Did Square just accidentally give out player numbers?Follow

This relates to what I said earlier about the 5 million registered accounts.

FFXIV doesn't have nearly the retention rate of XI, which isn't surprising given the more casual nature of the game. However, the high volume of registered accounts (people who paid for the game and were subscribers at some point) gives SE big-time leverage in bringing people back. It also shows SE has been continually successful in marketing the game to new players.

My friends list is pretty dead too, but honestly I used it way more often in 1.x than in ARR and beyond. FFXIV isn't too much of a social game outside of your FCs. Linkshells are kind of pointless, so the game doesn't really encourage people to network in the same way XI did. I honestly can't recall the last time I added anyone to my friend list (or even looked at it).

My FC is pretty healthy though. We've lost several people, but we always seem to pick up newbies to keep things rounded out. And our core group hasn't gone anywhere (our sliver of Yoshi-P's 500k).

Yep, since they tend to come from a time when MMOs were less popular (one thing people seem to forget when trying to discredit XI of its achievements) so they actually have a stronger hold despite how old they are. The design also accounts for it, kinda like newer MMOs now has a certain design that they don't expect you to really dedicate yourself to it (which yoshi even admits that he designed it with that in mind) and any real content is usually hard to find outside of the things you can get done in x amount of time. MMOs used to be designed as a 'second world' that evolves even when you're not on it, which is why a lot of new MMOs tend to feel lifeless because they stop while you're not on it..or by time you return to it, the entire game is different because everything you LIKED to do no longer has a purpose to exist in the world anymore.

So it'd sort be like if you enjoyed going to Disney Land then a year from now it closed down and opens up as a Chuck-E-Cheese sure it's new, but there's no longer a lot to do in comparison.