Looking at other Regions playing XIV

[LianaThorne]

I play on EU Light - Every content that isnt part of MSQ or recent high end content is dead. Completly dead. Wanna do the Ivalice Raids to unlock Bozja? Dead, 1hour+ queuetimes during prime time. Deep dungeons that arent the 10 floor spammed to level? Dead. Even the new Deep Dungeon is already dead. Wanna do anything thats not part of MSQ you have to schedule your playtime around some obscure discord servers you can only find through digging old reddit threads.

Oh is it a similar situation over there? Interesting. I know for Bozja/Eureka discord servers are used (in particular for BA & DRS just because of how much coordination is needed) but can still manage to pop Ivalice with a bit of a wait. I think the longest I had was 30-45m?

[strawberrycake]

I play on EU Light - Every content that isnt part of MSQ or recent high end content is dead. Completly dead. Wanna do the Ivalice Raids to unlock Bozja? Dead, 1hour+ queuetimes during prime time. Deep dungeons that arent the 10 floor spammed to level? Dead. Even the new Deep Dungeon is already dead. Wanna do anything thats not part of MSQ you have to schedule your playtime around some obscure discord servers you can only find through digging old reddit threads.

Try a different DC, as thats Yoshi Ps literal answer to that problem, low pop servers go play on higher pop servers. Different conversation entirely, I'm not talking about how dead content is, I'm talking about people not wanting to play the game in runs, refusing to play their roles, working together in runs, and helping newer players learn.

[Remish]

Half of NA is made up of EU players. I think it's unfair to say NA bad but EU good when we have a mix of EU and even Oceania players within the NA community. For example, a large portion of the high end raid community on NA actually doesn't live within America at all. The role play areas also attract a lot of other regions over here to play. NA is a pretty hybrid mix all around. To say we aren't normal would extend to the other regions as well.

[Atelier-Bagur]

And if the company wants to continue making a bottom Line they'll fix it luckily, so heres to hoping 7.0 is the start of that^^

I wouldnt get my hopes up. Screencap this but 7.0 will be the final straw for the playerbase and this game will be dead

[LianaThorne]

I wouldnt get my hopes up. Screencap this but 7.0 will be the final straw for the playerbase and this game will be dead

I rarely agree with you but this is one that I will with. If the content itself isn't improved (i.e. the massive downgrade from ShB content to what we've been getting from EW) then I could see the game bleed users. I played this game religiously up until the most recent .5 patch and seeing the 1-2 hour content we were given was the first time I honestly considered quitting the game.

I don't think the NA playstyle is going to cause the company to lose money more than the content itself not being amazing would. Those who operate on NA are used to it and still continue to play, the content is what is actually making people take breaks or fully leave (as we can see with several high profile Twitch streamers abandoning the game for others because lack of things to do/stream and the overall lowering of PF ads for content even in more populated DC & regions).

[DPZ2]

I wouldnt get my hopes up. Screencap this but 7.0 will be the final straw for the playerbase and this game will be dead

Dead, in this case, is a relative term. It will no longer be a popular MMORPG. There are a lot of MMORPGs out there still running with several hundred thousand players. Games that came out nearly a decade before FFXIV 1.0 was released.

Given the number of vocal "hostages" in these forums who are willingly paying a subscription for this game solely because they have a house and want to keep it, I do not see the game dropping into the Abyss that "this game will be dead" presumes.

FFXI is still running with paying subscribers despite the lack of new full expansions (Seekers of Adoulin was released in 2013). They've added many Scenarios (think patch-level quest series here) since then. The latest "chapter" of The Voracious Resurgence released late last year.

Will there be as many virtual data centers in each Data Center? Probably not. Consolidation could drop things down to a single virtual data center in each regional Data Center and the game would continue to make money for Square Enix.

At some point, the steady-state of this game will be similar to the steady state of other long-running MMORPGs. It has yet to reach that point.

