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

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

OP, your sources are bad and you should feel bad.

Steam accounts are a minority compared to the windows and console accounts.

[hunkygladiator]

OP, your sources are bad and you should feel bad.

Steam accounts are a minority compared to the windows and console accounts.

So? Unless the characteristics of the players on different platforms are extremely different, the decrease is the same. This is basic statistics.

[Eraden]

So? Unless the characteristics of the players on different platforms are extremely different, the decrease is the same. This is basic statistics.

As a biologist I have to cringe when I read a statement like this. You can not preclude the presence of different variables that need to be accounted for, when dealing with data sets from different sources.

[DPZ2]

So? Unless the characteristics of the players on different platforms are extremely different, the decrease is the same. This is basic statistics.

In statistical analysis, one must define the meaningful characteristics of the subject before attempting to compare one population with another. An accurate assessment of the total population base is also in order.

That's basic statistics.

[Striker44]

So? Unless the characteristics of the players on different platforms are extremely different, the decrease is the same. This is basic statistics.

The thing is - they probably are. People who are into other kinds of games commonly on Steam such as FPS and other eSports games are more likely to be the ones using the Steam launcher (and frankly, not the target audience for FFXIV). Your more typical MMO fans are more likely to use the traditional route for playing an MMO - the company's own launcher.

Not only do Steam players make up only a minuscule fraction of the playerbase, but they are more likely to have different general interests than the rest of the playerbase.

[Shurrikhan]

As a biologist I have to cringe when I read a statement like this. You can not preclude the presence of different variables that need to be accounted for, when dealing with data sets from different sources.

Such as?

Is there any significant correlation between average date of starting the game and choice of launcher? XIV has been on Steam for more than 94% of its lifetime.

Is there any significant correlation between how picky or generally negative a player would be and their choice of launcher?

Is there any significant correlation between the levels of enjoyment one would need to get from a game to continue playing it and their choice of launcher?

Is there any significant correlation between the expectations one would bring to an MMO that would disproportionately deter their interests in XIV specifically and their choice of launcher?



When one takes two slices of the same cheese pizza, is it the onus on the one who'd to argue that, apart from perhaps size, the two slices have similar characteristics?

________________________


It may be worth noting that Steam has had MMOs available to it since the early 2000s with the likes of Maple Story, Dungeon Fighter Online, Lineage II, Vindictus, Ragnorak Online, Eve Online, Rift, Neverwinter, etc., all being frequently accessed via Steam. Aion? Archeage? Tera? Were on Steam. FFXI? Still available on Steam. Elder Scrolls Online? GW2? The Old Republic Online? Runescape? Planetside 2? DC Universe? Star Trek Online? All on Steam. (Unless somehow a massively multiplayer online game stops being an MMO the moment it's top down...) Albion Online? Lost Ark? Tree of Savior? Path of Exile? Steam.

Steam is by no means an "FPS and other eSports games" only platform.

Apart from those who started on WoW, one of the few MMOs not on Steam, most MMO players I've gotten to know started getting into MMOs... via Steam. Heck, it's the dominant launcher for many of them.

[Eraden]

If you had been reading the forums, you should know that people were having issues with the Steam-launched version. That ALONE is sufficient to prompt a more in-depth analysis of the data sets.

[Shurrikhan]

If you had been reading the forums, you should know that people were having issues with the Steam-launched version. That ALONE is sufficient to prompt a more in-depth analysis of the data sets.

Which is why I asked the questions I asked.

If you are to isolate and treat as misrepresentative a portion of a larger population -- quite literally, to discriminate (to sieve/sift/distinguish apart), for better or worse -- then the onus would generally be on those who would consider them unfit to represent to argue why any factors uniquely affecting that sample would be significant enough to consider them non-representative.

[Eraden]

Which is why I asked the questions I asked.

If you are to isolate and treat as misrepresentative a portion of a larger population -- quite literally, to discriminate (to sieve/sift/distinguish apart), for better or worse -- then the onus would generally be on those who would consider them unfit to represent to argue why any factors uniquely affecting that sample would be significant enough to consider them non-representative.

People were inquiring on the forum about if they could dump their Steam-based client and go straight to the source. Some were even willing to shell out money for a brand new copy of FFXIV if they had to. That kind of negative pressure against the Steam-based client is clearly an important variable in this analysis. On its own, it indicates that the population of Steam-based FFXIV users is likely to be different than that of the native client users. There may be other variables involved as well. Rule of thumb when dealing with different populations is to NEVER assume that all the variables are the same. I have seen a great many scientific papers get trash-canned for making the mistake of ignoring this. Any time you invoke the use of statistical analysis you HAVE to identify all of the variables that could affect the analysis, and account for them.

[DPZ2]

most MMO players I've gotten to know started getting into MMOs... via Steam. Heck, it's the dominant launcher for many of them.

Personal anecdotal evidence is fine. Please refine your thoughts though. Do most of the players you've gotten to know run every MMO through Steam? Do they only play PC games, or are there a subset of console players as well? How many of those players who use Steam to play are on a non-supported platform such as Linux?

My own personal anecdotal evidence, over a 40 year period, is that most multiplayer games (including MMOs) are purchased direct, and do not require the Steam Launcher to be running. Some of the people I've played with over the years deliberately ignore anything to do with Steam. A good number of them play games on consoles, where Steam isn't even an option.

Of the games you list in your post that I have played, exactly zero of them were purchased through Steam.