Haven’t played FFXIV, but in returning WoW after many years, I can see why it’s been on the decline. There is no sense of exploration, wonder, surprise, or danger. It’s pretty boring to me. Just hit the same few action bar numbers over and over again. Backtracking is constant. Every quest feels the same, there’s markers for everything. I don’t even care what the quest givers have to say anymore. Even as a Human on level 40, I’m only fighting creatures.
But for those who claim WoW is still super healthy: they lost 5 million subscribers before no longer announcing numbers. Guess who else stopped providing numbers? Microsoft. And the Xbox One is failing hard. If the game was healthy, they would be flounting numbers. A company who over-prices their expansions like Blizzard also wouldn’t be giving every single expansion with the base game plus the current expansion for $30. Are you kidding me?