Who is jumping ship once they start charging in November?

[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.

[AmyRae]

The majority weren't playing because the game itself had a bad foundation, which was true while the game was free for a year. They didn't leave because they had to pay, they left because the game was a broken mess. The "majority" who would leave now are generally the people who didn't even play/barely played or still wanted the game to be F2P because if you remember a lot of arguments from said people they stated even "FFXIV 2.0" is still only a "right step forward but still not worth paying for".

As someone said, if you compare those who play in-game versus the forum, there's no where near as much negativity regarding the game.

For example, on the forums people say crafting is the 'worst grind ever', yet stepping into Ul`dah all I see and hear next to the music is crafting sounds as well as emotes.

It's the majority of the specific forum community that says they will or will not pay, not the majority who play the game since not everyone uses the forums, for example if you combine poll results, they aren't anywhere the 30,000k it was "stated" to be the current population of XIV.

You know, if you're really FFXIVCore's "Senior Moderator" like you claim you are, I can't help but be shocked by this attitude. Your "importance" is derived from the people who visit your site, and most of the people who care to log into your site are saying they are going to leave.

Most people, when they say they're leaving, don't even bother to broadcast it. They just disappear out the nearest exit and are never heard from again. So this poll ought to be troubling you. Your own site is going to get even more quiet. Your own relevance as a fan site without much of a community is going to be questionable.

Why aren't you stepping up to help preserve your own community as it's expressing its impending doom instead of bashing your own people as irrelevant? I really want to know.

As a self-proclaimed leader of the FFXIV community, I expect a higher standard from you.

I need your help. We should of the same mind in our concern for preserving the community. Why can't you lend your good name to what should be a natural common cause considering your pride as a community representative?

[Rinsui]

Because she doesn't even understand that the sound of crafters in Ul'dah (the last populated town) is not the sound of happy, joyous crafting, but the sound of "well, there's little else to do, so let's craft while watching netflix" crafting.

[weeble]

maybe he's not a sell out, while he's at it maybe he needs to quit smoking pot and having unprotected sex before he is married too. heck women used to only do the housework and wear cloths that covered every inch of skin maybe he needs to help bring that back too.things change and they need to stop launching games like it's the 60's as well. they have many rights to complain and it's this so called community that makes them think they can get away with robbery.

your concept of community isn't everyone elses for one thing, second se follows the money and they will happily take a dump on your back as they make way to it. dunno how much more simpler it can get then that. everyone has there right to there opinions, here or in any site. people being censored is bs let them talk, i mean what is everyone gonna do about it but listen, take it in and make there own choices on how the game is. no need to sweep the dirt under the rug. i'd say get off your high horse, we all play mmo's, and even just one mmo can change the face of mmo's for the good or bad, they all have right to come and go and talk all the stuff they want about it... it's there opinions after all and people in charge shouldn't stop it. ty

[Alerith]

You know, if you're really FFXIVCore's "Senior Moderator" like you claim you are, I can't help but be shocked by this attitude. Your "importance" is derived from the people who visit your site, and most of the people who care to log into your site are saying they are going to leave.

Most people, when they say they're leaving, don't even bother to broadcast it. They just disappear out the nearest exit and are never heard from again. So this poll ought to be troubling you. Your own site is going to get even more quiet. Your own relevance as a fan site without much of a community is going to be questionable.

Why aren't you stepping up to help preserve your own community as it's expressing its impending doom instead of bashing your own people as irrelevant? I really want to know.

As a self-proclaimed leader of the FFXIV community, I expect a higher standard from you.

I need your help. We should of the same mind in our concern for preserving the community. Why can't you lend your good name to what should be a natural common cause considering your pride as a community representative?

People on other sites who are voting against fees either don't play or are going to leave regardless of how much PR the site moderators do. People who vote, but don't play the game, are irrelevant. To treat their votes as a legitimate point of concern is simply wrong. If you had an accurate account of how many of those voters were actual players, then maybe we could get somewhere.

Also, Jennestia doesn't have to really have much concern about her site's user base. Not yet anyways. If it takes a dip because of the December fees, then it will. I think she understands the fact that 2.0 will bring in a huge influx of players for both PC and PS3. The few months prior and that specific point is where the real "do or die" moment will be, not only for serious fan sites, but for the game as a whole.

I don't think you really understand how online communities work.

[Alerith]

-Double Post-

[Jennestia]

Because she doesn't even understand that the sound of crafters in Ul'dah (the last populated town) is not the sound of happy, joyous crafting, but the sound of "well, there's little else to do, so let's craft while watching netflix" crafting.

I was under the impression you don't do something you don't like doing? Or is that an outdated concept? Though this is exactly what I mean by differences in perception about this game.

Most people, when they say they're leaving, don't even bother to broadcast it.

