FFXIV Dawntrail reviews are out on Metacritic

[Supersnow845]

And to go along with that update - the player population numbers show nobody really cares about those scores or reviews, as DT is maintaining practically the exact same retention % as every other expansion, coupled with one of the highest active playerbase numbers (topped only by the release month of DT itself and that brief "WoW Exodus" spike a few years back).

Genuine question striker

What do you achieve out of what you do on the forums? No matter what the topic is or where the traditional “hardcore” vs “casual” stands on a particular topic if you send a reply it ALWAYS amounts to some form of “game is fine any sort of feedback is the minority, it’s pointless to complain”

Like are you just really strongly attached to 14 and don’t like the thought of it going downhill, I can understand that sentiment because I used to feel it in RuneScape many years ago or is it something else

There is zero positive or even neutral way to spin aggregate reviews being this poor when the vast majority of reviews are neither 10’s nor 1’s. It’s not getting review bombed people are just reviewing it mildly negatively. MMO players are sticky but there is only so much they will tolerate. Would you prefer they attempt to fix the problems now or wait till large swarms of people hit the proverbial tipping point and we have our own WOW exodus

Shielding the developers from critisim on their behalf just doesn’t benefit anyone, I’m not sure what you get out of this

[Voidmage]

Probably not so far that they can't swing it around if they start releasing quality again, because people have short memories, but damage has been done to the core of the sense of identity of both the player character and those nearest them, so it will not be easy to make us "like" characters (including our own) again after seeing them behave in ways that made them look really bad.

It wouldn’t even be hard for them to steer the boat in the other direction.

I don‘t know any other game where the devs have so much goodwill from their players.
It’s at a point where they can throw breadcrumbs like slightly harder dungeons or two dye channels and get „applause“.
Most people play for the story and maybe glamour.
Fix them and they usually ignore other things.
Make the jobs slightly more interesting and done, the complains will grow weaker.

The problem is not that they can’t fix anything but that they can‘t even do the easiest things nowadays or that the fixes take them months to years what should usually be weeks.

[kajv95]

The scores are just sad. Probably would be best for them to not ignore this. If you go with the review bomb argument, usually review bombs get counteracted by a community if the community itself doesn't actually agree with it. That's not happening right now, and that's telling.

[Jojoya]

XIV still seems rather early on in that process and the complaints are more about general boredom due to lack of content and innovation, so it's kind of having the opposite issue. "Just play other games" really isn't the kind of mentality any subscription/live service model should be trying to encourage when it comes to finanicial success, though...

Financial success isn't making the maximum possible profit. Financial success is continuing to make a profit.

The "just play other games when you run out of things you want to do in FFXIV" has worked very well for the game. It has been financially successful at a time when SE overall has been struggling financially.

I think that's because YoshiP, as a gamer himself, understands that most gamers want to be able to play multiple games and not get tied to a single game. Players are free to come and go as their mood takes them (assuming they don't have a housing addiction or have learned how it can be managed if they have). They appreciate that. Few people enjoy feeling like others control them.

That was part of WoW's problem. Blizzard pushed their systems to the point that players felt like they had to keep logging in or they'd fall too far behind to be able to play at end game if they took a break to play other games for a few months. It became a choice between playing a single game (WoW) or playing lots of games. WoW ended up losing that battle except among the most hardcore WoW addicts.

Certainly I appreciate being able to take time away from this game to play other games I enjoy. I don't fool myself into thinking I have to log in every day or that I have to cap my tomestones every week or that I have to do anything in particular. I do what I feel like doing, including playing other games, without a sense that I'm losing out on anything in this one. Even seasonal events can be easy to bypass much of the time. Either the reward interests me or it doesn't. If it doesn't, I'm not going to miss out on anything significant by skipping the event.

I wonder how close we are to the point of no return in that trust thermocline since there are already some warning signs.
DT seems to be the lowest rated XIV product since 1.0, the job reception so far is mixed to negative, the promises haven't been met so far, msq is divisive at best, contand negativity towards the game is more common than it has been in the last years

There are promises that haven't been met yet because the game has only been out for 11 weeks out of a 100+ week expansion cycle. Of course we haven't seen a lot of the promised content yet.

