Is the community wrong?

[Magic-Mal]

The people who are saying it's just a salty minority are not telling the full truth. Yeah the game did have it's highest player count at 850k or something. But that was last year. Recent census shows a decline by the hundreds of thousands. And it's not just the Official Forum, it's the GameFAQs and Reddit who are all saying similar things.

[Raldo]

I guess I'm confused as to why the sub numbers would be at an all time high if people were actively unhappy with the state of the game and its direction.

I don't think this is all that surprising.

1) The people posting on the forums will, unsurprisingly, be those with things to say. The people happily playing the game have little reason to post. Those here to complain, brash as some may be, tend to complain from a place of love. If you don't care about something, you generally won't bother to post complaints, you'll just leave. People want to stay, and because of that, they want certain things to improve.

2) MMOs will always have a natural resistance toward causing people to quit altogether. It's easy to stop playing a game because you're upset about something, but it's much more difficult to up and leave all your friends behind if they don't share the same sentiment. I assure you, I would definitely not still be here if it weren't for the (admittedly few) people I actually play with.

3) There's a lot of people still enjoying the process of leveling and other non-Eureka content. Even the people complaining may have other stuff that interests them. As someone at cap, it irks me that a majority of my FC is still in the process of leveling or gearing to endgame levels, but it does explain a lot about why they're still invested in the game.


I think Eureka is trash content. Yes, I'm still subbed, and yes I'm still participating in Eureka anyway. I am, however, not putting as many hours into the game as I would if Eureka was actually interesting/fun.

[RiyahArp]

It's big mostly because it has a large, captive JP audience, and its one of the few sub-only mmos in the west. It's also very well made, very stable, is the best MMO currently on console (Warframe might come close, but it isn't an MMO), and has a great leveling experience.

The main issues that spur complaints tend to involve capped endgame, and player retention at endgame. So a lot of veteran complaints deal with that.

[Isala]

I question how many people stay subscribed so they don't lose their houses, honestly. Cause that's the point I'm at. I'd unsub until the game got better, but by that point, I'd lose my house, so I keep an active sub, and check in on my house just so it doesn't get demoed. Which makes me salty in the first place, since my server has more than enough houses we didn't need the stupid Demo option that the larger servers whined about needing.

[SenorPatty]

I question how many people stay subscribed so they don't lose their houses, honestly. Cause that's the point I'm at. I'd unsub until the game got better, but by that point, I'd lose my house, so I keep an active sub, and check in on my house just so it doesn't get demoed. Which makes me salty in the first place, since my server has more than enough houses we didn't need the stupid Demo option that the larger servers whined about needing.

I must ask, not just to you but also any other who stay subbed for the house.

Do you actually enjoy the house? Like, truly and genuinely enjoy it? Because the statement almost makes it sound like its the final anchor between you and the game and I just get the impression that you're shelling out a monthly fee just to make sure it stays there.

Or is it one of those hopeful wishes that SE does something miraculous like cancel all demo timers so you can finally breathe easy and stay unsubbed as long as you want?

Genuine curiosity here.

[KisaiTenshi]

I must ask, not just to you but also any other who stay subbed for the house.

Do you actually enjoy the house? Like, truly and genuinely enjoy it? Because the statement almost makes it sound like its the final anchor between you and the game and I just get the impression that you're shelling out a monthly fee just to make sure it stays there.

Or is it one of those hopeful wishes that SE does something miraculous like cancel all demo timers so you can finally breathe easy and stay unsubbed as long as you want?

Genuine curiosity here.

In some cases, (depending on how the game works) Housing is a way to keep subs. If the game is F2P, housing becomes something to camp perpetually. And how you do that? You never log out. After all it costs nothing right? The more people online, the more you can brag how big your game is.

For FFXIV, players that actually invested time in the game, bought the house as kinda a mid-term goal to incentivize themselves to do all the other crafting/treasure hunting. To them, it's their MoneyBin(tm). If you don't like doing any of that, then the house is simply a burden, and if they quit the game, they won't miss it.

Actually, there is a good point about how to keep players playing the game, is to have a treasure-room that physically represents the achievements the player has, and would then allow the player to place and store (a la armoire) any trophy/treasure in the room associated with the achievement log, with a "minion" wall like a toy shelf.

People on forums are always complaining about something. Most people who like the game will never say anything at all.
Hence reading the forums (for nearly any game at any time) will give a very slanted view of "the community" since most players aren't there.

The forum only represents the 1%, basically the people who play enough to warrant posting, but not necessarily the voice of the majority. Hence why there is so much passive aggressive rudeness from people who don't want things to change, because they see other peoples ideas as making the game more boring.

[Claviusnex]

I question how many people stay subscribed so they don't lose their houses, honestly. Cause that's the point I'm at. I'd unsub until the game got better, but by that point, I'd lose my house, so I keep an active sub, and check in on my house just so it doesn't get demoed. Which makes me salty in the first place, since my server has more than enough houses we didn't need the stupid Demo option that the larger servers whined about needing.

With the large number of available houses on Adamantoise I'm just waiting for mine to demo and then cancel my subscription. When or if I return I don't think I'll have an issue with obtaining a small as it didn't take me long to find one before the additional wards were added. However if you have a large or medium house or are on a large server problems with replacing the house is a strong incentive to keep up a subscription. Makes me wonder if that is a driving factor as to why SE refuses to provide a decent housing system?

[Voltyblast]

Makes me wonder if that is a driving factor as to why SE refuses to provide a decent housing system?

I don't think you're far off really, I wouldn't be the least surprised if that was their plan from the beginning.
It's pretty much the same for the retainer and space: yeah we got the saddle bag but is it enough? Nope, they still make sure that you rent their retainers. Even the glamour dresser, while a nice addition, it's very limited to a measly 200 items (in a game that has THOUSANDS) and will still force you to rent retainers for more space.

In terms of housing well, why bother giving more "new and innovative" content when they can just push out the same old stuff from 2.1 onward and force people to stay because of housing? There are currently 66 servers and each server has about 4320 plots (according to the wiki), for a total of 285.120 people that are forced to stay because of their housing - even less if we take in account the multiple housing owners but I thought it was fixed?

Honestly, this is why I just got an apartment after I HAD to destroy my house: it doesn't get destroyed ("for now") and it's relatively nice to have a place to call your own with the only downside being smaller than usual.
Still beats private fc rooms by a longshot - ain't gonna waste 300k for a room that will get demolished once I leave the company, pff!

[NekiUno]

First of all, in MMORPGs you will always find a person or two, maybe more complaining about a place/boss/content most of the time on the forums (heck, my first MMORPG is Ragnarok Online and those forums was insane) but they are legit in voicing their opinions but it is up to each player to have their own opinion about this.

This game has issues and certain things that might make it better but for a MMORPG that was on death's door almost 6 years ago to be the number 2 in MMORPG behind WoW in sales and still getting money from subs, I have no issues at all. I know I cant sub all of the time since I got family and work but I am always want to return to check out and hang out. I am pushing four years since I went to WoW.

[JackHatchet]

I haven't played FFXIV in about 2 months, but I stay subbed to keep my house. I have cancelled all my retainers though.