Who is jumping ship once they start charging in November?

[Blarp]

The bolded part is the key word. Right now, they don't matter one lick. They aren't playing right now. If they were, they'd be in these forums expressing their opinion on the sub fee, not some fan site. They can't log in here because they haven't played, uninstalled XIV, burned their disks, whatever. Those people haven't even seen how this game has changed to even form an educated opinion.

But they do matter. Perception matters. Why do you think SE is planning to market this game again at E3? Why would Naoki Yoshida be doing all of these interviews with almost every media outlet? Do you think it's for the people currently playing? No. SE is looking ahead. The fanbase is not since potential customers "don't matter one lick."

[Betelgeuzah]

But they do matter. Perception matters. Why do you think SE is planning to market this game again at E3? Why would Naoki Yoshida be doing all of these interviews with almost every media outlet? Do you think it's for the people currently playing? No. SE is looking ahead. The fanbase is not since potential customers "don't matter one lick."

The subject is sub fees. Nobody is saying SE is ignoring everyone else. Everybody is telling you that when it comes to subs from December this year to launch of 2.0, these people don't matter. SE can keep being interviewed and marketing all he wants, it has nothing to do with the sub fee.

[Wynn]

But they do matter. Perception matters. Why do you think SE is planning to market this game again at E3? Why would Naoki Yoshida be doing all of these interviews with almost every media outlet? Do you think it's for the people currently playing? No. SE is looking ahead. The fanbase is not since potential customers "don't matter one lick."

Charging for the game now is hardly going to change the perception of people who refuse to play the game even when it is free.

[Zanfire]

Charging for the game now is hardly going to change the perception of people who refuse to play the game even when it is free.

nope, its only going to hurt the current playerbase.

[Wynn]

nope, its only going to hurt the current playerbase.

And that brings us back to the poll here, done by active players, and the reaction in game by real players. Which indicates the impact will be minimal. Not to mention, as far as SE is concerned they can keep those people around and foot the bill to keep them, or start charging and bring in some revenue from people willing to pay, which IS the majority here. So what do you think they are going to choose to do? Actually, I should say why do you think they decided to do what they are going to do?

See how this mary-go-round works?

[Physic]

nope, its only going to hurt the current playerbase.

it will definietly effect the playerbase. but i think a lack of updates would effect them as well, and in worse way for the game. And i dont think you can realistically expect SE to give out 1 years worth of content for free.

will we lose players? yes
will we lose content if there is no subs? from what i have seen, highly likely.

[Physic]

But they do matter. Perception matters. Why do you think SE is planning to market this game again at E3? Why would Naoki Yoshida be doing all of these interviews with almost every media outlet? Do you think it's for the people currently playing? No. SE is looking ahead. The fanbase is not since potential customers "don't matter one lick."

yeah but marketing is a fine line, because the best marketing for the 2.0 patch is to have an insane amount of content, 1 years worth or more. But the best marketing for the current ffxiv, and the nature of trust when you create and sell an MMO is to support it fully even when times are hard, and continually add content.

The reason they didnt charge us for such a long time is because they knew they were going to add virtually no content, and that almost all the content we recieved would be predeveloped.

Soooo, basically if they want release new content, they got to charge, because all new content we get now, is content that will be old hat by the time 2.0 comes out. There is a reason in every interview he reiterates it isnt going to be a brand new game, but just the evolution of this one, with a slightly different setting, and better back end and interactivity improvements.

the battle system he builds here is staying, the craft system is staying, the big special fights and grand companies are staying, most of the itemization and gear is staying. So if they are going to do content updates to this system, they either need to give us nothing until 2.0, or let 2.0 evolve as a patch by patch basis.

I prefer the evolve on a patch by patch basis, i think the marketing of abandoning the content of this game for another year would be the worst marketing blow ever. Losing people now is better than letting the game die a slow death and hoping people will magically trust again when 2.0 hits, At least the people who are watching and waiting will get reviews of the real in game things that will be occuring instead of behind the scenes promises, and people can tell their friends whats new and good in the game in the present rather than what will come in a magic patch of dec 2013.

Its really a better bet.