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Free time for all? 2/27-3/9
Entris38
Member UncommonPosts: 401
My account was activated today. Think I will take a look. Figured to let everyone else know since I haven't seen the story here.
Comments
They have a financial report due at the end of march so they are trying to boost the numbers by activating all accounts, which makes the sub numbers look better than they actually are.
Its a 10 day subscription they gave you for free, as well as everyone else.
Cheap and rather desperate tactics to try boost numbers.
Lol the game is not even remotely close to desperate in regards to player base. Good one though.
They do this with every update. I been playing it exclusively during those times because i don't see why i need to pay $15 a month when i can catch up to the best geared players in these free weekends.
Has nothing to do with financial reports.
Yea let me know how clearing a new coil raid in 10 days works out for you....there is also that whole cap on tomes if you are trying to get the good gear the welfare way. Another well informed post on this thread.
Take a few seconds and think through what you're saying. You really think they're going to activate -every- account for this event then turn around and try to claim they have a 100% retention rate? Particularly after they just announced reaching 4 million accounts they're going to turn around and try and say they have 4 million active subs?
People on this site care a lot about sub numbers; the investors don't give a damn about the sub numbers. They care about profits. Claiming vastly more subs than they have revenue to show for does nothing for their financials and it's rather silly that you think it would.
Really?
A "free weekend" that lasts nearly 2 weeks (longest one ever), at the exact time when financial reports that will give subscriber numbers is due? Keep in mind that they are giving 2 weeks free subscription time to all non-subscibers here, this isn't free to play access because subscribers are still paying. This is like the government making a new forced "training program" that classes people as employed right before unemployment figures are announced XD
It's a coincidence right?
If WoW gave free subscription time to everyone that isn't paying right before a financial report people would call it just as I'm calling this. It is what it is, obscene number bloating and a horrendous sign of desperation.
This. People on these forums think that investors are stupid as hell. Claiming to have all billion subs is all good but if you made 200m, then you clearly bullshiting people.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Giving lapsed players a few free days isn't going to affect a financial report in any way, unless those players then choose to resume their subscription, and even that might well be too late to appear on the financial report due in just a few weeks time, after all, the financial report is about revenue, not player numbers, and free players = 0 revenue, which basically means artificially padding out player numbers would have zero benefit to the company if they were trying to 'modify' their apparent finances, however, it might encourage players to resume their subs, which is more of a marketing strategy than anything else.
It's not about how late something is. Financial statements do not cover the period up to when they are released. Full year financial statements would be up to Dec 2014. You can't randomly include January, February etc.
The annual report will most likely cover subscription number and tons of other staff. The actual financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, cashflow statement) would not as they are about financials. Also financial reports are not only about revenue
Revenue is only one of many metrics you look at when assessing the financial performance of a company.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Now that we have spoken of the least likely scenario (albeit plausible one, assuming Square thinks everyone in the world is an idiot that can't do simple math and disregards their flat out honesty on the matter in the past... not to mention the fact that it's likely the cut-off date of 2014 was in December of 2014 for their report), let's take a minute and actually critically think about the situation. This is while noting that any theory is possible... but I'd like to take an in-depth view of FFXIV's history as someone who has been following it for years before even it's 2010 release.
For the sake of simplicity we'll break it all down into two categories that I'll mix together: Precedence and Context.
*Most of which will be littered by personal experience and knowledge from my five years with FFXIV.
Precedence:
Free game time:
Dating back to 2010 Square has done what they view is best for the game. Assaulted by horrible feedback, they never implemented a Monthly Fee and began to communicating with the audience on what they would like to see. While one could say this is just them going Free to Play, there is a key difference in the matter in that they eventually did reinstate the payment model -- a model they believe in -- when they believe the game was patched enough to levels where it was worth it for the most die hard fan. In addition, they instituted a Legacy Program for those who would subscribe at least three months prior to 1.0's shut down as they continued to work on A Realm Reborn.
Result: There were some 18+ months of free game time for people to try the game out prior to going into a Pay to Play model for almost a year before shutting down. Which leads to...
Free Game Time with major patches in 1.0. In addition to the Free Game Time they implemented during The End of an Era patch so that people make experience the game before it was taken down. In fact, so many people logged in during this, that the actual subscribers couldn't and they had to turn inactive accounts off so that the subs could actually experience the final battle and cinematic in game (which crashed for a lot of servers due to demand). The content of each patch was fantastic, with great amounts of story, boss battles, dungeons, implementations of classes (such as Paladin, Warrior, White Mage, etc), and an ever changing world whereby with each patch the NPCs had something different to say. In addition to the Meteor that came ever closer to the world with each patch, and the NPCs progressively getting worried over it. Even on a game that was going to be erased in mere months, FFXIV was dishing out content like nothing else in the industry and making frequent adjustments to the combat and class systems.
