How long are players staying subbed?

[NovaUltimatum]

Hi everyone,

I've noticed a trend on my server and just wanted to confirm whether it's just something I've found locally or if the trend is happening on many servers (or even many online games).

I've been playing since ARR's launch and have met a very large amount of great players. A good chunk of them were added to my friends list or FC, but I've noticed that they usually don't stay for very long (perhaps a couple of months, or half a year at most). Now when I say they don't stay for long I don't mean they're avoiding me, or switching servers I mean they've stopped playing the game for good, for one reason or another.

I'm the type of gamer that really dislikes abandoning the time investment I've put into a game, so I'll stay for the long haul. That also means I don't play many games because of the long-term play style. Are us players that have been subbed since launch (or are going to be subbed for years) in an extreme minority?

The official stats a while back showed a good number of sales but I don't recall them showing how long players were staying. Have you found most of the people you used to play with are dropping after a few months? If so, what happened to them?

Is a game today only successful if it does well between it's launch and a year after, if it can stay active as long as possible or is just purely just about total profit? What if the sub number is high but that's only because new players are coming in to replace people leaving. Could we really expect such a cycle to continue for years? Somehow I doubt it and that makes me worried about the game's longevity.

Is there something we the players can do to help people stay longer? Or am I just wrong in my assumption of what's going on and people actually are staying for the long haul, in contrast to what I've found in my circle of contacts.

I'm not meaning this to be about Hardcores vs Casuals either. I've seen this happening for both people who played a lot in little chunks and progressed slowed, as well as people who were raiding/levelling everything at the highest tiered content.

Please note: I'm not bashing the game, just trying to get a better understanding of it and/or the player base.

[Thorauku]

As long as I'm enjoying the game.

The nothing-to-do days these past few months almost pushed me to quitting though. But I still continued my subs regardless, my playing-time really became less though, as the game became a 2-3 days / week for me.

[Raynar]

This typical in every MMO. Everyone finished content then drop sub and play something else until new patch or expansion. Since ESO is coming out doesn't come as surprised that numbers are dropping.

[joshsecret]

i learned my lesson from the first go round. i waited for years for this game to come to ps3. i actually bought my ps3 because of ff13/14. got 13... it was.. ok, and waited for 14. waited. waited. waited.
i say all that to say i think i over did it in the beginning. i went through content quicker than any developer could produce. i subbed right off the bat for 6 months @ launch and have since learned to never do that again.
there are some weeks that i feel so obligated to play simply because i feel the need to get my money's worth. it will be a month to month sub for me from now on. i dont need the other 7 chars per server. and the idea of taking a month off without feeling like i have wasted money is appealing.

[Gardes]

I'm a legacy and went for the 6 months at launch because it was even cheaper. I'm like 12 days from the sub expiry I think. I'll renew sub but I dont know if I should take another 6 months. The only thing that would get me really hyped would be new jobs I guess.

I have 2 friends I play ARR with that I got to know from FFXI and one person can't answer if he's gonna keep going for 2.2 when I asked and the other logs in like 2-3 days a week for a couple hours each. As far as I'm aware they don't even bother with myth cap anymore. If they stop, well, I don't know...

[LordSideKicks]

149 daysof sub to go. Playing it slowly.... Still grinding for housing ignoring most contents since 2.1. Zzzzz

[Rubbly]

I am possibly quitting because I live in Australia. The lag has not been fixed. Without addons, things like titan extreme are almost impossible and become a waste of time. There are other things I dislike, like terrible raid frames and fan service, that I can get over for now. I took my time to level so end game isn't bad for me as Im progressing casually. I have played lots of games and find a big issue is that devs don't seem to want people to keep playing their games and not try to get players to stay.
FF needs to release personal housing, because with EQ, wild star coming out, and WoW a garrisons, FF will lose people. What gets me is that this game is a re-release and is broken. I also wish they would add a FC recruitment board like in EQ. Some things just need to be copied!
I will continue to play FF but if they don't do something about oceanic (and europe i think) lag then I will eventually have to leave also. Not worth the frustration

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Its the ease of hitting 50. People race to the end, finish it, and then move on to something else, because they are (temporarily, at first, then that morphs into permanence) done with the game.

Any game where the majority of players can reach max level in their main class within the 30 day trial period is not a game that has real lasting power for that same majority of players.

Quite honestly, though it is way too late to fix it, level exp should be 10-20 times what it is right now. If going from level 21 to level 22 takes 63,900 exp, it should be somewhere between 639,000 and 1,378,000 exp.

The faster people reach "end game" the faster they devour that content and leave. Of course, that has to be balanced against the perception of the amount of "work" that it takes to reach that "end game" - which means that the game has to be fun at all levels, not just the very top, or people leave before reaching that point.

Personally, I expect to be here for 2.2, but not for 2.3.

[Vladislav]

just wait 2.2 and you notice ppls back ;D

[LordSideKicks]

Snip

Move before it happens. Count in your heart. Unless trolls from FC selling runs join your party make your EX/HM fail.