[SannaR]

I'm not sure when the shift happened. I know it happened gradually though. Would it be nice if it shifted a little bit back towards how it was? Sure. I think part of the problem is too many good people got burnt out. Or felt that trying to care, teach, or expect more from their fellow players than just using one skill/spell over and over wasn't worth their time. Let alone worth the slow erosion of their sanity. At some point the mind set of doing the "bare minimum" and expecting everyone else to also do that gained the label of being toxic. That the mind set of why should I bother to try when I can just get carried by 3, 7, 23 or fewer people over time became the norm. After all it is just a game it shouldn't be a job. Why should I need or have to put in any effort to play my role or my job after coming home from work?

It's a fine line to try and stay on as on one side you have what we have now. On the other it becomes a challenge to get anything done if you've somehow managed to step on one too many toes. Do I wish the community would move a little back towards at least the feeling of the majority are actually trying and would do better if there were ways in game to figure out how to do better? Heck yeah. I also know that the game has strayed away and probably won't get anywhere close to going back to making things have any kind of bite. People say that there are no dps checks in most of the game. Yet I don't get the impression from most that they've had many runs of anything that feels like someone is trying to shred you like cheese with a slab of concrete as the grater. Or they would know there are a lot of fights where the game mercy kills you. If not has a soft enrage that you only see cause the fight has been going on as long as your average dungeon run.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I rarely agree with you but this is one that I will with. If the content itself isn't improved (i.e. the massive downgrade from ShB content to what we've been getting from EW) then I could see the game bleed users. I played this game religiously up until the most recent .5 patch and seeing the 1-2 hour content we were given was the first time I honestly considered quitting the game.

I don't think the NA playstyle is going to cause the company to lose money more than the content itself not being amazing would. Those who operate on NA are used to it and still continue to play, the content is what is actually making people take breaks or fully leave (as we can see with several high profile Twitch streamers abandoning the game for others because lack of things to do/stream and the overall lowering of PF ads for content even in more populated DC & regions).

Your first mistake was thinking the downgrade happened in Shb. When in reality, the game was rigged from the start in 2.0

The game's overall design is so painfully average that every expansion starting from Heavensward slowly peels off the layers mediocrity when many other MMOs do many of this game's aspects such as combat, quests, dungeons, raids, housing, exploration much better.

The only reason it wades by is because FFXIV tries to do everything other MMOs do just plain "fine". Its only saving grace is the story being the best presented out of all other MMOs but MMOs are much more than just story

[Themarvin]

EU and JP may complain about a lack of content, but they are playing what they have and making the most out of it, teaching people old content, clearing people through ultimates who wanna learn, etc.

I've come to realize NA is the only region for XIV thats struggling with playing this game, NA would rather crowd together in discords over populating the worlds, doing content, and actually working together to make this feel like a normal MMO. And thats kinda sad.

I used to think FF was just in a poor state, and thats not denying all of its flaws. But NA just refuses to be normal.

If NA is struggling with the game then it is more a cultural problem than FFXIV as itself, the game is really not in a poor state... usually people play the game in JP and EU.. learn from it then move on from there instead of yelling at each other as in why can't you do it better and my method is best... no mine... and then after 1 hour not even touched the boss in whatever EX trial or whatever else content because there is 4 people discussing wildly which strategy should be used instead of just picking one and getting on with, and if not work try the next.

Complaining about lack of content is EVERY SINGLE MMO's biggest problem even WoW, and it can be solved with if we all pay like 50-75 dollars per month in subscription to have more paid staff for neverending content and you will still eventually hit the wall.

[TaleraRistain]

What content are you referring to? I queue with randoms every day on Aether for roulettes and I don't see anyone refusing to do their role or refusing to participate. Most runs are quick and simple.

NA does have lower clear rates for things, but that's because we don't have a culture where we feel we have to do content just because the developers put it out there. They gave us the choice to do it or not and we participate in the things we're interested in.