We lost 70% of our player base half a year in

[Aword3213]

What's funny is that you think this is some kind of gotcha.

It's okay though. No one on the internet would ever admit that, so I can look past it.

As if there hasn't been a history of pay2play MMOs that have gone free2play in that past.

But you already signed your agreement. That's my point. You're basically arguing the things you agreed to.

And you can remember to not click post next time.

wow
a blatant attempt to silence one's voice. just... wow

[MisterNublet]

But you already signed your agreement. That's my point. You're basically arguing the things you agreed to.

I've signed agreements with previous MMOs that were initially pay2play and years later they went Free2Play.

Just because I agreed to pay SE to play FFXIV right now, doesn't mean SE can't change their minds down the road and go free2play model. They have that option.

What the hell are you even arguing?

wow
a blatant attempt to silence one's voice. just... wow

Need a subscription to post on the forums. You technically tried to silence me first by telling me not to agree to the subscription agreement.

Wow.

[caffe_macchiato]

Remember to click "I disagree" next time

Cool! And hundreds of thousands of people are doing just that!



You might like this now, but you won't like it when all your friends are gone and queues for new content can't be filled. Oh, what's that? It's just a single-player game anyway and you don't need other people to enjoy it? Then why are you paying $156 a year for it? Oh wait, hold on? Other MMOs have also died, so this one isn't special? Yeah, and where did we get our player base from? You think they're going to stay? Oh wait, I think I got you now. No one should be attached to this game anyway because it's a consumer product and life is ultimately meaningless? Then why are you here?
(All of the above are real copes that I have heard in the past month)

[Striker44]

Snip

Gosh, FFXIV must have been absolutely and utterly dead for 60% of its life! According to your amazing graph, the "activity trend" shows the playerbase is currently more active than it ever was in ARR, HW, or SB, and right on par with the release of ShB (and even a bit ahead of its first lull). Ain't it hilarious when people try to provide "evidence" the game is "failing" and just end up showing how well it's really doing? lol

[Turtledeluxe]

Losing this many players isn't evidence the game is failing but it is a worrisome trend given that it exceeds previous "down periods" everyone keeps talking about ("servers are slways slow at .5 patch")

[Jojoya]

Losing this many players isn't evidence the game is failing but it is a worrisome trend given that it exceeds previous "down periods" everyone keeps talking about ("servers are slways slow at .5 patch")

It's still better than ARR when 2.5 came out.

It's still better than HW when 3.5 came out.

It's still better than SB when 4.5 came out.

It might be behind 5.5 but that's when the WoW exodus got into full swing and bloated the game numbers far beyond normal.

You can worry if you want. I'm not. I won't worry until after Dawntrail is released and we see how much the game is affected by YoshiP's vision of turning it from a MMORPG into a RPG that can be played solo or with friends.

[Supersnow845]

It's still better than ARR when 2.5 came out.

It's still better than HW when 3.5 came out.

It's still better than SB when 4.5 came out.

It might be behind 5.5 but that's when the WoW exodus got into full swing and bloated the game numbers far beyond normal.

You can worry if you want. I'm not. I won't worry until after Dawntrail is released and we see how much the game is affected by YoshiP's vision of turning it from a MMORPG into a RPG that can be played solo or with friends.

It’s worse than those at least from the perspective that it’s the only one of those that ended up worse off than it’s predecessor, you don’t write off decline as “yeah but there’s more players than 10 years ago when the game was in its infancy”

And I’m still trying to figure out how people thinking that the entirety of the WOW exodus falling away is either somehow a good thing or otherwise a foregone conclusion decided when it happened. 14 squandered the biggest injection of players it will ever get and people are still saying “yeah but more people are playing than in HW”, do y’all hear yourselves

[Stormpeaks]

It’s worse than those at least from the perspective that it’s the only one of those that ended up worse off than it’s predecessor, you don’t write off decline as “yeah but there’s more players than 10 years ago when the game was in its infancy”

And I’m still trying to figure out how people thinking that the entirety of the WOW exodus falling away is either somehow a good thing or otherwise a foregone conclusion decided when it happened. 14 squandered the biggest injection of players it will ever get and people are still saying “yeah but more people are playing than in HW”, do y’all hear yourselves

This tbh, I really dont understand this take of "yeah the game is more popular than in the past", not only it had a massive influx of players because of the wow exodus, but also natural growth, and then proceeded to literally almost lose all of that growth to go back to normal levels.

It's just... not a good thing lol.

It had the chance to easily become the biggest MMORPG by a pretty big margin, and failed at it.

[Jojoya]

And I’m still trying to figure out how people thinking that the entirety of the WOW exodus falling away is either somehow a good thing or otherwise a foregone conclusion decided when it happened. 14 squandered the biggest injection of players it will ever get and people are still saying “yeah but more people are playing than in HW”, do y’all hear yourselves

Why on earth would anyone think that all the players that came over from WoW would stay when FFXIV is focused on the story journey, unlike WoW which was focused entirely on end game?

WoW's currently in the process of dying back out because it's having a hard time keeping new players due to the terrible experience new players have and the Dragonflight changes aren't scratching that itch sufficiently for the veterans, especially with the way Activision-Blizzard has started incorporating predatory monetization into the game with things like the Trading Post (that's a pretty disgusting story if you haven't heard what they've done to screw players over that had initially like the Trading Post concept).

There's a good chance that part of the WoW exodus that came then left will be back again on Tuesday simply because it is new content with a story that doesn't piss them off even if it's not a literary classic.

I'm sorry, but I've been playing MMORPGs longer than some FFXIV players have been alive. I've seen it all before. What's happening here does not worry me.

Populations decline mid-expansion then bounce back when the next expansion releases. Most gamers aren't interested in being tied to a single game and wanting to play a new release (or releases) to its fullest usually means taking a break from the others they have been playing. It is normal.

Long time players realize a game no longer holds any special meaning to them and they go off to seek out new games to play. In the meantime, new players pick up the game for the first time and replace those who have left, though eventually the number is smaller than those that left. It is normal.

There comes a point when yes, the population will start declining and that's okay. Times change. Tastes change. Expectations change. It is normal.

This game is no where close to dying, though. There are still plenty of players logging in and enjoying it. It has retained players from the WoW exodus. I should know - most of the members of my Marilith FC came over from WoW at the tail end of the exodus. They're still got a massive amount of content they haven't touched yet because they're enjoying repeating content they've already done.

Think what you want. It doesn't affect most of us because we're more interested in playing the game than obsessing over random numbers of questionable importance.

[Ranaku]

It’s worse than those at least from the perspective that it’s the only one of those that ended up worse off than it’s predecessor, you don’t write off decline as “yeah but there’s more players than 10 years ago when the game was in its infancy”

And I’m still trying to figure out how people thinking that the entirety of the WOW exodus falling away is either somehow a good thing or otherwise a foregone conclusion decided when it happened. 14 squandered the biggest injection of players it will ever get and people are still saying “yeah but more people are playing than in HW”, do y’all hear yourselves

There are also more players playing than to ShB release. Everything you are spewing around here is really disingenuous. Get some real arguments and don't beat around the bush cause you don't have any ground to argue on.

Game now is more popular than to ShB release which was one of the best received expansions ever. What is your argument against that? You argue that "Oh yeah but HW" and "Oh yeah but 10 years ago" which wasn't even the point there. Like wtf kupo. Get a grip.

Edit: You do know that you can be unhappy with a product and that doesn't mean it is automatically bad or everyone else has to dislike it, yeah? Some peoples ego is just on another level.