Quote Originally Posted by Vhailor View Post
The major risk right now, as I see it, is new MMO releases - particularly the eventual successor to XIV. Any non-FF MMO that generates significant buzz, anything that draws away entire groups of friends, is going to be a huge threat to XIV if it also features a more responsive development team. And that's to say nothing of the eventual successor to XIV, which may well prove to be an epic flop. I would never, ever invest in a new SE MMO at this point - because they haven't shown any sort of desire to learn or evolve.

Community outreach can resolve these concerns. It can help inoculate FFXIV against the ever-present threat of new MMO releases, and it can help ensure that XIV's successor enjoys a strong, built-in core of early adopters just as FFXI guaranteed such a scenario for FFXIV.
As long as XIV is around, there will be players. Look at how long XI has lasted. That said, "subscription MMO's" appear to be dead, as all the MMO's and "mobile" games that keep coming out are basically pretty to look at, but they're just thinly veiled gambling, with no actual gameplay changes between patches. They just keep looking for ways to bilk the player out of more money with the cash shop. Like as much as I hate "dyes and clothing" in the shop, these don't break the game as long as you had a chance to get them via the game normally, and can specifically buy what you want and aren't subject gachapon RNG mechanics like other rubbish mmo's. But I would rather everything in the Mog shop to be available in the game by some normal means, even if it means waiting for that event to come around again the following year.

People quickly burn out of gachapon-fueled games once they realize they are spending far more than they would on a subscription game, and young adults/teens are especially vulnerable to these crappy low-quality P2W games. But in order to get people to pay for a subscription game, the game has to have a high quality appeal to it. So far there is nothing better than FFXIV out there. Only ESO and BDO have come out since that use a subscription model. Neither of them are popular.

According to gamerankings, The only thing more popular than FFXIV is Skyrim. LoL is #3, and WoW is #4. Minecraft is #10.