FFXIV population decline continues

[ViinaS]

I think our expectations were too high or they were dashed be dawntrail.[...] We were expecting to have the next expansion to be just like Shadow Bringers and Endwalker.

That is just not true and you know that. People were fully aware of it being the start of a new Arc and did not expect ShB or EW. They expected another ARR. And we didn't even get that. We got a godawful story that fails to set up anything except a Mac Guffin for a concept we already knew of, being Shard Traveling.

DT isn't done yet we still have 7.2 - 7.5 left, and we still have additional activities left, plus other stuff. I know that people hate the patch cycle on how slow it is or how spaced it is, but honestly nothing we can do there that is all the dev team.

That's not a positive. Realisticaly the devs and SE are very bad at stepping out of their formular. So the necessary changes will be 7.3 or 7.4 the earliest. I also highly doubt the Exploration Zone will be good. It will msot likely be a repainted Bozja cause they are so stuck in the mud with "it worked the last time, just copy paste" which can be clearly seen in the MSQ structure.
Not to mention eahc of those patches is almost half a year of nothing new after.
So if they don't cram in 8.0 prelude into 7.5 they have 2 patches to fix things or DT will be an entire flop.

[Basteala]

God I really hope they don't cram the entire prelude into the .55 of the MSQ again. Not only does that mean another year of DT nonsense, but was that one of the few new ideas that flopped entirely. The story really, really needs some of these ideas to stew to build up hype for the next expansion. God knows DT has none left.

[Lilapop]

Continually Missing The Point (Savage)

Continually having much to say without saying anything (Ultimate)

[Voidmage]

Don't forget, there's still more endgame content to come, more Savage tiers, wouldn't put it by them for another Extreme or two either, and a Savage raid tacked on to the exploration zone.

And that’s… actually how it should be?
Don’t get me wrong. I agree that the casual content is far too backloaded with nothing to do now (and that casuals are treated like dirt with the chaotic raid) but isn’t this how we want our patches to be?
Having content for everyone?

Yes raiders will eat really good but what is the alternative to having things to do for everyone?
Taking something away from one group?

[Incantus]

We're getting a deep dungeon, cosmic exploration AND a field operation in this expansion. That's more content than Shadowbringers brought and def more than EW already.

Also I honestly worry about gamers today, I constantly see this "worth doing" mentality when I go on forums. I play games because they are fun. Super Mario didnt reward you with anything, nor did Tekken, or any other old school game for that matter.
If you honestly don't enjoy playing a game unless it rewards you with something, then honestly... You might want to just go outside and take a deep breath or do something else.

I've played FFXIV on and off since 2010, mainly since 2017 actively. I've only ever left once and it was during EW and it wasn't the content, it was just life. I got back into it with DT and replayed the game from scratch, and the sheer amount of content I found when I stopped and smelled the roses so to speak is staggering. And I know some will claim they've already done it all others will claim it's not content that interests them etc...

Fair on you, I never thought I'd get into crafting and gathering in this game, but I decided to try it this time around and I'm loving it, and all the extra stories that go with it. Just to give one example, then there is shared fates and a bunch of other things. All in all... If you don't enjoy the gameplay for the gameplay itself, but rather the digital rewards.... You might need to take a deep hard look into what you're actually getting out of gaming?

I'm trying to muster up the courage to dip my toes into savage, chaotic, ultimate etc... Not there yet, havent even done extremes tbh... But I want to, so at some point I'm just gonna have to do it.

[Clockworks]

We're getting a deep dungeon, cosmic exploration AND a field operation in this expansion. That's more content than Shadowbringers brought and def more than EW already.

Also I honestly worry about gamers today, I constantly see this "worth doing" mentality when I go on forums. I play games because they are fun. Super Mario didnt reward you with anything, nor did Tekken, or any other old school game for that matter.
If you honestly don't enjoy playing a game unless it rewards you with something, then honestly... You might want to just go outside and take a deep breath or do something else.

I've played FFXIV on and off since 2010, mainly since 2017 actively. I've only ever left once and it was during EW and it wasn't the content, it was just life. I got back into it with DT and replayed the game from scratch, and the sheer amount of content I found when I stopped and smelled the roses so to speak is staggering. And I know some will claim they've already done it all others will claim it's not content that interests them etc...

