So SE has officially stated their MMO profits have tanked.

[Pimsan20]

Shame they're still stuck with another year of -Dawntrail- and it's horrible reputation souring the login screen. If I were them, I'd cut the losses entirely, get someone to throw up a new title card as far removed from DT as possible, and treat 7.4 as a soft reboot. Have the next msq quest start at sharlayan without anyone even so much as mentioning anything that happened since 7.0. Just scrub it from the story altogether. Don't build on rotten roots

I mean, not everything about Dawntrail is bad per-say. Don't get me wrong, the main story in 7.0 has many flaws, i admit. But if we look beside the MSQ, the raid series, the dungeon and trails were a good step in the right direction. The post MSQ had a bit of a rocky start, but i think 7.3 help make Dawntrail a bit tolerable. Can't spoil why since not everyone has reach 7.3 yet. I just hope they find a writer that understand the core of 14 and learn from the previous writer's mistake.

[Velthice]

I mean, not everything about Dawntrail is bad per-say. Don't get me wrong, the main story in 7.0 has many flaws, i admit. But if we look beside the MSQ, the raid series, the dungeon and trails were a good step in the right direction. The post MSQ had a bit of a rocky start, but i think 7.3 help make Dawntrail a bit tolerable. Can't spoil why since not everyone has reach 7.3 yet. I just hope they find a writer that understand the core of 14 and learn from the previous writer's mistake.

I'm not saying the content in Dawntrail is bad. I'm saying Dawntrail, the name itself and specifically the attached msq storyline carry a stigma to them now of being "the bad expansion" so I would just kill the name entirely. They can continue the Arcadion and other things that are working for them. Stormblood is still remembered as a weak expansion despite having some of the best content packed within it and one of the best post patch stories (imo) of Doman and Garlean tensions. it never escaped the shadow of its launch msq, not even today, and that's exactly how everything Dawntrail will be remembered.

I stand by cutting the msq out. The worst thing they could do is make Dawntrail "required reading" to understand future events, especially if they end up turning it around and come up with a great story for 8.0. Nobody who quit because of the DT story is going to want to come back if they have to play through the thing that made them quit