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

[LunaChild]

For me, FFXIV community's content isn't mainly live streaming rather it's on twitter #FF14 and so on.
Like other has said, unless it's community event or newest savage/ultimate, FFXIV gameplay streaming isn't quite fun to watch, you know what going to happened.

[Iscah]

Another thing to consider - though I don't know how it translates to the other fandoms - is that streaming gameplay isn't the only form of user-generated content. Users are being creative with other elements like glamour and housing, but you don't stream those.

From the glamour-creation side of things, it takes time but there's nothing much that would be worth streaming - hours spent trying on random items together, warping around to shops, maybe running old trials over and over trying to get weapons to drop, trying to get the right freeze-frame in gpose. All that work boils down into a few images that you might browse through in seconds, whereas streaming is going to be a direct time in -> content out that takes the viewer to watch as much time as the creator spent producing it.

I haven't ventured into the housing side of things but I have friends that spend hours glitching stuff into position. The final result is stunning but that doesn't mean you want to watch it get made - or that the creator is willing to show it in a half-finished state.

[Doozer]

I'll never understand how something like that even matters

Agreed. A game's success and design being palatable for streaming, YouTube, etc. aren't really linked at all. Certain games are easier to just sit down and watch other people play. I like to watch people play certain games, but have no interest in watching them play this one. Not because the game is bad, but because I'd rather just play it myself and chances are whatever they're doing doesn't interest me. There's so many different ways to play (raids, RPing, Hunts, treasure maps, crafting/gathering, etc.) that you can't just go "oh, this person is playing FFXIV, I'll watch that" because there's just too many different things it could be, and not everyone is into every possible thing in the game.

I briefly saw a stream once of someone just fishing and whining about irl religion. No thanks, lol.

However, there's a decently-sized community that like to post gpose screenshots, but not everyone is into that either, and a rather unfortunate percentage of them use mods. So after a certain point it's not even really the actual game anymore.

[Iscah]

However, there's a decently-sized community that like to post gpose screenshots, but not everyone is into that either, and a rather unfortunate percentage of them use mods. So after a certain point it's not even really the actual game anymore.

I'm not keen on seeing mods either. Some of my friends keep posting them in private chats and it's just... sure, it looks great, but it doesn't look like FFXIV.

Eorzea Collection has a strict "no mods" rule which is nice. I like seeing what people do when working within the game restrictions and outfits.

[kaynide]

I would add to this that content creators typically choose games they know will be marketable to a large audience in addition to ..how to say it.... self creating content? Stuff like Minecraft or Ark (any sandbox game really) can be played straight up with each creator/stream going in and just reacting to what the game provides without necessarily “writing” out a script. Since each play through is different, that can be exciting. Plus the fails/successes are fun to watch.

As for comparing to other MMOs, FFXIV lacks a lot of variation from play throughs. Watching a play through is quite long compared to more bit sized MMOs (GuildWars for example has fairly self contained chapters that don’t necessarily have to be played in order).

In addition, FF’s actual played content doesn’t usually tell the story (With obvious major exceptions). Most of the time, dungeons are just something that is going in between story cutscenes... not a very engaging thing to watch. Play? Awesome! But watch...

Add on top of that, there never really is any risk in this game of losing to content outside of bleeding edge trial content and obviously pvp. There might be a wipe, but I can’t remember the last time I was unable to clear something in this game. So... for a streamer to clear a dungeon or take down a NM..it’s just not really expected they would lose/fail at their goal.

[Vyrerus]

It's definitely the sort of thing where people want to see something they didn't think was possible or that they thought was unlikely. I know my highest viewed videos related to FFXIV are the Twintania Samurai solo I did when Stormblood was new, and after that, it's a toss up between the Rathalos Ex SAM solo or the DRK Binding Coil 4 solo at i230.

Seems like Deep Dungeon soloers have decently dedicated audiences. But that's like maybe 3 or 4 dedicated streamers, and their audience isn't huge/once you've seen them do it once, it's a very boring watch even if you're interested.

But I'd also say that it's because it's harder to break into/there's less people interested in streams/vids of FFXIV. There are so many streamers/vid makers. There's MrHappy, Xenosys Vex, Mizzteq, Zepla, Larryzaur, Meowni, Esthys Asher, and many more. The people who do want to watch FFXIV content/streamers/vids pretty much already have their time taken up by those people as it stands. Not too mention, I guess I can't call it brand loyalty, but like team or streamer loyalty I guess?

And as many have said, it always flares when content has just come out. Not everyone gets to play the new patches right away, but they can't resist taking a peek at what they're excited to get to, when they get the chance. But most people invested in XIV already play it themselves, and there's no substitute for playing it yourself, unless you know you won't be doing the content/feat.

Someone else in the thread said FFXIV is niche, and I wouldn't say that they're wrong. A large portion of the playerbase does not overlap with other gamer communities very much, and even when they do, you can see that people within those other communities look down on FFXIV. For instance, I've run dungeons with the uhh, Dark Souls Youtuber YungMaestro. He's got a character/FC on Leviathan. Tweets about FFXIV being good, but his audience is generally disinterested and even responds to said tweets with stuff like, "It's really not that good. It's just an MMO." I mean it's mixed, some of his audience do play, but he himself has never made a vid on FFXIV. I think that speaks for itself.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

The main problem is a lot of the things that people love to watch being streamed they hate to actually do in game. Take BDO- the pvp streams are by far the most popular, yet pvp itself is so unpopular that the single pvp server is never 'crowded' status and pvp events like the wars have such low participation that it's basically a few guilds involved with effectively no new comers. Imagine that- a pvp centric game, where pvp is the top twitch thing- but a single pvp server is never high population.

Arena interest in WoW is near dead in game, and I highly suspect that if M+ wasn't the best way to gear up (especially for getting corruption procs) it would flop though quite frankly without gear basically ever part of that game would flop.

SE could probably get more content creation by putting out some content that's nigh impossible, and by putting some esports stuff into the pvp- but that'd be catered to a very small part of the playerbase. It ends up being good advertising sure- but take pvp out of BDO and arena out of WoW and you still have the massive bulk of the playerbase, and nothing SE does to pvp in this game is going to create a large surge in players.

That said- there's some examples of games capturing both- Diablo 3's rifts combine replayability, reward, pacing (necessary for twitch) and plenty of opportunity to showcase skill to make something that players and viewers both want. While I can't say I'm fond of M+ and the culture its created in WoW- that sort of replayable, rewarding gameplay is a gold mine for an mmo and SE is going to need to consider doing some innovative things with their pve soon. Shadowbringers brought a lot of players in, and it helped that BfA pushed a lot of players away- but you can't count on Blizz to completely mess up every xpac, they're flipping coins and sometimes they get it right.

[Jin-]

FFXIV also has bad wiki/guide material. It's lackluster or missing many times and those websites are clunky and slow as well

[Enla]

Another thing to consider - though I don't know how it translates to the other fandoms - is that streaming gameplay isn't the only form of user-generated content. Users are being creative with other elements like glamour and housing, but you don't stream those.

There actually are people who stream making houses for this game. A lot of the big housing names on twitter round up and stream themselves building commissioned housing layouts or just visiting housing builds.

[Hysterior]

I love FFXIV - been playing for 7 years - but I don#t think I have ever watched a stream.
Only thing I watch are guides but never someone's gameplay.
I just... don't see the point of watching someone else playing...