FF14 player count reached the lowest point in 4 years. We lost 75% of the playerbase.

[hydralus]

"I'm glad that the game I'm white knighting for lost 75% of the playerbase because their criticisms have gone unheard for so long that they finally gave up and left in apathy".

Yeah? Nothing happens if you just keep complaining but keep paying. If the game improves because people unsub and they get off their asses to improve it, great. If the game shuts down, oh well. If the game keeps going as it is because it manages to stay profitable then that's fine too.

[Iedarus]

This doesn't surprise me. My content for this game has just been doing the same stale hallwa-I mean dungeons over and over while mashing 11111 because queueing dps takes 50 million years and parking myself in the Gold Saucer. That's basically been my regular content cause nothing else of substance is happening. Not only are we in a horrific content drought, we also have no fun gameplay to make up for it. Even when Warframe had droughts the gameplay loop and build mechanic was fun enough to play around with to fill the gap. Here, if you want to grind anything fun, you can't because you're locked out of rewards after one playthrough...

Me: "Wow! That FFXI raid was pretty fun and chaotic! I wanna go again so I can have fun and get more rewards for my main job and other jobs!"
Yoshi P: "No."
Me: "Oh, well what do I do now?"
Yoshi P: "Play other games."
Me: "..."
Also me: "HOW THE HELL IS THIS A SOUND BUSINESS PRACTICE!!?"

But hey, I did just get a double mini cactpot so I guess that's neat.

[Supersnow845]

It would definitely help content longevity if job design wasn’t so laughably terrible

Healers especially are designed for people who don’t play them. That doesn’t mesh well with “the only content to do is the same content you’ve done 1000 times already”

[Rithy255]

It would definitely help content longevity if job design wasn’t so laughably terrible

Healers especially are designed for people who don’t play them. That doesn’t mesh well with “the only content to do is the same content you’ve done 1000 times already”

I've always said this but When job design is good it enhances the casual content and even savage encounters.

Currently playing through content once is really the only unique experience you will get with that form of content, take savage raids for example once you do it on one job theirs no real point doing it on another, especially if they are in the same category of tank/dps/healer.

picking a different job should feel interesting and unique, maybe even challenging, but instead it feels pretty much the same because job design is so one note.

Healers like you've pointed out are a great example of this, but in general they cannot design anything other then a DPS role in this game (even this is becoming questionable), they have to give tanks absurd defensive kits that get stronger each expansion, they have to bloat healers with extra heals that doesn't get used because encounters still design around healers who only use gcd heals lol, this also results in no evolution in DPS kits, I guess people complaining made them add one skill dps you use to in 2minute windows.. enjoy?

Support roles (tanks/healers) need a massive overhaul with how they interact with the game, but my bet is 8.0 will mostly only focus on dps, because I have a feeling that they have no idea what they are even doing at this point with tanks or healers.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I've always said this but When job design is good it enhances the casual content and even savage encounters[…]

I’ve said the similar since forever, too.

There’s no doubt that casual contents are the most populous in the game. Players from all facets—casual to HC—touches them at some point in their weekly routines. So why not push the effort to actually make that process more fun?

I.e. I’ll probably stop bailing from CT raid and groans far less if I get one from roulette, IF the buttons are actually engaging, well designed lv50 kits. Not only that, this will also help any other lower level pops, too. But as of now, they just don’t. Design deems that all the fun stuffs should be shoved to close to cap level & frankly I find this overtly silly.

[Saraide]

Great news for an MMO hater like myself.

[Red-thunder]

because even back in ARR and Heavensward you could find people to play with.

Yeah because back then people played the game, not ERP with Mare in the Quicksand or go to nightclubs and AFK.

[Oizen]

I like how any time steam charts are used as an example of a games decline, you see all the mouthbreathers who can't grasp the concept of sample sizes.

[hydralus]

More players mean more game.

Does it, though? They've had a large influx of players since Stormblood and it hasn't translated to more game.