What went wrong? Is it the game or the grenre?

[Arkghyom]

That's how it goes.

[Zanfire]

When you build for the lowest common denominator, every single person above it (which is 90% of the people who actually stick around for more than a month or 2) are bored to tears. Everything is build fast and easy for the low end and everything above blows right past it. Getting to cap in the FFXI/EQ days was a big deal...and man when i hit cap i was so damn happy, here i just felt like "meh, now to the next part". All of the content has no bit, ZERO risk vs reward. You wanna wonder off and see everything...no problem...nothing really stops yah....you wanna die over and over? dont matter you spawn right back and the punishment is as minor as it can get. You fail that run? who care we will start you right back at the start so you can try and try again, no worries. Dont wanna deal with complicated stats? everything here is so brain dead you dont even have to think, if it has a higher number and is you class your all set! We wouldnt want you using your brain...that would be hard... Remember that pesky elemental wheel/slash-pierce-blunt system? All gone! everythings simple and the same. Dont wanna get hit by that enemy? heres a big giant red circle to show where not to stand. That boss too hard...well dont worry, hes on a giant pre programmed straight line of skills...memorize a simple pattern and your done...mixing it up is just too confusing for you! Keep doing your simple rotation, we wouldnt want the fighting to be deep or reactionary...we dont want our little players to feel challenged. Cant level because your half stupid? here we have FATE's where EVERYBODY WINS! YAY!

i could go on but you get my point.

[Pseudopsia]

My FC bleed most of it's members over the Christmas holidays. On our first raiding night after holiday break only one member showed up. I also lost interest in playing the game on a hardcore level anymore so I haven't went through the effort of recruiting new members.

I feel the game is built well to bring on new players, however lacks a lot in retaining them.

I think content isn't dynamic enough to make it interesting when repeating it.
E.g.
Once you run a dungeon it's always the same except for loot that drops. There's no special rare bosses, no rare drops from trash, too linear, layout is always the same.

I also like more voice overs.

[OmegaFlare]

This is the best post I have seen to why the level grind is important! I'd say it's the game, not the genre. The game has chosen the mainstream route, which has been shown to not retain people, but does give a quick boost in population at launch.

I won't say it's the genre, otherwise games like EVE online wouldn't be as popular as it is.

I completely agree with this. I saw a lot of new players coming in but old players were leaving just as rapidly. What used to be such a promising game at launch because everyone started at lvl 0 with so much to do has turned into a stale game with everyone at lvl 50 with little to do. I stopped my sub 3 weeks ago because it took me only 2 weeks to burn through most of the contents from patch 2.1.

In its current form, the main target audience for this game are those who only play a few hours a day who are considered "casual" players. I doubt there are that many "casual" players who are willing to stick around paying the sub monthly but we'll see. FFXI survived for 10+ years with around just 50K subs so ARR should be ok. I might come back for 2.2 depending on my interest level.

[myahele]

Right now I guess the game is how you make it to be. It took me months to level my whm to 50 and finished the main story + I took my time with other stuff along the way and did all npc side quests in each zones.

I am just amazed that I went from a lv 15 acn to a lv 49 smn in just a few weeks. I don't know if its a good or bad thing to lv up so fast.

Right now my goal is to get relic for my whm and summoner. Also to have 1 mil gil.

After that who knows?

This is my 1st mmorpg and I enjoy it, but I am not a fan of this ilv gear progression for end game.

[Yoohre_WildRiver]

i think the speed of leveling up in this ff is to fast, and it s why DoH dont make gil. why would i invest 1k-5k gil on an item im going to use for 1hr?. i remember ffxi when most ppl in a pt leveled, ppl would have their gear in inventory ready to swap because for the next few days you would have to wear the same gear to pt, if you were not gear enough you died.. oh and food effects were noticable.

also dungeon gear is handed out like popcorn.. when i do my high DR for myth and a piece drops . i discard it even if i dont have it. because i know that when i run it again ill get it easily. i have yet to get an drop and jump of my seat all exited.. i got more exited when the arcane flowerpot droped on my ffxi char than with a primal drop in ARR.

[Welsper59]

The games themselves are rarely ever at fault. When it is, it usually can be linked to bugs or just poor development quality (graphics, sound, controls, etc). Games are designed to attract certain crowds based on the genre and theme. Every developer knows they won't be designing a game that every single person in the world will love. They design based on what they want and what they think their target audience might enjoy. This game targeted a very small pool of players. An audience that was looking for something with a bit of the new and a bit of the old, as far as traditional MMORPG philosophies are concerned. It's not the fault of the game, nor genre, that the players bring their own warped idea of what something has to be. Chances are, they were never the target audience. It's like someone watching a silent film and complaining that there's no audible speech.

[Ryios]

Tons of things are killing this game,

1. It's so extremely easy 1 to 50.
2. No compulsion to explore the world, never have to leave toll or cities once you hit 50 (for any reason) except to gather stuff.
3. Bad FC Housing model, huge prices for a crappy market
4. The market is complete and utter chaos, no stability, nothing is worth anything, might as well remove gil completely and just have people throw stuff in a list for free.
5. Things that were great about FFXI were not included in FFXIV, things that sucked in FFXI were included in FFXIV.
--> E.g. The sub class system is so much better than this cross class crap imo
--> Paladins should be able to cure themselves to large extent,
-->6 man parties were perfect in ffxi, 4 in ffxiv is to small (no room for new jobs).

etc.

Really this is a good game, but small little things in it's design and a few big things in it's design are really limiting it's potential, but this is my opinion.

[OSUBuckeye4]

I don't really think that anything "went wrong".

FF14 is hitting the same point that every MMORPG eventually hits. The point where more than an insignifficent portion of the subscriber base has "done it all" (translation: done everything they want to do)


The more approrpriate question shouldn't be "what went wrong?", it should be, "what happens next?".

How do the developers address this issue? One which they knew was coming.


That (their response) is going to break or make this game.

[Gramul]

I don't really think that anything "went wrong".

FF14 is hitting the same point that every MMORPG eventually hits. The point where more than an insignifficent portion of the subscriber base has "done it all" (translation: done everything they want to do)


The more approrpriate question shouldn't be "what went wrong?", it should be, "what happens next?".

How do the developers address this issue? One which they knew was coming.


That (their response) is going to break or make this game.

Which is why they need more long term goals that don't rely on lockouts.