Young players are not going to play FF14

[angienessyo]

I'm an old MMO veteran so I can't really comment on what appeals to younger players. But I know the biggest problem MMOs have always had is well, subscription based games are a tough sell to audiences without a ton of disposable income. Things like F2P, FPS, battle royales, MOBAs, etc. are also far more appealing to the younger crowd vs. more traditional MMOs. It's not really FF14's fault, that's just the trend within the game industry atm. Long running MMOs are also going to have a harder time getting new players the longer they go on. FF14 has like, 300+ hours of MSQ to get through even if all the old content is still there for any player to do. WoW rushes you through to the end game at the speed of light but the end game can be extremely intimidating to someone new. (the veteran player base in the latter also has a major problem with being toxic to new people)

[Turtledeluxe]

I'm an old MMO veteran so I can't really comment on what appeals to younger players. But I know the biggest problem MMOs have always had is well, subscription based games are a tough sell to audiences without a ton of disposable income. Things like F2P, FPS, battle royales, MOBAs, etc. are also far more appealing to the younger crowd vs. more traditional MMOs. It's not really FF14's fault, that's just the trend within the game industry atm. Long running MMOs are also going to have a harder time getting new players the longer they go on. FF14 has like, 300+ hours of MSQ to get through even if all the old content is still there for any player to do. WoW rushes you through to the end game at the speed of light but the end game can be extremely intimidating to someone new. (the veteran player base in the latter also has a major problem with being toxic to new people)

Yoshi P has already talked about copying this idea by making some sort of fresh start feature for 7.0. I'm not sure if it could actually be implemented in time but I have no doubt it will show up eventually. The question really is that the MMO population is aging and simultaneously, open world / cooperative / online type content is trending more polished, more affordable, etc. Even if XIV rushes you to end game and gets 100 graphics updates, to your point, it's still this massive thing. It's still similar gameplay. I'm sure XIV can last 20 years, but the question is whether that's actually interesting or beneficial for the IP vs. just being easier and profitable.