Part of the rise of new players might be related to this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...V-Video-Series

Samb0nz makes some nice quality Let's play videos, and have been seeing quite a few comments on his FFXIV ones about people getting interested in the game, or returning people noticing an improvement in the game. Word of Mouth can be very powerful. As he is encouraging people that are interested to try the game now to see if it fits their likes, as now is likely one of the better times to give the game a chance, before it goes to PS3 or has the sub fee started up.