LuckyBancho data shows that FF14 is in decline

[ZephyrMenodora]

No, those aren't roughly comparable games. They ARE MMOs, but none of those games had a player count inflation like FFXIV did, meaning they don't have those players to lose.

Path of Exile isn't an MMO. It's an ARPG.

Petty me is enjoying ESO's player count being at it's lowest since 2019 after so many on their forums told me cutting content in half to focus on bugs was a great thing lol.

It's why I'm concerned about XIV. The patches are thinly spread apart. Not quite as bad as what ESO did, but overall content seems cut by 1/3rd given the delays, which is significant.

[Jojoya]

how do u know they are active? they were active in prev quarter but unconfirmed for the next bc they didnt gain any achievement. idk maybe this graph just sucks

Have you read Lucky Bancho's blog that explains how he collects data and determines a player to be active?

He looks for any changes in their Lodestone profile since he last collected the data. That could mean a change in job level, change in gear, change in minions, change in mount, change in achievements (if public), etc.

Someone not playing the game wouldn't have any of those changes.

What I've pointed out a few times is we don't know the date he collected data for the achievement graph but we do know the date he collected it for his normal census he did during the second quarter (May 20th).

There was no new content released between April 1st and May 20th (last content release had March 6th, which only had a few achievements related to Eureka Orthos added *edit - missed the Lopporit tribal quests and the Manderville weapons that also had achievements). It would make sense for the graph to show a small number of existing players to earn new achievements as a result.

If he had collected data a second time between May 21st and June 30th, the information on the graph would be truly unexpected since 6.4 was released on May 23rd.

Do you really think that such a small number of players were all that completed the 6.4 MSQ considering a new raid was released at the same time? Completing the 6.4 MSQ automatically rewarded an achievement not to mention completing the raid on Normal and/or Savage.

It makes a lot more sense that he was using the data from May 20th.

The graph doesn't suck but it's also not a good source of information for someone trying to prove the game is dying since the results are limited to active players who make their achievements public (most don't). Certainly there has been a drop in active players but the green bar doesn't represent those who didn't play during the 2nd quarter.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Have you read Lucky Bancho's blog that explains how he collects data and determines a player to be active?

The graph doesn't suck but it's also not a good source of information for someone trying to prove the game is dying since the results are limited to active players who make their achievements public (most don't).

I didn't even know you could hide achievements or how I'd do this even if I wanted to. I think most people dont' change their settings on their lodestone or even know about their lodestones in the grand scheme of the playerbase. If public achievements is the default setting, I'd wager the majority don't even touch the setting, and it's a minority who'd care enough to make them private. Because the typical player would either not know about it, or have no reason to believe they need their achievements private because who the hell is checking them? lol

If private achievements are the default setting, then I see your point.

[Ivtrix]

I didn't even know you could hide achievements or how I'd do this even if I wanted to. I think most people dont' change their settings on their lodestone or even know about their lodestones in the grand scheme of the games. If public achievements is the default setting, I'd wager the majority don't even touch the setting, and it's a minority who'd care enough to make them private. Because the typical player would either not know about it, or have no reason to believe they need their achievements private because who the hell is checking them? lol

If private achievements are the default setting, then I see your point.

You have to enable achievements on the lodestone. They are not shown by default.

You can get a gauge of what content people do by looking at their mounts and minions, but it is hardly a good option.

[ZephyrMenodora]

You have to enable achievements on the lodestone. They are not shown by default.

You can get a gauge of what content people do by looking at their mounts and minions, but it is hardly a good option.

Well if the default setting is that achievements are hidden, then that would severely limit the use of the data. Most people wouldn't bother with privacy settings for such a thing.

All of my settings seem to be public now that I found them though, and I don't recall ever looking at them.

[Stormpeaks]

The graph doesn't suck but it's also not a good source of information for someone trying to prove the game is dying since the results are limited to active players who make their achievements public (most don't). Certainly there has been a drop in active players but the green bar doesn't represent those who didn't play during the 2nd quarter.

Once again, no one said the game is dying. Not a single person in this thread said that.

[Bonoki]

I didn't even know you could hide achievements or how I'd do this even if I wanted to. I think most people dont' change their settings on their lodestone or even know about their lodestones in the grand scheme of the playerbase. If public achievements is the default setting, I'd wager the majority don't even touch the setting, and it's a minority who'd care enough to make them private. Because the typical player would either not know about it, or have no reason to believe they need their achievements private because who the hell is checking them? lol

If private achievements are the default setting, then I see your point.

Hiding anything in FFXIV is weirdly extremely frowned upon for some reason. People look at it like you got something to hide or be ashamed of if you hide anything about yourself.

Hide FFlogs? - You probably bought a clear
Hide your Achievements? - You probably cheat or lied about clearing something you did not really clear.
Hide your Adventure Plate? - People won't take you seriously for some reason.
Hide your main on the official forums? - You must be a troll.

The list goes on and on for anything that can be hidden. The only one that you can pretty much get away with is hiding your friendlist. lol

[Blossoming]

You have to enable achievements on the lodestone. They are not shown by default.

You can get a gauge of what content people do by looking at their mounts and minions, but it is hardly a good option.

Right and part of the reason people went and hid them was because there was a period where people would dig through them and use it as a method to be like “well you didn’t do this so you didn’t do everything!” Gets so tiresome seeing people use collecting achievements etc as a stick to beat people over the head with.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Right and part of the reason people went and hid them was because there was a period where people would dig through them and use it as a method to be like “well you didn’t do this so you didn’t do everything!” Gets so tiresome seeing people use collecting achievements etc as a stick to beat people over the head with.

I think the number of situations, among the millions who have played XIV, where their achievements were being scrutinized enough for the average player to care is low. Probably happens more in drama-places like this, or where it might matter for raiding.

I did just check a number of newbies in my FC and I can't see any of their acheivements. So yes it seems the default setting, which then makes me wonder how useful the data here is. I must have changed my settings like 7 years ago and forgot, or something, for them to be visible then.

[Bonoki]

Right and part of the reason people went and hid them was because there was a period where people would dig through them and use it as a method to be like “well you didn’t do this so you didn’t do everything!” Gets so tiresome seeing people use collecting achievements etc as a stick to beat people over the head with.

I'm sure there is some of that going on but it actually had more to do with gate keeping. Back when people in PF would dig through your achievements to see if you cleared the content before. This was back before PF provided a way to filter that directly. If a new player bonus appeared in a PF, someone would go out and scout achievements and the person who had them hidden would typically get kicked.