Fair on you, I never thought I'd get into crafting and gathering in this game, but I decided to try it this time around and I'm loving it, and all the extra stories that go with it. Just to give one example, then there is shared fates and a bunch of other things. All in all... If you don't enjoy the gameplay for the gameplay itself, but rather the digital rewards.... You might need to take a deep hard look into what you're actually getting out of gaming?

I'm trying to muster up the courage to dip my toes into savage, chaotic, ultimate etc... Not there yet, havent even done extremes tbh... But I want to, so at some point I'm just gonna have to do it.

"I liked this so you must like it too else it's your fault you dont like the game"

also are we seriously still using "go outside" as an excuse for mediocre content in 2025 ? I thought we left that back in 2024.

Content in DT is absolutely mediocre compared to the content from SHB, and the only savior this expansion had was the MSQ, and even that failed miserably.

[Archeron]

"I liked this so you must like it too else it's your fault you dont like the game"

also are we seriously still using "go outside" as an excuse for mediocre content in 2025 ? I thought we left that back in 2024.

Content in DT is absolutely mediocre compared to the content from SHB, and the only savior this expansion had was the MSQ, and even that failed miserably.

If there were a mini-game involving picking up specks of dust with a pair of tweezers this person would be the one playing it and telling everyone that if they didn't like it, they must think the game is terrible and they should quit playing it.

[Jeeqbit]

I'm trying to muster up the courage to dip my toes into savage, chaotic, ultimate etc... Not there yet, havent even done extremes tbh... But I want to, so at some point I'm just gonna have to do it.

Should definitely try out Extreme. In fact, start with Unreal (which is just a scaled up Extreme trial). You will probably clear it in 1-3 pulls if you join/start a fresh prog party.

[Lilapop]

We're getting a deep dungeon, cosmic exploration AND a field operation in this expansion. That's more content than Shadowbringers brought and def more than EW already.

Also I honestly worry about gamers today, I constantly see this "worth doing" mentality when I go on forums. I play games because they are fun. Super Mario didnt reward you with anything, nor did Tekken, or any other old school game for that matter.
If you honestly don't enjoy playing a game unless it rewards you with something, then honestly... You might want to just go outside and take a deep breath or do something else.

I've played FFXIV on and off since 2010, mainly since 2017 actively. I've only ever left once and it was during EW and it wasn't the content, it was just life. I got back into it with DT and replayed the game from scratch, and the sheer amount of content I found when I stopped and smelled the roses so to speak is staggering. And I know some will claim they've already done it all others will claim it's not content that interests them etc...

Fair on you, I never thought I'd get into crafting and gathering in this game, but I decided to try it this time around and I'm loving it, and all the extra stories that go with it. Just to give one example, then there is shared fates and a bunch of other things. All in all... If you don't enjoy the gameplay for the gameplay itself, but rather the digital rewards.... You might need to take a deep hard look into what you're actually getting out of gaming?

I'm trying to muster up the courage to dip my toes into savage, chaotic, ultimate etc... Not there yet, havent even done extremes tbh... But I want to, so at some point I'm just gonna have to do it.

Oh boy, another Deep Dungeon! What a new an-- oh, more of the same, right. A reskinned Bozja complete with a probable tacked on Savage raid, woohoo! Content variety is slim and it's really starting to show. Personally I feel they should've stopped Hildy before Endwalker, but they made it required for those relics, and gave us... one quest in DT that felt (in my own opinion) randomly tacked on. They went a new direction with the story, clearly. Upped difficulty in normal content a bit, but introducing anything new is beyond them still, for some reason. As far as the exploration zone, judging by how everything else in DT has been so far, there'll probably be some aspect either very few people are vocal about how much they like, or something that'll collectively annoy everyone. (i.e 24 person body check of Chaotic, PCT being weirdly ahead of everything else in FRU etc.)

[Jeeqbit]

Oh boy, another Deep Dungeon! What a new an-- oh, more of the same, right.

They actually said it would work differently this time, but it's unclear how.

A reskinned Bozja complete with a probable tacked on Savage raid, woohoo!

Possibly, but it remains to be seen what differences they add.

Personally I feel they should've stopped Hildy before Endwalker

They kinda did until the playerbase demanded more of it.

introducing anything new is beyond them still

Except Chaos Raids in DT. Except Criterion/Variant in EW. Except Ishgard Restoration/Ocean Fishing in ShB. Except Ultimates and Field Operations in Stormblood. Except deep dungeons/diadem/GC squads in Heavensward.