- Alpha and Beta Invites to legacy members or past players to test and develop the game
- Release of A Realm Reborn, offering everyone a free copy (and game time) to any who had one in the past, reducing the price of the game to $29 for those who haven't. Promising a free copy of PS4 version if you bought the PS3 version.
- Implementing a long term and constant "Free Weekends" to those who had copies with most major patches, much like they have with 1.0 and during it's final weeks. Not to mention it's year of free content and updates at the start.
- All of this content was despite them only have 10,000 subscribers with the game, even as they continued to work on a brand new version. The producer director said that it "was a matter of pride" that they treat their player base and fan base like respected customers, and that honesty about what was going on was the best policy. To that end, he released several letters where he described what did go wrong (while apologizing profusely), how Square had hubris and didn't respect the MMO genre when creating FFXIV 1.0. Fifty plus letters were written in that time, many with polls on what players wanted to see next. They were all implemented in 1.0, despite the game planning on being shut down in months. In short, they are one of the first developers that 100% owned up to mistakes made publicly, and set out to make it right.
- On the issue of money, the Producer Director has pledged that any optional service such as Appearance Change (of which you only have to pay once and are able to change the appearance of every character on your account as opposed to individually), will go into buying more servers for Player Housing. In addition, a new payment model of $12.99 a month was implemented for those who don't play Alts.
- Not including Trial accounts for their recent announcement of 4,000,000 registered accounts, despite people ignorantly claiming otherwise... just how they are now finding conspiracies without thinking properly on the matter or considering precedence within this game; perhaps said people are just jaded by the industry and how most games in the west are handled. Though said people are also insulting the intelligence of others by even suggesting that such things would work.
Why anyone would think that Square would count free game time as a subscription is beyond me given Square's past ideals and context. For news? Only to have it be torn to shreds by people who know better (100% of the population)? Looking at posting histories, these same people claimed trial accounts were apart of the 4,000,000 figure. Human error the first time -- perfectly acceptable, especially if they don't do research into the past of the game. But to ignore it a second time, especially when a lesson was already taught?
Yes. It's possible. It's always possible. But where's the evidence? There is none. In fact, it's just thoughts and conspiracies related to dates versus precedence and context to the contrary. Placing what one would expect from other companies today (being jaded from the industry perhaps, and applying stereotype based on the overall history) into the cart with a game they know nothing of.
What has been the overall reason in these past events for the free time given to players? For extensive discounts? Even when they knew their game was crap back in 1.0 and even said they screwed up, their team was arrogant (a new team was created with new leads) and ignored beta feedback, and they'll never be dishonest with the customer again. The new team took full responsibility and took it as a matter of pride to get back on track.
Let's look at that:
Free game time for 18+ months for all. Knowing the game wasn't worth a sub, they wanted others to enjoy it despite them losing tons of money on development, server costs, etc. They had NO item shop whatsoever. Box prices dropped like a rock. Yet they kept on patching (large content patches), knowing they would take the game down and while they worked on A Realm Reborn. Why would they do this? Why go to the lengths they did to update a game that was doomed to be taken down? And not milk it for all it was worth, due to it's franchise name? Just incur development fees and server fees? They wanted to give the players an experience; they did not want to sell a shoddy product. They waited until they felt it was worth a fee, and then they started to charge. Though even then it was only roughly 10,000 people that they kept on catering to, with patches that are rare to see today in any other game. One could say that they genuinely did not want to rip the customers off. Especially not with 12-15 month delays before actual content.
When they kept on offering free months with each patch in 1.0, they were quite long if I recall. "Come see what we did; if you think it's worth it, be a part of our game. Even though it's going to be taken down, we're updating it. It will lead into something better!" They knew they would likely not break even 15,000 subscribers. They knew they were losing money by the second. They kept giving content superior to any other MMO at the time.
Even on the last weeks of the game they went free. They wanted people to experience the end of the game. They weren't going to make any money from that, but just wanted people to experience it with them. It had many technical issues, because a lot of people expressed interest in the end of the game's world. No tricks. Just download and watch it all unfold.
Which leads into A Realm Reborn. Why are free weekends offered? To show people what has changed, and what is next. This time, in the hopes that they will stay with their now profitable game. No doubt this is true with every free "Weekend" event after the patches. Especially with...
Gold Saucer. Gold Saucer is an area in game that is always full at the moment. It likely won't die down for weeks if not months. You have to literally try a dozen times just to get in, because it's at capacity. Add to that all the content that's be implemented in every patch (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5... and all the patches inbetween... with even 2.3.5 or whatever having more patch content that most mainstream games. Heck, Gold Saucer is 2.5.1). It will quite literally take someone weeks if not months of play time to get past all the content of each of those patches. Add to that that 2.5 is said to be the last patch until the next expansion. So it would make sense to need much more time to shift through it if you haven't touched the game since release (in addition to probably taking days to get into Gold Saucer... one weekend will not cut it for that feature, especially with it's contents and mini games).
