The absent players

[Neptune]

I'm posting this thread because I'd like to point out an issue. This is going to seem like a flame but please don't get alarmed when I bring up schools of thought.

We have all seen that there is a division between posters on this forum. Have you ever stopped to think about why? Why are we here? Some of us are Final Fantasy fans, some are MMO fans, some are FFXI fans, we all are gamers.

I'm sure it is pretty obvious that there is a group here that is very passionate about FFXI. In the discussion of FFXIV I see FFXI brought up a lot. According to the first players' poll about 20% of FFXIV players played FFXI. Some portion of them spent so much time with FFXI that they don't like where FFXIV is heading. Even though there's only a few hundred of you here boosting topics up like "About jumping" I want to pose some serious questions to your school of thought.

I couldn't find any numbers on the market size for players in the MMO genre but I did find a financial figure.

http://www.mobitrends.com/2010/12/06/2010-mmo-market-size/

The MMO market is a 6 billion dollar a year market. According to Activision Blizzard's financial statement, World of Warcraft is an approximately 1.2 Billion dollar a year game.

http://investor.activision.com/reports.cfm

At FFXI's peak of 500,000 subscribers it was approximately an 80 million dollar game. And now it's probably 1/5th of that or less.

FFXIV sold 600,000 copies at its release. This would have made it more successful than FFXI, but FFXIV never charged subscription fees. On top of that, the game population dropped 97% to under 30,000 players in November. Those are the loyal fans who would stick it out to the bitter end. At this point some of those 30,000 are the players that spent a lot of time with FFXI, who are posting in threads to influence FFXIV's course.

Now the question I want to ask is, how valuable is your opinion to influencing how big of a game FFXIV can be? If you make suggestions based on what you are comfortable with and like, are you going to be playing an 80 million dollar a year game?

What about the absent players? There are 4.8 billion dollars a year worth of absent players.. what kind of game would they play? I see it as my duty to use my loyalty to influence FFXIV to be the best game it can be. So that even more people can enjoy its beauty and adventure.

[Mega]

I played XI at NA launch till the expansion following CoP and to tell you the truth OP I don't have a clue what I want. I don't like to make extreme suggestions like the ability to JUMP. But little features that I know work and improve the game like map markers and linkshell event messages I will be vocal on. I'm a gamer, I want to consume content. I don't want to design the game for SE. I would rather them have vision for where this game is going.

off topic: is my sig too big? xD
EDIT: shrunk it down more. sowwies~

[Kilta_Firelotus]

I would like as much additions and content of varying levels added. And be as user friendly as it can be. I just want this to be a fun game, where everyone has fun. I want ppl to have so much fun they don't get too serious when end game is put in.
I'm all for anything, as long as it fits ffxiv's lore and gets ppl to talk more on how good and better the game is getting, so a ps3 launch is soon. I saw some of mithratales's videos along with others And I really can't wait to play. I wish i knew what the 2 prong compant looked like so I can try to see how ffxiv runs on my pc. My pc played Aion pretty decently.

[CeeKay]

off topic: is my sig too big? xD

Just a tad~

I also agree with you on a lot of things you said.

I want to consume as much content as I can and play the game to its full potential.

The little things are a must, most of what you mentioned.
Like map markers and better linkshell options.
Of course the all-mighty search feature for players.

All this defiantly needs to be improved and I'm sure its pretty high up on the list for things to get fixed.

[viion]

I think I want the same as everyone else: Something to do.

Anywho 97% loss on 600k is 18k. By 600 > 30k would be 5% remaining. But also remember every custom edition came with a buddy key so 1 custom edition = 2 games which could = 2 players on 1 sale. So if say 250k of it was Custom Edition, thats 500'000 Keys and 500'000 possible players + the other 350 from Standard.

So to sum up you cant really use statistics for XIV haha.

I think FFXIVPro has 250k Members? Tho a lot could of quit and that doesnt exactly = currnet players. A lot could be deleted.

[Skeeter]

Now the question I want to ask is, how valuable is your opinion to influencing how big of a game FFXIV can be? If you make suggestions based on what you are comfortable with and like, are you going to be playing an 80 million dollar a year game?

What about the absent players? There are 4.8 billion dollars a year worth of absent players.. what kind of game would they play? I see it as my duty to use my loyalty to influence FFXIV to be the best game it can be. So that even more people can enjoy its beauty and adventure.

I said in another thread if SE doesn't target MMO players and not just FFXI and old school FFers the game isn't going to make it.

[Mega]

Problem is they missed the target for both parties.

[gifthorse]

I have absolutely no idea what changes would be necessary to draw a large crowd. Many people play WoW, but probably just as many people hate what WoW stands for.

I believe the upcoming games TERA, GW2, and ArcheAge will threaten WoW's dominance on the market, and all three of those games offer something completely different to attract customers. None of them are resting on the laurels of the typical MMO mechanic.

[Chezen]

I would like as much additions and content of varying levels added. And be as user friendly as it can be. I just want this to be a fun game, where everyone has fun. I want ppl to have so much fun they don't get too serious when end game is put in.
I'm all for anything, as long as it fits ffxiv's lore and gets ppl to talk more on how good and better the game is getting, so a ps3 launch is soon. I saw some of mithratales's videos along with others And I really can't wait to play. I wish i knew what the 2 prong compant looked like so I can try to see how ffxiv runs on my pc. My pc played Aion pretty decently.

I guess this is pretty much how I feel.

I like the game. I didn't have the trouble some did about figuring out what to do, battle system, and UI and all that, although I'm not against the steps they've taken to make things easier. My complaints were not being able to find anything in the markets (which is fixed) and having stuff to do. I love to quest, but being limited in the quests is a little frustrating. I hope they continue to add all kinds of different side quests and stories.

My main reason for playing FF games has always been story, not game mechanics.

[Nephera]

I try to keep a broader audience in mind when making suggestions.