Square Enix Might Be in trouble as Final Fantasy XIV is bleeding players at an alarming rate. Grummz has a theory about Wuk Lamat.
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If you want my thoughts, this drop was going to come, but people pinning it on ERP and other issues of the likes I'd say are overblowing the issue.
As for the reason I see to the player drop off it's simple, the initial Saga of FFXIV is done, some players have simply stopped there, maybe they didn't appreciate Dawntrail or whatever. It is important to note we are coming down from a titanic climax, and are taking it slow again, which many players don't like, I do.
The complaints to Wuk'Lamat I can understand now that I've heard her english voice (french is written and done a whole differently) but I don't agree, I like that big kid that realizes she has to mature if she wants to be what she envisions.
As soon as I heard that the main focus of the story was not WoL in Dawntrail, I immediately washed my hands from this game. Might as well cancel my subscription :/
You wanna know why ff14 is bleeding players ? Why don't you ask Wuk Lamat. 🙃
I dropped FF14 for good after this expantion.
I'm was a mostly casual player that played the main story quest and a little of the side content. It was great because FF14 really had the story telling quality of a singleplayer FF game in a MMO, which is extremely rare, and the ending of their story in EndWalker was great.
Then in one of their online events talking about the latest expantion to be launched there was a new person on the stage, some american bint with blue hair. I noticed it, but was still willing to give the expantion a chance, after all, it's only one person in the team. Comes next expantion everything is worse. The content is lacking, the story is bad, the character dialog and characterization fell of a cliff never to be seen again, and any criticism against the main character of the expantion is met with "you're just an -ist and a -phobe".
That game is dead to me.
The FFVII remakes are unrecognizable to me. Do they look good? Sure…
Wuk Lamat is the reason I can only play the game in short bursts, if at all. I can't stand her character. I don't even think I'll finish this expansion in the current cycle, if I was being honest with myself. I powered through all expansions previous, also keeping current with the content drops for Endwalker when it released. DT, I can't even get past logging in completely because the story is so boring.
Wait, you mean a game that has no replayability, example WoW's mythic plus dungeon system, and automatically gives you all the best gear with ZERO effort or reason to redo prior content? So hard to believe. ahahahah games trash
ESO and FF14 are both fading away. Which is OK. They are both long-running and old games. I'm excited for Chrono Odyssey and Archeage Chronicles, especially the former.
I think it's MMOs in general tbh.
I'm gay. The problem isn't the woke. If you're uncomfortable around gay or Trans people, you're the problem. If they are breaking terms of service by being lewd, they are the problem. The issue is the content and writing. I actually don't blame the voice actors to much they were given a terrible script to work with this time around
As a player starting in 2013 with 2.0 beta, here's why:
1) the raid scene has gotten so stale to the point where you can predict what the dungeon will do. 4 mans and alliance raids are "2 packs and a boss" x2. 8 mans are boss arenas without much deviation from the standard formulas
2) there is no relic grind. Relic grind keeps people playing. In the past, relic grind would be released starting with patch x.1 and gradually increase with each new patch. Endwalker broke this by releasing it late, and just having players collect tomestones to upgrade. In DT we haven't even heard news about any relic quest.
3) The most aggregious one.. the MSQ . Its all over the place. We were led to believe it would be a casual "summer vacation" with the Scions, but it turned into an awkward babysitting session with Wuk Lamat. This character is forced upon us nearly 95% of the time in the story quest. People have analyzed the script and found Wuk Lamat has the most dialogue, the most quest objectives, and is often inserted into other character's story plots. Many players felt Krile and Erenville were robbed of much-needed story building, in favor of showing MORE wuk lamat. People across the world protested against this, yet SE double downed on promising more wuk lamat.
For all the grifters out there, no it’s not bad because of “woke” it’s bad because DT had the worst writing of the entire series, even FF10 had better writing and we all know the memes. All the good writers are sidelined, and the bad writers (who have been around since HW tbf) are frontlined. The game has always been woke, dealing with things such as racism, sexism, hatred of others for being different, religious extremism, slavery, and late stage capitalism. All those things are considered woke. The banner I want people to rally around should be “STOP BAD WRITERS FROM RUINING SHIT” instead of “BOOHOO RAINBOW HAIRED ACTIVISTS BLAH BLAH BLAH”
Grumms is a freaking loser and has always been a failure. If you actually look at what he’s done, it’s clear he doesn’t know what he is talking about. He was NOT lead dev on WOW, he shook hands with investors that’s it.
lol that guy with the furry icon on X. He's the clown.
ERP being related to the drop in player-base is the wildest comparison I think I've ever seen. 😂
Their EN localization team leader Kate is a confirmed woke activist
Wuk Lamats EN VA is her bestie
Square Enix is on a SBI client list
SE suddenly replaces their extremely competent and succesfull writing team with new ones who only worked on some side quests before
Quality of writing not just drops, it slams through the ground into the sewers
Wuk turns out to be an embodiment of Mary Sue trope, she is always right, she doesn't make mistakes, doesn't have flaws she needs to overcome for character development, everyone loves her, and who didn't loved her from the start will love her by the end, she ends up saving protagonist, who is reduced to being her cheerleader. In other words, she looks like someone's self insert.
