Quote Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia View Post
It doesn't matter about actual numbers which were not nearly as small as you imply, the player base is more dedicated than almost any other mmo. If you actually were around in the ToAU days you would have seen just how busy the game was. It was never laughably low in population until around the Abyssea release, when they undid all the hard work ppl have put in (my conspiracy theory was they did this to rush ppl thru XI and usher them into XIV, but then 1.0 happened) causing a lot of players to rage quit. It never hit 20 million players like WoW but it def wasn't hurting for players by any means. In fact RotZ was supposed to be the end of the game but it was so popular they released 5 more expansions and 3 mini dlc and the VR mini story. SE wouldn't have done that if the population was laughably small. You say you are not hating on FFXI and that ppl are huffing copium, but either your memory is flawed or you are just one of the many who want to cry about how bad XI was/is but never actually played long enough to understand it or even touched it at all. Hating on XI seems to be sport for a lot of XIV players who have never touched it for some reason. The FFXIV team would likely love to have players as dedicated as XI's who actually play the game instead of standing in towns or at clubs showing off their mods.

And XI is in the midst of a resurgence currently, even having to lock servers due to such high numbers, something it never did even at it's peak. Fujito also just announced a bunch of plans and features they are currently working on for the future of the game and they are all absolutely fantastic and seems to be drawing even more ppl back to the game. The FFXI devs are just as dedicated and love that game, which is something XIV is lacking.
I never claimed it was hurting for numbers. I claimed it was niche and never hit high popularity, which is accurate. I also never even once claimed XI was bad and even said I had a good time playing it for a couple years back in the ToAU days. I have FOND memories of XI and wish it and the current community all the best. I am merely rejecting the notion that OP is implying, which is that XI has a sizable population compared to XIV. It doesn't. It factually does not. It never did unless you're looking at XIV 1.0 specifically which is essentially a different game.

If you want to draw comparisons between XI and XIV for what each game does right and wrong or which playerbase is more dedicated or largely more satisfied, that's an entirely different animal and I would have my own input on that for things XI does right that XIV does wrong. I am simply refuting that we should be looking at XI for raw population numbers as a "grass is greener" scenario, as it never had a large population even compared to the current state of XIV when it's at a low point.