A new tactic for the dissatisfied

[Stormpeaks]

Nope, you didn't dream it. We had this exact same conversation before.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_bias
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias

There's no bias buddy, it's an official source from steam, I aint gonna keep talking about this with you lmao, moving on

steam players are no different than normal players. it can show trends but the biggest trend the information shows is the normal there is a large chunk of players who only play to experience the expansion this happens every point from ARR til now.

And it shows that on the graph and in the numbers. Read it again. It shows per month.

[Musashidon]

Partly this. Steam players are also generally more diverse than just the MMO or JRPG markets. That is, different likes and different preferences We also have no evidence that steam players do not behave differently than the playerbase as a whole, but we DO know that the majority of the playerbase doesn't use Steam. Which means the Steam numbers likely aren't predictive. Further:

the steam players are no different than the normal player base, that being said the information shows that there is a large group of players who only play for the expansions this has been seen from ARR to EW the playerbase drops from the biggest hyped moment aka the expansion to the normal player base.

And it shows that on the graph and in the numbers. Read it again. It shows per month.

yes and i see and it clearly shows like always the normal amount of players leaving after playing the expansion which is in fact around 50% with alittle fluctuation this is not showing anything new or that things are worse off then they have ever been the players that normally stay longer have stayed longer and as we reach into this coming drought the numbers will drop some more as it always does but the numbers over all are higher each expansions aka when we were down to like 200k concurrent players during ARR but was much higher than that during the same drought in shadowbringers and even now higher approaching the drought in endwalker.

[ForteNightshade]

While I get the point you're aiming for here. I suspect once a lot of the more diehard players finally give up, they won't be coming back unless there's a massive change. Which isn't likely to happen even if they ever did start course correcting. I can only speak for myself but if XIV ever reaches the point I unsub for an extended period of time, I wouldn't be easily motivated to get back into it after say 2-4 years. By then, I'll have moved on to other games. I doubt I'm alone in that feeling either.

[Supersnow845]

While I get the point you're aiming for here. I suspect once a lot of the more diehard players finally give up, they won't be coming back unless there's a massive change. Which isn't likely to happen even if they ever did start course correcting. I can only speak for myself but if XIV ever reaches the point I unsub for an extended period of time, I wouldn't be easily motivated to get back into it after say 2-4 years. By then, I'll have moved on to other games. I doubt I'm alone in that feeling either.

This is me, I’ve taken 1 or 2 patch breaks before (when the patch cycle was shorter) if it ever came to a point where I was taking an entire expansion off, it would take a cataclysmic 1.0-2.0 change to bring me back after that

[NekoMataMata]

While I get the point you're aiming for here. I suspect once a lot of the more diehard players finally give up, they won't be coming back unless there's a massive change. Which isn't likely to happen even if they ever did start course correcting. I can only speak for myself but if XIV ever reaches the point I unsub for an extended period of time, I wouldn't be easily motivated to get back into it after say 2-4 years. By then, I'll have moved on to other games. I doubt I'm alone in that feeling either.

Is there anything out there to move on to? This is my first and only MMO. Like yeah, I could go back to mainly pvp games, but it's not really the same.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Honestly, the issue is that a lot - not all, but the loud, prodigious voices - of the people who dislike the game don't offer suggestions or critiques at all.

This basically is one of the primary causes of feedback getting overlooked and ignored. People have limits. Someone has to read it all and can only take so much of seeing "GAME SUX GIMMIE FREE STUFF" before hitting delete all and walking away.

[Remish]

Is there anything out there to move on to? This is my first and only MMO. Like yeah, I could go back to mainly pvp games, but it's not really the same.

This is how I feel. Sure MMOs have come and gone over the years but nothing has really lasted as far as I am aware. FFXIV needs real competition besides WoW.

[Saraide]

Partly this.

Steam players are also generally more diverse than just the MMO or JRPG markets. That is, different likes and different preferences

Source please

[Saidosha]

Long as I've been doing the whole online gaming thing, I'd honestly say it's pretty rare to see devs act in the moment unless it's a bug that benefits players in unintended ways. And while it's easy to proffer solutions or question why they never predicted the outcome of XYZ, it usually does take something pretty dramatic to force action.

Diablo IV is probably the most recent game to get the dubious distinction of being such an unmitigated dumpster fire that Blizzard was forced to walk back certain things and reevaluate their patching procedure. It's still up in the air just how much they're truly "listening" and actually putting that feedback to use, but if I were to compare the game to XIV's current state, it's frankly not even close even if you just try to limit things to the scope of EW content. Prior to D4, most would probably point to Cyberpunk as the previous holder of the title. Suppose I can't really disagree with people on WoW, but I do think age of a game is a factor, too. Go back far enough and XIV's 1.0 would've been top dog at being bad. And much as people try to point to stream numbers or steam charts, they never tell the whole story. Bare minimum, the latter doesn't include PS4/5 users and PC players that don't use steam for the game. No "service" game is gonna have good numbers in a content lull, either, especially with at least 2 popular titles coming out in what's frankly been a pretty stacked year for games.

I can understand the frustration, especially when the game isn't what you want and you want to be having fun in the moment, but things are unfortunately going to be slow for a 10 year old game and could quite bluntly be worse (See: FFXI). Take a break. Seriously. Be it a month, until next big patch, or even until Dawntrail. It's not a betrayal. Unlike some mobile game, XIV will still be here, as it's highly unlikely SE will truly abandon it without a replacement game out and thriving. And to that end, the OP's logic is actually fairly spot on.

[Saidosha]

Is there anything out there to move on to? This is my first and only MMO. Like yeah, I could go back to mainly pvp games, but it's not really the same.

To be blunt, no. MMOs have a stagnation problem that's recently been exacerbated by the whole "classic" push WoW saw and other games emulated in the mistaken belief that what's old is new again when it's more like what's old was actually pretty bad and got iterated and patched for a reason. If it's not "theme park" like WoW or XIV, then it's probably a stale, open world PvP grinder KRMMO with virtually non-existent storytelling.

So, while my earlier reply could more or less be summed up as complaints being pissing in the wind, I can only hold out hope that maybe some day a studio will choose to innovate over playing it safe and we get something more than instanced raider endgame redux despite numerous wings of the gaming scene proving world-building experiences in their myriad forms can actually be pretty popular and fun.

As someone that's hopped from MMO to MMO since XI was more in its prime, I'll just say no game will be like your first and to not let nostalgia blind you. You could've chosen a worse game for sure.