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

[EaraGrace]

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.

[CrownySuccubus]

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.

Like I said elsewhere, if you repeat "The End is Nigh" enough times, and ignore all the times you were wrong, then eventually you can brag about how right you were.

[EaraGrace]

Like I said elsewhere, if you repeat "The End is Nigh" enough times, and ignore all the times you were wrong, then eventually you can brag about how right you were.

Exactly.

Works 100% of the time...

1% of the time.

[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.