Server Population on the Rise

[Altera]

Ive noticed a climb in population on Saronia as well lately.

[Avraym]

Glad to hear other servers are experiencing higher population aswell.

[Hawklaser]

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.

[Xenor]

i wonder if i made a mistake joining Wutai. Any way i can see what servers are most popular, maybe make a new character knowing now what i didnt know then.

Wutai was dead before 1.18, but many returned with that patch and I'm still noticing population increase. Ignore the FFXIVPro figures being posted, that only takes into account how many hardcore kept playing. Wutai will always be a popular server due to its FFVII name. A lot of hardcore avoided the server at release due to its FFVII connections however.

[NefarioCall]

But i think the big % of player base are PS3 users due to them not having money to build a pc or don't want to build a pc just for 1 game they like to play.

True. I built a pc for this game at launch, and the graphics card alone was $700. But i still can't quite get this game to max settings. That same series of cards is only just now entering the $200-300 range. Also mind that a lot of people want to play on laptops. A lot of people have computers that are a couple years old.

This game was ****ed for PC even with a 90% metascore just because of the system requirements.
That said, by the time the PS3 version comes out, and word of mouth shows this game to have hit a stride,
more and more people will have a PC or laptop that can run the game.

[SuzakuCMX]

Do you think there's any hope for the PC crowd being a substantial precentage of the XIV community in the future?
PS3 release will bring a few console players but does anyone think PC players will return/start playing around that time also?

I wonder if this game's population will be the opposite of XI, PsU MMOs where the majority of the players were PC players and only a small fraction played those games on XBOX (and even a smaller fraction on the ps2).

Well in XI your PS2 needed an add-on to even be able to play the game and for xBox you had to pay the $10 per month for xBox Live Gold and then the $10 or $12 or whatever per month for the FFXI account if you wanted one character, so it was more expensive than other means. The PC requirements are incredibly low though so it was easy to run. Also going through all that PlayOnline crap was a real bitch on the xBox.

[Biggs]

I have noticed in the past 2 weeks or so, a dramatic increase on the Lindblum Server in player activity.

In my opinion, Lindblum is in the top 3 of highest server population, so to see even more players to interact with is great.

I formed a grind party twice (R30-34 & R40-44) and got 5/5 players in under 2 minutes.

It's refreshing to see more players in all areas enjoying the game (assumably due to 1.18).

Considering there is a large player base that will return to the game with 1.19, its encouraging to say the least.

Obviously not as teaming as life as launch, but it makes me confident that with PS3 launch, we'll be back to those numbers, or even higher.

Are other servers experiencing these positive changes aswell?

Kashaun has been on the rise since 1.17, and after 1.18 took a significant jump in population. Sadly this seems to be mostly true just for the Ul'dah area and not the other 2 cities. While the population increase is great, until they can put some butts in the seats in LL and Gridania, most servers will still be grossly underpopulated.

[VisionHolder]

i'm seeing the opposite in my opinion, even less people are logging in, people who play everyday stoped logging in or come on a few hours a week. though i do notice lot more people grouping up to grind, its still same people. it just might be around the groups i know, lot of them including myself are finally at the point where everything is maxed out or where it should be so there really isn't anything to log in for. if i didn't hit all max dow and dom i'd have lots of grinding to do ...witch is the only thing i see more of, people actually grinding witch is an awesome thing to see for later when we get new classes. hopefully it's just that i don't do much with groups anymore waiting for content that i'm just not seeing the raise in pop, but..i doubt it least not on saronia.

I'm also on Saronia, and it's still terribly quiet. It's hard to find people to form a party, unless you're in a large LS, and it seems like people just come and go far too much, so it's impossible to maintain a reasonably-sized LS of approximately 20-25 regulars. I just wish they would merge a few of the less populated servers.

[Starlord]

Just recruited 2 more people that are new on Besaid!

[Uriko]

Saronia seems pretty quiet; La Noscea and Black Shroud are really devoid of players. Thanalan is packed though, seems everyone goes to Ul'Dah now. What's irritating is that the Market Wards are almost empty in LL/Grid so if you need new gear you have to go to Ul'Dah.

Sort of a pain when I'm grinding for ARC marks in Grid, then have to go to Ul'Dah to get new equips, then back to Grid again.