So SE has officially stated their MMO profits have tanked.

[Bitmoar]

Regarding the population booms in 5.x and Endwalker launch... they definitely could have done better to capitalize on the popularity. I was keeping up with a few WoW players who joined at that time. One in particular, Savix, really fell in love with the game. Did the entire story, got to end game, did some raiding and ults. You know what made him quit, though? There were no fulfilling classic MMO grinds. I know a lot of them enjoyed a bit of Bozja. They really needed field content or similar in Endwalker, and in general need to add content like that EARLY in the expansion. Not a year+ into it. Hate to say it, but relying on story and a catalogue of old content isn't appealing to a lot of MMO veterans. In the end, XIV was just a fun side game for a few months. There are a lot who stuck around, but there could have been more. Seems like they're very concerned with making the story something you can enjoy solo, but that does nothing to promote a healthy end game and end game population, which is vital for an MMO.

I also think it's funny that when we needed the server space (Endwalker launch) they were totally unprepared. When they finally got around to adding new data centers, the population was already beginning to fail. They helped for the DT launch for sure, but without a turning point, I wonder how long they'll even bother with Dynamis and Materia.

[Atma]

Regarding the population booms in 5.x and Endwalker launch... they definitely could have done better to capitalize on the popularity. I was keeping up with a few WoW players who joined at that time. One in particular, Savix, really fell in love with the game. Did the entire story, got to end game, did some raiding and ults. You know what made him quit, though? There were no fulfilling classic MMO grinds. I know a lot of them enjoyed a bit of Bozja. They really needed field content or similar in Endwalker, and in general need to add content like that EARLY in the expansion. (...)

I also think it's funny that when we needed the server space (Endwalker launch) they were totally unprepared. When they finally got around to adding new data centers, the population was already beginning to fail. They helped for the DT launch for sure, but without a turning point, I wonder how long they'll even bother with Dynamis and Materia.

The lack of 'classic MMO grinds' is the exact reason I play this game and remain subscribed to it continually while anytime I try to play WoW it is a flash in the pan for me. You finish it, it's fun, and they go "Alright buddy, here's the mountain you have to climb to do anything else!" and it's an IMMEDIATE turn off because I have a life, a job, and I can't sit and farm crap and do 6 hours of dailies per day just to keep meaningfully and reasonably current. Grinds exist for sub retention, not fun, and is that what we really are looking for? More people doing grinds they hate?

I want them to break away from the formula but through things that are actually fun and engaging, not brainless grinds. This is why OC is really flopping for me pretty hard, which was making the last step of it something for hardcore grinders only is incredibly meh. Sitting there going through and grinding with the understanding that, due to life I'm just never going to see, let alone complete, Forked Tower is extremely meh. It was a massive kick in the groin because field content was always supposed to be 'for everyone', and locking that away behind more content for raiders was a VERY bad decision.

I'm holding judgement on the final boss of the new DD because we don't know what that will look like yet, but this trying to 'hybridize' things to draw people into 'harder content' to justify the amount of time they are spending on it just needs to stop. I mean YoshiP, I am not doing Savage content not because I don't want to, I am not doing Savage content because it is designed in such a way that 8 people need to make a 3-4 hour commitment 3 nights a week wiping to the same absurdly complex mechanics over and over until they figure out the silly 'ballet' that has been designed for each fight.

And Dynamis and Materia aren't going anywhere because the game's housing system pretty much precludes the concept of server merges.

[Bitmoar]

The lack of 'classic MMO grinds' is the exact reason I play this game and remain subscribed to it continually while anytime I try to play WoW it is a flash in the pan for me.

And Dynamis and Materia aren't going anywhere because the game's housing system pretty much precludes the concept of server merges.

Content is optional. Not a server merge, moving Dynamis worlds to the other NA DCs and moving Materia worlds to JP DCs.

Just to expand on this quickly, XIV has some of the most soul crushing achievement grinds in the genre, I'll just assume you don't interact with them. But besides that, the grinds in field content specifically aren't all or nothing. It's a choose your own adventure. The point is, they need to begin whatever their long form optional grind content is (relics/field zone) to keep people engaged. You waste all the hype around an expansion when people finish the story, stick around for raiding if they raid, and then wait 3 months for the x.1 for a day's worth of content and another 4 week wait just for a new society quest or something.