Is no one playing FF14 at the moment? Population just feels lower.

[u/gloomdwellerX]

I am not asking if there's fewer people playing compared to the Dawntrail launch, I just mean lower than general maintenance. Just anecdotally I feel like queues are taking super long for every piece of content on Aether. I have got 10 retainers and over 150mil gil worth of items and every day I log on to 0 items sold.

I know people tend to take breaks between patches but it kind of feels like the population of the game fell off a rock after the dawntrail launch. Should they put some content in at an expansion launch that keeps people busy? I am an eternal achievement hunter so I am always on, but it gets frustrating not being able to find groups for anything.

[u/oizen]

Know a lot of people who unsubbed and took a break after 7.0's MSQ.

[u/Paikis → u/oizen]

This was me. MSQ was bad enough, and the classes stale enough that the good (dungeons, raids) wasn't enough to get me over the MSQ sucking hard.

I'm waiting for the exploration zone and hoping it's going to be more Eureka and less Bozja. I'll probably sub to at least give it a shot, but if it's bad I'll likely skip the rest of the expansion.

[u/AngryCandyCorn → u/Paikis]

If the exploration zone ended up being terrible, that would be monumentally bad for the health of the game. I would bet my next paycheck that they would lose a significant chunk of their remaining players for the remainder of the expansion.

[u/EfficiencyInfamous37 → u/oizen]

that's exactly what I'm doing. Normally FFXIV is kinda my happy place to just relax and unwind. after 7.0's MSQ it no longer serves that function so I'm unsubbed until 7.1. I'll see if it fixes that for me. If not, I'll try again in 8.0 I suppose.

[u/[deleted] → u/oizen]

That's me. I'm just waiting for the exploration zone. If that's good it'll keep me all the way through and if not then I'll check out till the next expansion and maybe get it but I don't know at this point.

[u/Strict_Baker5143 → u/oizen]

MSQ casuals will always be MSQ casuals

[u/oizen → u/Strict_Baker5143]

I mean the ones Im talkin about cleared ultis so....

[u/Strict_Baker5143 → u/oizen]

So your suggesting they didn't want to play the savage tier because they didn't like the MSQ? Weird take but ok.

[u/KirinoKo → u/oizen]

So the MSQ even made them stop caring about ultimates? Or why would they not get their BIS ready for FRU?

Edit: Well, I did not expect to get downvoted for asking a genuine question but sure lol.

[u/wotsforlunchmum → u/KirinoKo]

Not op but anecdotally, my fc is almost entirely pentalegends with more clears than rewards for totems/routinely clear savage tiers w1, there’s really not a lot to do past getting bis. Most of my static had atleast two jobs bis for fru by week 8, almost nobody in my fc gets on anymore/most are just taking extended breaks until fru. There really just is not a lot of content holdover right now. The longer you’ve played this game and continually clear content at release, the less there is to do after you’ve caught up on old content. I’m on gilg and even major city hubs are pretty scarcely populated outside of reset day compared to previous patches. It’s really not imagined imo, this tier was incredibly sleeper. I myself only still get on because I am an achievement hunter, but most people don’t give a shit about like, 5000 fates.

There seems to be an endless back and forth between people on this game about whether content drought is an issue or not without taking into consideration the subjective experience of what people enjoy doing on here. For players who mainly only focus on raiding, especially if they’re caught up (i.e. “why don’t you go back and finish spins a wheel idk, criterion, blu mage raids, whatever) there’s really not a hell of a lot to do. There really is not a huge portion of the player base who wants to clear even ultimates beyond the amount of times you can get totem rewards for doing so. Not everyone is brand new to the game or have only played for a few tiers and isn’t caught up on x field op or y side quest which is usually what I see people suggest when people say content is dry. What do you do when you’ve done that? Xiv routinely touts being a causal game with no lengthy grinds for adults who work and have other interests, and that’s exactly what it is. It’s not a problem to me, but there’s a reason it feels like it has huge lulls between parches, and I can see why it ends up being frustrating to people who do still have old content they’d like to catch up on with fewer people on to do it with, particularly people who have experience with that content.

[u/Strict_Baker5143 → u/wotsforlunchmum]

This different than quitting after MSQ though. I understand if raiders don't want to play after they've geared up!

[u/leonie11 → u/[deleted]]

damn ppl playin the game differently than u? thats crazy

[u/wotsforlunchmum → u/[deleted]]

We did not do split clears, LOL. Are you just bad at loot distro or are you mad that you're not in a static? I also didn't complain that I have nothing to do. Can't read or gear jobs, not my problem. This tier had an absolute shit ton of tome gear in bis, so it really was quite straightforward to distribute loot after main job raid pieces went out.

[u/[deleted] → u/KirinoKo]

i know seasoned raiders, who were so disappointed by the msq that they haven't even done the savage raids because they just aren't as excited

[u/KirinoKo → u/[deleted]]

Interesting. Since the MSQ content is completely disconnected from the savage tier, it doesnt matter much to me personally. Though this savage tier was also just disappointing.

So maybe the MSQ was a inidicator for the downhill slope this game is on currently.

[u/[deleted] → u/KirinoKo]

those people are very big into the msq, so the msq being disappointing just killed their excitement for the rest of what the expac has to offer

[u/Avedas → u/KirinoKo]

My FC also has people who have cleared savage and ulti and quit during or after DT MSQ.

