We need to talk about the PC Gamer article

[DPZ2]

I prefer to ask players to go play the game they want to incorporate into this one, rather than turn this one into something "more like ...".

[WetShoelace]

I prefer to ask players to go play the game they want to incorporate into this one, rather than turn this one into something "more like ...".

Perhaps the better idea would be to make a good game regardless of what it will or won't look like. But I feel Final Fantasy XIV doesn't really have a direction or anything it wants to be at the moment, and this big direction problem is hurting the players more than anything.

[Jeeqbit]

I feel Final Fantasy XIV doesn't really have a direction or anything it wants to be at the moment

It wants to be a Final Fantasy themepark (mixture of all the Final Fantasy genre games) with defining features from those games; in particular, the story. It also wants to offer raid content because of it having started in the MMORPG genre.

It's doing both these things and doing them well. It is everything else that people have a problem with, but it is everything else that is not a fundamental part of the direction, other than being easy to get into which affects how easy jobs are to play and how easy dungeons are.

I only sort of agree with it not being their last chance but the truth is that just like XI once the diehard playerbase starts to leave because they've lost hope they would be extremely hesitant to recommit to something like this again.

I agree that if they lose certain types of players it may be hard to get them back, but not entirely impossible either and there are ways in which they could be brought back.

1. SE has a certain reach through email marketing.
2. They have a reach through social media followings to say if there has been some sort of fundamental change.
3. They do free login campaigns, where you can invite your friends to return to the game, and people may do that more if they think the game has fundamentally changed in a way they would like.
4. The FFXIV community is well-connected on discord and can spread word through that if there has been some fundamental change that their friends would like.
5. SE has run advert campaigns on YouTube to get people to return that were meant to show to people who already played.

I agree it may be hard to get them back once they've left for good, but people who play this aren't strangers to breaks and SE has made sure they have numerous avenues to spread word to people about the current state of the game as well.

We also have a case study of WoW where if a game has enough expansions and has millions of former players that have been sucked in and become "invested" somehow, that they are prone to returning again even though they said they had quit. If any other game has managed to come close to that it's this game.

There will always be a subgroup like in XI to keep the game alive but it won't yield enough profits to keep up big development and it will go into maint. mode.

It's hard to say there, because this game did just fine with half its current subscribers. To get below the half-way point, I think it would just flat out take years, because no matter how many people quit, returning players simply replace them and the "returning player factor" will likely take time to wane (if it even does wane, this is all hypothetical).

I don't think you guys have ever truly played a game in maintenance mode.

Either they haven't played one in maintenance mode, or they are knowingly exaggerating.

SE even has had an example of maintenance mode in FF11. Although there has been content releases occasionally, for many years it has actually just been cycling events such as exp buff events.

The closest comparison we have to that is the moogle tome event or the make it rain campaign that buffs Gold Saucer MGP. Imagine only having those 2 things and no new dungeons, trials, raids, MSQ, sidequests, extreme, savage, ultimate, criterion, blue mage updates, gold saucer GATEs, deep dungeons, exploratory areas, pvp arenas, no new raid tiers or tomestones or gear or alliance raids. Nothing.

[raelgun]

I prefer to ask players to go play the game they want to incorporate into this one, rather than turn this one into something "more like ...".

This game went through changes to get to this point?

What you post tells me, you are happy with what the changes led to this point and don't want to shifted away from this, the point it is at now is bad.

One of the strengths FF14 had was developer communication, its now one of the worst at this in the genre, it really feels like the devs don't care.

[DPZ2]

This game went through changes to get to this point?

Yes, and I've seen each and every one of them since ARR was released. And read enough history to recognize that I would have tried out 1.0 and put it away again.

What you post tells me, you are happy with what the changes led to this point and don't want to shifted away from this, the point it is at now is bad.

For the amount of money I spend on the game, and the fact that it doesn't take up the majority of my free time - Yes, I'm relatively happy. The game is still based on the same principles as when I started it, back when ARR was the only thing. If I want something different, I go play that game. I'm a firm believer that the myth that there has to be One True Game is a lie.

[raelgun]

Yes, and I've seen each and every one of them since ARR was released. And read enough history to recognize that I would have tried out 1.0 and put it away again.



For the amount of money I spend on the game, and the fact that it doesn't take up the majority of my free time - Yes, I'm relatively happy. The game is still based on the same principles as when I started it, back when ARR was the only thing. If I want something different, I go play that game. I'm a firm believer that the myth that there has to be One True Game is a lie.

So you should just admit you have bias and favour the current design and direction as the game has changed to this point, and guess where some of those change came from, critiques and feedback, guess what people are doing here, guess what you are doing here.

Principle on paper but still a lot of changes happened, patch Candence keeps getting longer with less and less things to do that really don't even last the expansion they are in.

What you want is to misdirect and deflect the OP and some of the article points, if feedback to counter this continues gets implemented then its likely not in your favour anymore then, guess you will provide feedback then.