Server Populations

[TStupified]

It has been possible to see this happening by pretty much anyone who has been there since the release, by very little observation. Maybe 2 weeks after the release date, people from my LS, ingame friends and just randoms you often bumped into have started disappearing gradually. It is the unfortunate truth, that the upcoming updates have to improve the game quite a bit in order to keep it alive, if it isn't too late already.

[Tomino]

There's one thing that can really doom upcoming SE efforts...
You can have unsatisfied customers to deal with, those you can handle with fixes but... FF14 crushed a lot of hopes, it was such a dissapointment that it actually generated hate, anger and all the nice stuff. A lot of people felt cheated (myself included) and I wonder if an auto sort function will help with that.

I doubt the can keep granting trial times until march, it will be quite disastrous from a press point of view, but I also believe users will really drop if they start asking for actual cash.

I'll keep following this with real interest!

[Dooom]

TFF14 crushed a lot of hopes, it was such a dissapointment that it actually generated hate, anger and all the nice stuff. A lot of people felt cheated (myself included) and I wonder if an auto sort function will help with that.

I have to agree. Pretty much everyone I know and have spoke to who plays/has played echoes this sentiment, in that it sounded like such a fun game with interesting ideas (even if not entirely originally, FF5 I <3 j00), but the disappointment of the "finished" product is something that will take a lot of getting over. I've never had a game, book, movie, CD, etc. etc. etc. leave me feeling physically angry and upset with disappointment... until ff14. My sister started playing this week, and I actually feel sorry for her. How fucked up is that.

[TStupified]

The thing is that, for some reason SE seem to have expected that they can just release an unfinished game, that lacks many, MANY basic things to nowadays standards and keep their playersbase (and fans) and that can easily be taken as an arrogant slap in the face by many players, because we had high expections.. Actually, removing the word "high" would be closer to the truth. Of course no one that has any braincells left wouldn't expect the game to have _EVERYTHING_ at the release, but it just lacks too many basic things that should be there by default, that is the biggest disappointment for many. Plus, there isn't really any challenge.. nothing really is challenging in the game (read: yet), but mostly just timesinks. Of course, we do play games to spend our time, but we do want challenges as well, we do not buy and pay monthly fees for games just to "live" in the game world, or do we? We need something to aim at, currently there isn't much in that aspect.

Now don't get me wrong though, I'm by no means bashing this game and I definitely do not count myself as a hater. I play it a lot compared to many people and I still have that little glimmer of hope in my eyes that the game will evolve (soon, hopefully) and other players start to like it as well. It's a beautiful game, it has great soundtrack and it definitely could make a good game with some improvements, but some of the improvements should've been there at the release, or in other words; they should've not released the game before the improvements were there, that is the biggest flaw at the moment. No one expects to continue a game at the state where it was in beta, but that's what happened this time.

I personally plan to play at least to the december update to see how things start rolling, but I'm afraid that I'm going to lose lots of ingame friends before that, and if I do not have any people to play with, I will be gone too eventually. And another thing that gets me a bit worried is that how well can FFXIV recover even if the updates would make the game much better, because so many people have already left (and leaving) and probably will not be lured back very easily, because they've already gotten a bitter taste in their mouths about how SE did with the game, they do not have their expections high anymore, that's the fact. Not to mention that Cataclysm and GWII releases aren't really that far away anymore.

[Flatliner]

another thing that gets me a bit worried is that how well can FFXIV recover even if the updates would make the game much better, because so many people have already left (and leaving) and probably will not be lured back very easily, because they've already gotten a bitter taste in their mouths about how SE did with the game, they do not have their expections high anymore, that's the fact.

I have a group of friends that I mmo with, and this is very apparent with them. The really big thing that worries me, is that none of them really want to play this game, even if SE goes in and makes this the best MMO ever made. SE showed their philosophy behind this release, which is that they will give the bare mimimum effort to make a game. Which means a lot of people are worried, that even if they go and make this game great, they might revert right back to the minimum content/time sinks that exist now once their subscription numbers are high.

