New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Wynn_Storm]

You post is completely invalidated by the fact that the player base continues to increase. There are periods where it drops off a bit to content lull but overall the player base is growing. If you don't like story don't play a final fantasy game. Many mmos cater to exactly what you want.

My post is not invalidated. You do realize one of the big reasons why the game has grown a lot recently is because the game was given out to a lot of people for free via twitch prime. But i wonder how many of those people actually stick around. I wouldn't say that many. None of my friends that joined via the free twitch prime stuck around. Its a slogfest whether you agree or not. Using the "if you don't like the story" excuse is so overused.

I guess its impossible to fathom that people play just for the gameplay and don't care at all for the story. There are plenty of people like that, that play this game.

[Wiccan026]

Getting through ARR is the only hard point.
Getting through Heavensward can roughly be done in a week. just the MSQ parts mind you not "everything" but than again if youre just trying to get to current content it doesnt matter. Im pretty sure you could manage the same thing roughly with Stormblood.

Yes you will be missing some things but you can always go back during the lull for those things... and only do things that are necessary to progress.

[Reap00]

My post is not invalidated. You do realize one of the big reasons why the game has grown a lot recently is because the game was given out to a lot of people for free via twitch prime. But i wonder how many of those people actually stick around. I wouldn't say that many. None of my friends that joined via the free twitch prime stuck around. Its a slogfest whether you agree or not. Using the "if you don't like the story" excuse is so overused.

I guess its impossible to fathom that people play just for the gameplay and don't care at all for the story. There are plenty of people like that, that play this game.

You obviously did not read what I posted. The player population of the game has been rising since launch. There are short periods where it drops off during content lulls but it continually grows.

[Paladinleeds]

My post is not invalidated. You do realize one of the big reasons why the game has grown a lot recently is because the game was given out to a lot of people for free via twitch prime. But i wonder how many of those people actually stick around. I wouldn't say that many. None of my friends that joined via the free twitch prime stuck around. Its a slogfest whether you agree or not. Using the "if you don't like the story" excuse is so overused.

I guess its impossible to fathom that people play just for the gameplay and don't care at all for the story. There are plenty of people like that, that play this game.

As I stated in my previous post, disjoint the duties from the story, and you lose me (some of the stories can't really be condensed into sidequests unfortunately due to how they are). That was one of my reasons for leaving WoW. The deep connection to stories for each duty is what keeps me hooked to FFXIV, and has me taking part in the social experiences, the grinding for gear, the optional extreme primals, etc. And while WoW does have story, the way duties were unlocked, it felt to me like "Well, why do I have this? What's the reason for it?" - with FFXIV, I feel like every primal, every dungeons, every raid, etc, has a purpose behind it. And that's something that if they disjointed the duties from the story completely, would be a real sore point for me and would seriously hamper my enjoyment. Yes, it's only a few hours every 3 months or so, but it builds the foundations for everything else for me.

Now, that's not to say improvements to the story can't be made, of course they can. Plenty filler they could cut out. BUT, the story behind each duty is a major driving factor and removing it would be a serious knock to me. At that point, why not just play WoW?

[Barraind]

You post is completely invalidated by the fact that the player base continues to increase.

Factually incorrect.


We are currently sitting at (unofficially) 605k active players, of which, less than 400k are currently at level 70, and a smaller number are at current content levels.

Additionally, we're coming out of one of the largest free campaigns the game has had.

For comparison, we entered patch 4.1 with 663k active and a larger level 70 pop.

Population at the end-game is trickling down, and right now, population at early levels is ALSO declining.

[Reap00]

Factually incorrect.


We are currently sitting at (unofficially) 605k active players, of which, less than 400k are currently at level 70, and a smaller number are at current content levels.

Additionally, we're coming out of one of the largest free campaigns the game has had.

For comparison, we entered patch 4.1 with 663k active and a larger level 70 pop.

Population at the end-game is trickling down, and right now, population at early levels is ALSO declining.

The game is in a content lull friend. I guess you are another oblivious poster. Check those #'s again after Shadowbringers launch when the game tops 1m active subs and get back to me.

[MarniDawg]

I guess its impossible to fathom that people play just for the gameplay and don't care at all for the story. There are plenty of people like that, that play this game.

I guess the existence of story skip for the type of people you describe is impossible for certain people to fathom as well. It's been a point that's been beaten to death here.

[Wynn_Storm]

The game is in a content lull friend. I guess you are another oblivious poster. Check those #'s again after Shadowbringers launch when the game tops 1m active subs and get back to me.

The great "content lull" excuse.

Even if that were true, it shouldn't matter to new players. Since they have content to do right? Like the MSQ?


Where is your excuse for the declining low lvl population?

[Barraind]

content lull

Yeah, 10% of the games population decided to stop subbing before the last major content patch hit (a lull time accounts for a whopping 1/20 of the population missing).

Unless you lump 4.4 and 4.5 together into that content lull I guess, but nobody sane does that... (psst: numbers have been falling since september and arent down more than standard deviation for attrition since january, so thanks for not knowing what you're talking about).

It also doesnt explain the decline of new / pre-70 characters who ARENT in a content lull (something that ONLY impacts players who are level 70 and finished with the msq), especially since they just gave away the base game for free, which SHOULD have a massive impact on Aprils active character numbers, but didnt. Unless you want to argue that the majority of the pre-70 community is alts that arent being leveled (which is another argument FOR "please consolidate the msq"), which means you have to take one of the following stances:

1. People with alts arent playing their alts, but are playing their level 70 characters, despite being in a "content lull"
2. A large amount of level 70 and finished with MSQ players have stopped playing, and people have actively leveled low level characters to 70 in the last month, and lots of new players have started. This would generally come with massive marketboard disruption in certain categories (380 crafted gear, materia, crafted gear at 50 and 60 caps where you're required to hit ilvl checks to progress that you cant to on day 1 or 2 of those caps without farming) and an increase in certain duties in roulettes, and none of those have occurred.

[Wynn_Storm]

I guess the existence of story skip for the type of people you describe is impossible for certain people to fathom as well. It's been a point that's been beaten to death here.

It should just be included in your stormblood purchase. Like how WoW gives you a max lvl character for the upcoming expansion when you buy the new expansion.