"I'm waiting until 7.3 to see if I'll quit"

[Halivel]

I think the refusal to calmly discuss the fact DT's general difficulty being higher across the board has likely pushed out a substantial number of players is a little sad. We're all in the "hardcore" side of the player base just by being engaged enough to use the official forum, but I really think it's a problem for player retention to suddenly remove the easy mode for everyone.

There are absolutely gamers that enjoy the process of the story and fetch quests and exploration EXCLUSIVELY. FFXIV always had that until Dawntrail's demands. How many of us suddenly feel the pain of snapshotting unfairly hitting us despite what our eyes show us on screen. That's BAD.

I sometimes wonder how many of those who left were players from the period of time when Asmon brought in a huge number of new players along with him. If I recall correctly, that's when the Shadowbringers jump-up happened, and realistically speaking ShB and early EW were capable of satisfying a very wide range of players, while the reset of the game - not necessarily.

It absolutely wouldn't explain the number of active players going down in almost half from what it was in 6.0, but I can fairly easily see some players facing FF14's more "standard" antics and going "nope, thanks, I'm out".

But in order to answer that question one would have to know how many of those players stayed through ShB-EW in the first place, and we probably don't have statistics for that?

[ZXN]

7.3 is, to me personally, a step up from previous stuff we've gotten, but the bar has been on the fucking floor since launch day, and it took until 7.2, once again for me personally, for them to actually bother picking the bar off the ground, if only barely. Based on the fanfest times too, we're looking at another year to a year and a half of Dawntrail, and based on how both sides of players are reacting to this expansion as a whole, be it whether you love it or hate it, it's pretty much just going to be a miserable time for both sides and everyone in-between as we slog towards 8.0.

I, personally, am well past done "hoping" things get better, be it next patch or next expansion or whatever else people want to say. I'll believe it gets better when I actually see it get better.

[ShadowyZero]

i'm waiting for Blue Protocol:star resonance to launch globally

[RedLolly]

I sometimes wonder how many of those who left were players from the period of time when Asmon brought in a huge number of new players along with him. If I recall correctly, that's when the Shadowbringers jump-up happened, and realistically speaking ShB and early EW were capable of satisfying a very wide range of players, while the reset of the game - not necessarily.

It absolutely wouldn't explain the number of active players going down in almost half from what it was in 6.0, but I can fairly easily see some players facing FF14's more "standard" antics and going "nope, thanks, I'm out".

But in order to answer that question one would have to know how many of those players stayed through ShB-EW in the first place, and we probably don't have statistics for that?

I do think a good chunk of those players returned to WoW because Blizzard was able to get it together and made an expansion that the players are overall happy with after years of terribad. An unknown number were in FFXIV only because the number one MMO was in the crapper and they wanted to play SOMETHING. And, credit to Blizzard, they are doing their damndest to keep those players that came back.



It's sad but I don't see SE giving FFXIV the same boost in resources, but it may be too early to make that call? Or not. I still like FFXIV even if the updates are slowing way down, but I'll just play it less and take longer breaks. It can't last forever.

There is that theory going that SE might be starting development on a brand new MMO after DT tanked and the Dragon Quest MMO is also showing slowdown. FFXVII is supposedly in preproduction, so it or FFXVIII might be the next MMO.

I dunno. I think I'm just not ready to just give up.

[Avoidy]

Because most people spent thousands of hours here and don't want to give it all up, so they're endlessly giving Square chances to change their mind. They're desperate for a reason to stay. They don't want to quit. And Square just keeps disappointing them at every turn.
FYI, when you've been unsubbed for a couple of weeks, you lose forum access. So anyone who actually leaves isn't able to talk about how they've left. It's done this way by design, to shield players from replies from people who actually left and have nothing nice left to say. This space is literally reserved for people who may have issues, but aren't far gone enough to actually pull the plug, so you'll always get replies slanted in that direction.
For me personally? I've found things to occupy my time for now, but it's really hard to care when most of my friends have quit. For example, I'm waiting on the housing updates, but what's the point of making a nice house when the people who'd visit it don't play anymore since the content rollouts are 4 months apart and regularly consist of nothingburgers. Or I'm leveling my FC house's submarines, but what's the point of having lots of gil when the only good outfits they churn out with regularity are limited to the cash shop. I could go on but yeah.

tldr people want reasons to stay and are maybe too forgiving

[Ephremjlm]

Still the same people complaining!

Hey man i'm glad you're having a good time. Idk when my ability to comment on the forums is going to stop but I wanted to put this point out there so people actually understand it because the math isn't really on your side.

