Unofficial Census 2016 for FFXIV

[Istaru]

There is difference between thinking it can be improved and saying it belongs in garbage heap.

I'm curious, is there anything that you feel contributes to the numbers shown in the unofficial census? Is there anything that you believe would improve endgame player retention?

[Cakekizyy]

I'm curious, is there anything that you feel contributes to the numbers shown in the unofficial census? Is there anything that you believe would improve endgame player retention?

I don't think playerbase this game is aimed at and endgame can ever really mesh well.

[CookieMonsta]

I'm curious, is there anything that you feel contributes to the numbers shown in the unofficial census? Is there anything that you believe would improve endgame player retention?

A8S seems actually more successful than A4S in the JP scene. Its a dance, do the dance, do the deeps and you will clear. Its all individual responsibility. Whereas A4S was a total crapshoot gearcheck.

As an endgame player, what would retain me is meaningful lasting progression. I am in the minority but I raid for the intangible rewards of improved reflexes, refined DPS and heightened tactical awareness, much like perfecting a martial art. I play the game for the people and just enjoying their company.
However, I do acknowledge many that need a material reward to keep going, especially once you are past the progression stage. This is the icing on the cake. Without people to play with, SE has lost me.

I also do know that nobody likes their hard-earned reward handed out like candy with time. It devalues the symbolic physical manifestation of effort and dedication required to attain it. I'm all for easing the process which leads up to the attainment but I'm against simply cutting out the reward and giving it elsewhere from a lesser activity.
e.g. allowing padjali weapons to be upgraded to 240 (still worse substats for many classes than the 240 lore) to ease the difficulty in attaining the GobDip, but giving it out for Mhaci Penny is too much.

[Thayos]

This is the victory dance, and I will be enjoying myself for some time.

I'm imagining you standing on an aircraft carrier with a giant "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner hanging up behind you.

[Tanathya]

From what I've seen here, and after what I feel after 3 months being out: is this game dying any time soon? No it's not; is this game doing well? No, definitely not.

[Dalvy]

From what I've seen here, and after what I feel after 3 months being out: is this game dying any time soon? No it's not; is this game doing well? No, definitely not.

100% agree. The game is not exactly bleeding subs, but we are not gaining genuine fresh players at a desirable rate either. The most commonly cited deterrents that turn them away are how repetitive combat is, and having to chug through the story.

[loreleidiangelo]

Skipped over the middle parts of the thread where everyone was muddling over the state of endgame raiding and whatnot; when it started to go around in circles I just jumped ahead to the end to post cuz it wasn't really worth reading anymore. Here's my perspective as someone who quits for pretty long periods of time then comes back and logs in daily and powerhouses current content only to get bored and quit for another few months again:


-content that isn't raiding is stupidly faceroll, and that bugs me. What kept me for so long with 3.3, where patches 3.1 and 3.2 had failed? Dying to Wiping City of Mhach over and over and over again. The fights were recoverable, because I'm a former raid and hardcore PVP healer, and I liked being challenged by content that wasn't essentially "one mistake = we wipe". Stuff can be hard without being synchronized swimming. If 24-man raiding continues to be along that level of difficulty, and is actually somewhat CURRENT, RELEVANT content, then I'd probably run it for longer. If I had the option of doing Wiping City for 230 gear when 230 gear first came out, I would have never touched "expert" roulette. More options for gearing up would be great.

-don't feel like stirring up a crapstorm, but healer DPS meta still, and always will, bug the hell out of me. Recently been playing WoW, and outside of LFR (their version of "story mode", I guess), I don't DPS a thing on my restoration Shaman. Damage is too high, my heals are scaled pretty low relatively to maximum tank HP (my generic heal heals for something like 30k of a tank's 500k HP, though that will start to knit when I get better gear), and a lot of my moves actually cost a good bit of mana so I can't just spam like an idiot and be a-okay, due to virtually no mana-restoring tools outside of potions. It's cool that some people prefer the style of healing in FFXIV (lots of praise on the r/MMORPG subreddit for SCH's design, as a matter of fact), but it's really not for me. Healer classes in WoW IN GENERAL feel way better designed, and have their own unique toolkits. Some healer classes don't even get a combat raise! Blizzard doesn't seem to embrace XIV's design philosophy of "every healer needs this-or-that to be successful", and I like that. It makes leveling and playing all the healing jobs feel pretty unique, instead of the disappointment that was my Astrologian.

