My FC consists mostly of long-term players, and thanks to that it is almost dead. It can take 2 years to reach that point, but then the game becomes, sorry to say that, boring.
I haven't reached that point yet but can see already it heading there one day, after only half a year. Why?
- Eorzea is breathtaking beautiful -- but alone that does not keep you playing.
- The story is great, but honestly how much story has been released since the expansion? Lots of cutscenes yes, but actual story? Not that much.
- The first dozen or two instances are fun. Then you start realizing they are all more or less the same. Some you could even just switch the optics and a few mechanics and they are really the same. Running them over and over? Gets boring sooner or later.
What else is there? Grinding tomes or relics again and again and again? Sorry to say, but eventually it gets boring, all the more as you realize this is an eternal circle of the always-same things. Anima is mostly a copy of the old relic, and you just farm tomes through the aforementioned cloned instances to run even more cloned instances. (And just making them harder or a new mechanic here and there is not necessarily making them more interesting)
FFXIV is doing a fantastic job in getting a player hooked through ARR and then HW.
And then you do some stuff here and there. But very little "new" or "long-term engaging" (aforementioned grinds aside). Luckily I am deeply into crafting/gathering so that will keep me a bit longer than someone only into battle, but even figuring out the best rotation and gearing up for that in addition has limited shelf life.
In the long run, just playing to get new gear to be able to get even better gear that will become obsolete often within a few months? Not something to keep players long-term.
And there is little else in the game, unless you are a hardcore raider who just wants to ever-increase that gaming skill or an RPer.
Getting new subscriptions is good, but not keeping old ones in the long run is bad business for SE. Acquisition-only is not a viable business model for subscriptions. There is a limited amount of players you can reach in this world.
I think the game needs more things that actually keep players motivated long-term, that increase immersion level and offer varied, new experiences.
Story is a good thing, you come back to learn how it continues. That means not just a load of cut scenes, beautiful as they are, but actual _story_. But even beyond that there need to be new goals, long-term involvement.
Housing could be such, but not just is it ridiculously scarce, it never really got beyond being over-sized, immobile glamour. You get a house, put furniture in, look at it... and that's it. More usage, more interactivity, real features to be added could make housing (once it becomes actually more widely available) something that might add to stay in the game. Same goes for minions (unless you are into LoV), glamouring your gear etc. -- nice features but running themselves empty sooner or later. Diadem could have been fascinating, but unfortunately it is also little more than a glamoured, over-sized open air instance with mindless grind + added gathering opportunities, little to really explore!
Other long-term goals besides what I have mentioned would be good as well, that are not just the next copy-paste grind. How about the players help really developing Mor Dhona or Idyllshire? Or founding a village? Found an enterprise? Or or or. I am sure more creative heads than me can come up with even far more!
Just copy-pasting dungeons and cloning the gear grind forever won't keep people interested in the long run.
I am now seeing it in my FC, and I have no doubt this trend will increase as players reach the point in the game where there is nothing new left for them to do. Three days, maybe a week worth of new content (quite a bit not even feeling so new after having been in the game for quite a while) every patch or two at best won't keep people subscribed and FCs alive.
Last summer we celebrated 2 years of ARR. It would be a shame if with each passing summer fewer of the old guard are still there to celebrate it, subscriptions suspended out of sheer boredom.
So please... less cloned theme park and mindless eternal grind, no matter how cheaply this can be produced (and I understand the need to keep production costs low). And more things that keep old players motivated to pay their subscription fee.
Eorzea is a bit too beautiful, the stories (when actually happening) too catching to die a slow death of boredom in the long run![]()