Game is not very social to me wether in a FC or not

Lone wolves is something that happens more and more in any mmo today.

XIV have now some time from launch and the community is mostly towards the end game, anyone who logs in today for first time, will face all those veterans ragequitting if the party performance not in line with a superfast run.

Talking about socialization, deserves some attention the current habit of tank/healer force disconnects when the DF party average gear is not on the preference of them.

I welcome any chat, because when you know duty by memory and can play it with one hand, I can use the other hand to chat :)

Usually it does require to go out of your way to spark up a conversation in any LS/FC though often things start on their own. Atleast for me the usual spam tends to be when someone logs in gets a flood of hi's and maybe a few how are you's(depending on their interactions with people)(let's face it even if there are 50 people in the end the circle you will be most familiar will be some 10 people and those are the ones that will ask about you). What also tends to kill chat is going to voice comms.

Just FYI, for us ps4 people: Its as easy as taking a usb keyboard and plugging it in. Then as soon as you hit a single letter your already typing in the chat window. Plus, I think its the best of both worlds, I get all the hotkeys of the Keyboard, with the added comfort of the remote :)

Also, my FC was pretty dismissive with me until I actually started to volunteer to help and became vocal, now im constantly pulled away from what im doing to go run something with groups here and there. :) Its a social as you make it.

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Originally Posted by Garlyle

The social aspect is out there, but I will say, it won't just come to you. You have to go to it.

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This... to a degree. This game is by far the most anti-social... let me rephrase this. This game is by far the most populated anti-social game I've ever played seemingly by default.


A lot of that has to do with the fact that much of the game was designed with solo in mind. For instance you can't do story quests while grouped (unless it's a trial or dungeon), I found that odd. I also find that detrimental to social interaction. Also our tell/whisper/pm channels are basically useless since SE has still failed to make a dent in the RMT spam.

But most of it can't be blamed on any of that. If you want social interaction, especially in this game, you pretty much have to initiate the conversation every time, and even then there's a good chance you'll be ignored. But if you don't even try you really can't complain. Essentially its all on us as a community to try to interact more if thats what we want. I think it should be what we want too, stronger community in games usually means the game itself is stronger.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

They can buy a keyboard. Just like every Pc player has so that's no excuse.

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Keyboards only help outside of battle.
Moving the hands away from controller during a battle can result with the character lying around on the ground.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Keyboards only help outside of battle.
Moving the hands away from controller during a battle can result with the character lying around on the ground.

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Even being on a PC, trying to type in the middle of certain fights can end up with dead players. I normally play WHM, and there have been way too many times where I'm trying to type something simple when things are calm, and then all hell breaks loose in a split second and people die. lol. Voice chat is way easier with this game, but not everyone can get on often or at all (I can rarely get on myeslf). Can make for a lonely experience at times.

This game is a whole lot more social than other games. On WoW there are times were you can go ten levels without literally seeing another person. At least in Final Fantasy they route you through the low level zones a few different times when questing so you see a lot more people out and about than you would in WoW. Sorry that your FC is not social, but not every FC is. It is ultimately up to you to find a better FC to join.

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Originally Posted by Zaft

I'm very social in my FC and my LS', but I generally don't speak in dungeons. I'm not there to waste time chatting, I'm there to get stuff done.

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I fall in to this category as well. Unless I'm running w/ FC/LS mates then there is definitely more chatter.

Server related, too. This game seems to contain a lot of cliques on some servers, and it doesn't help that there are also people who actively discourage town chat (I've seen a few whine about it on Excalibur- to be fair, they may have been trolling. If so, well played, dudes, well played). Gilgamesh is pretty sweet, though.

However, overall, this game's community is still the quietest community I've ever played with. You'll usually have to look to an FC or LS for human interaction. Crowd chatter is mostly just an ambiance setting. Ily, though, Greg people.

try CT. The /a chat can be very active there ^^

As a player from the UK on a US server (I have irl friends here), this game can feel mighty lonesome!

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Originally Posted by Zfz

A few loose thoughts:

• PS3 and PS4. Not everyone can text like Shining Finger
  

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lol! Steins;Gate, love it.

Is it me, or is the most annoying "look at us" conversation when FC members are in a instance party together but use FC chat to herald their accomplishments or discuss their current coil run?

No wait, it's the "verified" female player exploiting her sexuality by "pretty plz'n" her way to gil, clears, and free materia for her Zodiac. Oh, and free crafting too.

No wait, it's the incessant "I'm the offspring of the RNG gods" item linking in chat so we can all "grats" you into a false sense of self-worth and FC importance.

FC chat? You can have it.

Sorry I'm not there to talk in dungeons, I'm there to get in and get out. I don't mind chatting a bit outside of dungeons though.

/facepalm Thus the cycle continues.

Developers have given you all the tools. Need to put the effort in getting communities together.

