With WoD in a month, what do you feel will happen in to FF14's population?

[ShiloEET]

Yep. And FFXIV is seriously lacking in content = reward. Perhaps if hard dungeons they released in the next patch dropped anything viable that might be something.
Currently, content has a way of punishing (Lockouts so that you can't play with others) ect that doesn't exactly make players want to log in and keep going.
Ninja will be something to do, but even so, leveling in this game is lightning fast.

Well in some ways it has already been 4 years since this game first came out, and there is still no increase in the level cap! Going to be closer to 5 years too before it happens.

[Avraym]

Answer is nothing . Why u ask ? WoW is already dead horse (Similar to FFXI) no content added will save it , nor will bring new ppl's in for long (and old also) . In other way we have update on nose (FFXIV) which will bring New shiny stuff ( COil , gear , new quests , maybe some new other stuff and grind stuff as allways ) and ALSO Old stuff that was unreachable for "casual" player is -> 2nd Coil nerf revealed + not forget Ramuh EX

Last i heard currently subcribed players were at this:

FFXIV - 2mil+ (approx)
WoW - 6.8 mil BEFORE new expansion (expect 8+mil).

Becareful when you call a game a dead horse.

[Tupsi]

1. FF14 is raidlogging game ever since 2.1 so no, it will not put a dent on FF14 population
2. WoD graphics? PFFFFFFF u mean tat UPDATED POS CARTOON GRAPHICS?
3. And ofc, different market between FF fans vs WoW fanboys which means u can't compare two of these MMOs in the 1st place

1. You're very optimistic, though I figured this was sarcasm.
2. Funnily enough, if graphics is a 'pull' factor, then ARR only has players because it's pretty, when WoD will have the better gameplay.
3. Half True - Except ARR is essentially a WoW clone, Yoshida was very open about this, so it's targeting the same market. It will hurt XIV, because ARR's main success is due to coming out at a time when WoW was in a slump update wise and other MMOs just weren't good or in Early Access/Beta still.

ARR doesn't really..appeal to FF fans like FFXI did in a way and this too yoshida was very clear about, he wanted to pull in people who know nothing of FF as well, and we know XI was still considered a black sheep like Mystic Quest was, simply because it was "different" - But XI followed the style of FF much more than ARR does, ARR only really has hints here and there that it's FF, basically: "hey look this was in FF(insert)! This is a FF MMO..member? MEMBER?"

Answer is nothing . Why u ask ? WoW is already dead horse (Similar to FFXI) no content added will save it , nor will bring new ppl's in for long (and old also) . In other way we have update on nose (FFXIV) which will bring New shiny stuff ( COil , gear , new quests , maybe some new other stuff and grind stuff as allways ) and ALSO Old stuff that was unreachable for "casual" player is -> 2nd Coil nerf revealed + not forget Ramuh EX

XI has monthly updates and continues to be expanded and even introducing unique content concepts outside of needing expansion packs, XIV ARR follows the model of rendering old gear and content obsolete - You forgot to mention how they've been FORCING us to go through old content because they aren't expanding. Most of XIV's content is pretty dead because of the progression pattern.

All MMos, new and old, have updates, so this is kind of a funny thing to state when by now even the most generic of Korean MMOs have expanded at least twice, while ARR is staying the same..just more instances people don't care about after a week unless it's a tome farm one...or in the case of Nexus, Light farming (notice how they forced us into old content rather than giving us new and expanded content a year later?)

[ShiloEET]

This game is like a remake or something right? I'm not 100% sure an MMo has ever been remade before entirely. It's something worth mentioning.

[Tupsi]

This game is like a remake or something right? I'm not 100% sure an MMo has ever been remade before entirely. It's something worth mentioning.

Some have been remade as a "Sequel", or some get a "game changing update", like Maplestory for example. This game is largely a remake but using 99% of the assets of the old game, just with WoW style gameplay and progression, which is why if you're attracted to ARR, the only turn off to WoW is likely the graphics..as WoW does ARR better than ARR does.

[ShiloEET]

Some have been remade as a "Sequel", or some get a "game changing update", like Maplestory for example. This game is largely a remake but using 99% of the assets of the old game, just with WoW style gameplay and progression, which is why if you're attracted to ARR, the only turn off to WoW is likely the graphics..as WoW does ARR better than ARR does.

The world of this game is pretty primitive looking in a lot of ways. Meaning the construction of the cities and the technologies involved. There are elements of steam-punk or something. However sometimes world of warcraft breaches closer to Sci-fi with some of it's content. So it makes me think that maybe this game is going for something a lot more ancient than that. To me sometimes this game looks like it was shot in a cave or something.

[Fendred]

What's happening to the population in the game is pretty typical of this breed of MMORPG. I can say from my own personal experience during patch 2.3 there were far less raid capable players around on Balmung then there were during patch 2.1. It's a given that the population has decreased since it is no longer the next newest thing on the market. There was far less raid recruitment than what I had expected.

My guess is that we'll see fewer returning players than in previous patches because a dwindling population has the reciprocal effect of lowering accessibility. For example, people interested in raiding who couldn't get through second binding coil due to lack of raiders have little reason to return for patch 2.4 because it's common sense to expect to be stuck in the same situation again.

Not to mention the constant deconstruction of older challenges to make way for new ones leads to an extreme sense of impermanence. It feels like there isn't enough time to let the dust settle before yet another gear hike begins to happen. While that works fine for the hack-and-slash genre of aRPGs, it is not something you want in a game priding itself on storytelling, which requires developers to put the setting first. Creating new zones, building up the lore, and basing the end game challenges around those areas probably should have been numero uno on their list. At the very least that would allow them to arrange the end game encounters in a way that is not immediately recognizable as a gear treadmill and not block most of the players from seeing the content when it is fresh.

[Rumpelstiltzkin]

Honestly I don't think it will have to be that big of a population decline to make it feel big. I just got back and quite honestly the server I am on feels rather empty either way. Take away a few more and it will feel like WoD killed the server even though in reality it wasn't that big of a number leaving. Then again as 2.4 approaches maybe the total number of players will decline with WoD, but it will still feel like more are playing since the activity on the server will most likely go up because of the new patch.

[Kaelah]

Do you think that the population of FF14 will decrease not just for a short time but for a extended period of time after WoD release?

Yeah for at least a short time if nothing else. Some people are getting bored in XIV. A "new" game will be exciting to them.

Do you feel that FF14 is up to the challenge of facing down WoW in regards to numbers with the whole new restructure of on how WoW with updated its graphics which is almost comparable to FF14?

I find this question a bit confusing. If you mean can it face up to the fact Blizzard have redesigned it's universe. Yes. They already have with the transition from 1.0 to 2.0. Graphically, XIV is still superior. Though I suppose WoW is cartoony to begin with. Though Blizzard are one upping them on the service side of things right now with deleted character recovery and such.

Do you feel that the player base based on your server has increased or decreased not based on content but based on the direction SE has made with the game in the past year?

I find it has increased in my opinion. I see a lot of parties up on PF often. See many players running around. Whether that will change with WoD time will tell. None of my FC have said they are leaving for it however. (Though that being said, one member has said they are bored and another is taking a break.)

[TheMoonflow]

Last i heard currently subcribed players were at this:

FFXIV - 2mil+ (approx)
WoW - 6.8 mil BEFORE new expansion (expect 8+mil).

Becareful when you call a game a dead horse.

It's more like a cash cow than a dead horse