Job reception is always mixed. As much as some players go "things were better back in X expansion", even then reaction to jobs was mixed. They are always those that are unhappy because their favorite job(s) doesn't fall in line with what they personally want it to be.

I think the core problem is that the game is suffering a midlife identity crisis. Just what type of player is the game being made for? It's like they're throwing out all sorts of different ideas trying to find what will stick and that's leaving everyone less than satisfied. What was wrong with sticking what had already worked so well for the game in the past?

Just as players need to remember that grass isn't always greener on the other side, the developers also need to remember that.

They need to pick a path and stick to it so they can deliver the best experience possible. Right now the path has so many branches no one knows where things are going to end up and that leaves people unsettled.

One final note: I certainly hope this game isn't starting to suffer from Activision syndrome after the shakeup at the top of SE. Corporate executives need to keep out of the developers' hair and let the developers make the game decisions. I don't care what their Business Administration classes taught them. Game development is not your typical business because customers put a lot more emotional investment in their game choices than they will in what mobile phone they buy or what store they go to when they need more paper towels.

[CuteBucket]

One final note: I certainly hope this game isn't starting to suffer from Activision syndrome after the shakeup at the top of SE. Corporate executives need to keep out of the developers' hair and let the developers make the game decisions. I don't care what their Business Administration classes taught them. Game development is not your typical business because customers put a lot more emotional investment in their game choices than they will in what mobile phone they buy or what store they go to when they need more paper towels.

This is also a worry I have. Parts of Dawntrail had some telltale signs of rushed rewrites and weird corporate meddling. The story doesn't feel like the FFXIV I know and love, yet the game play is so identical to Endwalker that it feels almost too much like FFXIV...

[Zakuyia]

Honestly never listen to reviewers they are payed to say good things just look at TlOU part 2 they spent a whole year fighting to get game goty once it did they started talking bad about the game... reviewers are 2 timers literally. Playing devil advocate won't always win you brownie points

[ninjaminja]

I wonder how close we are to the point of no return in that trust thermocline since there are already some warning signs.
DT seems to be the lowest rated XIV product since 1.0, the job reception so far is mixed to negative, the promises haven't been met so far, msq is divisive at best, contand negativity towards the game is more common than it has been in the last years

The game is doing fine . Many people are still playing and enjoying it

[Supersnow845]

The game is doing fine . Many people are still playing and enjoying it

Any game is “doing fine” until they hit their limit and half the population leaves

[PercibelTheren]

The game is doing fine . Many people are still playing and enjoying it

I think you, like many people, misunderstand the purpose of negative feedback on these forums. The vast majority of people criticising the game don't hate the game as a whole. If we did, we wouldn't be around anymore, right? People point out things that can be improved BECAUSE WE LIKE THE GAME but we want it to be the best possible version of itself. I'm still playing and (mostly) enjoying the game. The saving grace of Dawntrail has been the battle content for me, by far. But you know what would make me enjoy the game even more? The MSQ not being garbage and jobs I used to main being fun again.

[Palladiamors]

Because peoples don't stop playing MMORPG on a whim (for most).

It's a long process, but once it's started, 9 times out of 10 it's unstoppable. Dawntrail isn't close to being what could cause this for now but ignoring complaint could lead to that if the story remain divisive.

The problem, Do'Urden, is that Dawntrail has put the game on shakey ground. At any point in time the wrong decision could cause the entire thing to come down. Before Dawntrail this wasn't the case, they could afford mistakes and the player base would shake them off. I get the feeling they thought the graphic update would garner them more good will than it actually did.

Most likely you're right and they still have a couple mid to meh expansions before the riots start but the sort of ill will they starting to foster could cause one bad expansion to be the breaking point. Hopefully they realize this and course correct but...this being modern day Squenix I sort of doubt it.