the influence of "FFXI Online" on player participation in ..

This newsgroup used to be more active back in 2006, but seems to have
been dying down during these past few years, especially after the
release of "Final Fantasy XI Online."

Upon visiting the Square-Enix Party 2007 (see
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/party07/) on May 12 - 13, 2007, at the
Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex (see
http://www.m-messe.co.jp/index_e.html) at Keihin-Makuhari in
Chiba-ken, I noticed that the Square-Enix aficionados seemed to form a
trichotomy: those gathered at the Final Fantasy XI Booth, those
gathered elsewhere, and those divided in between the other two groups.

About a third of the visitors at the Final Fantasy XI Booth on the
second day of the event seemed to stay there all day long, and not to
move to any other booth. They even kept their seats for the entire
period!

A similar phenomenon seemed to occur at the Square-Enix booth at the
Tokyo Game Show 2007 (see http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/english/) on the days
which were open to the public, on October 11 - 12, 2007. I noticed
that, of the visitors at the Square-Enix booth watching the new
release overview film open to the general public, a significant
percentage left immediately after watching the airing on the "Wings of
the Goddess" (see http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/altana/index.html)
expansion pack.

Has anybody else noticed this trend? If so, what might it signify for
the future of players of the "Final Fantasy" series? Does anybody
reading this newsgroup play both "Final Fantasy XI Online" and a
non-online "Final Fantasy" release on a regular basis?

-- DekuDekuplex