Discuss : is ffxiv in trouble

[Jeeqbit]

No /thread

• The persistent population has grown every single expansion by 200,000 or more.
• There are 30 million characters that could (and do) return/resubscribe at any time to replace anyone who quits (you see these returners in the novice network constantly and in roulettes and even returners still freshly progging savage raids).
• It is this "pool" of 30 million former players that is part of the game's strength now. It's the same reason Runescape is still around - it's held up by its millions of former players taking it in turns to "return".
• Basically the game is past the point of being a flash in the pan. It has enough former players that it won't go the way some new MMORPGs go.

Given the way the game currently works right now using stb/shb and ew as a point of reference. And what we've seen on dawntrail thus far. Do you personally think the game is in trouble or in danger of failing/deing due to it.

No, because many people you meet in the game (ie. not on these forums) are content with how EW works.

Moreover, Dawntrail looks like it will be awesome. The trailer gives you the impression it's just a holiday, but if you looked to the pictures and videos of the new areas and dungeons you can see it is a very interesting expansion and not a holiday at all. It will also be better than EW in terms of content because of the exploration content being social unlike Island Sanctuary and getting a social Field Operation. Not to mention, a new limited job and a reimagining of the deep dungeon concept to work in a new way.

What do you predict will happen to 14 in 3 or 5 years. Do you think it can change?

1. The formula is very unlikely to change ie. each patch in Dawntrail will have almost identical changes to the same patch in Endwalker, and remain very predictable in this way.
2. The game would take more than 3-5 years to "decline" due to attachment to the game, so the question would need to be "how will it look in 10 years" and nobody can really answer that.
3. I could see the game changing a little. For example, we could see: removal of the 2 minute burst window, removal of party damage buffs entirely to end this issue, a level squish (in 8.0), a switch to linear progression to prevent the level cap endlessly increasing, a solution to the story bloat (such as a free story skip or not requiring the previous MSQ to start 8.0).

What could the devs do to improve the game? Or are people blowing things out the water? I'd love to hear your thoughts

You've been on these forums enough to know everyone's thoughts and to assess whether people are blowing things out of the water or not.