Almost feels like I stepped into a circa-2005 Alla vs. BG in FFXI debate of community worth or something. Ah, memories. I just default to my usual cynical belief that people suck everywhere and the more obvious ones can make things seem worse than they are, ESPECIALLY if not reigned in or even encouraged.
That said, I do share the sentiment that moderation has perhaps been too lenient here over time. It's one thing to have arguments on opinion over a game's direction and what it's done, sure, but I've also been on the receiving end of more personal attacks and even collaborations basically anywhere I had posted XI-related at that time. I wouldn't call it end of the world type stuff (I've been karma camped, too~), but there's always a part of me that hopes the internet could be a better place if sometimes more people in the right places did put their feet down.
As is, this isn't XIV's OF. By default, that means you'll be seeing less traffic. Perhaps I'm simply too old and set in my ways for Reddit or even things like Twitter, but I'm not there, either. I doubt I'm alone in such. I know I was initially exposed to this place via XI and an LJ community. Originally it was just to sponge up info on XI, but eventually I got involved, too. Regardless, I'm glad we're not frequent victims of some of the more common tropes you'll see in any game's OF. Some of those arguments do spring over (Casual vs. Hardcore, P2P vs. F2P, etc.), that's inevitable and doesn't mean they're taboo topics on their own. And arguably, some do favor slower moving topics, both keeping them more readable and less likely to be contaminated by so much noise. Quality of Quantity, as it were. I certainly wouldn't accuse that of meaning a forum is dead or even lesser if the front page isn't littered with posts less than an hour old.
Seriha's Law also dictates this is now a Melee RDM thread.
More on topic, 30% retention seems to be the common number for the MMOs that don't up and flop. Taking the possible 2m registrations and applying that metric, we get 600k possible actives. Run that against Yoshi's unique log-ins and it doesn't seem unreasonable to think the game is at least at that. "Unique" also doesn't mean the same people logging in every day. It could be a core 200k with the remaining 300k full of every-other-day type folks, weekend warriors, etc.. And really, there's no way we can individually know even if we searched every zone 24/7 to try and gauge traffic. Even XI was unreliable with this and /sea all numbers, as 1/3 could've easily been mules parked in Jeuno.
It's no secret I have my grievances with XIV. I can understand some being okay with it. Some not. I don't think it's dying, trash, or all that hyper-negative blah. As with XI, Rift, Diablo III, or whatever other game I take interest in, I'm ultimately critical because I care and would love to see things improve. But good intentions, road to hell, blah blah.
SWORD-CHUCKS, YO!
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Violence good. Sexy bad. Yay America.
