Discuss : is ffxiv in trouble

[samuel101]

With all the content up to endgame content they view as training you how to play your job. As someone who on another account had all jobs to 80 in shadowbringer I agree that the jobs start to feel like just a new coat of paint so are the new jobs every expansion necessary? I thought at one point that the extreme trials were supposed to be the in that slot of endgame between regular raiding and savage raiding but now a days it is often hard to find people to do those fights with as people just wait until the next expansion and do them unsynched if they want that particular mount. One thing I would like to see soon is for there to be relief of button bloat on some jobs. Maybe it is just me but sometimes it feels like I don't have enough fingers to hit all the buttons that I should be hitting and with this game possibly being played on controller this problem must be resolved if they want to keep controller support active.

[Katish]

Unfortunately, people are willing to give FFXIV too much credit and thus allows them to get away with it (Allowing them the reigns free from direct criticism and giving way to lower churn value). Other mmos have done WAY more than FFXIV. For example, Mabinogi has been here since 2005. That game has story up the wazoo, does events often and has events play at the same time (which aren't just do a 3 min quest), has a six channel dye system (when people are eating the slop that is the two channels upcoming), has a longer MSQ (about 26 main stories now), has unique skills and classes (which you can play all of), and is also undergoing a graphics overhaul [they are moving to Unreal]...compare that to this giant and you have to question the dime being put down on the game. And I think it's 100% acceptable to look at other MMOs and compare them to FFXIV to give it constructive criticism but people give the "it's fine as is." Well that whole debaucle thing is happening to Genshin vs HSR and is leading one to a much more inferior product IMO. Though maybe you say, well that's because it's the same company, you could then say Wuthering Waves vs Genshin then. (Same argument applies)

People give feedback because they love the game...not because they hate it. Though in this community, people would rather tell you to unsub then have them make a better product. It's very counterintuitive...

[sindriiisgaming]

You failed to mention anything positive about FFXIV in your post, which is equal to complaining about it?

Oh, and by the way? If you don't like it, you can just go play other games. That's right: for just $13 a month, you can play all the other games you want as long as they're free.

Another troll defeated, the game is now safe from haters. Mods, please lock this

A-are you OK there champ?

[sindriiisgaming]

I am just here to point out the abbreviation of Stormblood is SB, not StB.
Games great, have a good day.

Then ppl would confuse it for shadowbringers lol

[sindriiisgaming]

Is FFXIV in trouble?

In a word - no.

In three words - not even close.

In three other words - quite the opposite.

Don't let the forums fool you. We represent only the smallest grain of sand compared to the playerbase, and people who take the time to visit the forums, make an account, and post here are far and away not representative of the typical player.

If you look over the history of FFXIV, each successive expansion has shown a steady rise in the size of the active playing population, and EW has continued that trend. There was an anomalous spike with the famous "WoW exodus," but if you remove that one-time gigantic explosion of people and subsequent fall-off (as most came to realize FFXIV and WoW are designed with two different audiences in mind), you'll see the same steady trend still ultimately occurred. At every comparable data point along the way (e.g. just before patch x.2, the first month of x.5, etc.), EW has had the highest active playerbase to date, surpassing ShB (which itself had been the highest up to that point).

Heck, with the latest patch, Aether hunt trains went back to announcing some of them only server-wide instead of DC-wide because they were getting too large. I can still queue for practically anything on tank or healer, including random dungeons or raids I haven't done in a while for WT, and get it to pop within a few minutes.

Will the typical formula that SE has had enormous success with eventually become stale? Yeah. It already has for some people, as evidenced by the forum here. But there's still such a reliable influx of new (and returning) players that it more than makes up for that. At some point down the road, the steady rise FFXIV is still experiencing will eventually reach a peak and then start declining. It's possible we're still going up. It's possible EW represents the peak. But we're certainly not on the decline yet, and even once that starts, the population will remain healthy for a considerable period of time even if the dev team did nothing to change course.

So no, FFXIV isn't in trouble. In fact - it's the complete opposite. It's thriving, and either at its peak or still climbing towards it.

I never understand this "Don't listen to the forums" argument. Isn't everyone on here one of those players casual or not... so should there opinion be downplayed. If I ask around in game I'd get all the same mixed bag of responses.. trust me I am vocal about my concerns in game too. And most say all the same things. Either
*it's fine
* it's not fine

Ironically. Most aren't happy with it. Try asking urself in nn or ur fc and see what they say. Or in Discords. I just don't get this argument

[Lyth]

I think it's worthwhile to engage with well thought out opinions. Unfortunately, a lot of forum regulars eventually get addicted to reactions rather than conversations. Asking if the sky is falling is a great way to score on engagement metrics, but doesn't really have enough specifics to go off in terms of discussion content.

