FFXIV population decline continues

[NegativeS]

Is WoW not still steadily losing players though...

According to what they share to their shareholders, they seem to have somewhat stabilized... though they never fully recovered from the WoD or SL implosions.

[innis31]

It's just a drought numbers will pick up when there's reason for them too. Until then I'm still gonna be playin.

[Clockworks]

It's just a drought numbers will pick up when there's reason for them too. Until then I'm still gonna be playin.

a "drought" lmao

its the beginning of the expansion......

[innis31]

a "drought" lmao

its the beginning of the expansion......

And isn't that sad

[Lilapop]

a "drought" lmao

its the beginning of the expansion......

There is one though. Objectively, which I know you're aware of considering we've discussed it on other threads. Weird reason to come at this person.

[Luca_]

As a "hardcore" player:

- Cleared the tier in August. It's now January. Savage loot and tomestones still have the same weekly lockout as when the tier released.

- The only two new pieces of content since then are FRU and Chaotic, both of which are unappealing to me for different reasons. I have a static for Chaotic but we couldn't even play because of the server outages this weekend. Yay.

- Job balance is somehow atrocious while job design is more homogenized than ever before.

- There's literally no reason to gear alt jobs or even finish getting my main BiS, which is off by 2 pieces, because there's nowhere else to use it.

- There's no reason to do Extremes other than to grind for mounts that won't be purchasable for... what, another year?

- Dawntrail is the only expansion to make me wish I had skipped the cutscenes after finishing it because I was so angry at all the time I'd wasted waiting for it to get better. I hate the story and have no desire to engage with it or discuss lore and theories with my friends like I did throughout Endwalker.

The only reason I'm still subbed is because I'm babysitting my dead FC and its large house, but I'm caring less and less about that as time goes on because paying $13 a month for a virtual house in a game I barely play is pretty stupid. Not too hard for me to imagine why casual and midcore players are having an even worse time.

[CaedemSanguis]

im a HC raider (M4s day 2) and my static started FRU yesterday (december vacation) we're nearly on phase 3 with 6 hours raid time

even with me being a hc raider who do all pve content, i've unsubbed for 4 months since DT release, I really dont understand why casuals keep their sub, each casual should sub only 1 month per expansion, but guess what they dont, and to me they really deserve to be treated like that, why bother doing content for casuals when they keep giving money ?

[Kaurhz]

im a HC raider (M4s day 2) and my static started FRU yesterday (december vacation) we're nearly on phase 3 with 6 hours raid time

even with me being a hc raider who do all pve content, i've unsubbed for 4 months since DT release, I really dont understand why casuals keep their sub, each casual should sub only 1 month per expansion, but guess what they dont, and to me they really deserve to be treated like that, why bother doing content for casuals when they keep giving money ?

A lot of casuals have different reasons for remaining subbed, as honestly it covers such a gigantic area of the game, from people that enjoy story, to people that enjoy the social element, to people doing content from several expansions ago because the game offered nothing, or just people remaining subbed for connections on this game and housing.

Honestly, no given group of players should be treated in the manner which you're suggesting, it's a good way to turn this game to garbage as it isn't just casuals that benefit from the developers adding casual content in the game. Arguably hardcore players benefit just as much, and if you wanted to treat it on a completely reactional basis, e.g., "Oh don't develop any casual content until x number of casuals are gone" then you would be looking at a game with far far longer patch cycles than what we currently have. If all casual players, even by a generous estimate of 70% were to only sub for 1 month across an entire expansion cycle then this game would actually struggle to push content out without being a lot more aggressive on the Mogstation and potentially delving into more objective P2W elements.

That's one way to shut down a dissenting opinion, I guess. Oh, but what if... now hear me out, what if the argument against this expansion is often histrionic, hyperbolic, and extremely selective in its facts?

You'll find that blade cuts both ways. Maybe come up with a better, less lazy way to counter an argument.

It's not meant as a means as countering any argument, it's just a simple observation that not all defenses on this game are done with sincerity, just how in the exact same vein not all criticisms are done with rationality in mind, and can often be hyperbolic. - Am I really going to have to be that specific with you in future when I am addressing a very specific point on whether you can still be out of touch with the game whilst people are defending it...?

[CaedemSanguis]

A lot of casuals have different reasons for remaining subbed, as honestly it covers such a gigantic area of the game, from people that enjoy story, to people that enjoy the social element, to people doing content from several expansions ago because the game offered nothing, or just people remaining subbed for connections on this game and housing.

Honestly, no given group of players should be treated in the manner which you're suggesting, it's a good way to turn this game to garbage as it isn't just casuals that benefit from the developers adding casual content in the game. Arguably hardcore players benefit just as much, and if you wanted to treat it on a completely reactional basis, e.g., "Oh don't develop any casual content until x number of casuals are gone" then you would be looking at a game with far far longer patch cycles than what we currently have. If all casual players, even by a generous estimate of 70% were to only sub for 1 month across an entire expansion cycle then this game would actually struggle to push content out without being a lot more aggressive on the Mogstation and potentially delving into more objective P2W elements.

It's about "giving feedback to SE"

If you sub without content being available for you then you say to yoshi "the content is good, keep going"

[Evergrey]

It's about "giving feedback to SE"

If you sub without content being available for you then you say to yoshi "the content is good, keep going"

I would pretty much say the same thing.
That the active numbers of players/subs drop over the span of an expansion is normal and no developer would react to it as "omg, people are leaving".
It's only when that curve takes a drastic nosedive in a short timespan that it will cause an alarm and possible actions from the developers.

And yes, people are very vocal about this expansion.
But when have people not complained about something?
SE is aware of this for sure, no questions about that.
But looking at the numbers of players it's not like they will drop everything to fix it since things are still within the scale of "the normal curve".