As of that last report that came out I think a little over a month ago now, the MMO division is down 45%. The MMO division is made up of FFXI, and FFXIV. FFXI has seen player number soar, so much so that they had to stop letting people join some servers because they were become to congested. This suggests that because of the massive spike the game is probably around 200k or so. The weird thing is that you would think with such an increase it would offset any negative number you would see for the MMO division, however that number is still significantly low, meaning that the losses are ALL from FFXIV and probably at least in the 50% range. That means the game is currently hovering around 500k players or so, not TOO far from the MMO that came before it.

50% of players (and seemingly dropping me, me included) is swirling around the toilet bowl concerning. On top of that, someone else in this thread made a really good point that it's not just players that will "come back" it's players that usually stay through the thick of if, the people who own houses. The decision to give up their house/FC is more concerning because that is a much heavier action than simply unsubbing, that indicates more likely a complete retirement.

[Gwenkatsu]

FYI, when you've been unsubbed for a couple of weeks, you lose forum access. So anyone who actually leaves isn't able to talk about how they've left. It's done this way by design, to shield players from replies from people who actually left and have nothing nice left to say. This space is literally reserved for people who may have issues, but aren't far gone enough to actually pull the plug, so you'll always get replies slanted in that direction.

Much to my surprise I just found out that I can still post here after my sub ran out.
So for all that it's worth, here's the reason why I quit after ~5 years: the abysmally bad writing in DT, and the cherry on top: bland boring nerd kid continues to pester us beyond 7.3. Thanks, but no thanks.

Regarding the perceived increase in difficulty:

DT Dungeons were ok for me so far. I died a couple of times in the 7.3 dungeon, but I played it only once before I quit, so I guess I could have improved on that front.

Trials and raids I cannot judge, as they always have been too hard for me. I don't understand the obscur boss emotes, and I refuse to memorize a list of 37 spells and emotes per boss. So even in MSQ trials I die multiples times, usually without any idea why, or how to improve. Since perma kissing the floor is not my idea of fun, I avoid anything above MSQ level. Which has always been the case, so nothing new in DT here.

[lievaordiea]

Personally I'm waiting on the direction 7.4-8.0 goes in.

My only real requirements are Wuk Lamar being benched and the first/thirteenth plotlines being advanced.

7.4 Wuk will be back or whichever patch the funeral is. 7.4 makes sense since dungeon and trial - 7.5 might have a zero return and a dungeon on 13th

they said it in the msq ref the funeral - the rest im chugging copium for

[bic12]

Hey man i'm glad you're having a good time.

I don't even play this game lmao.

[Striker44]

As of that last report that came out I think a little over a month ago now, the MMO division is down 45%. The MMO division is made up of FFXI, and FFXIV. FFXI has seen player number soar, so much so that they had to stop letting people join some servers because they were become to congested. This suggests that because of the massive spike the game is probably around 200k or so. The weird thing is that you would think with such an increase it would offset any negative number you would see for the MMO division, however that number is still significantly low, meaning that the losses are ALL from FFXIV and probably at least in the 50% range. That means the game is currently hovering around 500k players or so, not TOO far from the MMO that came before it.

50% of players (and seemingly dropping me, me included) is swirling around the toilet bowl concerning. On top of that, someone else in this thread made a really good point that it's not just players that will "come back" it's players that usually stay through the thick of if, the people who own houses. The decision to give up their house/FC is more concerning because that is a much heavier action than simply unsubbing, that indicates more likely a complete retirement.

A.) Compare "Retail WoW" with "Classic WoW". There's not too much of a difference there, either. There's a significant segment of the MMO population that loved the "Golden Age" of MMO's, can't really accept that things change as time passes, and have an opportunity to remain effectively frozen in that past (in a way that companies can still profit from). Not really a surprise there.

B.) 50% of players dropping the "Retail" version of a game once its main storyline has concluded isn't concerning; it's expected. I'll point out WoW again. During the conclusion of their main storyline (WotLK), they had ~12 million active players. Now? They needed 2 solid expansions in a row just to reach ~2 million players. That still means over 80% of their one-time playerbase has left and not returned. They also likewise saw the first major plummet in the expansion immediately following said conclusion (Cata). It's normal when a game has effectively run its course and is now just continuing past that point to lose a significant portion of its following. For FFXIV, however, that means still remaining above the population in the ARR/HW/SB days, when said population was considered very healthy (and that was before the significant growth of the cosmetic cash shop). Yes, it's disappointing when the epilogue of a game sees a drop in interest, but financially it's nowhere near concerning.