More Horizontal Progression please

[Zarzak]

This game is still young and quoting it like its already dying when its subs continue to grow just seems like alot of guesswork.

No? Past behavior is a good indicator of future behavior. XIV is right on track to mimic every MMO that has released in the past 10 years. Likely the biggest reason it still does as well as it does is A. the name and B. the fact that PS3 and PS4 players don't have the options PC players do.

There's a drop off after an expansion, but let's try using real numbers when making a point instead of just making them up, shall we?

For more real numbers (already posted a couple posts ago)

70% of players quit after playing WoW for 20 months.

Once again most of WoW's success would be attributed to unparalleled marketing and recognition. WoW is the gateway MMO to new players these days. Equivalent to cigarettes, beer, and weed. Everyone tries it, matures, and quits the game to hopefully find something better. Sadly they instead run into a bunch of people trying to sell a game that has an expiration date printed in big bold letters "F2P failure INC" the day it releases.

[Ibi]

For more real numbers (already posted a couple posts ago)

70% of players quit after playing WoW for 20 months.

"70% of players quit after playing WoW for 20 months" is clearly not the same thing as "World of Warcraft loses almost 70% of its playerbase a month after an expansion", which were Nektulos-Tuor's words.

Also, while the data you have provided for that statement does look sound, there's no equivalent data to support your statement that "apparently EQ/Xi were good enough to keep a lot of the SAME people engaged for YEARS." Nor does it address the fact that the 30% of players that did not quit with 20 months (~1.7 million, based on a subscriber base of 5.6 million at the time the survey began) is a population several times larger than even EQ/XI's peak player bases.

It's possible that the number of players who have played WoW continuously for a period of years (however long you think that window should be for it to qualify) is at least as large as the peak population of EQ or XI, with the population of players that come and go, or play for a while but aren't retained, are simply a bonus on top of that for Blizzard.

[karateorangutang]

No? Past behavior is a good indicator of future behavior. XIV is right on track to mimic every MMO that has released in the past 10 years. Likely the biggest reason it still does as well as it does is A. the name and B. the fact that PS3 and PS4 players don't have the options PC players do..

Which is still a profitable venture and requires less design work. Building a whole new system along with a new IP costs alot more than using a system and modifying it slightly. They also have the benefit of using a IP that will draw a crowd to it regardless of quality ( which is sad to say).

I'm not arguing that its the best thing for the players, but honestly in a industry where customers are a number how much does that matter when there are people buying?