FFXIV population decline continues

[Miohazuki]

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-14-active-players-large-drop-below-1-million/

Thoughts on this article and are you at all worried about the games trajectory?

i find people to do content and play the game with .pretty much non issue for me

[Connor]

But where is everyone going?! The next content is only 4 months away! Aren’t you all so excited so for this content patch that’s so far away you’re guaranteed so forget it’s even coming? And it likely won’t even add any worthwhile content until a couple weeks after the patch! Man I love having to wait for the patch so I can wait for the [sub]patch
/s

[EmeraldSerenade]

I feel like Square relies too much on fan loyalty, which has made them complacent.

[PaulusHamsteru]

I hope it keeps declining. They need a wake up call.

[Mesarthim]

Funny part is my friend usually likes to skip the story but liked any ascian parts. Dawntrail was the first expansion where he read the story.

I basically told him "You picked a bad time to start reading the story lol." Even I am barely on for an hour a day doing... daily stuff, which I probably don't even need to be. Nothing I do is really current content unless a roulette throws me into it for the nth time.

[Zelda206]

With a written statement from SE that involves "denial of personality" for their employees/partners, I would imagine even peaceful customers that keep to themselves would feel a touch bristled, perhaps bristled enough to leave due to how that can be interpreted on the western side of things, and how much damage and drama it's caused in whatever media and community it's touched. Customers may disagree with the opinions of staff members or partners, especially artists like voice-actors, but that isn't a denial of personality; no one can deny a personality. They can argue it, debate it, disagree with it, dismiss it, but they cannot 'deny' it. It's someone's fantasy, not theirs. They can only deny subscribing to it, which is their right, however if that constitutes as 'denial of personality', then we have a major problem. Legal action should already be taken if life-threatening or harmful actions are being taken against employees/partners, but the statement leaves room for interpretation and gives enough flexibility to empower (especially the English team) the partners into claiming what is/isn't considered 'harmful' (like hurt feelings or a return-to-sender response from the community in response to a gaslighting quip from a partner or employee) and exacting a twisted sense of revenge while using Square Enix's shadow to show intimidation. It isn't necessarily what is going to happen, but it's a huge possibility and implied that should any emotional harm come to the partners/employees, or continual 'defamation' of the sparse content in their products, there will be legal action taken. It comes off as a veiled threat with how it is written. So Final Fantasy XIV's gradual decline in player population isn't totally accredited to the statement, since the lack of goodwill and quality content chocked full of things to do seems to be doing that already, but it's now a catalyst to continue bleeding numbers.

Regardless of personal stance, this is the general consensus and the biggest detail that has been scrutinized from the official statement, and has been spreading around through the media since. It will be interesting to see how the year 2025 shapes up as we move forward and the numbers fluctuate.

[Chasingstars]

Yoshida (2016, Gamescon): "It's alright not to play it everyday. Since it's just a game, you can stop forcing yourself if it's hard on you to keep that up. Rather, it'll just pile up unnecessary stress if you limit yourself into playing just that one game since there are so many other games out there. So, do come back and play it to your heart's content when the major patch kicks in, then stop it to play other games before you got burnt out, and then come back for another major patch. This will actually make me happier, and in the end, I think this is the best solution I can answer for keeping your motivation up for the game."

Translation: "Feel free to unsub, take a break, and come back when you want to."

So people are just taking his advice. Nothing else to see here as people are playing other things since they did the content they wanted to. I am personally just going through a back catalogue of games I have like RDR2 or Elden Ring.

[Clockworks]

Yoshida (2016, Gamescon): "It's alright not to play it everyday. Since it's just a game, you can stop forcing yourself if it's hard on you to keep that up. Rather, it'll just pile up unnecessary stress if you limit yourself into playing just that one game since there are so many other games out there. So, do come back and play it to your heart's content when the major patch kicks in, then stop it to play other games before you got burnt out, and then come back for another major patch. This will actually make me happier, and in the end, I think this is the best solution I can answer for keeping your motivation up for the game."

Translation: "Feel free to unsub, take a break, and come back when you want to."

So people are just taking his advice. Nothing else to see here as people are playing other things since they did the content they wanted to. I am personally just going through a back catalogue of games I have like RDR2 or Elden Ring.

That's the hypocrisy of that statement.

Let me put it in real terms :

Translation: "Feel free to unsub, take a break, lose the house you spent months (if not years) to get, and come back when you want to, and enjoy spending months or years for another house."

[Chasingstars]

That's the hypocrisy of that statement.

Let me put in real terms :

Translation: "Feel free to unsub, take a break, lose the house you spent months (if not years) to get, and come back when you want to, and enjoy spending months or years for another house."

Hmm yeah, I might lose my house if I unsubbed, but I still will have apartment rooms on my main and various alts. And I already got my decorating bug out of my system. At most the house is just neat for gardening and workshop purposes. Honestly more satisfied with decorating done for the apartment than the house as I got bored with that. And not interested in making my home into one of the dime-a-dozen venues that are around, plus a venue can just be an apartment room. Plus from what I've seen there is still plenty of open plots so that isn't exactly an issue if I wanted to grab one later as its not like we are going to have another big player boom like we did before.

[Kohashi]

That's the hypocrisy of that statement.

Let me put it in real terms :

Translation: "Feel free to unsub, take a break, lose the house you spent months (if not years) to get, and come back when you want to, and enjoy spending months or years for another house."

Then you ain't hating the game enough to actually make a stand and all you do is yappy yappy. Imagine getting attached to a pixel in a random game that is a major point of distress in somebody's life..lol. You enjoy self-flagellation and self-inflicted misery. Nobody keeps you hostage, nobody is forcing you to take any decisions, you do this to yourself. Stop playing the victim already.