Face it, this game is in maintenance mode now, i.e. managed decline

[Stormpeaks]

I responded above the issue there extends to the other issue with a lot of the Aussie playerbase not wanting to leave their mates etc on the Jap DCs so that's why they kept putting a ton of incentives for people to move over but I feel for now its proven more people would take the ping hit etc then move to a new world. Also just cause all houses aren't taken doesn't represent a dead world....my server is busy and yet there are gaps in housing in ishgard in my ward...some people don't want a small house or a medium its all or nothing with some people. I am not saying you're wrong its just a wider issue

Dynamis is the new NA world, Materia is an entire different story.

And yes, thousands of houses not being taken including mediums and larges mean that the world is not healthy, its a good way to gauge interest in the world itself and its population

[Stormpeaks]

That doesn't change the fact that they decided to invest in new servers. The real problem is the new datacenters and the lack of cross-DC duty finder. They should have put the new servers in existing DCs, imo. And Materia should have existed 10 years ago! It's obvious that not many people are willing to move to new servers because of friends/FC/houses/economy/etc.

They invested in new servers because the queues were hours long, and going back on those words is admitting that the game is already not as popular as it was back then so they wont do that, as for Materia I agree, they should be able to cross DC with NA or JP, one of the two, else no one will move

[MistakeNot]

And yes, thousands of houses not being taken including mediums and larges mean that the world is not healthy, its a good way to gauge interest in the world itself and its population

No, it does not mean that. That used to be the status for most servers some years ago. SInce then population has increased faster than amount of housing, but for new servers it will of course take a while to catch up population-wise.

[MistakeNot]

The game is as popular as it was before the WoW exodus. The only mistake SE made was thinking they can keep the WoW players. They don't care about XIV, they just go after Asmongold like braindead sheep, lol.

Oh, I dare say many WoW players will stay. A great many older FF14 players used to be WoW players after all, so some of the latest wave are likely to stick around too.
Then of course there is the great swarm of gamer-locusts that are forever moving on to whatever the newest shiny game is, only to move on as soon as soon as it isn't the newest thing around any more.

[Kes13a]

Oh, I dare say many WoW players will stay. A great many older FF14 players used to be WoW players after all, so some of the latest wave are likely to stick around too.
Then of course there is the great swarm of gamer-locusts that are forever moving on to whatever the newest shiny game is, only to move on as soon as soon as it isn't the newest thing around any more.

thats been an issue since gaming became more "mainstream". typically they blast through content, complain there is nothing to do, and jump to another game before "boredom" sets in. its nothing new really

[Rolder50]

Kinda funny how we seem to get less and less content every patch. Like the total lack of exploratory content this expansion, for example.

[Hurlstone]

The game may not be at the high levels it was at the end of SHB/star of EW, but did anyone think that would last forever? Hardly means the game is not on life support, especially given how its one of the only SE properties that seems to be making any money. I would say as long as the game has active subscriber it can go on, like FFXI is. Plus if I believed every thread on a MMO forum said its game was dead then WoW would have been gone before Burning Crusade.

Besides, we are all the worst people to judge the game on its state, because I very much doubt anyone here is free of bias opinions on that matter.

[CStrife912]

The game may not be at the high levels it was at the end of SHB/star of EW, but did anyone think that would last forever? Hardly means the game is not on life support, especially given how its one of the only SE properties that seems to be making any money. I would say as long as the game has active subscriber it can go on, like FFXI is. Plus if I believed every thread on a MMO forum said its game was dead then WoW would have been gone before Burning Crusade.

Besides, we are all the worst people to judge the game on its state, because I very much doubt anyone here is free of bias opinions on that matter.

Valid points, the game is more then making money...its the only thing consistently making them so much money it balances out their deficits elsewhere for the most part. This is their golden goose... and ONLY high money maker currently. WoW was on a mass decline and the exodus yet dragonflight did SOME things right and now they are flourishing granted their numbers are skewed due to the classics being added in to.

[Payadopa]

I would certainly choose Forspoken's story over Endwalker's, at any rate. While its gameplay is said to suffer it cannot possibly be worse than certain FFXIV jobs at the moment.

That legit made me laugh.

[hagare]

HEY SKIROS IS BACK!

That legit made me laugh.

The funny thing is, my friends who've played forspoken said the game is fine.
shit just got overblown by edgelords.