[Loziel]

As much as I wanted 14 to be sucessful, i think its allready in a very bad place. Fabul this evening was just clear of 800 people.

If theres any silver lining to this whole mess is that if it collapses, maybe we will see some serious money and development come back into play for XI which i still love.

[Shuichi]

10/27/2010. Selbina Server. 8:17PM EST. Currently 1,188 players on. This number passes 2K+ during JPN prime time.

I imagine server populations will increase once the polished version of FFXIV releases (read: the PS3 version). Just my observation as a looooooong time XI player (now retired from XI), XIV seems to be following a similar path as XI. Upon its release, there were a myriad of problems and not much to do during its "vanilla" phase. The game got better as time went on. I expect the same will happen with XIV. As it stands right now, between having a job and playing XIV when I can, I can barely keep up with my leves, personally speaking. I am suffering from "trying to level too many classes at once syndrome". I enjoy all the the classes that I am leveling tho, especially crafting. It will be interesting to see what the Nov. and Dec. patches bring to the game.

[bruiser]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how do you see how many people are currently logged onto a server. Is it in the welcome message or something?

[Shuichi]

From the menu, pull up "Party". You'll get a window showing how many are on the world total and how many are in your nearby area.

[Caestus]

No, it is largely SE's fault. They didn't inform us, and they listened to us.

Without the fatigue system... damn, we'd be looking at a grind way beyond Aion's.

Aion's grind is bearable. It is a static grind, in the sense, you have an IDEA of what exp you are going to get. It's been very difficult for me to level gladiator... poor accuracy, abilities take too much stamina, I need to use said abilities to survive, and in Skill Parties I'm expected to hold hate, thus not ranking up because I can't attack, or I miss/ mobs evade.

Original Poster; Thank you for this very very informative. Excellent work I look forward to when I am Rank 50/50

[Lucavi]

Why does every game have to be just like WoW? Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending many (any) of SE's decisions, but can we stop with the WoW comparisons yet? It's stupid. "Well WoW does it this way, it's clearly superior. WoW tells it's lore that way, every other game should do that". If everything about WoW is superior, then maybe new MMOs are just pointless, because we're already sitting on the holy grail of MMOs.

I really want discussion of WoW to just be banned in this forum. So that we can, you know, talk about this game.

I mean, for one thing, Eorzea isn't a world that's existed for, you know, 15 fucking years. There isn't as much to tell.

Problem is when we talk about this game in a way that isn't flattering, people like you ask us why we're even talking about it at all. All I hear is "if you don't like it, stop posting!" Its like you want the forums to be one big self-help group of battered wives, staving off the pain and relishing in the few good times to be had with life. If you want WoW discussions to stop (and I wouldn't mind it at all), stop asking for all non-positive FFXIV discussion to stop as well. This is a forum. For discussion. Not for hand-holding about the good, while ignoring the bad. There's no elephant hidden in the room.

Edit: And whoa, Ragns. Who didn't see this coming 3 miles away. When there are more fun free-to-play MMOs out there, why would someone even stick around when offered a free month of this? Its like volunteering to work a second job at this point, with no pay, simply because you don't want to be too far behind when the game you "hope" FFXIV will turn into arrives.

And no, sorry, that shit doesn't even fly. Don't talk about bandits in the mountains when there are no bandits and no mountains. This game is one crude smattering of suspension of disbelief. Where's the CS of the bandits sacking a random area to set the mood? It can be 10 seconds worth; just something to tie in the fact that when I accept this question, men will randomly pop up in a clearing and pace around one another until either I kill them or 30 minutes pass, in which case they will vanish back to wherever the came from.

If I'm reading this correctly, there's less than 40k subs logging in per day? There's no way that's right. I must be reading it wrong. Will the game even have 200k total subs by Nov. 1st?

[bruiser]

Problem is when we talk about this game in a way that isn't flattering, people like you ask us why we're even talking about it at all. All I hear is "if you don't like it, stop posting!"