I wouldn't know what to do with FFXIV's sales figures. I hope they do well, but it's also not my problem either way.

[Colt47]

Well, the other piece is the change to a 2 minute meta and how it plays with the stats. We had more customization to the jobs before this point thanks to skill / spell speed lending to different playstyles on jobs. There was always a preferred way to play before but the 2 minute meta kind of increased the gap a lot. But given the preference for OGCDs now and the waning usage from design changes to tenacity and piety, I'm surprised we still have MP as a resource. :P

[strawberrycake]

Unfortunately, people are willing to give FFXIV too much credit and thus allows them to get away with it (Allowing them the reigns free from direct criticism and giving way to lower churn value). Other mmos have done WAY more than FFXIV. For example, Mabinogi has been here since 2005. That game has story up the wazoo, does events often and has events play at the same time (which aren't just do a 3 min quest), has a six channel dye system (when people are eating the slop that is the two channels upcoming), has a longer MSQ (about 26 main stories now), has unique skills and classes (which you can play all of), and is also undergoing a graphics overhaul [they are moving to Unreal]...compare that to this giant and you have to question the dime being put down on the game. And I think it's 100% acceptable to look at other MMOs and compare them to FFXIV to give it constructive criticism but people give the "it's fine as is." Well that whole debaucle thing is happening to Genshin vs HSR and is leading one to a much more inferior product IMO. Though maybe you say, well that's because it's the same company, you could then say Wuthering Waves vs Genshin then. (Same argument applies)

People give feedback because they love the game...not because they hate it. Though in this community, people would rather tell you to unsub then have them make a better product. It's very counterintuitive...

This, I always say it, if this was any other game company people would have been up in arms with how the game is doing right now, and how the game has been over the expansion and the lack of Yoshida doing hotfixes for these issue, an industry standard at this point in ALL online games mind you. Too many people will turn a blind eye to how XIV as a game hasn't caught up in so many ways and say thats fine but then come on here and crap talk another game dev who finally had their first hiccup. It's sad to see.

[OdinelStarrei]

I never understand this "Don't listen to the forums" argument. Isn't everyone on here one of those players casual or not... so should there opinion be downplayed. If I ask around in game I'd get all the same mixed bag of responses.. trust me I am vocal about my concerns in game too. And most say all the same things. Either
*it's fine
* it's not fine

Ironically. Most aren't happy with it. Try asking urself in nn or ur fc and see what they say. Or in Discords. I just don't get this argument

While people here will actively downplay other people's thoughts on the game, I don't think the developers are doing it. It's a thing that's done on an individual basis.

For example, I can say the game is dead for me, because all my friends have quit, my FC has died (twice), and whenever I DO manage to meet up with some of the old crew for some games (Helldivers is the new hotness, very good game), a common inside joke is "Imagine playing a game that you actually like and the developers actually care about." And by common, I mean literally anytime we squad up, one of the post-game conversations is "are we ever going back to XIV" and the answer is always "Wish we could, but the game sucks now."

We're literally reinforcing (haha helldivers) our own collective echo chamber, which is what's going to happen when all the friends/contacts you made in the game ALSO hate it. It is the definition of a confirmation bias.

I can say that "most" of my circle is not happy. People who think like us are not happy. I am not happy. If you are happy, that's cool, but like, I don't care, much like how they didn't care when they ruined all my jobs to make them more "accessible".

It is what it is.

[strawberrycake]

While people here will actively downplay other people's thoughts on the game, I don't think the developers are doing it. It's a thing that's done on an individual basis.

For example, I can say the game is dead for me, because all my friends have quit, my FC has died (twice), and whenever I DO manage to meet up with some of the old crew for some games (Helldivers is the new hotness, very good game), a common inside joke is "Imagine playing a game that you actually like and the developers actually care about." And by common, I mean literally anytime we squad up, one of the post-game conversations is "are we ever going back to XIV" and the answer is always "Wish we could, but the game sucks now."

We're literally reinforcing (haha helldivers) our own collective echo chamber, which is what's going to happen when all the friends/contacts you made in the game ALSO hate it. It is the definition of a confirmation bias.

I can say that "most" of my circle is not happy. People who think like us are not happy. I am not happy. If you are happy, that's cool, but like, I don't care, much like how they didn't care when they ruined all my jobs to make them more "accessible".

It is what it is.

Yeah thats when people in this game act like it's a you problem, but they don't realize having a high turnover rate and a high new player influx isn;t good for your game. This rotation of end game players with new game players In ARR, ShB, and EW isn;t good, we lose as many as we get and it's noticeable if you ever look around and see outside your own collective bubble, but not many people in this game, or at least on these forums know how to do that.

I know plenty of people who talk about XIV just like your friends, And they were long time players who just gave up when simple questions could never be answered by Yoshida. They felt like he didn;t care.