That's where my views lie -- Not everyone who plays the game specifically stated if they are or are not leaving, which is why poll results on a fan site are generally confined to that specific community in general, which each fan-site has a significantly different kind of community. For example, most people who are able to post here clearly play the game, which is higher in activity than all of the fan-sites, this is very clear that a lot of the fan sites are already generally low in numbers, some more compared to others. This is why poll results on said sites can be seen more regarding that community than the overall community -- It was posted that XIV had about 30,000 players, and a lot of us have seen an influx of players later on some servers even with news of paying subscription being reinstated.

For example, FFXI still has a lot more players than XIV has and still over the 200,000 range, however ever since official forums opened, fan-sites have lost a lot of posters because people who truly care for the game pretty much jumped ship to the official forums, while people still use fansites, they've all lost a significant amount of activity compared to prior to official forums being opened.

All communities matter, but it's not necessarily a telltale sign of 'doom' if you have 60% of what's left of a fansite commuinity saying they'll not pay like it's made out to be because there's also a lot of factors to take into account -- Are they not paying because they don't want to? They don't feel the game is up to par? They feel it's not worth the money? They can't pay? They rather wait for major adjustments before paying?

Even then that doesn't mean they'll completely vanish from the community just because they don't pay, it means they won't be able to use these forums anymore -- Fansites doesn't have such restriction which it's shown in pretty much all sites that there's more lurkers than people signing in to actively take part, because they're more than likely just keeping up with news on the game.

A lot of polls were a simple yes or no, nothing specific and very few with an 'other' option.

Why aren't you stepping up to help preserve your own community as it's expressing its impending doom instead of bashing your own people as irrelevant? I really want to know.

As said, nothing is 'irrelevant', but even SE knows there will be a lot of people who won't pay when the time comes and there's nothing that can be done about that. The relevance of who and who doesn't matter lie within the current state of mind Yoshida has, he wants to work toward FFXIV 2.0 and wants the media to view it in a new light basically looking toward the future. No one can have their mind change but them changing their own mind -- Patch 1.20 is still during the free period and we all seen how busy XIV got when patch 1.19 went live, even to the point people were spamming older dungeons for new people that joined. This is why poll results can't really be the indicator of much, because people even questioned the lodestone results after we got what we wanted (an overhaul happening.)

For example, people say they wouldn't pay now, but if patch 1.20 and 1.21 interests them, they'll likely pay for a month or more to check it out, this is something else to take into consideration, what people vote "I'm leaving" for at one point could always change, XIV survived a year while being free and even people who quit shortly after release returning to check out the changes, nothing is ever "set in stone" and if XIV has something interesting to people, they'll just as easily come back as they would just as easily leave if they feel it's not up to snuff.

[AmyRae]

All communities matter, but it's not necessarily a telltale sign of 'doom' if you have 60% of what's left of a fansite commuinity saying they'll not pay like it's made out to be because there's also a lot of factors to take into account -- Are they not paying because they don't want to? They don't feel the game is up to par? They feel it's not worth the money? They can't pay? They rather wait for major adjustments before paying?

Even then that doesn't mean they'll completely vanish from the community just because they don't pay, it means they won't be able to use these forums anymore -- Fansites doesn't have such restriction which it's shown in pretty much all sites that there's more lurkers than people signing in to actively take part, because they're more than likely just keeping up with news on the game.

I see. So you're hoping that those locked out of the official site from not paying will gravitate towards fan sites for news. There may be some of that going on.

But I have to think it would be hard to preserve interest in a game you can't experience, and even news about 1.0 isn't going to be all that satisfying given that the whole framework is about to be replaced. Even if FFXIVCore actually expands from locked out news seekers, you'll only be representing a increasingly marginalized community who want to participate but can't.

There may be some who just troll fansites, but I have to believe that most people who make the complaints about the fees actually care about wanting to see FFXIV become an enjoyable game they can play. Cutting off the droves who aren't able to enjoy it is an invitation never to return to FFXIV.

I think to see so many people say they won't pay to play what they're being offered now is a serious blow to the community. It's hard to convince people to come back after being dejected like that, and you need a growing community for the game to survive, not a shrinking one.

[Kallera]

I see. So you're hoping that those locked out of the official site from not paying will gravitate towards fan sites for news. There may be some of that going on.

But I have to think it would be hard to preserve interest in a game you can't experience--

:insert obligatory GW2/Diablo3/TOR/2.0/ProfessorLayton reference here: =)

Is Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 the game to kill Final Fantasy XIV next? News at 11!

[Physic]

But I have to think it would be hard to preserve interest in a game you can't experience, and even news about 1.0 isn't going to be all that satisfying given that the whole framework is about to be replaced.



.

I think this is a major misunderstanding, what you will see in 2.0 will be, by and large the changes leading up to it. Yoshida has said this in interview after interview. Essentially all the systems will be in the same place, the only things changing with 2.0 will be usability, and the next story arc.

The battle, the items, the major endgame content the materia system etc, is all still going to be there. There are few things that will be added now they will have to replace, like UI changes, but by an large it is not going to obsolete anything. The framework will be what is in 1.2 and so forth. The rest is just the natural evolution of an MMO