@Naoki Yoshida-> Make Samurai a Tank class!

[Shippuu]

Well, well, well.

Official 2016 Eorzean Census is here.

Role Distribution:
2015

2016

2% gain in Tanks, 4% gain in Healers.

Tank Distribution:
2014-2015

2016

Dark Knight is the most popular tank with a whopping 47%, over double what it was last year.


So...what's all that about DRK not luring people to try/play a tank? Hmmm....

[Lewtskie]

So...what's all that about DRK not luring people to try/play a tank? Hmmm....

"SEE THESE MINUSCULE SHIFTS IN NUMBERS, THAT MEANS YOU WERE, LIKE, SO WRONG!"

Well, golly gee, 2%, that's almost half the number of people who bothered to play endgame! You're right, cause there couldn't be any possibility that people decided DRK was something they could finally enjoy tanking with, but of course we're not going specify what are current and what are new players, that's obviously not a stat we'd want to know.

And the popularity doubling since last year... when it released in June... before QoL updates... and people getting a feel for the job... over a period of time when a main can get stale for a player often pushing them to try other roles/classes. Let's not worry about what makes the difference though, it said from previous year to current so that's what is important.

Oh, but someone might have said that there was no possible way people would try DRK? Not like it'd make sense that obviously some people are going to try AND like DRK and make a shift in occupation. But you got some fancy numbers to throw around, so who cares about those pesky finer details?

[Shippuu]

"SEE THESE MINUSCULE SHIFTS IN NUMBERS, THAT MEANS YOU WERE, LIKE, SO WRONG!"

Well, golly gee, 2%, that's almost half the number of people who bothered to play endgame! You're right, cause there couldn't be any possibility that people decided DRK was something they could finally enjoy tanking with, but of course we're not going specify what are current and what are new players, that's obviously not a stat we'd want to know.

2% is hardly a number to scoff at, even if you lowball the current active subscribers to be around 200,000, that's still 4,000 new tanks. If you go closer to what the likely actual number is in 500,000 active subscribers, that's 10,000.

And the popularity doubling since last year... when it released in June... before QoL updates... and people getting a feel for the job... over a period of time when a main can get stale for a player often pushing them to try other roles/classes. Let's not worry about what makes the difference though, it said from previous year to current so that's what is important.

Unfortunately SE botched their graph for this year, and upon looking at it after sleep, the 47% being Dark Knight's is actually more likely meant to be 37%. So not quite doubled, but still significant.
The difference is a bit irrelevant however, especially when very few quality of life changes have been made to things like Dark Knight specifically. On top of the fact that it's widely accepted the best tank in the game is undoubtedly Warrior, yet it's not the most popular tank, means that Dark Knight, through gameplay/appeal/etc. worked as an addition to the tank pool. A "main getting stale" resulting in people trying/leveling tank jobs is still a positive gain, regardless if it's a delayed one, this means it has an actual long term beneficial effect.

The numbers still went up, which is the opposite of the trend from 2014-2015, where tank population dropped from 21% to 19%. It's now back up to 21%. It's a very common argument in these threads that "Adding new tanks won't increase the tank population." Which looking at this information can clearly be seen as untrue.

Oh, but someone might have said that there was no possible way people would try DRK? Not like it'd make sense that obviously some people are going to try AND like DRK and make a shift in occupation. But you got some fancy numbers to throw around, so who cares about those pesky finer details?

It's simply quantifiable evidence in response to people who plug their ears and ignore common sense. Of course people who haven't tanked would try AND like DRK, I've been saying it forever, it's the naysayers who come in and say "It's not increasing tank numbers, NOPE, only existing tank players play tank jobs." This is somewhat solid proof from SE that they're wrong.

[Tint]

[...] 2% gain in Tanks, 4% gain in Healers. [...]

Dark Knight is the most popular tank with a whopping 47%, over double what it was last year.


So...what's all that about DRK not luring people to try/play a tank? Hmmm....

i wouldn't say a 2% gain in tanks is any proof that DRK lures people to try tanking. i mean: i tried tanking because of DRK, so stuff like this happens. but a 2% gain in tanks over a year? that's not really "luring people". what these numbers show is that many PLD switched to DRK, that's it.

[Ariane]

i wouldn't say a 2% gain in tanks is any proof that DRK lures people to try tanking. i mean: i tried tanking because of DRK, so stuff like this happens. but a 2% gain in tanks? that's not really "luring people". what these numbers show is that many PLD switched to DRK, that's it.

Yoshida a while back partially blamed long Void Ark tank queues on that more people were playing tanks for DRK.

[Shippuu]

i wouldn't say a 2% gain in tanks is any proof that DRK lures people to try tanking. i mean: i tried tanking because of DRK, so stuff like this happens. but a 2% gain in tanks over a year? that's not really "luring people". what these numbers show is that many PLD switched to DRK, that's it.

Still doesn't change the fact Tank numbers went up, compared to their previous downward trend from 2014-2015 where they dropped from 21% to 19%. They're now back up to 21%. And going by their level 60 job breakdown, tanks make up 23% of level 60's, so even more. Also, looking at the job distribution chart for 2016, even if it's just level 60 jobs, we can see that while yes, PLD numbers went down, they didn't make up the full increase in DRK numbers, there was still an additional 1% in WAR and 1% in DRK. You can't say only PLD switched to DRK, as some WAR could switch to DRK, and some PLD could switch to WAR. We don't have any data for that so you can't make a blanket statement like that in any kind of substantial manner.