This is the same problem they saw in the last patch of 1.0 and thus extended it by weeks, until having to cut off some time at the end since Subs couldn't even get in. The last patch has garnished interest, especially with a much anticipated feature that, for all intents and purposes if you stereotype MMOs, should've been an expansion feature to sell more copies.
If I were a jaded consumer in this industry, I'd probably look at the worst of a situation myself and come up with unfounded assertions. But I also understand researching or adhering to history before making said assertions. Not on the whole, but the individual. Who knows, maybe they will say that they have 4,000,000 subscribers. Stretch the truth. All companies do it, right? Well, if that's the case, then perhaps we should look at what companies provide rather than useless numbers that are nothing but lies. FFXIV did not care about numbers in it's first form when it came to delivering content. They cared about their customers and their reputation. They still provide higher quality content than games that are bigger than them, and in greater amounts.
These are some of the things we should support in this industry (not that I claim that people who speak out or say what they believe is true makes them inherently without support of such games).
wall of text for no reason gee this place is the pitts.
back to the OP..
http://prntscr.com/6ayf93
^^ yeah free time sure..
I deeply apologize for the existence of words.
The only advice I'd give is to not comment on something you don't read; ignore it if reading isn't your thing. In addition, put me on ignore in your profile settings. Most of my posts are fair in length if I enter a discussion.
Its a 10 day subscription they gave you for free, as well as everyone else.
Cheap and rather desperate tactics to try boost numbers.
You know you keep saying that in every thread. It's not going to become true. All they are doing is letting people who already bought the game play for a week without subbing. It doesn't change their account numbers because those are already counted. And any free accounts from previous promotions aren't counted either. I'm not sure why you're hating on this game so much. You are a new member here and you mostly post negative comments about this game. That is neither constructive nor adds to any relevant discussion here.
Nothing wrong with that. Not every game is for everyone, and FFXIV has many flaws. If you get bored with whatever else while the free trial is still up, you should see about getting into the 2.1-2.5 content. One of it's flaws is being hard to find where content actually is, despite there being a lot of it. Quite a bit of gating and having to figure things out for oneself. Personally, I could go on about how much I dislike that and a few other things about this game.
Here's 2.5's patch... they created 10+ minute trailers for each content patch, if interested in the others:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj3hGDaDZqI
But at the same time, many of the main story quests from the patches and the side stories are quite entertaining. Worth getting into, and even just walking around Gold Saucer until time runs out. That is assuming you enjoy your current level 50 class and can stand playing the new content with it.
Sycus Tower no longer has a loot lockout, either. So you can get ilvl 100 gear fairly easily, it being old content (not to mention 100-150 Tomes of Soldiery to buy gear with... or partaking in crafting or the auctions to get 110 crafted equipment). Current raid content gives 130 stuff. World of Darkness, 120... Though personally I don't really partake in much of that, as there is so much to do with other content and events and crafting and racing / card games / housing / chocobo raising / keeping my shops stocked / attending marriages etc.
This is so true. Square Enix has THE worst site for managing your account and password reset etc. Its an absolute charlie foxtrot.
Current: BDO
Looking forward to: Crowfall & Chronicles of Elyria
This /
I gave up trying to access my FFXI account. SE said my bank was blocking the payment and my bank said no transactions were even attempted by SE during the period SE claimed. The funny thing is I made a new account to play FFXIV and I am using the same credit card and all is fine. My new issue is SE keeps making me change my password because they say I keep logging in from a new IP address. Yes, SE has serious flaws in their account system to say the least.
Maybe there are some kind of restrictions. I caught word on a post on another site, checked my account and mine was on, hence I didn't bother reading the restrictions. I had a 90 day sub at re-launch, and that is my only paid time since the original ffxiv launch. Regardless, I only played for about a day or so, it just didn't grab me. It's the combat for me.....but I wouldn't knock the game for any reason besides that.
Sure, and they do this every patch. A side effect of this might be that whatever they're experiencing in the new patch may draw them back in, and word of mouth spreads to their friends saying "Hey this game is awesome now, you should try it."
If you view this game's subreddit, there's always posts from new players in this exact situation. "Hey guys, new player here, my friend got me into this game..."
Corporations are free to choose when their business reporting year starts/ends.
Double this. Don't go trying to use logic or facts to sway him though, Scorp is about as smart as a box of rocks.
Yes because clearly in Japan bills are payed using subscription numbers.
His point still stands however. It is a financial year. So regardless when it starts. The report covers a full year, not just a couple of month here and there.