why are people so resistant to constructive criticism about the game?

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Originally Posted by TyrTry

I've seen my fair share of both platforms when it comes to "toxicity" typically starting with a hot topic concerning the game, an OP being VERY opinionated, or a poster being VERY opinionated.

Opinionated to the point of "damn all, my opinion is fact". This, unfortunately, gets confused with "I have an opinion!" at times which gets barraged with "how dare you!" comments.

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True, I perhaps should have worded that better to say a lot of the people I've seen are the kinds who have been banned from the forums or other reddit for how the behave (quite possibly using that a badge of pride) which can make it a pretty extreme place so I did like it's classification as a reasonable place.

Because most criticisms are simply complaints there is a difference between those two. Pretty much all of the complaints have a response from the devs as to why its like that.

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Originally Posted by Hanaya

I love ffxiv, but nothing is flawless. Why do so many people act like having personal opinions on how the game could get even better is toxic?

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It depends on how the criticism is presented, and not just as in rudely or politely.

If one details how they think a given change or piece of content has been negative for the game or missed obvious opportunities seen in past content, that's good and fine. If one spitballs a potential improvement based on an outside model that may or may not fit the game, people are more likely to levy criticism of your own critical suggestion.

The difference is primarily one of sourcing and how the poster and responder each imagine the suggestion in their head. You may have a clearer picture of what you want and conclude, from what you've visualized in greater detail, that your suggestion in no way goes against what you know most players to appreciate about the game. On the other hand, they're visualizing, probably more clearly than you will have done, all the harmful precedents your suggestion could set. That a specific path through the potential pitfalls might exist is going to be a whole lot less significant to them than the chance and size of those demerits.

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Originally Posted by thegreatonemal

Because most criticisms are simply complaints there is a difference between those two. Pretty much all of the complaints have a response from the devs as to why its like that.

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Just because the Devs have an excuse as to why something is the way it is, it doesn't mean it can't be criticized.

Many at the time of criticizing something do not understand that the game has certain pillars that I prefer to remain as they are now than to experiment with strange things and have problems like in other MMOs.

Many times on reddit I read people who want to make FFXIV a clone of FFXI or another MMO, if I want to play the systems of those MMOs I'm going to join those MMOs.

Mostly as said above, but what exactly is being criticized is important. And also how often.

I'll give an example:

Lack of Housing.
Legit issue and lots of ideas about it. I even started a thread talking about instanced. Having ideas with some fleshed out points for discussion can create a fun debate, and hopefully give the devs some window into what the players want..or inspiration on possible solutions. The problem is we get a lot of posts that aren't so much criticism as they are whining without solutions. Or just general complaining which while I absolutely feel the frustration, doesn't really solve anything or invite healthy discussion.

Novel idea threads? Good. Whining? Not so useful.

Because FFXIV has the most toxic community, and it's getting taken over by role players who don't even leave limsa lominsa. Already most of the playerbase leaves after 2 weeks after new patch, because there is no longer that much of new content as in HW or SB.

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Originally Posted by Cetek14

Because FFXIV has the most toxic community, and it's getting taken over by role players who don't even leave limsa lominsa. Already most of the playerbase leaves after 2 weeks after new patch, because there is no longer that much of new content as in HW or SB.

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I wouldn't say Heavensward had a lot of content when experiments like the Diadem were things that never worked. The problem is that we come from an expansion called Stormblood where if I felt that my subscription was being used for more content, currently I feel that my subscription is only used to fix game problems instead of offering me "more" or the "same" as Stormblood .

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Originally Posted by Sauteed

My constructive criticism is unlink the the content and areas maybe not the dungeons from msq progress. At least the non current expansion. Nothing bugs people more than having to do 800 or so hours of content to reach semi relevant content with their friends. Like at least dragon skin maps content.

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My counter-argument is that new content is in no way more "relevant" that old content.
Those 800 hours of content? They are most of the game.

One more thing that came to my mind while thinking about this a bit longer: A lot of times people posting suggestions do so without doing even a minimal amount of research first.
By which I mean: We often see threads suggesting ideas or bringing up issues that have already been brought up, discussed or even adressed in some way by the devs themself. So the thread is nothing new, it just shows that the person posting didnt even do a quick search in the forum or didnt even look at titles of the most recent threads.

Good examples of this are complaints about the housing situation, suggesting a lottery system for the housing situation, Viera/Hrothgar issues, a portable orchestrion/the ability to change music to whatever where ever and complaints along the lines of "the new Yokai weapons dont go into the armoire" - all legit things to bring up, but when they're posted in the fifth thread, with all threads being on the first to third page of the forum, its not constructive criticism (no matter how constructive or legit the issue is), its annoying and less fruitful (we're asked to compile such things in "megathreads" - one thread with 100 pages is more likely to get noticed than 100 one-page-threads on the same issue).

When it comes to things that the devs have already adressed - sometimes sadly with "not possible (right now") - its kind of the same thing: Its useless to discuss wether or not a protable orchestrion would be a good idea or not. They've adressed this with: "cant be done atm". Nagging and whining isnt constructive criticism, its being annoying - often paired with people who think they know better than the people responsible for the game what can and cant be done.

This lack of research is often what "gets me" - because it turns legit suggestions that could be constructive criticism if presented "correctly" into "Oh, look, another one of these... OP must be feeling to important to post in one of the existing threads, doesnt look that credible..."