Is it time to Sunset FFXIV?

[Supersnow845]

A break isn't magically going to make this game have more content to hold people over. You can take a year long break and you'll come back and see not a whole lot has changed.

Even if we assume that hypothetically FFXIV needs to be replaced, the problems that have made FFXIV enter a downward trend still persist. The directors are totally out of touch with the community, they have a lack of talent, and SE is holding the purse strings and not reinvesting money back into the game. New MMORPG comes out, same problems. There has been feedback here for years, they don't care to listen to, or hear it. When there is a large enough backlash, they repeatedly demonstrate they do not understand the core reason the backlash is happening. Risks need to be taken. Innovation is needed to bring life back to XIV. This game will suffer a slow death, bleeding players to other games until it fades into irrelevancy if they continue on their current course.

If they did exit surveys, they'd understand in depth why people are unsubbing. They'd know that there is nothing to hold people over between expansions. They'd understand the bad PR that is Yoshi P who tells people to "Play other games" and now comes to us pleading with us to "Not give up, don't retire". To me it's not even just that there is a lack of content, there is also a lack of quality. Why aren't cutscenes fully animated? Why do we have to fade to black to avoid unique animations? Why aren't all lines of dialogue voiced? Why do Viera/Hrothgar still have no headgear/hairstyles? I hate to bring it up, but the modding community has already done SE's job for them, and created tools to put them into the game. If third party amateurs are doing better than you are at adding QoL to your multi billion dollar game, it's hard to think anyone at Square Enix, or CBU 3 is even trying at this point.

I hate having to feel like I have to turn to mods just to make my WOL (who I care about) feel like a living person

How are we still using the “explain” emote then fade to black to replicate the WOL talking 12 years after the game comes out

There is just no quality anywhere. The only shade of quality that has been shown since 6.0 itself is PCT and I’m fully convinced PCT’s design is a complete accident and their actual goal was “gay SMN”

Why do I feel like I’m playing a game on life support when I’m playing the second most popular MMO on the market, even if square is being stingy with funds to fund failures like forespoken the design team seems to have no idea what to do with the money they are allocated

[Larirawiel]

https://steamdb.info/app/39210/charts/#1y

Unfortunately it looks not good for FF14. It's very likely, that the player numbers are lower now than in the pre expansion content drought.




Cheers

[Ghost_of_Ebina]

I do hope the devs get their heads out of their nether-regions and understand that the storytelling (among other things) had major issues in DT -- for the time being it seems they are holding fast to the idea that "the response was expected, and we have answers in 7.x" which is horse-manure. However, I don't think the series is at the level of saying "they should scrap the whole thing" either. That is a bit too extreme of a take for me -- I would expect at least two more utter failures before saying "this is a lost cause."

[Aneshda]

I'm not holding my breath and there's no excitement for the next patch in 4 weeks. What we're getting is so little that it won't even last 1 week. And it's going to be more Wuk Lamat, which means I'm skipping everything. I feel sorry for the players who play this game for the story like I do. We're just getting a kick in the ass with this bullshit expansion. There's absolutely zero content to make up for this crappy story. Maybe there'll be something for us in 5.5 months when the next patch comes.

[Voidmage]

For all you Doom-Sayers, FF14 is still the major cash cow in Square Enix Lineup. They will continue to support this game, a lot. It's a money machine.
After the negative Feedback for Dawntrail and Yoshi P back from his FF16 encounter, you bet they will invest a lot into the game to get everything back on track.

See:
https://automaton-media.com/en/news/...le-games-drop/
https://www.bitget.com/news/detail/12560604143370

Your link can also be read as that they don’t need to invest much because the mmo market is profitable even without major content drops tbh.

[TBerry]

I'd personally like to finish my mission of "craft fucking everything" thank you very much.

[Naomi_Sinclaire]

I think its time to indeed sunset FFXIV & to ironically go the route of "playing other games" but permanently (unless something changes, & fast). The lack of content we've been getting since Endwalker is abysmal in my eyes, & I'm finding more & more enjoyment in other games these days given that FFXIV feels like a chore to play these days (log in to raid, log out, log in for roulettes, log out, etc). Its wild how things change so drastically, The only reason I survived the 9 month content drought of Endwalkers last half was thankfully due to Ultimate progression giving me something to do. I remember when I was so addicted to FFXIV that I'd play all day & night, but these days I can't even warrant the most basic interactions in-game.

[Ayer2015]

I feel like the game (Devs, writers, etc..) has painted itself into a corner. Maybe it's time to focus on the next MMO and start over. This one isn't fun anymore and I don't know how we can recover from it. They whole formula that it was built upon is stagnant. The game shouldn't drop to a lull in things to do and play time just in a few months after the release of a major expansion.. the brand is suffering.

I don't know if you're trolling or not, but for me at least the game just doesn't have the same pull as it used to. Its been a gradual progression though. I resigned to just playing the game when MSQ content drops last expansion, but frankly DT left me not caring about the MSQ at present.

I think MMOs are just not very novel anymore. Online play is very common across games in general at this point, and social media has exploded from the time when this genre was at its peak.

[Riardon]

Let's be honest. DT was all about the graphics update and setting the modern base for the game to run another 10 years.
Now we shall see if the next expansion will focus on the things that matter.
Actual good written plot with characters that matter and gameplay.
I want to forget DT. For me it doesn't exist.

[Rinoa_353]

I think DT was meant to be a somewhat slow start to the new saga since it is suppose to be the ARR equivalent for the new saga and the next 10 years too. I'm currently working on several achievements on two characters that are my mains, so I have plenty to do. Maybe those that need something to do can create an alt and start over from ARR or take a break and play other games for now. 8.0 should see more improvements since I think PS4 support will finally end as it'll be 13 years old by then and it's holding the game back. Add ray tracing and more and this game can look modern with a 4k/UHD optional texture pack that really makes the game look modern and the story goes into higher gear like HW was after ARR.