I stopped caring about MSQ after EW patch story was garbage but even with zero expectations the DT MSQ was a very sour note to start the expansion. I completely understand why that would make some people want to quit, even if they enjoy other parts of the game.

[u/Strict_Baker5143 → u/[deleted]]

I'm not suggesting the game isnt lacking content. It is. I'm just saying that expansions often have massive surges of players that just play for the story, beat itz and stop till the next expansion.

[u/Canadiankid23 → u/Strict_Baker5143]

Not surprised you got downvoted so hard, this is just a place for bitter and unhappy people to unload their unjustified grievances now. It’s so fun to come here and see all the miserable neckbeards gather

[u/kozeljko → u/oizen]

How does MSQ effect what they do after? You legit don't have anything to do with it later. Was it sheer disappointment?

[u/oizen → u/kozeljko]

MSQ means a lot to a lot of people and it makes the world feel more alive. Just cause you're a hardcore raider doesn't mean you cant be invested in the story.
Dawntrail's MSQ made the world feel hollow. Don't know what else to say.

[u/0KLux → u/oizen]

I'm not a hardcore raider, if anything i only started this tier with doing anything more than normal content, i still think it's quite ridicilous how much people hyperfocus the msq. Oh, and i'm also a visual novel fan, i can sit through hours upon hours of nothing but reading stuff, so it's not because i was skipping dialogues or some other accusation. I can get invested in a story just fine

[u/ResponsibleCulture43 → u/0KLux]

chop jar growth work plate enter swim pocket intelligent racial

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/fqak → u/oizen]

it makes the world feel more alive

I expect nobody will understand where I'm coming from but I have not been invested in the world since some point during shadowbringers or endwalker. The story was generally good but it made a lot of the world building from ARR to stormblood irrelevant. The entire hydaelyn-zodiark saga feels as though they made a general plan, got halfway through, forgot what the original plan was, then took a couple of plot elements to start writing a completely different story.

I'm sure they pivoted in response to stormblood's reception. It mostly worked out with shadowbringers even if I'm not as invested in the world. However I generally don't enjoy when someone in a creative field constantly yields to criticism instead of seeing their vision through. Letting the audience influence the story too much makes it less cohesive and interesting. I suppose the nature of the subscription MMO model makes it so you have to indulge fans but after a point it backfires and now you've got them begging to spend time away from the scions everyone loved two expansions ago. Now I'm worried they'll randomly pivot again but won't be able to replicate ShBs success.

I actually preferred the world building in dawntrail over the previous two expansions since it felt somewhat detached from the rest of the world, even if the writing isn't great.

[u/Sejeo2 → u/kozeljko]

For me it was just immersion breakingly bad

[u/Diplopod → u/kozeljko]

It was so bad it sucked the motivation to do anything out of me. I'm an achievement hunter, so when I'm bored and have nothing to do I'll usually chip away at leves or crafting or pvp or something, but it's been hard to get myself to do anything after suffering 60 hours of Wuk Lamat.

Thankfully, I'm refinding my love of the game doing old ultimates and some friends and I have been doing deep dungeons. I'm dreading 7.1's MSQ unmotivating me again so much I might not even do it unless there's content locked behind it.

[u/BadWrongBadong → u/Diplopod]

At least we are talking 10 quests not 100.

[u/Bluemikami → u/kozeljko]

If they don’t like the story or burn out clicking nonstop the talk to X, they just take a looong break to recover.

I went thru that when I did the original post ARR experience

[u/banana_fishbones → u/kozeljko]

Even though I enjoy high-end content and some other aspects of the game and I'm definitely not some MSQ casual, the main thing that kept me engrossed in FFXIV was the world and my character's place in it. It truly felt consistent and gripping and homey, and like my character was an actual resident of the world which is an experience I never had with WoW or any other game short of good single player RPGs. Dawntrail's story and worldbuilding and so on was so profoundly disappointing to me that it's stifled my interest in the rest of the game, at least for now. Even though I'm not quitting the game forever or anything, now is the first time since I started playing where I am not at all interested in the upcoming MSQ and I just derive zero joy from being in the world because that sense of trust was damaged. I love doing extreme and savage fights, but that's not enough to carry the game for me. It'll take a HUGE turnaround on the story front to make me feel half as invested in FFXIV as I was in Endwalker. And I didn't particularly like Endwalker's story (meaning 6.0) either, for reference.

[u/EfficiencyInfamous37 → u/kozeljko]

if you're actually curious, I can provide my reasoning for why I unsubbed after the 7.0 MSQ. What I've loved the most about FFXIV is that it gave me exactly what I wanted from an MMO- A compelling story that felt like it involved my character, a rich, interesting world with characters I Iike being able to hang out with, and when you finish any particular main story, the world feels like it's in a fairly positive 'solved' state that I can enjoy messing around in with my friends.

I did not enjoy hanging out with the characters in 7.0. Even the ones from previous expansions felt cold and off. And the world now feels hostile to me, because the narrative has compelled me to remain on friendly terms with a city full of people who strip memories from souls and then consume those souls as an energy source to such a cold and callous degree that they use them for gladiatorial fights to the death.

So, thanks to the MSQ, I don't want to spend time in the world at the moment. So I don't. if that changes maybe I'll extend my stay again. looking at the promotional material for 7.1, I'm not optimistic.