is overall more inclusive.

Also, nice work with Excel back on Page 9! That looks about right. Less players, but still a healthy population that is following last year's trend line. And we'll see another big spike with 4.0. Yoshi-P just needs to find a better way to keep people engaged in the next patch cycle. Endgame plays a huge role in that. Endgame can't only be viable for a sliver of the playerbase.