2024 is going to be FF14's last chance to tackle its stagnating formula (PC Gamer)

[VerdeLuck]

Another click bait article that simultaneously complains about not enough new content and that they don't like the new experimental content, along with simultaneously complaining that the formula is stale but wants the formula from other expansions copy pasted.

It's just complaining for the sake of complaining and to harvest clicks from doomers and WoW players who want to see this "WoW killer" to be labeled as dead.

[Jeeqbit]

Folks really underestimate just how low a playerbase can be for an MMO to survive and FFXIV is far far beyond that even with dwindling numbers and at its lowest.

Very true. Even in Heavensward the game was strong despite being a much smaller population of around 600,000. You could see at the time how it was a great game with developers who kept doing the next thing better and it felt that even if that didn't eventually translate into mass appeal, there was still something special there. So it only made sense that it kept growing the way it did to reach the awareness it did.

The latest Lucky Bancho survey puts the active players at 1.11 million, a decrease of 140k, but this is taking into account that the free trial was extended to level 70 so they can no longer count people between 60 and 70 and that we are heading into a long patch lull.

220,000 of them are returning players, because the way the game works is a lot of people take a break and while they do, lots of other people return to the game in their place.

[Hyperia]

Simply put, with DT essentially be a restart of the game, if it’s not as good or better than ARR, we have problems.

[Boblawblah]

Yup. https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-Gamer-article

My guess is that this is gonna be "The thread" for a while. Getting reposted over and over for a bit.

Just wait for Zepla and crew to start making their own reaction videos on the article.

[Striker44]

This "article" was already posted, but at least you included the text of it instead of just a link. This was the key part for me:

Director and producer Naoki Yoshida also hinted towards the return of large-scale exploratory zones akin to Stormblood's Eureka and Shadowbringers' Bozja, something that has been sorely missing from Endwalker. While they were admittedly quite divisive zones when they were first released, they were my favourite ways to grind for each expansion's relic weapon and an enjoyable middle ground in difficulty.

So, the writer acknowledges that the exploratory zones were divisive, that only some people really enjoyed them while others really didn't, then tries to hold it against EW for not having them again (two expansions in a row), but instead making other content that people who weren't liking the zones might enjoy better...and that's a bad thing "sorely missing" because...wait for it...the author happened to be someone who personally liked the zones.

The rest seems to lack a grasp of simple math. There is more "criticism" of EW because there's more everything for EW, because combining the WoW exodus with covid resulted in an unexpected absolute explosion of players.

This is ultimately just the latest personal opinion piece trying to masquerade as if it's talking objective facts. *Yawn*.

[Saraide]

This "article" was already posted, but at least you included the text of it instead of just a link. This was the key part for me:



So, the writer acknowledges that the exploratory zones were divisive, that only some people really enjoyed them while others really didn't, then tries to hold it against EW for not having them again (two expansions in a row), but instead making other content that people who weren't liking the zones might enjoy better...and that's a bad thing "sorely missing" because...wait for it...the author happened to be someone who personally liked the zones.

The rest seems to lack a grasp of simple math. There is more "criticism" of EW because there's more everything for EW, because combining the WoW exodus with covid resulted in an unexpected absolute explosion of players.

This is ultimately just the latest personal opinion piece trying to masquerade as if it's talking objective facts. *Yawn*.

Hey do we think the author is a forum poster? That would be pretty funny.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

the game is literally doing well and is doing stable numbers wise, if not on the upside, and we are in a content drought too.

Citation needed.

[Striker44]

Someone just posted the LuckyBancho estimate as being ~1.1 million at the moment. Even the infamous "Steam data" that certain people like to throw around show a steady increase in population from each expansion to the next (continuing in EW) at each similar point along the way (minus the anomalous spike from the mix of WoW exodus and covid).

[RaideDuku]

Or for f's sake there's a thread about this already 5 threads down.

[Jeeqbit]

Citation needed.

I posted the Lucky Bancho numbers just above. Despite that they show a decline, it's a small decline within the margin it usually fluctuates up and down.

It's not dipped below 1 million the entire expansion, whereas for most of the previous expansion we did not even have 1 million a lot of the time. Even if it did reduce that much prior to Dawntrail, the reason would be obvious (pre-expansion drought).

Unless Lucky Bancho's stats reduce to the amount in a previous expansion, the only thing lacking a good citation is the "population is declining" argument.

The one thing that I do think is fair though is that there was some data showing the type of players taking extended breaks have been veteran/collector type players, it's just that statistically they all got replaced with non-collector types or new players, so there is no substantial decline.