Playing an expansion as current content has been a lacklustre MMO experience

[R041]

Again, it's not a "rough spot" when it just reached the highest player population ever, and even its current late-patch lulls outpace the similar lulls from every previous expansion. It's the polar opposite of a "rough spot." It makes your attempt at an argument ultimately boil down to "I'm bitter because a lot of other people love something that I happen to dislike." The game is at a high spot right now.

I personally believe it's in a rough spot mechanically, and content wise. This lull for me has been way worse than any other in the past decade because I can't even enjoy basic combat or dungeons, yet I'm supposed to be happy that we have a few more people AFK sitting in Limsa this year. I was probably the most hyped person for Island Sanctuary and Variant.

I agree with you in the general sense that yes we're getting more players over time and that's awesome! But looking at the WoW exodus and timeline, I feel a tiny bit frustrated that maybe we missed the mark this year and didn't catch and retain as many as we could have? A lot of those players probably didn't even make it past Stormblood looking at the FF Census. Anecdotally, several of my friends that play WoW got overhyped about XIV during the exodus, but then couldn't even make it past Heavensward STILL.

Shadowbringers kinda slumped as soon as it released, then magically surged with players during the content lull. That happened because of the WoW exodus. There was nothing particularly great about Shadowbringers outside of the MSQ (Okay and Nier) that XIV did to deserved the boost, considering most of those players probably didn't even make it to Shadowbringers, and we see that only 4% even finished 6.0 as of October - So all of these players that blew up the numbers joined, ran through ARR-Heavensward, then dipped almost immediately. Most of that was due to WoW and variety Streamers hyping MSQ for their own content and hate for WoW.



I just don't really see an MMO being treated as a seasonal game you play once a year for a week a good thing when we have serious competition, and that's the trend we've set these past few years. So if if all of these people couldn't even make it past Endwalker, then why do they have a reason to be here for the next season?

If January can help us, then I'll change my tone I promise. So here's to hoping.

[R041]

The new AFK players in Limsa btw.



I kid, I kid. But really.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I personally believe it's in a rough spot mechanically, and content wise. This lull for me has been way worse than any other in the past decade because I can't even enjoy basic combat or dungeons, yet I'm supposed to be happy that we have a few more people AFK sitting in Limsa this year. I was probably the most hyped person for Island Sanctuary and Variant.

I agree with you in the general sense that yes we're getting more players over time and that's awesome! But looking at the WoW exodus and timeline, I feel a tiny bit frustrated that maybe we missed the mark this year and didn't catch and retain as many as we could have? A lot of those players probably didn't even make it past Stormblood looking at the FF Census. Anecdotally, several of my friends that play WoW got overhyped about XIV during the exodus, but then couldn't even make it past Heavensward STILL.

Shadowbringers kinda slumped as soon as it released, then magically surged with players during the content lull. That happened because of the WoW exodus. There was nothing particularly great about Shadowbringers outside of the MSQ (Okay and Nier) that XIV did to deserved the boost, considering most of those players probably didn't even make it to Shadowbringers, and we see that only 4% even finished 6.0 as of October - So all of these players that blew up the numbers joined, ran through ARR-Heavensward, then dipped almost immediately. Most of that was due to WoW and variety Streamers hyping MSQ for their own content and hate for WoW.



I just don't really see an MMO being treated as a seasonal game you play once a year for a week a good thing when we have serious competition, and that's the trend we've set these past few years. So if if all of these people couldn't even make it past Endwalker, then why do they have a reason to be here for the next season?

If January can help us, then I'll change my tone I promise. So here's to hoping.

R041 are you just pulling an aveyond-dreams by trying to believe youre speaking for the supposed "community"?

[R041]

R041 are you just pulling an aveyond-dreams by trying to believe youre speaking for the supposed "community"?

I'm new to the forum, and don't even know or care who that is. I also don't even care who you people are, so no? I'm just spewing after being silent for a decade. When you mention me, I'm going to respond back, that's how communication works.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Also unless Im reading that graph incorrectly, the game still has players retaining with the numbers still being greater than the downtime numbers in ShB.

[R041]

Also unless Im reading that graph incorrectly, the game still has players retaining with the numbers still being greater than the downtime numbers in ShB.

Sorta? But no, we're basically right on point with Shadowbringers lull numbers today. But Shadowbringers did have a really bad month where it dipped into 15k at one point, but typically sat at 21k - and we're averaging 22-24k.

Unfortunately for us, we're only halfway into our lull and we don't have an exodus to bump us up again. But that's why I'm saying I'm hoping January is poppin' - Might show us who we've actually retained.

[Deveryn]

R041 are you just pulling an aveyond-dreams by trying to believe youre speaking for the supposed "community"?

I was reminded of that too. I guess they'll meet up again soon, when that fool comes to whine about the LL.

I think this person clearly hates the game and the community if they're obsessed with graphs and such. I only care about that green server icon and my queues popping.

[Raven2014]

I only care about that green server icon and my queues popping.

Same, I just finished clearing the last savage sets this week on my 4th char, and it's only Wednesday. Last week I played another game too much but still found a group for a late clear on Sunday.

PF is bustling with activity. Duties rarely take more than a couple min in queue regardless of it's pvp or pve during prime time. Even early morning it rarely exceed 5min. And this is supposed to be the "down time". Man if this is considered dying? Well, someone crafty probably can come up with a Hildibrand zombie joke here.

[Johners]

Also unless Im reading that graph incorrectly, the game still has players retaining with the numbers still being greater than the downtime numbers in ShB.

The very end of that graph is 26k concurrent players on Steam. Sure, there's the standalone PC version from Square Enix directly as well as the PlayStation version, but I suspect the trend is the same there as well. Limsa and other capital cities don't feel as busy as they were. Roulette queues are just that bit longer and even places like Eureka don't feel as they were six months ago.

There are some mitigating factors to this which includes the game people left, World of Warcraft, have a great new expansion and as of yesterday, giving us the roadmap for 2023's content updates which looks really good. Certainly feels like WoW players are going to get a ton more content next year than FFXIV players will be getting.

[Thaciscokidd]

Snip

While I agree with you that WoW is getting content. But its not any more or less than what is here.

This is just like after WoD when they cut out a whole raid tier and had a roadmap to show people that they haven't changed. Just like WoD SL had a janky patch cadence and this is to reassure WoW player that its not a repeat of Shadowlands, a needed move. Its a win for WoW and a win for those who don't want WoW stuff invading here. It will make CBU III have to make better stuff to entice those players to come over here which is a good thing.

My personal time in DF has been good but conversely a lot of from players returning, constant played through SL, and players who were introduced to MMO's through XiV and are trying WoW for the first time will discuss FF XiV lore on good terms while farming(and in the Vault of the Incarnates raid local channel) in good terms. The exodus had made even the hardcore WoW mainstays realize that there are other games as good as WoW out there and that is good for WoW, XiV, ESO, DQX, SWToR, and basically the MMO market as a whole.