Quote Originally Posted by Daeriion_Aeradiir View Post
What are you even on about.

Lucky bancho's censuses are about as accurate info as we can get, and even if we use the absolute latest one that occurred last month smack dab in a drought period between major patches, EW has only lost 34%. (1.7 million at start of expansion vs 1.13 now as of August). But even this metric doesn't paint the whole picture, as this exact same dip has occurred every single expansion by similar %s at this point in the expansion's lifecycle, minus SHB's outlier situation with the WoW exodus. This also ignores that every major patch this expansion, including 6.4 had about 1.3-1.4 million active characters, even when the censuses right before them had dipped to the similar 1.1-1.2 mark.

And this is just the data we can gleam. Speaking bluntly as a former game dev in the AAA industry, Square has access to statistics and data that paint a far better, clearer picture than any of us could ever speculate. Let me give you an industry secret: your feedback is literally irrelevant. Game developers these days have access to such insane stats data that individual feedback is literally detrimental to listen to because that person's feedback could be going against the reality of what the playerbase actually wants. Why do you think the industry as a way larger whole has shifted towards more cinematic experiences, streamlined game systems and mobile development? Because that's literally the demographic that is making up the ever-growing majority of gamers. People with small amounts of time to game that want chill, cinematic, fun one time experiences, and Sqaure Enix knows it. Even as much as people like to applaud games like BG3 for 'showing the AAA studios what a real game is'...that game's revenue doesn't even beat Pokemon GO's profits this year, a game that had its lowest record profits this year and released 7 years ago. Honor of Kings has made nearly 4x as much as it so far this year alone lmao.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it over and over: literally the only feedback you could ever provide that will ever matter is when you vote with your wallet and leave. Data is so powerful in this modern day that the voice of individuals is literally irrelevant. FF14 was profitable when it had 1/3rd the playerbase it does today, they don't need everyone to be subbed 24/7 to be immensely more profitable than they were in expansions past. At this point, you either agree with the direction FF14 is heading in and enjoy it for what it is, or you cut your losses and move on. They're targetting the majority gamer market with the streamlining of this game, and its paying off immensely for them; they have no reason to course correct when every last piece of data this industry has acquired the past 8 years has been pointing in the exact same direction they're currently traveling.
tldr

"blah blah your complaints dont matter blah blah blah just unsub blah blah blah"

thanks for your input