This game used to have a fun playerbase. What happened?

[AddictedToWitches]

The game never had a good community because even in ARR you see the same toxicity you see now.
But arguably it's gotten worse over the years. Borderline impossible for people to get into hard content with how absolutely terrible the community is.

[Rhysati]

What happened is that the game got popular, and that meant that "everyone" wanted to play it. Just wait a few years, and much of the locust horde will have moved on to the Next Popular Thing.

This. The community as a whole is still better than other popular options, but the whole things has degraded one way or another. Even as a hardcore roleplayer, the roleplaying community has devolved and degraded in quality of content. I've just moved on at this point.

[gllt]

It's not FFXIV or MMORPG specific.

Every game tries to maximize player retention and grow the playerbase at any cost now because infinite growth is the only thing that matters to shareholders.

Disagreeable gamers have always existed, but there are more of them present in your games now, that's all. There's nothing to shake them off anymore. And you leaving the game because of them isn't enough of a disruption to the cash flow to make a difference.

It's like how companies actually have no incentive to fight scalping behavior but rather plenty of incentive exists to encourage it. It's guaranteed sales even if it's going into a warehouse somewhere to never see the light of day.

The worst gamers you know are the most reliable subs. That's it.

[Connor]

The playerbase hasn’t gotten ‘meaner’, it just got ‘bigger’. Which, unfortunately means your likelihood of coming across a complete asshole has also became bigger over time lol. Proportionately though I wouldn’t say the community during any particular expansion was more/less ‘toxic’ than now. There was just less people for it be noticeable

[Striker44]

Not growing any more, unfortunately. The peak player count on Steam for Dawntrail is lower then it was for Endwalker launch.

EW launch was still in the middle of the "WoW exodus," so it's not an accurate comparison point. Need to look for when that group moved on to start getting accurate data again.

[Rolder50]

EW launch was still in the middle of the "WoW exodus," so it's not an accurate comparison point. Need to look for when that group moved on to start getting accurate data again.

Cope 10char

[Wildheaven182]

Plotwatchers, rpers, normies, raiders... long ago, the four nations lived in harmony, then everything changed when the dev nation attacked.
The nocturnal sect astrologians were completely eradicated...

[Drkdays]

It was over a decade ago that I made some of my most lasting friendships with some of the most interesting people online. We were bound by a thread of whimsy and a love for all things final fantasy. The social engine of an MMO with the foundation of one of the best RPGs of all time? FFXIV was a mecca for people like me. The seasons breezed past us as balance changes went up and down and expansions came and went. That last part gets kind of fickle though. With new expansions comes a new playerbase, and by the looks of it..... yikes. These days, it feels like like those who want to enjoy the worldbuilding and gameplay mechanics of the final fantasy universe were put in the backseat. Instead, all you have to do is take one look at limsa to see where we've landed. People who have trouble asking for extra ketchup packets are now making cliques over funny numbers on the bad website or acting like this is second life with catgirls. All I'm saying is you don't need to go to Gridania to touch grass. Feel free to step outside, that doesn't cost a monthly subscription.

You're remembering visiting the ice-cream truck when it was a novelty for you and the other kids in the neighborhood. It's not a novelty anymore and lots of the kids on your street moved away and were replaced with new kids, but you can still get the ice-cream and the new kids play different music and watch different TV shows but they're still kids enjoying themselves and having fun with each other.

[Aidorouge]

Can't say I ever got that sense of community given I started in 2022 and was on a low-pop server, so I always had to data center travel to do stuff with randoms I would very likely never see again. Even now being locked on Dynamis I'm just counting down the days until I can DC travel again because I'm not really interested in bonding with all these "new strangers" over here, lol.

I do question if this supposedly "peak" social experience ever existed though given that people have been using cliques and plugins to filter each other since... well, every MMO ever. I'm sure you even had your diehard "if you don't love 1.0, you don't belong here" fans back then too and think *everything* that came after "ruined it all". When you have this many people in one place, you're going to encounter all kinds of different folks, and just like in real life it's not always easy to find the ones you'll mesh with. There was probably never an all encompassing utopia in this game then, but rather some very enjoyable and memorable spheres to play within, but over time other spheres formed up and now perhaps it *is* harder to find the ones certain people would like to visit or even stay in. Harder, but not impossible, I would hope for those seeking some manner of community or even just camaraderie.

[TKOtheKDR]

Everyone is 14 years older than when 1.0 launched. We all have many more responsibilities, including families and careers. Putting up with the requirements of working to maintain an acceptable life and dealing with the general stupidity of humanity in is bound to curtail the overall joy experienced on a day to day basis.