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

[CStrife912]

I've played a lot of MMOs. The main difference between content updates in XIV and in other games I've played... is accessibility.

Content in XI would take months to complete, simply because it was difficult (no duty finder, higher challenge, actual penalties for failing, etc). For example, I remember when Chains of Promathia was released and the 3 Promyvion zones. People weren't running them on Day 1. Or Day 2. Or Day 3. First you had to farm up the materials/gil to buy the new gear that would make your job viable in those zones. Then wait for Friday - Sunday timeframe to get other people to actually run the zone.

It wasn't like new content here where we clear the new dungeon, 24-man, trial in a few hours.

While that is nice that they could do that...its also in a way artificially created challenge...like I am sure if 14 did that now it wouldn't bode well them patching the game and being like hey need to craft the gear needed to go to the zone or if an expansion launched the story was like cant continue till you are ilvl X or above. I will say it needs to dip in some manor its toes into the sort of grinds 11 or older MMOs provided...but with a more modern outlook. The way we as players engage with games has changed, the world has changed playing games in the early 2000s isn't the same as now...its a way different landscape.

[dspguy]

While that is nice that they could do that...its also in a way artificially created challenge...like I am sure if 14 did that now it wouldn't bode well them patching the game and being like hey need to craft the gear needed to go to the zone or if an expansion launched the story was like cant continue till you are ilvl X or above. I will say it needs to dip in some manor its toes into the sort of grinds 11 or older MMOs provided...but with a more modern outlook. The way we as players engage with games has changed, the world has changed playing games in the early 2000s isn't the same as now...its a way different landscape.

I completely agree.

I never felt that the content added in XI (or EQ, EQ2, LOTRO, etc) was really all that much to begin with. It just took longer to complete the added content. Personally, I think that the reason MMO subscriptions are up is because the games are more accessible (in part, easier). You don't need to set aside large swaths of time at a specific time to actually complete it.

We set the times we want to raid.
We don't need to re-earn the experience lost.
We don't need to re-farm tokens from other raid bosses lost when we failed to clear.
We don't even need to travel to where the raid is.

Mind you, these are just raid-specific comments. It goes beyond that. I'm not insinuating that raiding is easy. However, it IS very accessible to the playerbase.