Does SE realize how big their community is?

[NekoMataMata]

I say this with stuff like past login issues or the current housing system in mind...

Whenever I hear about this game from people that have played for 5+ years, a lot of them refer to the community as being smaller. Immensely smaller. Especially when a lot of them mention things such as how hard they'd try to get other people to play the game because they felt the community needed to grow.

I don't think I've ever gone to log into this game and not had a queue. Obviously the queue is typically a few minutes long these days but you get where I'm going with this right? Apparently, things were different at some point.

I see the sarcastic small indie comment being thrown out a lot but I'm genuinely curious. Does SE actually think that FFXIV is a small operation?

[Sebazy]

SE have historically always been super tight on running and operational costs for their MMOs, great examples would be FFXI's old character deletion/archival practices, FFXIV's tick rate and even the borderline comical levels of client trust they've tried to go with and been bitten by over the years.

This rolls neatly into the issues we see during expansion launches where the servers will be run right up to the knives edge of capacity so that once numbers start to subside post release, they aren't paying quite so much for underutilised backend infrastructure. In fairness, it's worth noting that SE generally do a pretty good job of this.

The queue thing is strange and it's quite possible to sit in a queue of 1. Afaik SE switched to a system of logging in clients a group at a time rather than singularly and sequentially. My best guess is this happens at a fixed interval thus you can seemingly get a short queue even when the servers are at their quietest. Another thing to note is that even if the player base is asleep, the bot farms most certainly aren't, thus they will be potentially driving some login traffic round the clock.

On the housing system thing, I actually think it's as much a hook to keep players subbed than it is any underestimation of their community or the infrastructure underneath it.

[Avoidy]

I logged in at 4 in the morning on a weekday and had a queue of 8. I haven't logged in instantly in so long that I can't even recall the last time it happened. It's always a queue. Whether it's primetime, or at 4 in the morning. Obviously I don't know their setup, but I seriously wonder if they just stagger the logins even when there's nobody online.
Anyway, they definitely know it's a large community. In every live letter, Yoshi basically stares into the camera and tells the shareholders how successful the game has been. It's possible that Square simply doesn't invest the money back into the game. I say "possible" because... well, how would I know what they're doing. I don't work there. But it sure seems like that's what happens!

[Shibi]

They do happen. I had an instant login last week when a major router in Sydney finally bit the dust, kicking most people off the server and keeping them off for quite a while.

It's very rare to be instant.

[Oizen]

Sure they do, but they've already made it. Right now FFXIV is too big to fail, so instead to maximize profits you cut production costs and focus money elsewhere. FFXIV doesn't need any more money put into it, people will buy the low effort mogstation items, and be happy to do so. They'll stay subbed, so why bother putting more money into the game for no real return?

By the way pls buy the $160 Cloud Strife NFT, thanks!

[Kaurhz]

SE knows full well how big their community is, but knowing how big it is and having the capability to resolve some of the issues plaguing the game (and most especially without significant backlash) and 2 entirely different things.

That being said, most bad queue times are related to patch and expansion releases. Outside of that it is very smooth, generally.

[Xlantaa]

The player population literally explodes last year. You cannot expect to adapt to such influx of players in short time. That's why they have already a route planned to expand infrastructure for next years. The problem is people thinking this can be done from one day to another.

[Kranel_San]

Sure they do, but they've already made it. Right now FFXIV is too big to fail, so instead to maximize profits you cut production costs and focus money elsewhere. FFXIV doesn't need any more money put into it, people will buy the low effort mogstation items, and be happy to do so. They'll stay subbed, so why bother putting more money into the game for no real return?

By the way pls buy the $160 Cloud Strife NFT, thanks!

WoW's tragedy is about to get repeated.
Speaking of MogStation cash shop. I don't understand the people who buy with prices near that of some good games on Steam.

[Striker44]

WoW's tragedy is about to get repeated.
Speaking of MogStation cash shop. I don't understand the people who buy with prices near that of some good games on Steam.

Except the main thing that generally drives an MMO - the story - went downhill a long time ago in WoW, and it took several expansions of bad story and a shift to eSports that destroyed it. FFXIV hasn't even begun a slide yet, and is in fact currently at the top of where it's ever been.

[Haruka_R]

I don't understand the people who buy with prices near that of some good games on Steam.

Simple. If they see it as valuable, If they really want it, and if they've got the money, they'll get it.