The slow decline of FFXIV, a summary.

[MisterNublet]

I've been playing this game for ten years and plan to continue, I know a lot of people for whom that is the same. That's resilience. There aren't a lot of games that have that kind of staying power.

Sunk Cost Fallacy.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

The speed of which the pardoning starts appearing in this thread within first few replies being exactly described/predicted/implied within the video... I don't even know if that's hilarious or pitiful at this point.

[OliverQ]

Part of my point is that hyperbole makes it hard to take feedback seriously.

I've been playing this game for ten years and plan to continue, I know a lot of people for whom that is the same. That's resilience. There aren't a lot of games that have that kind of staying power.

Every MMO is like this though. Wow has been around for 21 years, and just released one of its better expansions with more on the way. It's more popular than FFXIV again I believe. Everquest is still going with a hardcore fan base. They've been at it for 26 years and just released their 31st expansion.

An MMO lasting awhile doesn't mean it's popular or doing well, it just means it has at least some hardcore fans who won't give it up no matter its flaws.

[TakoyakiLala]

It would be nice if the devs/SE quit bashing down everything so the Dean Takahashis of the world (Look up Game journalist Cuphead Tutorial) can effortlessly play the game with zero setbacks. Accessibility shouldn't be made for people who put next to zero effort into actually learning how to play their game.

[Kandraxx]

FFXIV pros: (or what's better than compared to WoW as the gold standard)

Character design/customization
Side content
Minigames
Farming content
NPCs/big ticket characters -might be a personal preference
housing -but WoW is getting it soon and it's gonna be better so...

FFXIV cons:

Gameplay
Inbuilt execution and interaction lag
Garbage PvE
Garbage PvP
(mostly due to the first 2 factors)
Spaghetti engine -can't do this while that, everything needs confirmation like it's a toddler playing

So? Just address the cons while building on the pros? A complete gameplay and class overhaul is inevitable if they want to save this game. FFXIV is the only game that makes me fully aware and conscious about the fact that I'm pressing the same damn button sequence over and over and over. Start with that first, then do real PvE mechanics.

[TemporalFruitsAndVeggies]

I think the wildly uncanny long-term success of online games like Counter-Strike, World of Warcraft, and such have warped people's perception of how other online games should perform over the long term, especially in the MMORPG space. But the games consistently topping active player charts are really outliers.

The fact is, "in decline" is the inexorable state of the overwhelming majority of aging online games. Just as most people don't want to eat their favorite food for every single meal for the rest of their lives, most people don't want to spend their time in the same way for the rest of their lives. That's normal. The genre itself is also in decline, with the "Big Four" (WoW, FFXIV, GW2, and ESO) all being over a decade old now. It's not a space developers or new players are really looking to get into.

It's also important to remember that "in decline" doesn't mean "almost dead." There are plenty of rather declined MMORPGs out there that are still chugging along -- hell, Lord of the Rings Online is finally opening 64-bit servers after like 18 years. I have no doubt that FFXIV will still be here with a decently healthy player base in another ten years, but no matter how innovative the devs become, no matter how many sweeping overhauls they might decide to make to core systems to shake things up, they can't beat entropy. And the same is true for all online games. One day, Counter-Strike will start a decline from which it will never recover. So will WoW. So will FFXIV. It's just the nature of things.

[Azurarok]

the irony of it all is the devs themselves outlined the exact thing happening right now 10 years ago

[Red-thunder]

That's resilience.

You mean hopelessly brainwashed?

[Red-thunder]

The speed of which the pardoning starts appearing in this thread within first few replies being exactly described/predicted/implied within the video... I don't even know if that's hilarious or pitiful at this point.

It's really, really funny how the "doomers" mostly shit on the game/company, but the white knights mostly shit on people.

This is in itself very revealing: one group of people are thinking about game mechanics and understanding the company's behavior. The other group treats it as a tribal war.

[Arrius]

It's really, really funny how the "doomers" mostly shit on the game/company, but the white knights mostly shit on people.

This is in itself very revealing: one group of people are thinking about game mechanics and understanding the company's behavior. The other group treats it as a tribal war.

In both 'parties' there will be always some more dedicated ones that keep stirring unrest and are quick to grab favor by parroting the same argument again whenever a content patch, event or a shop release is happening.
Or, in this expansion, even repeatedly argue on the story and its characters.