Really starting to worry...

[Aion]

Uldah still packed, LS chat still lively,nothing to worry about.....maybe it is just me.

[Victor]

It shouldn't come as a surprise for you (or anyone else) that this game is extremely dead. All we can do is hope that in the long run things maybe change. I personally don't believe 1.19 alone is going to make much difference. Maybe after 1.20, 1.21, and the PS3 release... If the game isn't on the right track by then it never will be.

[Eekiki]

I see Ul'dah busy as ever, I see increased traffic in Gridania and Limsa thanks to grand companies and the changes to levequests. I see my LS growing with active players, some of whom just started playing the game, others who have returned after quitting several months ago.

From where I sit, things are getting better and will continue to do so.

[Sypherblade]

the bad launch is still gonna haunt ffxiv.... after the game is out of beta phase... SE will have to pump some $$$ into promoting again.

I sent a friend who has never played ffxiv a link to the ifrit battle trailer...and he was pretty impressed.

so word of mouth is all we as the actual players can do to help i guess lol

[Sephr]

The arguments presented have there merit, but I've still got a couple issues. First of all, I'm getting sick of hearing "A lot of people will come back after the patch." I've heard people say that for every single patch so far. And while it may be true to an extent, those same people just seem to disappear again a week or so after the patch. Perhaps that is the problem. FFXIV is updated at a snail's pace compared to most other MMOs. I truly believe that it would be much better for SE to release small patches every week or so, rather than one large patch every couple months. This would at least keep people's interest longer.

For example, someone who has every job leveled to the max will just plow through all the new content in a couple days and then have nothing to do or nothing new to experience for a couple months down the road. If small patches came out every week or so, this would not be the case, and more people would stick around. It just makes sense.

Also, I don't want to sell all my items to a mindless NPC. I actually find joy in interacting with REAL people, and participating in a REAL economy, but FFXIV just seems to lack that to the max. For instance, I have one of my retainers' bazaars full of dye. The first day I put it up, it all sold immediately. I filled my bazaar back up with more dye, and now, 5 days later, I have only sold 1 (one).

This tells me that there must only be an extremely small amount of people who actually buy dye, something you would think would be a hot item.

I don't think it's a snail's pace at all. Compared to a large amount of MMOs who generally produce completely new content on about a 3 month cycle, I'd say XIV's doing pretty well in generating brand new systems and content. Unless of course, you're looking back on the 4-5 months we had of fairly limited content introduced which would be fair enough, but that was time they spent planning the content we're getting now and developing it.

With most MMOs it's a constant cycle with new content being developed a good 5-6 months before it's implemented fully rather than after the previous patch, whereas with XIV it stopped dead back at the start of the year and had to start over from the basics. I'd say it's doing pretty well and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

As for your comments about dealing with people directly I agree, and I think we need an auction house to make the process simple and easy as it should be. But that's another conversation all together.

[Eekiki]

1.19 Is going to contain enough new content and changes to existing content that it could almost be considered an expansion pack.

And we've been over this "other MMOs release new content on a faster, more regular schedule" thing before. This isn't another MMO. The game is being rebuilt. Parts of it are being torn down completely.

The day SE says the game is good enough to charge a subscription fee is the day you can whine about new content being released too slowly.

[Deminia]

I think your issues may reflect the population on your server (the OP). I have noticed many times the people who complain of a lack of people are from the same servers. I know that my server at least has a decent sized population - there are always people lagging up Ul'Dah and any of the more popular camps. It might not be as populated as some other games, but I don't feel like there is ever a dire lack of people to find groups with. I also don't see a problem selling items in my bazaar - I check daily to refill my retainers and usually half of the items I put in my own "over my head" bazaar sell as well. I sell at the going rate as much as possible.

I don't that doesn't help the OP's situation, since Trabia seems to get mentioned often as one of the more empty servers. /comfort

[Estellios]

These patches brought me and a couple people back and the 1.19 changes are bringing in a few more players. Ifrit fight/weapons psyched the newbies up.

[NefarioCall]

1.19 Is going to contain enough new content and changes to existing content that it could almost be considered an expansion pack.

Well, they did say it would be as much as 5 times larger than 1.18.
As i recall, 1.18 was fairly large.

[SilvertearRen]

Have you not seen the Ifrit video!? 1.19 is only days away. I don't know what your complaining about. It's the biggest patch yet, why not just wait and see how people feel about the game then. There is plenty of people on my sever. The players will come when the patch hits.

I think what we're looking for is one expansion's worth of content. A la Chains of Promathia. Otherwise, we won't be able to save this game.