Now that the game is officially on its deathbed, what are your thoughts?

[All_Nonsense]

The one set of players that has not been shafted at all in Dawntrail is "hardcore raiders". I'm sorry, but if this isn't enough then they'll just need to actually try a different game for once: 12 savages, 7 extremes, 2 ultimates, 3 criterions, 1 chaotic, 2 large-scale field op raids, 1 raid boss at the end of the new deep dungeon, who knows what else at this point since 4 of these were not strictly announced at fanfest

Oh I'll concede, for sure they've been eating the best out of everyone. But this expac has been nothing but pandering to that subset of players to the point that they're really the only ones who regularly play in any significant capacity anymore. But "the formula" that CBU3 has been following to drip feed them and incentivize them to keep their subs active has been broken, and the middle finger was thrown up to them. Now quite literally every major subset of players is quite pissed off with the dev team now. It's really incredible work they've pulled off

[Avoidy]

The cash shop thing is common as a game's population begins to wind down. The thought process shifts from preserving their reputation and player trust, to just "how can we milk the remaining player base enough to make up for our lost subscribers?" As we lose more people, prepare for more cash shop updates and more "bizarre pricing decisions" that really aren't bizarre at all when you're examining it through this lens.

[CapaxInfiniti]

The problem with things like OC/Eureka/Zadnor/Etc is that Yoshi-P has been dry humping the corpse of FFXI for so many years it's sad to see.
That kind of content doesn't work anymore. The world has moved on. MMOs have moved on.
Trying to carbon copy systems from the early 2000s at this point only appeals to a hyper niche of players. *looks over at Season of Discovery*

It's like SE is stuck in the past in every single way, and they cannot move forward without looking back and drooling over crap people have long since moved on from.

[Raikai]

While I agree with most of the OP's points, I don't think it's fair to say that the game is on a deathbed.

At least not yet. Even if Dawntrail keeps not delivering satisfactory stuff and there's a plummeting on subs, what will seal the fate of XIV is ultimately 8.0, which would make the next Fanfest a very strategic move.

[Jeeqbit]

FFXI for so many years it's sad to see.
That kind of content doesn't work anymore. The world has moved on. MMOs have moved on.

Well they did try not making Field Operations. But a lot of people missed it, including myself. Not all content has to be for everyone and you can always see loads of people in there when you enter, so it's obviously popular. I personally like seeing lots of players together like that. It makes the game feel alive and having that many players in one place is what an MMORPG is all about.

The exact implementation could be improved upon I'm sure but having it exist is fine in my opinion, and if not everyone wants that content they can ignore it.

It's also about the only long-term social content they really managed to make. What made content like Eureka great, for example, was all the banter while waiting for NMs to spawn, all the asking for help with rezzes, the different ways to grind led to forming parties and making new friends.

What was good in Bozja was that CEs effectively made forming a party a formula, and those parties would often persist for Skirmish farming or cluster farms, all of which allowed for social interaction.

OC has most of this, but the main issues are that CEs spawn so frequently that there's little time to relax or talk or do other activities, FATE scaling isn't good, aside from 1 corner of the map nothing is dangerous (and personally I can navigate it without being attacked at all), and the raid wasn't of the same access and difficulty as CLL.

[hydralus]

If it dies, oh well. I had a good time for the last ~9 years or so. I've still got other games to play.

[FudoMyoo]

My thoughts? Hmmm ... wait for server merging first like in FF11 before I'm calling it "dead"

[Jeeqbit]

My thoughts? Hmmm ... wait for server merging first like in FF11 before I'm calling it "dead"

Really this. Every single MMO does this when they are firmly in decline. Sometimes they spin it as a positive thing, such as "hardware improvements" like SWTOR did, but hopefully nobody believed any of that.

[Gwenkatsu]

Only when the gold sellers finally close shop a game is truely dead.

[BigCheez]

The problem with things like OC/Eureka/Zadnor/Etc is that Yoshi-P has been dry humping the corpse of FFXI for so many years it's sad to see.
That kind of content doesn't work anymore. The world has moved on. MMOs have moved on.
Trying to carbon copy systems from the early 2000s at this point only appeals to a hyper niche of players. *looks over at Season of Discovery*

It's like SE is stuck in the past in every single way, and they cannot move forward without looking back and drooling over crap people have long since moved on from.

Field Ops in FFXIV have little to nothing in common with FFXI, aside from superficial references in Eureka. Which systems do you feel are "carbon copies"? Gaining experience points from combat? That's arguably the most fundamental RPG system that exists and is where the similarities begin and end.

I'm also not sure how this relates to WoW's SoD. The primary issue with SoD was the weird class customisation options that stripped the game of the class identity that people enjoyed about classic era WoW, and allowed people to play healer mages and DPS tanks.

Very strange takes.

Really this. Every single MMO does this when they are firmly in decline. Sometimes they spin it as a positive thing, such as "hardware improvements" like SWTOR did, but hopefully nobody believed any of that.

It's pretty common in MMOs that are still healthy too. WoW had server merges years ago. It's just something that often needs to be done if large portions of the playerbase gravitate towards specific servers and away from others over time.