Why casual players don't 'just leave'

[NegativeS]

Has this ever happened to you?

Game sucks, please diversify content so that people like me can feel like we're not wasting our money

Shut up dork, you do know that if you don't like the content they make then you can just quit the game, right

Seems like an all too common occurrence anywhere FFXIV discourse happens these days, especially on the forum.

And, yeah, I get it. A game isn't fun for you anymore? Common sense reaction would be to stop giving them your money. The game changes? Cool, maybe they've earned your money again. They don't? Oh well.

Except.

The MMORPG genre is dead.

...and it has been for a while now.

Back in the ye olden days, MMORPGs were super popular because they were an easy way to hang out with, chat with, and play games with friends.

The first MMORPGs came out at the start of the century, before most common ways of communicating over the internet had released. Skype was still a few years out, and even TeamSpeak was just starting to see the light of day. You had AOL and you had Yahoo, and maybe email or forums if you were freaky, but that was about it. As a result, MMOs became popular, and companies saw this popularity and started to throw their hats into the ring.

They may not have known at the time, but MMOs are high risk/reward ventures. Multiple persistent game worlds have a cost to maintain, usually by people paying a subscription fee for playing the game. If you can get people to pay this fee, perfect, you're raking in the dough. If not, you crash and burn, hard.

So, MMOs would rise and fall, some would rise for longer than others, and eventually people would understand that they should leave persistent world games to people with more financial wiggle room. And thus we end up with a genre full of 10-20 year old games with aging audiences.

Which leads us to today. Let's take a look and see what other MMO games there are for these casuals to play?

• WoW: Has long since collapsed into a 'compete or die' black hole. Dubious past, future after TLT uncertain.
• GW2: Actively being smothered by ArenaNet. Future uncertain.
• SWTOR: Maintenance mode.
• EVE: Anyone attempting to play EVE for a casual experience is will find themselves immediately possessed by the ghost of Gene Roddenberry, never to be seen again.
• OSRS: Simplistic to its own detriment, limited player expression, and supremely grindy.
• BDO: Nothing to do? [citation needed, does anybody even play bdo?]
• Honkai/Genshin/etc.: Yeah okay buddy whatever you say
• Everything else: Very low quality, very low population, or maintenance mode

What MMOs are there for these casual players to go to?

"ahh negative you fool, there are other games out there than mmos, checkmate, i will now completely disregard the point of the post and act very aloof and pseudointelligent in my reply"

Yeah, I know. But MMOs offer a very unique experience.

It's a second world--a second life--for people to escape to. You assume the role of an avatar in the world, and get to see them grow and develop alongside the changing world. You get to see other people grow and develop alongside you, at the same time. You can go meet up with friends without having to wait through lobbies and matchmaking, or you can just stand around in a city and meet people. Watch them interact. It's a living, breathing game world.

You can't get an experience like this in pretty much any other game genre.

And you can't get a casual experience like this in pretty much any other game, period.

FFXIV is the only MMO game that fits these following critera:

1. Game is still receiving updates, and isn't actively being sunset.
2. Game has a substantial pool of people to interact with.
3. Game actually has an immersive world to engage with.
4. Game has a substantial amount of avenues for player expression.
5. Game isn't gacha/P2W garbage.
6. Game has a reasonable amount of (non-completionist) content to interact with outside of the progression treadmill.

So, obviously, when people see that FFXIV, the one remaining casual MMO, begins to deviate away from being casual... they become afraid.

And, yea, I don't blame them. Personally if I wanted to raise my blood pressure in a high-stress gaming environment, I'd go download League of Legends and hate myself there.

Much easier to stay here and complain and hope that the game course corrects than to either go to another game and bother them to conforming to their standards or wait for another flash-in-the-pan MMO to be born and die within the span of a year.

And, yea, virtual housing rent probably has something to do with it. But it can't be the only factor, because FFXIV didn't invent FOMO and people have no problem dropping other games with it.

FFXIV is the last bastion for casual MMO players.

[Sunhwapark]

I thought they don't leave because "something something FOMO, don't want my house demolished".

[Evergrey]

FFXIV is the only MMO game that fits these following critera:

1. Game is still receiving updates, and isn't actively being sunset.
2. Game has a substantial pool of people to interact with.
3. Game actually has an immersive world to engage with.
4. Game has a substantial amount of avenues for player expression.
5. Game isn't gacha/P2W garbage.
6. Game has a reasonable amount of (non-completionist) content to interact with outside of the progression treadmill.

I would personally say that ESO fits in there as well.

