Unofficial Census 2016 for FFXIV

[Bourne_Endeavor]

For starters, yes you were missing the point by virtue of the yokai watch example. You also further missed my point where I said no one has problems with reasonable nerfs, yet you claim my point is nerfs of any caliber result in player apathy. You are probably still missing the point. Let me be as simple for you as possible....

Big nerf bad

Many Big nerf really bad

SE, should try a different nerf style to preserve reward impact across all aspects of the game

And allow me to enlighten you. Your opinion is not fact. No amount of frequency or insistence will ever change that. All you've proven is to be wholly arrogant as the very idea someone might dare to disagree seems entirely foreign to you.

I am sorry if your life has left you thinking $65 dollars is a substantial amount of money. That is a price of a new video game after tax. You keep having to fall back to this idea of RNG, but you have yet to address other aspects where reward nerfs have hurt this game like the thavnarian set, gearing in general from a tome vendor, putting rare past event items in the cash shop like the lightning event. Your argument is a one trick pony, lol. You can only rely on how miserable it is to farm a 5% drop rate on current content. If you can't take the 5% drop rate now, why not wait until 4.0 who you could duo most of the primals that drop birds?

Your defense of the pony situation is just laughable. People would be able to get them, easily, if the drop rate had stayed around 5%. Rather than try to find a happy middle ground, you are here, defending the status quo despite the 25% sub drop over 7 months. Pathetic. This is why this game will die, people are too scared to change the status quo.

And these presumptions continue. At what point did I expression my own financial situation? I spoke in general because there are, indeed, plenty of people who play this game and couldn't afford $65 on frivolous minions. There are plenty more who simply do not see the value in tossing money at the cash shop for stuff they could have gotten in-game yet chose not to.

Laughably only because you, once again, seem incapable of perceiving arguments that are not your own. Thus, I shall reiterate, you place far too great a significant on mounts, events or other frivolous trinkets. The mere fact you even bring up the Lightning event demonstrates you don't get its purpose. This wasn't some reward, but a promotional campaign for SE to advertise another game. Nevertheless, putting leveling gear on vendors or the Lightning event on the Cash Shop isn't causing sub loss. At least not to the degree you seem to believe. loreleidiangelo's post summaries how most people feel when bored of any game or hobby. By her own admittance, mounts or events won't woo her back because the content isn't interesting.

You're wrong. Wow had a decade of great sub numbers with a system that favored long term subscribers. You are offering nothing but a slippery slope argument here. A game can both be rewarding to it's long term players and welcoming to new players. Wow did it for a decade, whats your excuse for this game?

A decade of sub numbers... that gradually declined each and every year since its release. WoW had the unique advantage of essentially revolutionizing the entire genre-- releasing at a time where it literally had no competition. Nearly fifteen years later games are still attempting to copy it. Despite all of its prior success, WoW has lost millions of players. And I have a good suspicion it didn't have to do with drop rates or exclusives but content.

Legion was not coming out 7 months ago, these sub numbers have been dropping for SEVEN MONTHS! IF you think you can pin that all on wow and legion, then I won't discuss this any further with you. The reason people are not sticking around for content like PotD is that A) it's grindy and B) the rewards suck.

And in that seven month span, what happened?

Gordias Savage
Diadem
LoV
3.1's general lack of content

It's almost like people might have quit from boredom or frustration. FFXIV attempted numerous bits of content that either completely flopped or proved far too challenging for the overwhelming majority. This, coupled with what amounted to five months of basically Thordan EX and nothing else unless you could handle Gordias meant there just wasn't much to do.

None of this couldn't have influenced the sub numbers. You know, despite people even openly acknowledging they quit because of Gordias or because they had nothing to do. No. It's the drop rates and lack of event items staying exclusive.

You are cherry picking my posts and assuming my position solely rests on the idea that everything needs to be rare. Here, I will quote myself from another thread...

I cherry picked nothing since this whole argument began initially on mounts. Some of that I could even agree with, albeit not necessarily as vehemently. But the operative word in each point you make is "you." You feeling this is an issue does not abruptly make it one. People who disagree with your opinion are not inherently wrong because every single word is purely subjective. This is the part you seem to have difficulty with.

I have plenty of issues outside of loot, mounts, and minions. This game is in trouble on multiple fronts. I do agree with you on the legion part. This game is losing more and more players to legion. Wow is doing what it does best, taking the best parts of other games and adapting them for better use.

For example, where do you think blizzard got the idea of the artifact weapon and guild halls from? It's going to take content misgivings of FFXIV and turn them into something amazing in wow. Have you even seen the artifact weapons yet? They even give me pause asking why I ever worked on a relic in this game.

Blizzard is going to keep snatching up more and more ffxiv players with legion. If the expansion is even half as good as it looks, FFXIV won't have another WoD flop to benefit from. This games days are numbered and the thought puts a grin of my face every time.

Let's hold back a little before praising WoW as the gospel, hmm? They practically tanked their own sub numbers with years of essentially no content. For all of Legion's promises; for many, this is their last attempt to "win back the crowd." Nonetheless, Artifact weapons are nothing new. These have been in plenty of games, be it MMOs or single player RPGs.

That last sentence of yours speaks more about you than FFXIV, the devs or its players. "I'm so excited FFXIV is gonna die!" Is basically what you just said. Why not go play WoW then? Oh, because you're borderline trolling at this point and just want to watch it all burn. I mean, if we're being honest.

I'll summarize this whole 'debate' as thus:

You think the game is struggling due to nerfs to drop rates, lack of exclusives and basically stuff that makes you feel special.

I think the sub decline is a result of Gordias Savage, a general lack of content; in particular a midcore and less innovative features in overall design.

Neither of us know for certain. So mayhaps you should stop pretending otherwise.