Friends?

So, remember that hastily unprofessional post about my friends list? Turns out, it got a bit of a response on the Bismarck Facebook group. A lot of other people knew these guys and wanted to know where they were too. A couple losers still play, but I didn't say that to their faces. Because I'm not mean.

Eventually, like I do, got to drinking. And I got to thinking. Then I was drinking some more. But then I was thinking.

When and why did all my friends decide to quit? Was there some kind of government conspiracy to make me alone in the universe? Or did everyone just get bored.

Like I do every once in a while when I get drunk or stalkerish, I went snooping on FFXIAH and compiled data as to when these people on my friends list last played.

The data I found may shock you!

Of the 168 current people on my friends list, data was only obtainable for 126. The other missing 42 people were either not there at all, or a similar name was found on a different server, leading me to believe they had abandoned the Bismarck motherland. Losers.

Ok, maybe it's not shocking at all. It's a circle with lines. It looks professional as shit. Totally makes up for that friends list post.

As you can see, an overwhelming amount of people did their adventuring until 2009 then gave up.

2007 and 2011 were also popular quitting years, but I want to focus on the vastly superior 2009 numbers.

As you can see, January and June were the highest quitting months for the most quitted(?) year.

Why is that? What caused everyone to give up around this time?

I did some digging and found out updates for those months, which may explain the spikes in people playing.

Seeing as there were no January or February updates in 2009, I went back to 2008 and found an update on December 9, 2008. The main update being the edition of Fields of Valor, allowing losers to level quicker. Treasure caskets were also added for a bunch of areas, giving said losers something else to do while leveling.

Losers.

To possibly explain the spike in June, an update in April 9, 2009 (The day after my birthday, mind you!) gave us a bunch of new Wings of the Goddess quests, as well as Moblin Maze Monger stuff, which no one ever did. A few changes were made to Fields of Valor locations, white mage spells were altered, and Crystalline Prophecy chest rewards were added.

While these updates do not definitively account for the spike in people playing, it gives a little context. Big updates equals more people. Even if it's just a fraction of my friends list, if you added up other people's friends lists, it could have a bigger impact.

I fully expect this data finding experience to win me the Vana'diel equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Cid Prize, or something. I want a prize. Like a beer or something.