Why do you think FFXIV is performing so badly form the content creation side?

[CapricaLangley]

In the last months of smartworking I started lurking around Twitch and YouTube, and I noticed that FFXIV is very low on numbers compared to other MMOs.

Why do you think the viewership is so low?
But most importantly: can this situation highlight some "problems" within the game, or features that could be integrated?

In my opinion we lack some things that other MMOs bring to the table, for example some repeatable content like Mythic+ dungeons in WoW, which is by far the most watched content on all media platforms.

The same thing happen with PvP, a lot of BDO streams for example are built around players versus player, which is something that here never worked (and probably will never work).

And lastly I see a lot of people who stream mount farming, items to add to collections and so on. From that side FFXIV offers a lot of content, so I can't really understand why it's not fun to watch. Maybe we are just lacking a shiny collections tab, since we all know that the real endgame is glamour. Or maybe we lack world bosses and opportunities to get mounts and items outside of duty and rep.

I mean, there could be a lot of FFXIV content out there, just think about the lore of the game, but it's a lot of potential that remains unexpressed.

At the same time I understand that ShB doesn't have the depth and character optimization/customization opportunities of other MMOs, so in a way it's physiologic that it has less content. But even actual guides are kinda ignored. Like, if you are a "top player" (take this definition with a grain of salt) in another MMO people look up to you, but here even the top performers are ignored.

Mind that this thread is meant as a question, I'm not claiming that my points are the truth or anything, I just can't understand why FFXIV is not performing as it should from that particular perspective, since we have a LOT of players.

[Quintessa]

My answer: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ral-Discussion

[ItMe]

I have no idea what you're talking about.
The FF14 dev team seems to be going above and beyond, especially because the industry standard is to have a 4 month patch cycle but FF14 has a competitive 3 month patch cycle so it can bring it's players more.

Yes, I could look at other MMOs and see they have X or Y and we don't, but those games aren't feature complete either and compared back I'm sure there are things FF14 has that they don't.

I'm also lurking in YouTube and Twitch and 14s numbers look strong to me.
Can you share the numbers you find concerning?

[CapricaLangley]

I have no idea what you're talking about.
The FF14 dev team seems to be going above and beyond, especially because the industry standard is to have a 4 month patch cycle but FF14 has a competitive 3 month patch cycle so it can bring it's players more.

Yes, I could look at other MMOs and see they have X or Y and we don't, but those games aren't feature complete either and compared back I'm sure there are things FF14 has that they don't.

I'm also lurking in YouTube and Twitch and 14s numbers look strong to me.
Can you share the numbers you find concerning?

Wait, I have nothing to say about the way the dev team delivers content, and I like everything we have in the game. My question is "what are we lacking to put the game where it deserves to be in the eyes of the whole videogame community"? If it makes sense.

As we speak FFXIV has 2.800 concurrent viewers on Twitch.tv, which is very very low for the platform. It's under WoW, Black Desert, The Elder Scrolls Online, Old School Runescapce, all other MMORPG that i consider pretty much worse than FFXIV.

Same thing happens on YouTube. Maybe I didn't express myself very clearly: it's not that is performing bad, it's performing much worse than other MMOs

[Kuroka]

Perhaps its because we are more story and less action focused? So the few Raid bosses and the even fewer Ultimates just dont bring enough action to gather ppl, as those who are interested rather just play themselves?

[KylePearlsand]

i'm pretty sure the game tends to spike around patches when there is new story content. So I'm pretty sure that is the case.

[Ririta]

This might give you an insight on why FFXIV never really made it in the content creation world.

I'm sure that it changed, but today the game is already pretty old and let's be honest, not really exciting to watch bosses in their rooms and their little gimmicks. Content farming was never really a thing... I mean, WoW is the kind of game where an obscure boss in an obscure dungeon has a tiny chance of dropping a cool mount. Legendaries were also like this. In FFXIV drop rates are just too high for content farming to be a thing. Also, FFXIV never created a competitive PvP culture when it had the chance, so that's yet another thing that grabs some people's attention in WoW but not on FFXIV, too.

As for the guide culture... it's been 7 years of complacency. By now everybody knows that you'll still clear a dungeon free styling your way and parsers are not allowed, therefore, we have less people that would be interested in those guides. This is why we don't even have an Icy Veins equivalent. I guess Balance is trying to become like that? But then again, parsers are not allowed so it's not like you'll even be able to talk about this stuff on the game.

[Vahlnir]

In case you aren't aware there's a worldwide pandemic going on.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ee567d71aedea2

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...9868224ef0517c

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/420143

They have commented officially on this, which is what I have linked. The development process has been slowed by current events. So yeah, there hasn't really been anything new in months. I'd be surprised if things weren't slow on the streaming side of things.

Character customization though? Yeah, that has been fairly limited since ARR launch. It may be addressed in the future, but they have made no promises.

As far as content goes...yeah, I would agree that they are playing way too safe and they don't really give the game what it needs. I still enjoy the game though, and many others do as well. The game is doing fine, but obviously some things could be better. I don't think it's underperforming. It just needs something...more to make it better than it is.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

People, read the OP. They're talking about why there's not more stream-friendly content, not content in general.

[Mimilu]

In terms of live-streaming, viewership is usually higher at the beginning of raid and savage/ultimate trial cycles, especially during the race for world first, or when the devs add new, bigger content, like PotD or Eureka (this may or may-not include copycat content like HoH or next phases, like Eureka has). Plus, PvP seeming to only be somewhat big in EU.
Right now, content creators who just live-streams don't really have that much to stream (I've seen a few branch out into other games). :/