Is the community wrong?

[Nihility]

Are people supposed to simply bend over and say "thank you, SE. May I have another?" Criticisms towards the app are feedback in the hopes it actually improves, especially since, no, it isn't free. Those resources could have been spent on the game itself, thus people are upset when they see time wasted—which is what the app is in its current state.

it is free, you can't even buy premium if you want to yet
even if you don't like the app at all you get good things just for having its

i'm not talking about posting constructive criticism about it, i'm talking about the people making doom and gloom posts that somehow it's going to end the game just by existing

I don't think it's great but it's only done good things for me, it hasn't made the world implode

[Linkurrra]

1) Without data it's hard to speculate, but my feelings indicate that the expansion itself was probably very successful financially (they've said as much), but I'd posit that the subscription numbers don't match the expansion sales over/under indicating a lack of incentive to remain subbed, which we've seen the community echo frequently.

I'd say that SE's push in Marketing in the US was a big reason why it got so much attention on Stormblood. It has so much more exposure! It wasn't on the level of Blizzard's marketing.
I did find it laughable that SE marketing team in the US chose Fastfood and Snack cakes and Amazon for these promo's. but hey, it's progress and effort!

[Lubu_Mykono]

subs are like 500,000 - 600,000 according to the census website. I imagine WoW numbers are 10x to 15x times that with the expansion out.

[Dzian]

Someone who is upset is far more likely to complain than someone who is happy is likely to commend. I heard a statistic one time that on average 7 out of 10 people who don't like something will tell others whereas 3 out of 10 people who like something will tell others. I don't know how accurate that is but I think there is truth to it.

there's 2 angles to this. firstly the business angle.
generally speaking though for every person that doesnt like something and complains there are 26 people who also didnt like it but did not bother to complain.
yet for every 14 people who do like something only 1 will commend you.

this is why its wrong when people spout out "vocal minority" crap. like here on the forums for example. people assume that because only a fraction of players use the forums and complain about things that everyone else is happy and loves the game. which is never the case. because statistically for every person whos come to the forum and made a complaint about the game. 26 more have just stopped playing and not bothered to tell the devs why.

in more recent times its widely accepted that the once dubbed "vocal minority" is actually an accurate representation of consumer opinion of your product. this is exactly why 1.0 tanked because the complaints were originally shrugged off as vocal minority and most players loved the game... which simply wasnt true.

it also happened with the division which had a record breaking successfull launch and an incredibly quick demise (well i say demise its still going to some extent) because everyone shrugged off the complaints as vocal minority. and the player base numbers plummeted incredibly fast. so much so the devs issues a massive apology and even invited players to go to the studios and help them make it better and paid all there expenses. shame it didnt work so well..

what this means then is the overall forum view isn't the hyperbole and drama players often make it out to be. as its proven that those people who will express there opinions actually represent significant numbers of consumers that won't.. so if the forum is mostly percievedas negative then you can bet your bottom dollar that the average consumer opinion isnt much different. player numbers kinda indicate this. over 10 million players and yet only a fraction of them still play. if the forums were hyperbole and everyone else thought the game was great. then the active portion of that 10 million would be significantly higher..

the other angle is more public interest (there's a buzz word for this but i cant remember it)it's basicall public opinion and word of mouth and stuff.

and this is where numbers on both sides can go exponentially. for every person that doesnt like something they will generally tell 6 people.
and for every person that does they will generally tell 8 people. and that can grow exponentially if each of those 6 people tell 6 more and 6 more and 6 more etc etc. or 8 in the case of commends. it varies a little depending on the nature of business but in a general sense the numbers arent to far off.if you go to the cinema and see a movie and its amazing your more likely to tell your friends about that than if you went to a coffee shop and had an amazing coffee for example.

[alimdia]

it is free, you can't even buy premium if you want to yet
even if you don't like the app at all you get good things just for having its

i'm not talking about posting constructive criticism about it, i'm talking about the people making doom and gloom posts that somehow it's going to end the game just by existing

I don't think it's great but it's only done good things for me, it hasn't made the world implode

Our sub money paid for that app, our sub money will pay for the servers it's running, nothing here is free. Before you mention premium, Blizzard has already shown you don't need external revenue to keep up app servers so premium money isn't going for the app servers, that's just direct revenue.

And even then free of cost doesn't mean free of criticism, you can't give someone a mud sandwich and expect them to be all nice about it just because it was free.

[Dyvid]

I've taken a break from FFXIV to enjoy Warcraft, but I still enjoyed FFXIV when I played, and like to check in with the community from time to time.

I remember reading reports that FFXIV's sub numbers are the highest they've ever been, and that the game is massively successful. Yet when I try to see how everyone is doing--it's all complaints about Eureka or the companion app, or something else.

I guess I'm confused as to why the sub numbers would be at an all time high if people were actively unhappy with the state of the game and its direction.

Because people come to the internet to complain, not to praise... WoW boards are full of disgruntle happy customers too.

[Theodric]

Our sub money paid for that app, our sub money will pay for the servers it's running, nothing here is free. Before you mention premium, Blizzard has already shown you don't need external revenue to keep up app servers so premium money isn't going for the app servers, that's just direct revenue.

And even then free of cost doesn't mean free of criticism, you can't give someone a mud sandwich and expect them to be all nice about it just because it was free.

I think a lot of people would have preferred the money to go into enhanced character customisation and/or an increase in the amount of housing wards. They're far more commonly requested features, after all...and they serve to benefit a greater portion of players.

[JackHatchet]

I wonder what Square-Enix's real goal is with FFXIV. I remember once hearing that Yoshi P just wanted to make a fun game, and that it didn't matter if it was 'super popular,' because it's just suppose to cater to its crowd. But with the way Square-Enix has been using FFXIV to rein in as much money as possible--I wonder if they'd try to pressure him into making it into a more popular competitor for the MMO market.

I'll be honest that I straight out hate Eureka. I don't like it at all. But when I complain. People just tell me that it's "just not designed for me," or "go back to Warcraft." So I've started to feel like that's just how I have to treat it. Don't try and change FFXIV into something I enjoy, but rather just quit and play another game.

[Nixxe]

I wonder what Square-Enix's real goal is with FFXIV. I remember once hearing that Yoshi P just wanted to make a fun game, and that it didn't matter if it was 'super popular,' because it's just suppose to cater to its crowd. But with the way Square-Enix has been using FFXIV to rein in as much money as possible--I wonder if they'd try to pressure him into making it into a more popular competitor for the MMO market.

I'll be honest that I straight out hate Eureka. I don't like it at all. But when I complain. People just tell me that it's "just not designed for me," or "go back to Warcraft." So I've started to feel like that's just how I have to treat it. Don't try and change FFXIV into something I enjoy, but rather just quit and play another game.

The goal for FFXIV is of course to make as much money as possible. That will not necessarily be achieved through making yours or anyone's ideal game because there's little reason to think player fun, even if it could be perfectly quantified, would necessarily lead to the greatest profits.

[Deceptus]

Because people come to the internet to complain, not to praise... WoW boards are full of disgruntle happy customers too.

And there are pages and pages of legit criticism and beta feedback that was ignored in Warlords of Draenor and were never fixed. The entire expansion.

Lots of criticism is not constructive, but it's important to recognize the criticism that is constructive.