-applying that to a broader perspective, class homogenization in this game is pretty brutal. It's pretty much guaranteed that a new tank will have Provoke, a few flat % damage mitigators, a stack or resource management gimmick (fair enough, most every MMO has those), and a "holy crap" move that will somehow let them cheat death for a few seconds when stuff Goes Awry. Healers will always have a Swiftcast, some healing % up moves, a powerful instant-cast MP-free heal for "holy crap" moments, and an MP restoring ability. DPS seem to be a bit better designed, but most of their "raid desirability" boils down to a numbers-crunch game, which shows some flaws in content design.

-to enforce what others have said many times in the thread, I just don't CARE about staying current when I can take huge hiatuses and get caught up in a few weeks or so. Most vertical progression games follow this, and it's not even inherently a bad thing, but it does mean that near the middle/end of every gear cycle there's going to be a pretty big drop-off in activity. I don't think making raid gear "more exclusive" would really entice me into doing it, as people have mentioned in this thread, but I certainly wouldn't give a crap if SE were to make that the case. For me, the gear rewards take a pretty big backseat to why I engage in the content that I do...fun is my biggest motivator, followed second by "variety". Currently, of all the content that XIV has to offer right now, none of that really fits the bill. Old stuff gets dumpstered too quickly for me to ever bother with the new "hot item" like Diadem, Gold Saucer, or PotD, because in the end I know that the only real way to progress my character come the new gear cycle will be two faceroll dungeons and a butt-blaster raid, neither of which I am interested in doing ad nauseam.



I had more to say, but am running late for work. Those are just the bigger reasons why I find it hard to stay interested and invested in XIV for a long period of time...it's too easy to catch up, but hilariously limited in terms of how you can gear your character when the gear is ACTUALLY NEW AND RELEVANT. Also, jobs are too homogenized and I hate healer DPS because I'm old or something. Rabble rabble.

[Vantol]

Here's the thing though, if you make so players who have played for longer have a distinct and continual advantage over those who don't, you will never see new players. I started around HW's release. Why would I continue playing if no matter what I do, someone from launch is ahead of me not because of their individual skill, but because they picked up the game before I did?

And we need new players why again?

What is better, if game sells 1 million and keeps running for 10 years never getting new players but also almost never loosing old ones. Or if game sells 1 million each year for 10 years, but only 200k players stay subbed longer than month?

[Neophyte]

And we need new players why again?

What is better, if game sells 1 million and keeps running for 10 years never getting new players but also almost never loosing old ones. Or if game sells 1 million each year for 10 years, but only 200k players stay subbed longer than month?

Well, we need new players because there is no video game with a half-life period = infinite as you imagine.

So you're asking what is better
a) a game which never gets boring and brings fun for at least 10 years (i.e. a 'perfect' game)
b) a usual game, like we know them today

Hahaha...

So we have an absolutetly unrealistic and so a very risky alternative (1 Mio. Units sold and all sub for the entire 10 years, something never happend so far in videogame history) with something like 1,85 billion € return...
But if you change something you risk losing a bunch of players you can't replace..

OR

a less unrealistic and less risky choice (10 Mio. sold over 10 years and 0,2 Mio subbed all time) with about 0,81 billion € return.
If you change something some will unsub, some will resub.

I'd take the realistic approach as a game producer.

(calculated with 45€ game // 15€ sub)

[Musashidon]

And we need new players why again?

What is better, if game sells 1 million and keeps running for 10 years never getting new players but also almost never loosing old ones. Or if game sells 1 million each year for 10 years, but only 200k players stay subbed longer than month?

this is wrong what is the point of having 200k players forever when the current model will always have more (at its lowest point aka right now) then that will ever have.

guess what when 3.4 hits the numbers jump back up for the players who come for the new patch and leave.

the game model you guys are wanting will only hold (for a long period of time) a much smaller number than what we do now.