In all fairness, I've been playing since beta -- though I use the term "playing" loosely, as mostly I've been popping in after each patch to decide if it's worth devoting time to it. The fundamental problems with the game as far as I'm concerned are:
- The lack of content; and[/*]
- The egregiously poor approach to the player economy in a game that's ostensibly driven by it.[/*]
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The content is a real problem. Running the same four levequests over and over until you get to the next camp -- or, alternatively, finding the other camps in your rank range in the other cities and blowing anima to teleport to them -- is really boring, especially compared to more mature games. I'm not inherently opposed to the levequest model, having played with its closest analogue in CoH, but you need more than a small set of repeating quests to keep people interested.
That said, the issues with the economy are arguably more critical, as they make it very difficult to move through equipment progression and introduce distortions in the market. The search functionality they're adding, along with the delivery functionality in early 2011, will fix these issues if executed correctly. That'll put the game on par with EQ2 and WoW, which means we can see the economy really open up. Market arbitrage and increased supply visibility will drive prices down, and the availability of a functional way to get one's wares sold will increase supply by making synthesis more attractive to those who dislike the system but like gil.
I entirely agree with Satisiun. While this may slow the exodus of players and reduce the severity of the hemorrhage when the free period ends, none of the most recent patch's changes will attract new players to the game. I doubt seriously that you'll see many people holding out for more content, as you can reactivate your account at will without a loss of progress. More likely, we'll see people dropping out when the game is no longer free and periodically checking back. I suspect we won't see these people hanging out in the community, paying to RP in a game they don't particularly like and where RP can be a bit difficult to locate.
As for new players? Until content is added and news coverage makes people aware of that fact, I think FFXIV will remain niche. The initial reviews were scathing, and that's what stands out to people.
The Freelance Wizard
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
