State of the Game prior to Liveletter

[KizuyaKatogami]

Not quite. The difference there is that feeling was everywhere. Talk to your guildies in-game and there'd be frustration. See guilds disappear because nobody logged on anymore. Watch more and more servers become "dead."

Here? The forums are the only place you see this negativity, and then you read the various threads and recognize it's the same small group of names over and over. Meanwhile, in-game guilds are flourishing, servers are strong, people are happy. WoW changed its very nature to focus on eSports and made decisions openly spiting large swaths of its playerbase. FFXIV has done neither of those, and in fact one of the biggest "complaints" from the naysayers are how the devs are giving people what they want in the form of fan-service.

90% of the people i used to play with have quit the game. They’re over it. The lack of content, the nothing new or changed aspect of it all, the devs not listening etc have all been contributing factors. 4-5 statics i’ve been in all broke down due to people not wanting to play the game anymore and being disappointed with the raids. Servers are strong? Meanwhile they broke down on EW launch and the devs tried to pin the blame on players’ internet at first. You’re lacking to mention that Endwalker has seen the worst player retention among all expansions.

[Jeeqbit]

You’re lacking to mention that Endwalker has seen the worst player retention among all expansions.

Evidence? The game usually grows by 200,000 consistently active players after an expansion according to years of Lucky Bancho statistics, yet it's grown by either as much or more than that this time. It's double the increase we were seeing since Shadowbringers during patch lulls.

[Lauront]

Evidence? The game usually grows by 200,000 consistently active players after an expansion according to years of Lucky Bancho statistics, yet it's grown by either as much or more than that this time. It's double the increase we were seeing since Shadowbringers during patch lulls.

He is referring to the Steam figures - which Lucky Bancho himself refers to in both this most recent survey and the previous one.

[Jeeqbit]

Extensive adjustments to Dragoon have been postponed. Looks like there are plans for it like with Samurai.

He is referring to the Steam figures - which Lucky Bancho himself refers to in both this most recent survey and the previous one.

A lot of people recommend against Steam now and others have moved away from it because of the changes.

[Lauront]

Extensive adjustments to Dragoon have been postponed. Looks like there are plans for it like with Samurai.

A lot of people recommend against Steam now and others have moved away from it because of the changes.

The former will impact new sales, but we're discussing retention - as to the latter, are you saying they've dropped the Steam version to buy the same game i.e. EW, to play outside it? Do we have anything but anecdote confirming this? Asking out of genuine curiosity here.

[Duskane]

I agree that state of some parts of the player base is pretty bad ,
like Hrothgar,Healers,Kaiten etc etc all pretty unacceptable stuff
but some stuff is a problem with players not the game,
like over expectations(island santuary) or just stuff that we will never hear the end of (summoner).
with Dark knight its an eternal struggle a little similar to SMN no one will ever be happy with it but it is deserving of some tweaks, Just doesn't need as much helps as Healers,Samurai or Machinist.

[Duskane]

90% of the people i used to play with have quit the game. They’re over it. The lack of content, the nothing new or changed aspect of it all, the devs not listening etc have all been contributing factors. 4-5 statics i’ve been in all broke down due to people not wanting to play the game anymore and being disappointed with the raids. Servers are strong? Meanwhile they broke down on EW launch and the devs tried to pin the blame on players’ internet at first. You’re lacking to mention that Endwalker has seen the worst player retention among all expansions.

yeah you need facts to check this out bud
EW has only just started but most will say SB is still the worst story wise and Shb content-wise.

[KizuyaKatogami]

yeah you need facts to check this out bud
EW has only just started but most will say SB is still the worst story wise and Shb content-wise.

Im not talking about content or story, im talking about player retention, aka how many players unsubbed after Ew compared to other expansions. EW seems to be the most controversial though in terms of both story and content.

[AziraSyuren]

Im not talking about content or story, im talking about player retention, aka how many players unsubbed after Ew compared to other expansions. EW seems to be the most controversial though in terms of both story and content.

Early expacs have been pretty terrible from the jump honestly, it's always really deflated any hype surrounding their release.

It really just makes me feel like they've traded shitty content for no content, and, y'know, I'm not sure which is better. This game is starting to make me feel like I'd rather be angry at the content than underwhelmed at the lack of it, which is also coincidentally (or perhaps not coincidentally) how I feel about modern job design.

[LyraMaru]

What concerns me most is the lack of endgame content at 90 after a expansion hits. We are 8 months in the expansion now and we have 1 beast tribe with 3 quests we could do at 90. To be honest that's just a leveling alternative to dungeon grinding or khloe book. So I follow Yoshida's recommendation and play other games. I maybe would have quit my sub till the next bigger content patch. But I'm raiding and my static just takes longer to beat p4s, so I'm still here.

I hope that no one will tell me now that I could do the stupid grind stuff I haven't done until now.

I already said multiple times that the hrothgar and viera situation is beyond everything.