We lost 70% of our player base half a year in

[Xaruko_Nexume]

There's an abnormal obsession on this forum with complaining about every single thing and even totally imagined problems with the game.

I believed this to be the case, so I took a few weeks off away from the official forums. Turns out I was right. Basically everyone (not literally everyone) I encounter in game, reddit, twitter, twitch, youtube, basically everywhere but here, who actually plays the game, is very happy with it. I mean, these forums are in a rough place when reddit is more positive about the game.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I believed this to be the case, so I took a few weeks off away from the official forums. Turns out I was right. Basically everyone (not literally everyone) I encounter in game, reddit, twitter, twitch, youtube, basically everywhere but here, who actually plays the game, is very happy with it. I mean, these forums are in a rough place when reddit is more positive about the game.

Agree 100%. Most of these forums I've found consist of armchair developers who love spending their days complaining over anything and everything. *shrug* Why I generally only come here once in a while.

[FrogDog]

I believed this to be the case, so I took a few weeks off away from the official forums. Turns out I was right. Basically everyone (not literally everyone) I encounter in game, reddit, twitter, twitch, youtube, basically everywhere but here, who actually plays the game, is very happy with it. I mean, these forums are in a rough place when reddit is more positive about the game.

Kind of working with a skewed sample though. The people still playing right now during a content drought would, in fact, be the people who are satisfied enough with it or can make their own fun out of it. There are people who play this game just to party and dance at RP venues on the weekends. There are some people who subscribe just to play gimmick characters and do shout chat, and I've seen these people standing around towns for years and I'm sure they'll be standing around towns for years to come. That doesn't mean the game doesn't have issues or lack content and features in certain areas.

Most everybody I know no longer plays the game or enjoys it. The ones I know of that are still subscribed are just in it for the housing. I personally saw my interest in the game steadily wane throughout the entirety of Shadowbringer and Endwalker was just the nail in the coffin. I logged in for the free weekend since I still had the game installed and there was really nothing I felt interested in doing. The things that interested me from the Endwalker announcement were Island Sanctuary and whatever the next deep dungeon in, but neither of those things are out. There is no meaningful small group content in this game, and when people point out a lack of things to do they're just given a trite, "Go do savage."

As for the forums, they don't seem particularly worse or more negative than any other MMO's official forums. I think people tend to take criticisms, constructive or otherwise, to official forums because they have a sense that those criticisms will actually be seen and taken in by the developers. XIV's subreddit is notoriously positive from what I've heard, and so it's also pretty useless unless you're only wanting to see fan art and low effort memes.

It's probably a good sign that there are people that still care enough to post criticism and feedback on these forums. I think given a long enough timeline, the only people left on official forums are the diehards who will take whatever comes with a game. I took a look at GW2's forums not too long ago and it was very different from how I remember it being in its first 2-3 years. The attitude that I saw there was mostly, "It's too much work. The devs will never do it. It's a waste of resources to add a new race." etc. Sound familiar?

[Neoyoshi]

Yeah, Steam client numbers for this game is a literal drop in the bucket. xD

This isn't the first time i've seen Steam chart numbers obscure the facts of a games player numbers. Although it's probably one of the unspoken reason's ArenaNet still has held back releasing GW2 on Steam, despite it being in the works since 2019

[Rufalus]

Just saw this so I only read the OP so far. Yeah the game isn't at risk of dying but it will decay. They can't change direction as soon as this expansion, takes ages to plan and execute a major shift in direction so it needed to have happened a long time ago to see results now.

I am very receptive to anyone who agrees that the formula is beyond stale; I loved this game once and want to love it in the future but creatively they aren't treating it like it's important, just spinning the wheels. Some of the important team members behind XIV have been involved in XVI development for a while now, which you might theorize has something to do with the content pipeline feeling like it's on auto-pilot a bit.

I don't want our negative feedback to demoralize team members who work hard and it's not any one person's fault but... well the scope of what they're allowed to work on is limited by the direction set by a certain director and producer. I would like very much for Yoshida-san to take some risk in creating a new kind of MMO experience for ffxiv's second decade. Rethink the whole model instead of waiting more years for the old game to be run into the ground.

Expansions should be more than just an opportunity to tell stories. I want to know how the content loop will be refreshed. How will my daily activity be different than every other expansion before it. So far there's been close to zero difference throughout the lifetime of the game. Grind the linear dungeons and fates to cap, then farm some tightly scripted trial/raid for uninspired loot to keep our item level current. Ok maybe change anything about that some time because it's not interesting enough to keep repeating for the rest of our lives.

[Garruss]

I don't think using the steam players as a number of players in this game is a good example of it, you have those who play it through the official launcher, mac players, and Playstation players steam can't account for.

I play on PC and I know well enough to not have bought FFXIV through steam.

[Ayuhra]

Nothing about the numbers on the image concerns me.

Looks like a huge flood in December (the release of Endwalker), then some fall off. People came back for a bit in April (6.1) and then fell off again as they saw all the new content. This happens with every MMORPG.

Not saying the game doesn't have some issues that need to be resolved. Not saying I wouldn't mind more non-instanced content either. But these numbers are just showing the usual trend of activity.

[technole]

Agree 100%. Most of these forums I've found consist of armchair developers who love spending their days complaining over anything and everything. *shrug* Why I generally only come here once in a while.

As a developer myself, it's easy to tell who is an armchair developer by their choice of wording as well.

Here is an easy one, saying spaghetti code won't get you any respect.

[Kes13a]

Agree 100%. Most of these forums I've found consist of armchair developers who love spending their days complaining over anything and everything. *shrug* Why I generally only come here once in a while.

you forgot that a good percentage of the people in the forums seem to truly dislike the game and have nothing good to say about... anything. and yet they obviously still pay the sub. boogles the mind really. their only defense is "but, I love the game so much, I am entitled to complain"

one often wonders if they are actually playing the same game

[VelKallor]

you forgot that a good percentage of the people in the forums seem to truly dislike the game and have nothing good to say about... anything. and yet they obviously still pay the sub. boogles the mind really. their only defense is "but, I love the game so much, I am entitled to complain"

one often wonders if they are actually playing the same game

Agreed.

Im having a blast, working on levelling jobs. I am enjoying the Ameliance story immensely.. i laughed my head off when....

...she basically outdid Rowena with a sweet smile..you can see that she and Tataru are birds of a feather. Dont let that smile deceive you, she is the wife of Alphy's father and NO ONE'S fool. Shrewd and brilliant. I almost felt sorry for Rowena....ALMOST