What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

[LittleImp]

I do feel the need to point out my experience with the perception that 14 has "peaked."

I think the assessment that 14 has 'peaked' comes more from the fact that the explosive growth before and at EW launch can be partially attributed to external factors that are very unlikely to be repeated, and 14 subsequently struggling to retain that new audience.

[AziraSyuren]

I do feel the need to point out my experience with the perception that 14 has "peaked."

Stormblood: "Eureka is a disaster and a waste of time, the Four Lords story ended with a wet fart, the MSQ is only good when we go to Othard, Shirogane housing is a nightmare, oh great another Deep Dungeon that nobody is going to do, raids are just the bosses now (borrrrinnnggg) and my favorite class has been ruined (give me back Cleric Stance Square ):<). Its all downhill from here."

Shadowbringers: "The voice acting took a nosedive, only one dungeon per patch is lazy and terrible, Bozja is just another failed Eureka with a story that gets wrapped up in text logs, the second Ultimate was delayed, Light Rampant blows, Viera and Hrothgar are undercooked (wheres male viera????), no new healer, the Nier story is incomprehensible and has no rewards, pvp sucks, classes are getting designed for casuals and time travel??? really??? Past expansions were better."

And my personal favorite:

1.0: "A jump button!!!!! you've ruined the game!"

Now this isn't to disparage or disagree with any of the complaints (except the jump button one), but I do think people should keep the past in mind when making the claim the game has reached its zenith. People said Cataclysm was going to cause WoW to die, and they were right!

10 years later.

I don't personally think Endwalker is going to cause FF14 to die and I think anyone who does is either spewing bullshit or venting. I just think we're at or near that zenith, and any future growth of active player count is either not going to happen or occur extremely slowly.

Nothing is going to kill FF14 aside from time. We probably still have a good 5-8 years before the game actually feels like it's winding down, and if FF11 is any indication, it'll still be up for a very long time.

But a peak is a peak.

[KariTheFox]

There's an idea in the historiography of the Roman Empire, that the date you give for, and the reasons behind the collapse of the Roman Empire, have more to do with your own biases and priorities than the actual historical fact.

I feel like World of Warcraft is our Roman Empire in this discussion.

[EaraGrace]

There's an idea in the historiography of the Roman Empire, that the date you give for, and the reasons behind the collapse of the Roman Empire, have more to do with your own biases and priorities than the actual historical fact.

I feel like World of Warcraft is our Roman Empire in this discussion.

“LFR has been a disaster and only benefits casuals. Also Everquest delenda est.”

[Haventale]

According to the devs themselves, they always wanted to make a more "bestial" race. You can see this in the early designs for Au Ra, which were a lot more draconic.

For some reason, they decided to go in a much more human route, and the Au Ra women in particular were made much, much cuter.

I will forever be infuriated that we never got the female Au Ra design that they showed in the old concept art. Instead of amazing tall and stong looking female characters, we got what we have now. SE have been absolute cowards with their female player characters. Male Viera is the only thing they’ve done that made me genuinely surprised.

The reason I’m still female Au Ra is because in my opinion, they are still the most non-human/beastial looking race. I’m just sitting here hoping desperately that they don’t chicken out with female Hrothgar, and we get something that we actually want. If female Hrothgar actually give off similar vibes to that old female Au Ra concept art, I will accept the loss of hats and being locked into one hairstyle, because I am that desperate.

[IdowhatIwant]

About half of steam’s lost ark player count is berserker bots. You see them running around the game everywhere with spam names.

Steam is just the NA player base. Korea / Russia make a majority of it's player base which has been higher than FFXIV for sometime.

But yeah FF lacks content over all. There isn't anything there to keep you playing outside of raid patches.

[IdowhatIwant]

I don’t really understand this statement. Of course a game free to download would have a higher player base. Xd

Oof you sadly ain't played no lost ark. They try to make it as far from free as possible.