Really starting to worry...

[Athaya]

I'm wondering what SE has in mind to get people interested in this game again. Sure, chocobos and air ships might seem awesome to us, but that's not gonna sell it to an outsider. I'm wondering if there is any hope...

At this rate, it's hard for me to continue playing the game. Don't get me wrong. I do enjoy it very much, but I'm beginning to notice a major issue. There simply aren't enough players to make this a worthwhile MMO. And no, I don't want to play solo. If I did, I wouldn't be playing an MMO.

I have 3 crafts above r30, and most others are hovering around r20, yet it is near impossible for me to make any gil. Sometimes I have things sitting in the retainer's bazaars for days, if not weeks. And I'm selling useful gear and items. I also constantly make sure my items are listed cheapest.

This tells me that the population must be extremely low. And those who are still around most likely have been for a while now and don't need the stuff I am trying to sell.

And population wise, it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I am constantly seeing friends I've made in-game just disappearing, never to be heard from again. I have been in many very successful Linkshells, only to watch them slowly die.

SE, I hope you have something great up your sleeve, besides just simple updates every couple months. That's just not going to cut it...

I saw this coming along time ago and you are not the only one concerned. It deals with an inherent problem with the game that has not been fixed and I don't think just adding materia to the current system is ridding us of this problem. It was somewhat touched on in an older thread http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ter-Separation but until SE introduces some more restrictions pertaining to equipment and the crafting system in general I see this game struggling in the long term.

[Mudd]

This tells me that the population must be extremely low.

Like all of the damn wards in Ul'dah are full... Somebodies playing.

[Konachibi]

Do the retainers dissapear from the wards after a certain period of player inactivity?

Always wondered 'cos on the Gysahl server, in the Gridania wards someone has set up a full row of Lalafell that all sell crafting equipment (hammers, saws, needles etc.) and they've always been there.

To be honest it must have taken them ages to set those retainers up like that, it's quite an amazing sight, but also incredibly usefull to other players to be able to get hold of different ranked crafting equipment so easily. ^.^

[Griss]

I have 3 crafts above r30, and most others are hovering around r20, yet it is near impossible for me to make any gil. Sometimes I have things sitting in the retainer's bazaars for days, if not weeks. And I'm selling useful gear and items. I also constantly make sure my items are listed cheapest.

Two words to explain this. Market saturation, dwindling user base.. Well those are phrases but still. lol

Some servers are getting hit by it harder then others, but everybody is feeling it.

[AsterBarnivere]

Is ul'dah all you people can use to justify how "large" server population is?

If Ul'Dah was the only place in the game on every server, those would be really small numbers..

[kurokawa]

"Really starting to worry".

Lol, hahahah. seriously? Worry???? lmao

Your life must be pretty bloody simple to have made you a bag of nerves over final fantasy.

Mortgage?
Debt?
illness?
poverty?
shelter?
hunger?

patch 1.19 not enough to make you happy?

Best go to see the doc mate, you're in trouble!!

Sorry all, not trying to be a nobber and start crap, just trying to say, seriously, it doesn't matter. They're trying to fix it, and they're doing ok. Not brilliant, but we have high expectations so... If they do fix it, great, if they don't well...so what.

People aren't leaving. They're waiting.

[TonyMontana]

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

What is this test beta phase you speak of? I went to walmart today for some cat food and walmart was selling FFXIV. Then I went to game stop to grab a charger for my 360 battery packs and they were selling FFXIV too. Both stores were selling full copies of a retail ready product, no where on the box did it mention anything about being in a beta phase. If this is still a beta phase why is the game still being sold as a retail ready product?

[RegaDosei]

On the note of these so called "returning players". From previous patches, it seems to me that players aren't returning just to beat up the patch and leave again. Rather it's active players being more active. From my observation (which I have absolutely no credible source) I feel that the rate of returning players from let's say, the introduction of NM's vs. the number of people creating new accounts to join us in the world is very noticeable.

My justification of this off the small sample size of the linkshell i'm in. I see more brand new players than I do vets returning, as well as young adventures when I'm leveling lower ranked jobs.

[Mikita]

Do the retainers dissapear from the wards after a certain period of player inactivity?

Always wondered 'cos on the Gysahl server, in the Gridania wards someone has set up a full row of Lalafell that all sell crafting equipment (hammers, saws, needles etc.) and they've always been there.

It doesn't seem like they disappear.

The market wards used to crash quite regularly, requiring everyone to go back and re-place their retainers. It was quite a nuisance since it happened randomly.

But now that the markets are much more stable we have the new problem of mannequins with nothing left to sell and just taking up space... many could be from players who no longer log in.

I have 3 crafts above r30, and most others are hovering around r20, yet it is near impossible for me to make any gil. Sometimes I have things sitting in the retainer's bazaars for days, if not weeks. And I'm selling useful gear and items. I also constantly make sure my items are listed cheapest.

Hot selling items come and go as other players also rank up their crafts.

Unfortunately finished items don't seem to sell very well these days since many people can make things themselves, or know someone who can do it for them. I usually only make finished items on request, or perhaps in small batches when it is feasible to do so.

I made most of my gil (not intentionally) by selling mid-process materials like iron and silver nuggets, canvas and velveteen cloth, and buffalo leather which were made while I was ranking up my own crafts. I still do this every now and then, but it's not as lucrative as it used to be.

And population wise, it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I am constantly seeing friends I've made in-game just disappearing, never to be heard from again. I have been in many very successful Linkshells, only to watch them slowly die.

This seems to be the case quite often, doesn't it.

I guess that how long a person plays largely depends on WHY they play. Speaking in very general terms:

People with a more hardcore mentality (regardless of skill) -- i.e. people who are focused on ranking up, gear, and achievements -- tend to race to level cap, maybe make a sub character or two, then eventually get bored and quit.

Casual players (regardless of how many hours they play) tend to always have something to do. They might have 1 or a small handful or level capped classes, but they often do things that do not advance their rank or add to their gear list.


I am by no means saying one type of player is better than the other.

I'm just making observation after nearly 1 year of playing practically every day and seeing many players and Linkshells come and go, and being in one of the oldest Linkshells on my server that is still very lively.

[Morningstar]

There's the door, have fun playing anything else.

I've been playing almost non-stop since way before launch. I've seen every change, every improvement, every hiccup, every issue and every resolution. It's come a long way, but the core of the game, what it is, and what it stands for, was never bad. It had some lag, sure. The UI could use some polish. Could use some more quests. Little things, here and there. But you know what? I'm still here. Because the game is still good and on it's way to great. I watched EQ's launch and take-off, EQ2's launch, sort of take off, and flop, Vanguard's launch and flop, FFXI's launch, struggle, take off, go into a lull, take off again, etc. Vanguard had more than FFXIV at launch, and it failed hard, because it's core was not up to snuff. FFXIV's core is of a higher quality, and SE is dedicated, and that's why it will succeed.

Don't tell me what to do, I paid for this game and I have every right to criticize it if I choose. It's more enjoyable than it was at launch but a year later and it's still not at a state that a retail game should be. And everyone trying to say the game is still in "Beta testing" needs to get a reality check because it's not. We all paid for it and it's still for sale in stores today. It doesn't matter how much apologizing SE has done this game is not in beta testing even though it should be.