Krille and Erenvile, who was advertised to have a major focus in the story get sidelined hard to give more space to Wuk
Is it really hard to connect the dots here? It reeks of SBI or someone similar. Fresh, inexperienced writing team was bossed around by the blue haired consultant overlords, making changes on demand. Thats why Krille gets sidelined to give more than enough room for a character with a very special VA, that's why after all advertisement about "low stakes vacation adventure" it suddenly, out of nowhere, turns out to be another world ending threat in the second half, thats why promised rivalry between scions is not in the game and the scions themselves along with WoL turned into lifeless Wuk Lamat's cheerleading squad. That's why the entire story is sterilised, convoluted, disconnected mess.
I guess Endwalker was the ending of FF14 after all. To be honest, i think it's still salvageable, i just don't believe SE would even try to salvage it instead of doubling down.
Zepla compared playing through Dawntrail MSQ to a social studies textbook, and that tracks with what I remember. I skipped the last 40% of the cutscenes because I was so checked out, and quit a week or so after completing the story.
I started playing WoW in December 2008 during Wrath of the Lich King and decided I had had enough March 2019 during Battle for Azeroth. I started playing FFXIV in June 2019 during Shadowbringers and I am still playing.
Traditionally both games release expansions every other year. WoW gets the even years- the exception being The Burning Crusade which was released in January 2007 instead of November 2006. Wow released expansions in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. FFXIV released expansions in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. Endwalker spent 2 1/2 years in development and was released in December 2021. Dawntrail spent 2 1/2 years in development and was released in June 2024. This is the first time that the two games released in the same year. Which would explain what is going on.
FFXIV also benefited from the terrible reaction to 2020's Shadowlands and the other controversies around Blizzard. Many WoW players went looking for another tab-target themepark MMORPG and settled on FFXIV. And immersed themselves in the 500+ hours of Main Story Questline plus all the raids, trials, etc that were new to them. But now many of those players have returned to WoW – at least for now.
Wuk Lamat is a terrible character – Zepla has a great video explaining why. But there are other explanations.
FFXIV has always been designed with easy catch-up mechanics that allow players to dip in and out. I've even gone back to Wow and played some Classic and leveled through DragonFlight. When War Within goes on sale for 50% later this year, I'll probably pick up a copy and return to Azeroth for a little while.
What is new? All MMO lose 30-50% of their playerbase within the patches. There are many Story only player that return during the final patch. Every FF14 Expac had a player reduction between x.1 to x.5 except Shadowbringers due to the huge wow Exodus in 2021/22
I've been telling people from final fantasy 14 that it was going to die eventually because the game is garbage The only thing that's good about the game was the story the combat and all the stats in the game is garbage I said that if they do not change this back to like what it used to be like 11 was with the combat I wasn't saying like the slow pace combat I even gave a hint look at EverQuest like stats make them make sense like the critical damage out spread the characters like more like make them feel different and not all the same it's like they were trying to be too friendly and forcing you into a one idea instead of spreading it out for example allow players to make solo bills as a blue mage but you know Blue mage can't solo like a real job because it's a mini job or dragoon allow it to solo dungeons and stuff like they don't want to do this like they literally cut the game down to this
So many people just join back up to play the expansion then unsubscribe until the next one
Wait a second are you saying that when male people pretend to be girls make the game fun,………………………. I don't have anything to say on that one😢
Active player and well there is really nothing to do at this point I haven’t even started Dr as I have heard negative reviews. The only thing I enjoy is PvP and I can get that in other mmos
I find if you don't get into MMO's at the begining, then they tend to be too long to properly be able to get into- and they feature online events with loads of content & context that you're not familiar with- it kinda breaks the enjoyment when you're scrambling to catch up. It's why i like single stand alones over everything else. A fully contained game is perfect for me. So much easier to pick up, enjoy and go back to again and again, rather than one never ending story.
I don't like it when my games and feeds are full of gay and trans politics, or sexual content, it makes interacting with these fan communities so exhausting and i lose the will to engage at all or even watch/ play/ read the media/ material. I just tuck myself away in my little play offlines, or even apps! Where the fan spaces are so much smaller, and tend to be too small to be flooded with this kind of content.
They should've kept Ishikawa seated firm in her seat and took some chances on the story, breaking the Shadowbringers/Endwalker format. Gameplay is fine, but story is not. Without the story to pull you into the gameplay, you got jack shit.
Got so bored of this game I went back to final fantasy 11 lol
The Trans/ERP connection reminds me of a controversial person in the PSO2 community who exposed one of the community managers (who happened to be trans) being involved in that game's ERP scene in a video.
In my opinion, SE could change a few things every expansion to keep FFXIV fresh. Maybe lots of players do not like more of the same. But there are opportunities for change later.
And I don't like Erotic RP. Characters are hot. So I guess it can't be helped. If SE promotes and adds features for normal Role Play, maybe ERP will decline as the alternative becomes more popular in RP servers. Unless, maybe all RP goes up. I'm not sure.
that is the curse of mmorpg's bunch of guys doing gay stuff, standing in the base area all day and being perverts…it ruins games and if that is what is happening in FF14 then it's no surprise really.
i know a guy like that who is into all that cringy roleplay erp stuff and it''s part of the reason i stopped playing guild wars 2 for as looongtime…but these types of people never really leave they are chronicly online.
Wuk Lamat happened (Takes away the lead role from the player). Also the 7.0 plot can leave you depressed at your powerlessness to save some characters.
I hope that by 7.2 we get to save the princess that actually needs saving instead of the one who can barge into my final boss battle and steal the spotlight.
The game has become repetitive… no more casting protect and shell… and more choreography learning each fight.
We've lost personal attack rotationa to follow the same pattern over and over… even with other jobs…
They lost me even before starting DT. Sad moment for me.