1. It receives regular updates.
2. With the mega servers there's never a shortage of people to interact with.
3. The game world is big and immersive. And with the level sync all zones always stays relevant so no zone will turn into a "dead zone" as zones often do when people have out leveled it and moved on.
4. Players can express themselves with the freedom of choice with how any class can play whatever role. No armor/weapon lock to specific classes. Cosmetic/Transmog system. Players can "equip" skins, personalities (and more) that drastically change how their character looks.
5. Game has a store that sells Cosmetics and more. Only thing people might argue is close to P2W is the optional subscription that gives some perks like an infinite crafting material "bag". Edit: ESO does have crates though. Still optional but they contain a bunch of cosmetical options. So that would be a downside.
6. There's plenty of stuff to do. But one most people from FFXIV might find most interesting is that houses aren't limited and can be decorated with great freedom with a huge variety of items.
   Considering how Houses seems to be what keeps a lot of people from leaving FFXIV.

[Eyrilona]

I would personally say that ESO fits in there as well.

My qualm with ESO is that it is kind of dishonest. It acts like you can play for free, when in reality a paid sub is pretty much a necessity if you want to be able to enjoy the game, those QoL perks that come with the paid sub don't feel like optional luxuries, they're bare essentials in a game with so few inventory slots by default.

[AnnRam]

Casuals and people who uses MMORPG as second life ruined the genre period.

People nowadays will never ever feel what was to fill a party without Duty Finders and Matchmakings or even invite a solitary player in mid of a dungeon to a party and level up.

Now all you have to do its stand -> select dungeon- > wait 5 minutes while browsing on another window. ->dungeon ready - >everyone " o7 , howdie,mewdie-> clear the dungeon that gives no rare drops, no items, no money and just worthless gear -> leave and never see those people ever again.

The only interaction I got in this game were " bro, mare? , bro share me your code, moonhooper :3? "

[Evergrey]

My qualm with ESO is that it is kind of dishonest. It acts like you can play for free, when in reality a paid sub is pretty much a necessity if you want to be able to enjoy the game, those QoL perks that come with the paid sub don't feel like optional luxuries, they're bare essentials in a game with so few inventory slots by default.

If one plans on playing ESO regularly then yes, the sub will be necessary for the added perks it gives. And the subscription gives access to the old Expansions/DLC's for the duration.
But since people here on FFXIV already pay a sub regardless I see no real difference from paying an optional sub on ESO.
Besides, since it's optional one can unsub and can still jump in and play occasionally. That's what I've been doing lately when my focus has been on other games.
I can still jump in and do, let's say seasonal events without spending money on the sub.
And I've been able to play for like a week at a time each month for months now.
I just have to manage my inventory more.
Which anyone already does do in FFXIV anyways.

Oh, and if people in FFXIV wants to have extra storage for, let's say crafting materials you'd have to cash out more than just a sub for extra retainers.
Where in ESO one has unlimited crafting storage included in that optional sub.
And if the sub runs out you can still use everything from said storage. you just can't put stuff back in there if you don't have an active sub.

Edit: I can't remember from the top of my head right now. But with bagspace upgrades (included in the base game as ingame gold purchases) one can get up to around 200 bag slots, iirc.
That's enough if one only plans to play casually without a sub for a while.

[NegativeS]

Casuals and people who uses MMORPG as second life ruined the genre period.

People nowadays will never ever feel what was to fill a party without Duty Finders and Matchmakings or even invite a solitary player in mid of a dungeon to a party and level up.

Now all you have to do its stand -> select dungeon- > wait 5 minutes while browsing on another window. ->dungeon ready - >everyone " o7 , howdie,mewdie-> clear the dungeon that gives no rare drops, no items, no money and just worthless gear -> leave and never see those people ever again.

The only interaction I got in this game were " bro, mare? , bro share me your code, moonhooper :3? "

Matchmaking is much closer to the hardcore raider side. Every other high blood pressure game uses matchmaking, including for competitive modes.

Having to assemble a group manually is closer to the 'second life' side. Think back to WoW classic and how you needed to do ask around in cities for the lowest level dungeons in the game.

Over time the connotation of the two have swapped because 'casual' came to be associated with 'tourist', but even then it's much less a 'casual/hardcore' thing than it is just a convenience thing. At least from what I remember during my time as part of WoW discourse, both casuals and hardcores have people who like the convenience of LFD and people who enjoyed back when it was a strictly social thing.

[Mawlzy]

Casuals and people who uses MMORPG as second life ruined the genre period.

People nowadays will never ever feel what was to fill a party without Duty Finders and Matchmakings

You're right, we're being cruelly denied a process that was slow and tedious.

[Tyintheron]

You're right, we're being cruelly denied a process that was slow and tedious.

I once went to a guild website where they made me fill out a job application form, wanted "references," and had a 3-stage interview process.

You know - the good old days!

[Mawlzy]

I once went to a guild website where they made me fill out a job application form, wanted "references," and had a 3-stage interview process.

You know - the good old days!

Haha that is actually standard practice with many nullsec corporations in Eve Online. Wonder why their player count is so low?