After Dawntrails abject Failure of a Story, there need to be serious Consequences

[Eyrilona]

If you don't like where the story is going, then drop it. It's the same as dropping a TV show you don't like. Simple. Not everyone shares your opinion. It's not your story or mine. It's theirs. We are just along for the ride. If you think you can do better, go write a fanfic.

Wait, really? You are volunteering to pay the recurring bills for hundreds of millions for FFXIV's operational costs and new content development out of your own pocket? No? Still need the rest of the player community to remain very large to split the financial burden? Alright, fair, but the social contract that comes with that is that you need to start caring then about whether everyone else is having a good time with the product they are co-supporting together with you now, not just you.

[Kazemon15]

Wait, really? You are volunteering to pay the recurring bills for hundreds of millions for FFXIV's operational costs and new content development out of your own pocket? No? Still need the rest of the player community to remain very large to split the financial burden? Alright, fair, but the social contract that comes with that is that you need to start caring then about whether everyone else is having a good time with the product they are co-supporting together with you now, not just you.

Lol...in what way did I say that? Do you ask for compensation when you watch a 300+ episode show, spending money on merch and DVDs/BDs, spending years following it only for it to not turn out how you like it? No? So why is this any different? Yeah, the "sales" won't be as large as they want, but people who still like it, which are still quite a bit, will continue to buy the product. I spent years following Bleach and buying the DVDs and manga, yet the story went in a way I disliked. What did I do? I stopped buying it and stopped reading/watching it. They didn't get my money anymore, but what happened? They still made new seasons...because there are still people who liked it even if I didn't and dropped it. There are still plenty of other people who like the game/story. If you check other social media sites besides just the dumpster fires of twitter and the ffxiv forums, they are out there saying good things about it. The only ones who have grievances and think they are owed something just because they don't like it are those who like to review bomb everything and shout as loud as they can on the forums over and over again.

[Eyrilona]

Lol...in what way did I say that?

You did not say it explicitly of course. But I was bringing up the long term implication of telling people to just drop the main reason a very large chunk of the players is playing this game in the first place. If you are fine with everyone that doesn't like it dropping out, and shrinking the player base of this game by disenfranchising this group, than that group, until ultimately only people like yourself are left who can bear with the state of the game and not complain, then you may find yourself surprised by how much harder it is to keep a large MMO alive without all those people that you told to give up on it.

[Kazemon15]

You did not say it explicitly of course. But I was bringing up the long term implication of telling people to just drop the main reason a very large chunk of the players is playing this game in the first place. If you are fine with everyone that doesn't like it dropping out, and shrinking the player base of this game by disenfranchising this group, than that group, until ultimately only people like yourself are left who can bear with the state of the game and not complain, then you may find yourself surprised by how much harder it is to keep a large MMO alive without all those people that you told to give up on it.

Way to just cherry pick one part of my post and ignore everything else I said which even talks about the things you just said.

If 1.0, when it was at it's direst can survive, then 7.0 is just fine. The game is doing just fine even if all those who don't like what's going on quit. Yoshi P even said to take breaks and stop subscribing if you want, so yeah... I'm pretty sure the game will be just fine.

[Eyrilona]

Way to just cherry pick one part of my post and ignore everything else I said which even talks about the things you just said.

If 1.0, when it was at it's direst can survive, then 7.0 is just fine. The game is doing just fine even if all those who don't like what's going on quit. Yoshi P even said to take breaks and stop subscribing if you want, so yeah... I'm pretty sure the game will be just fine.

I was just clarifying why I had written what I had before you made the post that this was a direct reply to, not further arguing against you. We are quite on the same side in that I too hope that the game will be fine.

But I can not be without genuine concern because there is a difference between 1.0 and the current state of things, and that is the balance in goodwill and confidence that the company still has.

XIV 1.0 was given the benefit of time to improve because of XI and a broad confidence in what SE was capable of at the time. By contrast, today the antics of a company that keeps trying to make for more games that nobody wanted them to make, rather than successful ones, combined with a general suspicion over how they still have a leadership that is all in on NFTs even when that has been almost universally panned by the real gaming audience.

Also, SE almost bankrupted itself in the effort to retain community confidence while they worked to salvage 1.0, including waiving subscription fees entirely for the interim. It is doubtful they would be able to do that a second time, with the tangled web through which FFXIV is cross-funding a lot of their other developments.

And lastly, that was over ten years ago, before the Live Service Model started turning the gaming landscape into a place where even winning the game of the year award doesn't guarantee that a game will not still fail to meet 'expected margins' and get cancelled.

[Kazemon15]

I was just clarifying why I had written what I had before you made the post that this was a direct reply to, not further arguing against you. We are quite on the same side in that I too hope that the game will be fine.

But I can not be without genuine concern because there is a difference between 1.0 and the current state of things, and that is the balance in goodwill and confidence that the company still has.

XIV 1.0 was given the benefit of time to improve because of XI and a broad confidence in what SE was capable of at the time. By contrast, today the antics of a company that keeps trying to make for more games that nobody wanted them to make, rather than successful ones, combined with a general suspicion over how they still have a leadership that is all in on NFTs even when that has been almost universally panned by the real gaming audience.

Also, SE almost bankrupted itself in the effort to retain community confidence while they worked to salvage 1.0, including waiving subscription fees entirely for the interim. It is doubtful they would be able to do that a second time, with the tangled web through which FFXIV is cross-funding a lot of their other developments.

And lastly, that was over ten years ago, before the Live Service Model started turning the gaming landscape into a place where even winning the game of the year award doesn't guarantee that a game will not still fail to meet 'expected margins' and get cancelled.

I do get what you are saying and yeah, 10 years ago was a different time. But you also gotta look at today. FFXIV has grown exponentially since Endwalker. It has had the most subscribers it has ever had, even the WoW exodus in 2021 added to that playerbase... Hell, Stormblood wasn't as well received either, but look what happened, we got Shadowbringers and Endwalker, which alot of people praise it for. FFXIV saved SE from financial ruin when it became better thanks to Yoshi P. I really doubt they are going to shut it down just because one expansion received mixed reviews or had a slightly smaller playerbase. Heck, FFXI, which came out in 2002 still has subscribers despite not getting a new expansion for almost a decade now....so yes, I do believe FFXIV will be fine.

[PassinLay]

I do get what you are saying and yeah, 10 years ago was a different time. But you also gotta look at today. FFXIV has grown exponentially since Endwalker. It has had the most subscribers it has ever had, even the WoW exodus in 2021 added to that playerbase... Hell, Stormblood wasn't as well received either, but look what happened, we got Shadowbringers and Endwalker, which alot of people praise it for. FFXIV saved SE from financial ruin when it became better thanks to Yoshi P. I really doubt they are going to shut it down just because one expansion received mixed reviews or had a slightly smaller playerbase. Heck, FFXI, which came out in 2002 still has subscribers despite not getting a new expansion for almost a decade now....so yes, I do believe FFXIV will be fine.

"GrOwN eXPoNeNtIaLlY"

https://steamcharts.com/app/39210

Back to barely pre-DT levels lmao

ok bud