Mogstation and New Content

[Galaktica]

Many of the Mogstation articles were from past-events that we got for free.

I'm just concerned about where the money goes; does it go to SE in general or FFXIV? If it goes directly to FFXIV then I'm ok paying for some glamours, because I can and want some of them and I'll feel better if it helps the game somehow.

Both. There seems to be this ongoing notion, not from you but from others, that SE is "bleeding this game dry" to pay for stuff like FFXV, Nier, etc which is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Money from every division is funneled back into the company as a whole because that's just how business works. It allows them to take risks with new ventures. So for the sake of example, people need to stop thinking about it as "FFXIV single-handedly paid for FFXV" and think about it as "literally everything Square Enix produces from toys to games (and lord only knows what else) that makes money which includes FFXIV is what paid for FFXV." And because FFXV was a financial success, every division, including the FFXIV team, wins because there's more money to go around now.

The better a division performs, the more resources are at it's disposal so it can hopefully make even more money the next time around. As far as I know, FFXIV continues to do quite well (the cash shop probably helps with that) for Square Enix so it stands to reason their budget has increased as well because they want this game to keep making more and more money. "Bleeding it dry" literally doesn't benefit anyone. Players will get bored and quit.which means the game will make less money, which in turn leads to a lower budget the next time around, and then the cycle continues until they have to shut the game down.

[Zojha]

[...]so it stands to reason their budget has increased as well because they want this game to keep making more and more money.

The question is: The budget for the regular game, or the budget for the cash shop? Since the subscription is flat, you gain the same subscription regardless of whether you do more or less for it. And since the playerbase doesn't seem to have a net growth anymore, trying to increase subscription volume seems pointless. So you'd rather want to reduce your investments for regular content to the minimum needed to hold the whales and maximize cash shop investment to milk the whales. That's profit maximizing.

With enough confirmation bias, I could probably find that exact strategy in SEs actions. But I'll rather just put it out there and let others argue one way or the other.

[Jandor]

And since the playerbase doesn't seem to have a net growth anymore, trying to increase subscription volume seems pointless.

Seems busier to me, it's frankly kind of weird. Even at this point in the patch cycle I sometimes have to queue in, outside of major updates that never used to be the case.

[Kaethra]

Seems busier to me, it's frankly kind of weird. Even at this point in the patch cycle I sometimes have to queue in, outside of major updates that never used to be the case.

Its funny because some will say the game is bleeding pop. I find that hard to believe when I read such a post while waiting in a server queue. Won't be the first game I've experienced this in.

[LineageRazor]

Its funny because some will say the game is bleeding pop. I find that hard to believe when I read such a post while waiting in a server queue. Won't be the first game I've experienced this in.

Haven't you heard? The game is dying! It'll shut down in a half a year, tops. /s

Folks were saying the same thing about FFXI, back in 2006, when the game was just three years old. It had plenty of glory years left to it after that, and is in fact still chugging along, albeit as a shadow of what it once was (but still pretty darned impressive for a game showing its age as badly as it does).

You'll never have to look far on the General Forums to find folks spouting doom 'n gloom who really have no idea what they're talking about.

[Kaethra]

Haven't you heard? The game is dying! It'll shut down in a half a year, tops. /s

Folks were saying the same thing about FFXI, back in 2006, when the game was just three years old. It had plenty of glory years left to it after that, and is in fact still chugging along, albeit as a shadow of what it once was (but still pretty darned impressive for a game showing its age as badly as it does).

You'll never have to look far on the General Forums to find folks spouting doom 'n gloom who really have no idea what they're talking about.

My favorite was when WoW came out and they said it'd kill Everquest. WoW came out in 2004, 2005 had EQ's highest subscription. Its on its like 24th expansion now.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Its funny because some will say the game is bleeding pop. I find that hard to believe when I read such a post while waiting in a server queue. Won't be the first game I've experienced this in.

People point to the unofficial censuses we've had for those excuses but conveniently forget despite the sharp decline we did see back when Gordias was content, subs have seen gone up. Creator showed the largest climb since Heavenward launched. So it'll be interesting how Omega fairs as they have said the difficulty will remain the same for Savage.

[Moonlite]

Its funny because some will say the game is bleeding pop. I find that hard to believe when I read such a post while waiting in a server queue. Won't be the first game I've experienced this in.

You do know that the que is a lot of times an error on SE server side. Balmung almost always has a que but its fake. 50 or 5 people click it off and reenter instantly. The only time that has never worked was when it climbs to around 1k.

We are also in the up swing of subs before expansion. 3.3 through 3.4 Balmung actually had character creation open during the days. While that does not directly tie to subs. It does show that players had grown disinterested during that phase of the game.

Sadly, but also true. If X player buys the equivalent of two lost subs SE has a net gain. Since that player can't consume three players worth of bandwidth, which SE pays for. Right now SE has not seemed to have cross the line of subs lost is more then cash gained from mogstation.

[LineageRazor]

You do know that the que is a lot of times an error on SE server side. Balmung almost always has a que but its fake. 50 or 5 people click it off and reenter instantly.

It's actually not "fake". When you attempt to enter, your position in the queue is snapshotted. The next time you try to enter, whether it's by canceling and reentering, or by waiting for the timer to attempt to enter you again, it checks to see whether the 50 people ahead of you are in. In pretty much every case, they ARE - it's just that canceling and trying again is faster than waiting for the program to do it (I think the program tries only once every 30 seconds, or something like that). You have not cheated your way in, and the queue is not fake. Those 50 folks ahead of you really were ahead of you, but got into the game in literally less than a second. 50 folks logged out to make room in that small space of time.

The reason 1k queues seem more "real" is because they happen only when a server has just come up. There's no one logging off to make room; everyone's trying to get in at once, and only so many can do so at a time.