FFXIV population decline continues

[Gwenkatsu]

Well, SE acknowledge the issue but don't seem too concerned:
...
Completely tone-deaf.

This sounds like typical management BS language. Players are unhappy because we ended a 10 year arc? The producer doing other stuff that will finally teach him how to fix FF14? WTF?

I'm a customer who is very easy to please. I don't do any of the harder stuff, so I don't complain constantly about it being too hard/easy, classes being too hard/easy, the clouds being too fluffy/not fluffy enough, or WE. I do not expect to be spoon fed new content every other week, I have fun with what's there.
But if DT is a sign of things to come, I doubt my sub will survive 8.0. A lackluster story, characters I don't give a eff about, an absolute bizarre mix of scenarios (south american, wild west, copy/pasta scifi)... this is what kills it for me. I still can't get over the cowboys duking it out the old fashioned way... with rubber bullets. How any of this got greenlit is a mystery to me; and if the people that are responsible for DT still need to learn their job(!) by doing other jobs(!!) then I don't see how they will turn the ship around.

We need FF14 ARRA (A Realm Reborn - Again).

[Hallarem]

Even I think your kind of misconstrusing that. Its very possible for the art and music departments to make really nice stuff, but the gameplay and writing room stuff has its issues. Like World of Warcraft has had patches and expansions like that. Stuff looks and sounds nice, shame about the actual gameplay content though.

Id say the music is a bit hit and miss at times. Even at my most critical I cant claim that DT has bad music even if I hate how Tuliyollal doesnt fit and Smile was a horrid choice and badly placed song that doesnt fit in the theme of FFXIV.
Thats my problem with them. They make things look and sound flashy, but the content itself is not up there. Not to mention all the other issues that remain year to year that should be fixed for the overall health of the game.

People should not give the devs an inch at this phase. Its clear they get way too comfortable the moment the community gives them any roses.
I was more than willing to do that too, until I noticed their poor management of their game, their worldbuilding and lore. I am a 100% convinced some of the writers dont even know what has happened in the game before Dawntrail.

[Carin-Eri]

This sounds like typical management BS language. Players are unhappy because we ended a 10 year arc? The producer doing other stuff that will finally teach him how to fix FF14? WTF?

I'm a customer who is very easy to please. I don't do any of the harder stuff, so I don't complain constantly about it being too hard/easy, classes being too hard/easy, the clouds being too fluffy/not fluffy enough, or WE. I do not expect to be spoon fed new content every other week, I have fun with what's there.
But if DT is a sign of things to come, I doubt my sub will survive 8.0. A lackluster story, characters I don't give a eff about, an absolute bizarre mix of scenarios (south american, wild west, copy/pasta scifi)... this is what kills it for me. I still can't get over the cowboys duking it out the old fashioned way... with rubber bullets. How any of this got greenlit is a mystery to me; and if the people that are responsible for DT still need to learn their job(!) by doing other jobs(!!) then I don't see how they will turn the ship around.

We need FF14 ARRA (A Realm Reborn - Again).

That's exactly what it is. I mean, in truth, it isn't surprising - we'd never receive an honest response to the issue from a corporate mouthpiece who can/will only ever try to make the company look good.

Reposting that response again, as it dropped off the last page:

Interestingly, the above was fed-back on an unofficial sub-reddit as I gather the mods on the Official FFXIV subreddit kept deleting threads pertaining to this.

All I take away from that is SE is fine to eat our subscriptions without giving any regard to (FFXIV) sustainability, burnout, or player feedback.

[Ephremjlm]

Interestingly, the above was fed-back on an unofficial sub-reddit as I gather the mods on the Official FFXIV subreddit kept deleting threads pertaining to this.

All I take away from that is SE is fine to eat our subscriptions without giving any regard to (FFXIV) sustainability, burnout, or player feedback.

Well though that COULD be true (Final Fantasy Tactics is more akin to FF11 than FF14), basically what they're saying is that players need to foot the bill so the director can actually learn how to be a director for "Final Fantasy" as a brand. Thats wild, but not unexpected if anyone here read the Yoshi P's interview on the "We Are Vanadiel" website, and the way he acted during the FF16 launch. I mean I personally thought it was funny hearing Nomura be like "yeah idk man I definitely think JRPG is a term for a reason and we do it best" instead of making excuses for a game they knew wasn't going to have the Final Fantasy feel before it even came out.

[DynnDiablos]

I think it's cute that they believe there will be enough of a population to sustain the game for a further 10 years. I am also growing tired of the "Dawntrail lays the foundation for the next saga" when I have yet to see what it is actually paving the way for. Currently, it is a horribly written side story/detour you could completely skip over and miss out on zilch, zero, nada. I believe quality and population will continue to decline in 8.0. Will we see 9.0? Possibly, but I could see FFXIV switching to a F2P or more maintenance mode situation like XI with smaller story/patch updates vs. full expansions.

[Carin-Eri]

I think it's cute that they believe there will be enough of a population to sustain the game for a further 10 years. I am also growing tired of the "Dawntrail lays the foundation for the next saga" when I have yet to see what it is actually paving the way for. Currently, it is a horribly written side story/detour you could completely skip over and miss out on zilch, zero, nada. I believe quality and population will continue to decline in 8.0. Will we see 9.0? Possibly, but I could see FFXIV switching to a F2P or more maintenance mode situation like XI with smaller story/patch updates vs. full expansions.

Agreed.... for the most part.

I don't feel 7.0 (or 7.1 for that matter) laid the framework for much. However, 7.2 seems to have hinted at how the next arc might take shape; Preservation and shard-hoping (possibly a shard war depending on how it might play out) has been building since 6.1 with the Void storyline. They just didn't bother demonstrating to us that this is where we're probably headed until very recently, and we still have no idea exactly what it'll look like.

[Astronema]

i think the plan is slowly kill the game off and make the mobile version the defacto one.

[CaptainLagbeard]

I think it's cute that they believe there will be enough of a population to sustain the game for a further 10 years. I am also growing tired of the "Dawntrail lays the foundation for the next saga" when I have yet to see what it is actually paving the way for. Currently, it is a horribly written side story/detour you could completely skip over and miss out on zilch, zero, nada. I believe quality and population will continue to decline in 8.0. Will we see 9.0? Possibly, but I could see FFXIV switching to a F2P or more maintenance mode situation like XI with smaller story/patch updates vs. full expansions.

Well we still have 4 patches (7.3, 7.4, 7.5 and 7.55) to start laying a foundation.
I guess we do have the interdimensional key MacGuffin, but that's hardly a foundation by itself and it's basically the only genuinely important thing to come out of DT's story so far.

[Asari5]

yoshida said DT is less of a build up and more of a bridging between stories.
that was in an interview some time ago.

i wonder how people will defend DT when they notice DT isnt the built up they thought it would be. it was one of the defenses i heard the most when we talked about how weak DT is. no clue why they even considered that a defense.

but i guess they will use that again if the next expansion wont be good either

[Volkien]

Typically what happens with patches though, is that x.1, x.2, and x.3 are continuations of the current expansions story, with x.3 being the true expansion finale, with it's final cutscene showcasing what's to come. They only deviated from that formula with Endwalker because they wanted to tell the complete narrative WITHIN the initial expansion release. We still have one more patch of Dawntrail story to do, so it makes sense that we haven't overly seen the "paving of the way" the developers have been mentioning, but I'm hopeful we'll see something soon. x.4, and x.5 are usually "prequel patches" to the next expansion, so I'm sure we'll see whats to come then.