We need better comunication with the Community team

[Vstarstruck]

As opposed to the improved reaction when SE says nothing? Feedback and player involvement will never please everyone. It's almost guaranteed to please them more than utter silence, however.


Not necessarily. People don't always make rational decisions, and MMOs benefit tremendously from momentum. WoW, for instance, is a piece of shit by modern standards, but millions and millions of people have memories, characters, and friends that keep them active. FFXIV has a similar sort of core, much of it inherited from FFXI and XIV 1.0 - particularly since it's the only major MMO available for consoles.

The major risk right now, as I see it, is new MMO releases - particularly the eventual successor to XIV. Any non-FF MMO that generates significant buzz, anything that draws away entire groups of friends, is going to be a huge threat to XIV if it also features a more responsive development team. And that's to say nothing of the eventual successor to XIV, which may well prove to be an epic flop. I would never, ever invest in a new SE MMO at this point - because they haven't shown any sort of desire to learn or evolve.

Community outreach can resolve these concerns. It can help inoculate FFXIV against the ever-present threat of new MMO releases, and it can help ensure that XIV's successor enjoys a strong, built-in core of early adopters just as FFXI guaranteed such a scenario for FFXIV.

I see, so basically they will not see the effects immediately, but acting like this does not give them a bright future, only time will tell I suppose. I guess the domino effect can be a real theory in practice with this. "I play x game because my friends do" will not hold if said friends are playing something else.

WoW has very nice functionality and customer support compared to here, that may be a reason they have subs despite the game itself being outdated.

I also take it the sinking cost fallacy needs to be considered.

So, it must be really, really fun. A game with this many players must promise potent, unadulterated joy, right? Actually, the lasting appeal of Farmville has little to do with fun. To understand why people commit to this game and what it can teach you about the addictive nature of investment, you must first understand how your fear of loss leads to the sunk cost fallacy.

fitting

ironically, it ended up being an unexpected reply to this:

People quickly burn out of gachapon-fueled games once they realize they are spending far more than they would on a subscription game, and young adults/teens are especially vulnerable to these crappy low-quality P2W games. But in order to get people to pay for a subscription game, the game has to have a high quality appeal to it. So far there is nothing better than FFXIV out there. Only ESO and BDO have come out since that use a subscription model. Neither of them are popular.

According to gamerankings, The only thing more popular than FFXIV is Skyrim. LoL is #3, and WoW is #4. Minecraft is #10.

I wonder how much SE is aware of this, and trying to hike mog station prices for this reason to "milk it as much as possible" before the burn out crash. After all he did say this himself:
....
well it as something on the likes if "It is the second expansion, if we keep doing the same thing over and over people will get board"

[Vhailor]

I'm sry I'll explain better.
I'm not advocating for no responses from SE, I said to Alleo I would gladly have more infos even on the devs process like the one we had for the UI changes of some months ago.
What I was getting was that however we also need not to find new scapegoats like them manipulating the infos to their liking or us not liking what they answer us

Gotcha. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment, though I think whether or not the community makes a conscious effort to improve its reaction to disappointing news, there will still be a net positive effect if more information is shared with us. After all, the people who are likely to jump into conspiracy theories about data manipulation are certainly already doing so in the current information vacuum.

I see, so basically they will not see the effects immediately, but acting like this does not give them a bright future, only time will tell I suppose. I guess the domino effect can be a real theory in practice with this. "I play x game because my friends do" will not hold if said friends are playing something else.

That's the theory, anyway. It's really hard to say, simply because the number of largely successful MMOs is relatively small. I voice my concerns to SE primarily because, speaking personally, the lack of innovation and community outreach is costing them a future subscriber. The split-second my relatively small but close-knit social circle breaks apart, I'll be moving on to other titles without a backward glance - a reality that wasn't the case with FFXI, might I add. I've no idea how many other people are in a similar boat, or were at one time and left as a result of it. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that SE would be wise to at least publicly consider changing course, and engage the community in a dialogue about it.

[LeoLupinos]

When I joined the game I felt "finally a game where the devs actually do ehat the community wants", but now it feels that we are not being heard. There's no reply to any posts from dev like anymore.

[Vstarstruck]

When I joined the game I felt "finally a game where the devs actually do ehat the community wants", but now it feels that we are not being heard. There's no reply to any posts from dev like anymore.

I was thinking about that, and I am not sure why I have not posted this yet.

See back in 1.0 they kinda HAD to since the game was outright failing and was struggling keep people even after all the free months (guessing why they did so many from that)

Then 2.0 happened and massive rush to the game, so much so it went past what they expected. So why bother anymore?

