Face it, this game is in maintenance mode now, i.e. managed decline

[RyuDragnier]

neopets is going to make a resurgence and then we'll all be sorry

Not if Club Penguin beats it first!

[Stormpeaks]

The game is nowhere near maintenance mode let alone decline...it keeps going up and you don't invest in doing all these core foundational reworks and a visual upgrade...if you're going into decline. But welcome back Skiros your bait is much missed...to an extent.

"keeps going up" is a bit of a cope there really, it isnt, its stable or slowly declining but nothing catastrophic

[CStrife912]

Each expansion has had a consistent increase of player activity prior to the wow exodus...recurring and active player numbers have been on the rise year to year...those can be found...I don't think you can find your declining facts...because if you show me mid-patch numbers that's just because people are playing other things before the next content drop...all MMOs have mid-patch luls its common but when it comes to content release its always high player counts. Heck if we want to be random registered users keeps on getting higher....already had 2 million more registered user from 6.1 to 6.3..... but then we can say that doesn't mean anything true to an extent.

There is no cope...the numbers ain't lying, I would agree with you if the facts matched what you were saying XD

[Shialan]

The crazy thing is that there are players out there who actually think that. A year or so before Endwalker, I had a discussion with someone I was close with who was extremely convinced that FF XIV would go F2P in the then next couple of months because "everything was pointing to it, including the cash shop" and that people were losing interest in this game.

[Velvet_Lunarfang]

Considering that FF11 (which actually is in official maintenance mode) still gets regular updates more often than many MMOs that are supposedly actively developed, I think I will trust FF14 to be developed for many more years and not "hop over" to some random unproven game.

maybe but if they can't fix certain bugs properly and quality test patches work before releasing then it won't last as much. Plus they need some better invigorating content if they want to last another 10 years at least. The new raid as nice as it is is way to short I feel and burn the bosses very fast

[CStrife912]

This also goes in hand with what I made in another post that I feel that they are spending more time working on the foundation of the game then say endgame. They are clearly tidying up the new player experience and how new people are interacting with the game. That is just as important for the longevity of the game. I would love more consistent things to do but I would sacrifice me playing the game more if it meant more people pick it up because X,Y or Z put a new player off whether that is outdated systems, ARR being too long and needing more chop, the visual overhaul because as much as we can say art direction carries a game...visuals go a long way in keeping people playing outside of gameplay and systems.

[RyuDragnier]

This also goes in hand with what I made in another post that I feel that they are spending more time working on the foundation of the game then say endgame. They are clearly tidying up the new player experience and how new people are interacting with the game. That is just as important for the longevity of the game. I would love more consistent things to do but I would sacrifice me playing the game more if it meant more people pick it up because X,Y or Z put a new player off whether that is outdated systems, ARR being too long and needing more chop, the visual overhaul because as much as we can say art direction carries a game...visuals go a long way in keeping people playing outside of gameplay and systems.

I have a sneaking suspicion that they're trying to adjust the earlier stuff before focusing on the endgame again. Make it easier to get TO the endgame before actually working on it more. The endgame can be amazing, but if it's a slog to get there, how many players are you actually going to keep? Plus trying to make workarounds for the original spaghetti code can only help in the long run, since that means they don't have to jump through as many hoops to get things added to the game.

[CStrife912]

I have a sneaking suspicion that they're trying to adjust the earlier stuff before focusing on the endgame again. Make it easier to get TO the endgame before actually working on it more. The endgame can be amazing, but if it's a slog to get there, how many players are you actually going to keep? Plus trying to make workarounds for the original spaghetti code can only help in the long run, since that means they don't have to jump through as many hoops to get things added to the game.

I agree...no point getting new players to join if the mountain to get to endgame is so high plus we don't know what else they're working on. So much stuff has been streamlined, QoL etc its hard to really grasp it...if you just doing raiding or ultimate sure I get the frustration but its always an issue when they are making the game for multiple demographics.

[Carin-Eri]

This isn't maintainance mode. Before I decided to devote my online time to FFXIV I was playing an MMO that truly felt like it was just keeping itself above maintainance mode.

One, maybe two (if you were lucky) new episodes every five or six months and the rest of the time it was nothing but FOMO fueled events to pad their login numbers, 'sales' of their loot box nonsense and uber-expensive bundles (£250 - £300).

[Stormpeaks]

SE: We'll continue XIV for 10 more years, we're working on the next expansion and graphics update!
People with zero brain cells: ded gaem lul

That's a very stupid take, any company making a new expansion doesnt make the game alive and well.

The game being on a constant high upward trend is literally a cope moment, it's stable at best or on a very slow decline, as I said nothing catastrophic at all but let's not pretend that the game is on an extreme upward trend