Would you still play FFXIV in a post-development "maintenance mode?"

[linay]

Paying for it would be a lower priority on my budget, for sure. I might try doing certain things before quitting, though. Or if there are people to play with, I might come play once in a while. It just depends.

[Tranquilmelody7]

Once the story is done and there is no more content coming I'll be retiring my character. Hopefully, by that time there will be a new Final Fantasy MMO to try out. If not then back to no MMOs because the MMO market is pure garbage excepting for this game.

Square Enix and Yoshi P themselves stated that no are plans for a future Final Fantasy MMO and that FF14 may likely be the last Final Fantasy MMO.

I also heavily disagree with you last statement.
There are several MMOs I enjoy even after playing FF14, although FF14 indeed does hold a special place in my heart.

[Hyperia]

This game is a major source of revenue so SE is going to keep it going until it costs money to maintain it. I just saw the official behind the scenes video for Shadowbringers and their entire floor has recently been remodeled. New furniture, lights, carpet, computers, etc. There entire floor is totally packed with devs... FFXIV is going to go for a LONG LONG time. Probably long enough for a graphics overhaul.

[ElazulHP]

Square Enix and Yoshi P themselves stated that no are plans for a future Final Fantasy MMO and that FF14 may likely be the last Final Fantasy MMO.

I also heavily disagree with you last statement.
There are several MMOs I enjoy even after playing FF14, although FF14 indeed does hold a special place in my heart.

Well that makes me sad. I hope they change their minds or plan on continuing to developing this one for a long long time.

As far as other MMOs the top ones are WoW, FFXIV, ESO, and GW2. Everything else is either pay to win garbage, free to play garbage, korean garbage, or a blending of those three elements. I've always hated WoW since day 1 due to it's massive influence on the genre and I still resent it for killing SWG with it's success. I tried ESO and could never get into it despite it having a decent story and I don't like the cash shop. GW2 is a nope due to the monetization structure and I just don't like the game. Before FFXIV the last MMO I actually enjoyed was Star Wars Galaxies. Though to be fair I'm not a huge MMO person. The only reason I even gave this game a shot was because it is Final Fantasy. I'm convinced the MMO genre is essentially dead besides this game. The innovation is gone. Everyone just wants to build a cash shop and then wrap a bare bones game around it and cash in as much as possible these days.

[Kalise]

I'm convinced the MMO genre is essentially dead besides this game. The innovation is gone. Everyone just wants to build a cash shop and then wrap a bare bones game around it and cash in as much as possible these days.

You can say that about pretty much any genre these days, since if you don't look very far that's all what the big corporations are doing...

There's plenty of up and coming MMO's that don't seem too bad:

Blue Protocol (Bandai Namco)
New World (Amazon... Yes, THAT Amazon. They're making an MMO)
Magic: Legends (Cryptic Studios. Yes, this is a MTG MMO)
Corepunk (Artificial Core)
Phantasy Star Online 2 (SEGA. This has been out for years, but is finally getting a Western release, complete with ALL content)
Project TL (NCSoft)

Of course, some of these might turn out to be duds upon release, but at the very least, PSO2 and Blue Protocol should be good given that they're only coming to the West due to how well they've done in Japan.

[Lauront]

I'd add Pantheon to that list, although it's farther off from release than some of them. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Blue Protocol... I'd find it hard to justify a sub for this game if it were to enter a post-dev maintenance mode. XIV has been good so far but it is held down by limitations which constrain what its devs can do on a number of fronts... things guaranteed to never be fixed once the game enters such a state. It's mainly the story which is interesting to me, for now.

I'm not sure I'd be intrigued by whatever other MMO they were to cook up if they went along with what Yoshi said here. Maybe check it out and see if it has any appeal to me but a game designed along such lines probably would not.

[NessaWyvern]

Maybe the main story would conclude, but we are still adventurers, so I am sure there would be many more adventures to write, they probably just won’t revolve around Zodiarc and Hydaelyn

[Lauront]

Probably long enough for a graphics overhaul.

I'm hoping they'll do that.

[ElazulHP]

You can say that about pretty much any genre these days, since if you don't look very far that's all what the big corporations are doing...

There's plenty of up and coming MMO's that don't seem too bad:

Blue Protocol (Bandai Namco)
New World (Amazon... Yes, THAT Amazon. They're making an MMO)
Magic: Legends (Cryptic Studios. Yes, this is a MTG MMO)
Corepunk (Artificial Core)
Phantasy Star Online 2 (SEGA. This has been out for years, but is finally getting a Western release, complete with ALL content)
Project TL (NCSoft)

Of course, some of these might turn out to be duds upon release, but at the very least, PSO2 and Blue Protocol should be good given that they're only coming to the West due to how well they've done in Japan.

I've been around long enough to see the "next big thing" MMO turn out to be a fantastic failure many multiple times. I'll believe it otherwise when the game(s) is fully launched and they haven't managed to screw it up in some fashion.

And you're absolutely right about the other genres too. Corporate greed has been/is ruining many many games. It's not just MMOs. That said there are a lot more other games to choose from as MMOs are costly to develop. I'm quite picky with what I purchase/play and which developers I support.

[Raltar]

If there was no promise of more story, I wouldn't. I would come back every so often and play through the story like I do with other Final Fantasy games, but I would not keep an active subscription like I do now.