FF14 player count reached the lowest point in 4 years. We lost 75% of the playerbase.

[Xrono_Amber]

But I digress back to Maelstrom Negativity. Constantly dwelling on what’s wrong fails in achieving good results - because once the complaints are known, complaining about it more doesn't change anything.
You stop being constructive in critique and you start forming a tumor in your own community that kills off all enjoyment of the game in good faith. Listen to some of these comments, oozing in bad faith.

The beatings shall continue until the quality improves. You want to know why? Because critics are often the most ardent fans of the game. You may not agree with the quality of their criticism or their wishes, but they are interested in improving the game. And most of the complaints are not new. Speed of content release. The length of content. The amount of content being released. The customization of races. The user interface. Even buying of the game is a quest, unclear to whom it is necessary. But when criticism continues year after year with no reaction or response, people become apathetic. And apathy is the death of the game. Not fierce love, not ferocious hate. Apathy.

FF14 became popular and we received a lot of WoWfugees during the pandemic.
We were going to lose them eventually.

Now ask yourself the question, why did we lose them all? If the game is great, why didn't this horde of people stay in it for long? Yes, of course any game loses its audience, it's inevitable. But for single-player games it's natural, since it's a one-time purchase. MMOs are supposed to keep people engaged. Maybe not literally every day for a year, but at least most of that year. The number of potential new players is not infinite. And having lost this huge influx of players almost completely, I honestly don't know where this game will continue to get new ones to replace the departing veterans. Games rarely die in one fell swoop. But if players feel that they are dissatisfied with the game and the game doesn't want to change, that's the beginning of the end. Why do you think criticism has become such a popular opinion in this particular expansion? Because complaints about the quality of the story were added to the criticisms that were already there. And the story is practically the only piece of content designed for casuals, the largest category of players~