LuckyBancho Census 11/3

[Marxam]

It's interesting how the two biggest MMO companies have missed out lately.

When ff14's Eureka was a flop just before WoW launched an entire fresh expansion, Blizzard had a huge oppertunity to hook a good chunk of FF players. I freely admit I went over to WoW for BFA launch.

BFA however was subsequently a massive flop and Enix in turn had a big oppertunity to pull in a large chunk of WoW's players. They've done nothing to take advantage of this and sit on Pagos, stubbornly refusing to change it.

I feel there are a lot of MMO players out there floating around looking for an enjoyable game and both companies are just twiddling their thumbs and churning out the same old.

partly due to how game companies love to cater to their share holders instead of the players, you know the people actually buying their games. Seems like 99% of game companies today only know how to treat their players as recurring monetized incomes then actual human being who desire entertainment.

Case and point: The shift to heavy RNG and glamour focused end-game. While rewarding and engaging to those who simply want to stand out or casual play, disappointing and monotonous to those of us who use skill as a measure of identity. I'm sure we all had our spots in Mor Dhona,Idyllshire and Rhalgar's Reach where we afk with our raid weapons while we wait for the next content, which continues to be further stretched out with every expansion. We went from 3 month patches to 4-4.5 month patches, while still keeping the same amount of content as the former but with the same resources going into "new content" that constantly falls short of its mark.

As someone who has been with this game since 2.0 launch its really sad to see the state of where it is and un-subbing for longer periods of time has become a far more easier decision as of late until the inevitable. It also doesn't help that the dev team is out of touch and lack any sense of foresight. I'm still annoyed that they added a favorite mount list but failed to add a favorite mount roulette button. Also seeing all the whales in-game just makes me think that SE is so blatant about their "whales" and their "whale" demographic that they can tout it and people will still defend them.

This census doesn't surprise me and I predict the next expansion will have far more "fan service" to get those people back only to lose them again when they realize that the grind is for naught, and only meant to keep them addicted in stead of entertained. As someone who is addicted, Im just glad there are other games like monster hunter world which broke SE's grip they had on me for a few months when it released.

TLDR: census doesn't surprise me and I'm disappointed in what FFXIV has become but can't do anything to change it.

[TwistedTea]

Considering how bad Blazzcon is going, weay get another influx of people soon.

I hope SE is closely watching the reaction to Blizzcon and Diablo: Immortal. A lot of the anger, seems to be coming from the fact that Diablo fans are expecting DI to be yet another mobile cash grab burdened with mircotransactions.

Over the years gaming companies and SE have been ramping up on incorporating mobile/microtransaction elements into their PC/Console offerings on the assumption that mobile gaming is the future of gaming/more profitable.

partly due to how game companies love to cater to their share holders instead of the players, you know the people actually buying their games. Seems like 99% of game companies today only know how to treat their players as recurring monetized incomes then actual human being who desire entertainment.

This.

However, the fault partly lies with players themselves. Companies only understand when you vote with your wallet or with your character's feet. Like how people complain about Eureka/the Mog Station but still go on to grind out Eureka for relics/rewards or purchase stuff from the Mog Station.

[Deceptus]

partly due to how game companies love to cater to their share holders instead of the players, you know the people actually buying their games. Seems like 99% of game companies today only know how to treat their players as recurring monetized incomes then actual human being who desire entertainment.

Case and point: The shift to heavy RNG and glamour focused end-game. While rewarding and engaging to those who simply want to stand out or casual play, disappointing and monotonous to those of us who use skill as a measure of identity. I'm sure we all had our spots in Mor Dhona,Idyllshire and Rhalgar's Reach where we afk with our raid weapons while we wait for the next content, which continues to be further stretched out with every expansion. We went from 3 month patches to 4-4.5 month patches, while still keeping the same amount of content as the former but with the same resources going into "new content" that constantly falls short of its mark.

Aka what happens when the sales and marketing people get promoted over the product design people.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Not surprised. We're at the beginning of a huge content drought. Aside from Eureka, the remaining content to be released before 5.0 will take less than 15 hours to do. There's probably a lot of people walled behind pagos that are not going to bother with finishing eureka. 5.0 will be too predictable, so I have doubts that fanfest hype will bring people back.

For 5.0 we'll get:
- increase level cap by 10
- 5 leveling dungeons unlocked at odd number levels
- 3 expert dungeons
- 3 primals
- job ability pruning
- normal mode raid
- savage raid
- weekly tome grind

I'm not saying it won't be fun, but it's so predictable, there's nothing to get hyped about. The only surprise left for 5.0 is what the new jobs will be.

For me, when I get bored with XIV, I go back to XI, so SE gets my money either way.

It's actually worse! We only get two Primals with the expansion.

Regardless, this post highlights my precise issue with FFXIV of late. While I appreciate some degree of predictability, especially for a game otherwise billed as a more casual focused product, I shouldn't be able to predict an entire expansion two years before it even releases yet I can safely call nearly everything 5.0 onward to 5.5 will release because it's literally never changed since ARR. That isn't predictability for comfort sake, it's predictability out of sheer laziness and/or lack of innovation. I doubt anyone wants a massive overhaul but even if they did something to shake things up a little, it would go a long way. Unfortunately, FFXIV has largely been about attracting new players not retaining old ones.