I guess just as long they are making mass income off bots they ban, guess nothing else is important.

[MageBlack]

I was thinking about that, and I am not sure why I have not posted this yet.

See back in 1.0 they kinda HAD to since the game was outright failing and was struggling keep people even after all the free months (guessing why they did so many from that)

Then 2.0 happened and massive rush to the game, so much so it went past what they expected. So why bother anymore?

I guess just as long they are making mass income off bots they ban, guess nothing else is important.

I even recall them saying they did not want to continue making the Letters from the Producer Live events once 2.X concluded. Honestly this whole mindset of "Why dont the devs listen to me!" Was born from this entitled mentality this generation has. Sooooo many armchair devs in the forums...

[KisaiTenshi]

I guess just as long they are making mass income off bots they ban, guess nothing else is important.

Why do people jump to this conclusion. Every MMO, there's some wacky conspiracy that the developers are choosing to ignore bots, that destroy the game, and chase off paying customers... to make a few damned pennies? Like, seriously, in what world does that makes sense. If they wanted to make money from selling gil, they would just put "1 million gil for X$" right on the mog shop, and put those botters out of business.

But that is the realm of crappy P2W games. So no, they are actively fighting RMT, they are not in bed with the RMT, and anyone who thinks otherwise, needs to stay off the tinfoil hat sites.

A more serious, obvious problem is that at any point in time, I can do a "sprout search" anywhere in the game and see about 30 button mash names, all level 50 BLM's and one level 50 WHM. There's your RMT bots. It's always one group of 3 BLM's and 1 WHM, because that is the fastest way they can grind on the map. I just don't know where they are doing it, and you can catch them if you stand around the zone transition areas. Heck, the one I saw yesterday had a Guild that was 5 days old.

[Remedi]

They come to this conclusions by considering the fact that they are getting the money off their new opies of the game

[Theodric]

They come to this conclusions by consdidering the fact that they are getting the money off their new copies of the game

Mm. Which is a valid point and hardly a 'conspiracy theory' like the poster before you suggests. Many businesses cut corners if it means making a profit. In Square Enix's case we can only offer up speculation, though.

Furthermore, the existence of bots has been a constant thing in the genre for...as long as MMO's have been around. Yet despite knowing how and where they operate there's no immediate action. One needs to seriously consider why a portion of the budget in any MMO isn't spent on hiring a 'squash squad' that identifies where and when bots will strike and eliminates them if they're caught out.

Instead, many players have expressed their frustration at reporting a bot and seeing them months later in the exact same spot. This isn't limited to FFXIV, it happens in other MMO's too. Now, some do get banned - but it's staggered and often quite some time after the damage to the economy is done. Then there's the dire situation in FFXIV's PvP with Frontlines being infested with them and causing higher queue times/lessened interest in the game mode as a consequence.

[Alleo]

I even recall them saying they did not want to continue making the Letters from the Producer Live events once 2.X concluded. Honestly this whole mindset of "Why dont the devs listen to me!" Was born from this entitled mentality this generation has. Sooooo many armchair devs in the forums...

There is a difference between "why dont they listen to me" or the feeling that they are barely listening to the community at all. If I am seen as entitled because I am using my right as a customer that pays money to say that I get the feeling that they are barely speaking to half their playerbase and that it needs changes...well then I am entitled. But I honestly dont care because I want to play this game for a long time and they said that criticism is better than simple compliments and that they should listen to their fanbase..and if some of us get the feeling that they are lacking in that part then we can point it out.

[Remedi]

Mm. Which is a valid point and hardly a 'conspiracy theory' like the poster before you suggests. Many businesses cut corners if it means making a profit. In Square Enix's case we can only offer up speculation, though.

Furthermore, the existence of bots has been a constant thing in the genre for...as long as MMO's have been around. Yet despite knowing how and where they operate there's no immediate action. One needs to seriously consider why a portion of the budget in any MMO isn't spent on hiring a 'squash squad' that identifies where and when bots will strike and eliminates them if they're caught out.

Instead, many players have expressed their frustration at reporting a bot and seeing them months later in the exact same spot. This isn't limited to FFXIV, it happens in other MMO's too. Now, some do get banned - but it's staggered and often quite some time after the damage to the economy is done. Then there's the dire situation in FFXIV's PvP with Frontlines being infested with them and causing higher queue times/lessened interest in the game mode as a consequence.

Problem is that the only real way of stopping bots from beign used is if the community itself ceases to use them, you can patch a bot to not work only for it to be working again the next day.
Also ppl should be more mindful of asking immediate actions against bots, because that could be used against normal ppl aswell. Don't ask for a witch hunt if you don't know exactly the possible consequences