That's weird that that's all you hear, because I only said that once. Maybe you just aren't reading everything.

If you want WoW discussions to stop (and I wouldn't mind it at all), stop asking for all non-positive FFXIV discussion to stop as well. This is a forum. For discussion

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/990...ghting-allowed

Maybe I just missed the part where a census thread was the appropriate place for making WoW comparisons.

[Sephiroth]

Its like volunteering to work a second job at this point, with no pay, simply because you don't want to be too far behind when the game you "hope" FFXIV will turn into arrives.

Sadly I think that's the reason many of us keep playing. But if you're a casual who doesn't care about that there's no reason to play right now. That's why people aren't logging in. Whoever's decision it was at SE to release this game instead of delaying it should be fired.

[Dooom]

[QUOTE=Flatliner;4206121The really big thing that worries me, is that none of them really want to play this game, even if SE goes in and makes this the best MMO ever made. [/QUOTE]

I feel this way atm. There's two main reasons I've been playing recently
1: to keep up pace with my handful of friends who still play
2: it gives me something to do while camping NMs on FFXI for Magians quests.

By the time my extended free trial runs out, it'll almost be update time on XI, and close to Christmas, meaning more social events and such. SE will really have to go above and beyond to retain my interest in the game around that time, and I expect it's the same for many others.

[Baha]

I feel this way atm. There's two main reasons I've been playing recently
1: to keep up pace with my handful of friends who still play
2: it gives me something to do while camping NMs on FFXI for Magians quests.

By the time my extended free trial runs out, it'll almost be update time on XI, and close to Christmas, meaning more social events and such. SE will really have to go above and beyond to retain my interest in the game around that time, and I expect it's the same for many others.

All FFXIV has accomplished is make me nostalgic for XI. The discs are just sitting there, taunting me from their shelf.
I've probably logged more playtime on New Vegas and Civ V than on XIV, that's just sad. Three people I started with have already given up on the game, and a fourth is going to give it another shot on PS3 release. If people give up on your game when it's still free to play, you're pretty much fucked.

[Lucavi]

Sadly I think that's the reason many of us keep playing. But if you're a casual who doesn't care about that there's no reason to play right now. That's why people aren't logging in. Whoever's decision it was at SE to release this game instead of delaying it should be fired.

I'd like to think that SE learned something about casuals from this... experiment. I'd think that XP adjustments are coming sooner than later; presumably within the next year or so.

[Katlan]

The thing is that, for some reason SE seem to have expected that they can just release an unfinished game, that lacks many, MANY basic things to nowadays standards and keep their playersbase (and fans) and that can easily be taken as an arrogant slap in the face by many players, because we had high expections..

Pretty sure SE felt that being given stuff like auto sort, being able to see PT members on the map, was an "extra" and not to be included in the original package or they would have never released the game in it's state.

And the additional free play time hasn't helped the game much. The game is just bad, and many ppl don't enjoy playing it. Offering free play time isn't gonna make all those ppl who quit before the end of the free trial come back

[Hyan]

Sadly I think that's the reason many of us keep playing. But if you're a casual who doesn't care about that there's no reason to play right now. That's why people aren't logging in. Whoever's decision it was at SE to release this game instead of delaying it should be fired.

We don't even know what the outcome of that decision is yet. From a company's PoV, there is no reason to fire 'that guy' (usually the Producer who handles these things) at this time.

[Sephiroth]

I'd like to think that SE learned something about casuals from this... experiment. I'd think that XP adjustments are coming sooner than later; presumably within the next year or so.

They'll probably do that on PS3 launch, to let them catch up or something. SE probably has the assumption that all the casuals will be PS3 players and they've got five months to make it better for them.

[Dooom]

We don't even know what the outcome of that decision is yet. From a company's PoV, there is no reason to fire 'that guy' (usually the Producer who handles these things) at this time.

Well so far it's dragged the company's name through the mud, creating a lot of bad press, and left a bitter taste in many people's mouths. If this ends up being a financial success, I'll be shocked.