[Solarra]

I'm not surprised by the figures.
Eureka was supposed to be a major part of this expansion but it revolves around a style of game play that the majority of players find unpalatable. Even worse, it feels as though the devs have gone out of their way to stop players playing this content any other way than 'as intended', stopping the train and making helping people outside your party detrimental to your progress.
Heaven on High is a reskinned Palace of the Dead only without any real story and an extremely limited number of floors that can be tacked with a random party.
Submarines that can be built in the FC Workshop offer less than airships did in HW since there is no exploration tied to them, and they have many items on the loot-table from HW (worthless rubbish basically).
Free Companies without housing are still completely locked out of FC Crafting.

Even content like Custom Deliveries seems a bit thinner than we were promised.

They also said that the NPC would start to wear the things we craft for them yet this has just turned into another squadron glamour option...
...(I have the same problem with the rebuilding of the doman enclave too. The concept sounds great, but the end product in the game is kinda boring, since you only go there and give them some leftovers.)

Add into the mix an unfinished glamour system, an unfinished mobile app, limited storage for gear and items, limited housing(still!) and playable content following the exact same pattern as previous expansions (only less of it because of Eureka) and I can see why players might be discontented.

[Aerlana]

stop watching to blizzard or other MMORPG all time.
Watch what are good things to show "hey yoshida, they manage to do things like this, we would like it"

The matter of FFXIV is more itself than WoW, TESO or anything else. a game is good or bad because or itself more than because of other games...


Also, for luckybansho scans : at last scans topic there, a guy did show that most over 600k "activ players" are for scan after a free login-program, and the less than 600k didnt have it

[Liam_Harper]

"Developers allow past successes to foster a false sense of security."
The biggest issue with FFXIV right now is its predictable patch cycle and so far it seems Yoshi-P is really content on sticking the same patch formula given how well it worked in Heavensward. Rather than trying to keep us on our toes it has created a false sense of security.

This is true and it baffles me too.

Both Enix and Blizzard have seen failure. Enix with 1.0 and Blizzard with WoD. Both had to step up their game and they produced Legion and ARR, both solid successes. But then both companies have immediately relaxed with their success and started churning out the same old stuff that worked and disregarding feedback on the unpopular content. And Eureka and BFA are subsequently failures. They haven't learned anything.

It also surprises me that Enix has put in no investment towards success. The game isn't at its peak right now and I still get a small "server full" queue occasionally when logging in. The servers literally wouldn't be able to handle a popularity spike of a few hundred k subs. There's also nothing big planned, no revamps, no big projects to improve server capability in the future. It's like they don't expect to be successful, have no aims or goals to be and just plan to sit on the current sub count and try to maintain it.

[RokkuEkkusu]

Well, as long as SE makes money from their sub fees and other stuff related to FFXIV, I guess they probably satisfied with their outcomes atm. Subs from HW and SB are relatively similar from what I'm seeing in their respective patches.

As for me, is form emptiness, or is emptiness form? Either way, I'm still here to sate my thrills of combat and get those dogs from the SB EX primals. Getting the Lakshmi and Susano dogs for my active characters are merely the beginning steps in my long term goal.

[Marxam]

Aka what happens when the sales and marketing people get promoted over the product design people.

ikr? I also love how they keep pushing for a glamour based end-game and then put glamour locked behind the mogstation. If your game is promoting looking unique and different from others and you put content that makes you unique and different from others you are effectively creating a mentality of pay2win. It's why you always see threads of people getting salty when another item is put up at the mogstation. Here's an analogy that I'm sure all of us can relate to and it explains the mogstation perfectly:

It's a hot summer day and you and the other neighbourhood kids hear the ice-cream truck (mogstation) come around the corner. You all quickly run to your parents to give you some money to buy ice-cream (playing FFXIV). They only give you enough for a plain vanilla cone (monthly sub) but you don't care because you get to enjoy ice-cream today. You go out and buy your plain vanilla cone and you are enjoying it. Then one of the neighbourhood kids buys a double chocolate dipped, chocolate and vanilla swirl, waffle cone with crushed nuts, caramel drizzle and a cherry on top (monthly sub, retainers, exclusive mounts, exclusive glamours). You both get to enjoy ice-cream (playing FFXIV) but one clearly has a better experience simply by comparison. The other kid with the plain cone can either deal with it and just be happy they get ice-cream or more commonly, get jealous, cry to their parents for one just like their other kids and now the parents have to buy it for them (coerced sales).

The example might hit close to home for some people but that's really what's happening in this game. There is no reason, outside of monetary greed, to put such and egregious amount of content on the mogstation while subsequently reducing the amount gained in-game via RNG. I think this is the crux of why people seem to leave in-between patches. It's a subconscious level of feeling that not everyone can relate to but does affect the ease and decision making of un-subbing.

Plainly speaking, if there is nothing I can do to gain something equal to or greater than my contemporaries then there is no reason for me to participate in such actions. This is a basic human function and only addiction can override it.