FFXIV population decline continues

[Lilapop]

I don't give a single frick about the msq. You do that content once and then it's over. The problem is that unless you're interested in raiding or similarly higher end content, there's absolutely nothing worth doing, and that SE seems like they're completely fine with that cadence.

Can you imagine if there were no savage/ultimate content until 7.2/7.3? You wouldn't hear the end of the of it. So why is that reality ok for casual content? Of course having an endgame is important, but in an mmo as large as xiv you have to take into account and cater to a variety of players, you can't just keep making content for one specific group. I think a perfect example of xiv getting this right was ARR relics. It was something you could work on as soon as you finished the msq, was regularly updated, and at various points the relic weapon was useful as a baseline to get into the current raid tier. It was basically the bare minimum expected of you to start the first coil, and it wasn't uncommon to see people with animus and novus relics taking on second coil

At some point, SE seems to have decided that having a meaningful casual progression path (or at this point, having casual content at all within the first year of an expansion) was something that they were no longer interested in doing and now choose frontload their expansions with raiding content and make it the end all be all of progressing your character until a year in where SE decides that they can find the time to address the rest (and the majority of, mind) of their playerbase and grace them with gift of whatever content they can be bothered to pull out of their arse

All the promises of content in dawntrail mean NOTHING if it isn't implemented in a timely manner. If we have to wait half an expansions lifespan for field operations, exploration dungeons or whatever else, that is completely unacceptable. SE's priorities NEED to change. My greatest fear is that after two expansions of people begging for SE to give them something to do outside of raiding, SE finally delivers in 7.2 or 7.3 and people get it and go like "Look! Look! the content is here! SE listened to us! The game is good! I told you it would be!" and then SE sees that reaction and goes "we did a good job" and learns nothing. Then 8.0 comes around and the cycle repeats again with SE self assured that they can just have nothing for their playerbase to do for an entire year and it's completely fine for them to do so. Sadly, and I really do mean it makes me fricken sad, I see this as the most likely outcome

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.

[NamiRocket]

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.

Continually Missing The Point (Savage)

[Lilapop]

Continually Missing The Point (Savage)

Continually having much to say without saying anything (Ultimate)

[iiOmarSP]

Pretty much mainly cause the transition from Endwalker to Dawntrail showcased this game's fantastic system of not having anything to hold people's attention until the X.2 patch (which Endwalker had done absolutely nothing about), now that the 10 year old story is done.

You can attribute this to the fact that lots of people don't like the story itself and the new set of characters, which based on what I've seen off of social media: a decent number stopped playing due to it.
You can attribute this to the fact that when an expansion comes out, there is virtually *NOTHING* to do outside of mount farming for older expansion if you are somewhat fresh, current expansion mount farming, Savage, Unreal, the now new raiding content: Chaotic and an ultimate.
I.E the only type of content this game will have for the ENTIRE YEAR of its expansion's launch.
For the people who DON'T do raiding in general, they find this type of content super unappealing to them, as not everyone wants to do raiding, and thus: this type of content is practically useless for them.
For the casual side of things, what exactly do you have outside of the story? 2 post story dungeons, maps, fishing if you are into that sort of thing, or just crafting.
The same things we all had since this formulaic expansion content drop is being done since, arguably: Stormblood.
For so long, people have talked about how dumped down jobs have become, and at this point I think people just gave up and moved on as clearly nothing was done about it.

When the one thing your game is being touted as fantastic suddenly ends up pissing off over half of the playerbase and you can't pinpoint which is which, this is the only outcome that will happen.

If they want to keep people around, you can't just keep doing the same thing over and over and expect people to stick around, or have some complacency and just get lazy.

Most people have constantly praised this game for its story telling for *y e a r s*, and what happens when we get a second expansion where the story is a controversial part of it when it is fresh? people simply leave for a while to possibly the next expansion, no questions asked.

[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.

[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.