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Originally Posted by Wizarus

Sorry I'm not there to talk in dungeons, I'm there to get in and get out. I don't mind chatting a bit outside of dungeons though.

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Ah yes, but a dungeon can be a lot more enjoyable/fun when talking with people. I'd happiy spend some extra time in a dungeon if people didn't act like soulless NPCs. Just my opinion, of course.

I'm not too social - controller player, and unless one of my few friends are around, I tend to set the keyboard aside and get more comfortable. If anything, one of the reasons I like ffxiv is because it does feel a lot like a console game - I like coming up with my own goals that don't generally rely on others. Dungeons looking like a run through with NPCs is fine by me.

If your FC seems quiet, maybe ask if they are using voice chat. My fc and linkshells are very social but more so over teamspeak or Mumble because that frees up your hands for playing.

People want the option to play solo in an MMO (with some preferring this), while many prefer it to always involve group play. Another aspect we need to look at is most casual players are probably taking a break from the game until the expansion hits and that's why you mostly see the raiders trying to finish everything up.

For the story being solo, I can completely understand why they did this, but would love to have the option to pick solo fight (fight would remain as is) or group fight (increased difficulty based on # of members).

Look at FFXI though, it was almost impossible to do any of the story that involved fighting without a group, even area's you just had to walk to sometimes required help because you had to run through high lvl monster zones and cant solo the mobs. That style also leads to people wishing they didn't NEED to group up, especially if the content was older it became very difficult to find groups and you could easily spend half a day getting one together and still possibly fail the fight.

There are aspects this game does "limit" in terms of social interaction, such as not being able to send/receive tells in dungeons. This for some is a social hindrance, while others prefer this because they want to focus on the dungeon completion and talk later. Cross-Server communication would be nice just to have more people to talk with, but I believe there are far better things for SE to fix/implement before tackling that one.

At the end of the day though, we all need to put in effort to be more social and make the community better as a whole. My hardcore group from 1.0 left one by one as time passed and I never wanted to get back out there. The final straw for my lone wolf activities was dying of boredom while grinding FATES (If there is one thing I hate about this game it is FATES) for the relic quest, so I made a new LS and while slow it is growing.

Pretty much like others have said, I'm pretty chatty in FC chat if other people are chatty, but I go quiet once in a dungeon or raid - with exception to any pauses (waiting for people, sleeping on the floor, hesitating tanks before pulls, frozen, etc). Most of my FC willingly speak - but there's one or two thats shy and will only open up after a bit of time (well, one.... the other just hates typing and will only do so if he must).
You might want to just seek out a new FC - or maybe start your own and recruit active, social peeps

Personally I've found being an attention-whore, elitist scumbag who regularly flirts with numerous people throughout all the linkshells I'm in to be the best way to socialize on this game!

I'm always looking for a conversation. But it's when I'm crafting that the game feels lonely.

I find myself more social outside of events or action based content. I find it difficult sometimes to communication via chat while in the middle of tanking something, personal limitation though. To over come that though, the FC and groups I run with use VioP to make communication more flexible.

If you want the game to be more social, you need to make it. Waiting for someone to send you a message isn't going to make that happen any faster. Unless you like talking to RMT tells haha.

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Originally Posted by Caoihmin

Is it me, or is the most annoying "look at us" conversation when FC members are in a instance party together but use FC chat to herald their accomplishments or discuss their current coil run?

No wait, it's the "verified" female player exploiting her sexuality by "pretty plz'n" her way to gil, clears, and free materia for her Zodiac. Oh, and free crafting too.

No wait, it's the incessant "I'm the offspring of the RNG gods" item linking in chat so we can all "grats" you into a false sense of self-worth and FC importance.

FC chat? You can have it.

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Or you could be genuinely happy and want to share your accomplishments and lucky moments with your FC buddies, and they could be genuinely happy for you and congratulate you.

Little story for you:

A famous Chinese poet once meditated with a famous monk. After a while the poet felt he was "enlightened" and asked the monk, "what do you think of my meditation?"

The monk answered, "like a buddha."

The poet was proud. Then the monk asked the poet, "and what do you think of mine?" The poet return in jest, "like a pile of shit!" The monk smiled and didn't say anything more.

When the poet returned home and bragged to his sister about his victory, the sister sneered at him and explained, "you are the one that lost. The monk has buddha in his heart, so you look like the buddha to him; but you have only shit in your heart, so he looked like a pile of shit to you."

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Originally Posted by Caoihmin

"I'm the offspring of the RNG gods" item linking in chat so we can all "grats" you into a false sense of self-worth and FC importance.

FC chat? You can have it.

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You seem upset...and jealous.
So nope, probably just you and all others who feel that way.

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Originally Posted by Zaft

I'm very social in my FC and my LS', but I generally don't speak in dungeons. I'm not there to waste time chatting, I'm there to get stuff done.

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this is me 100% :P

... Question to the general coversation.

Where do you expect to socialize?

I'm sorry but often times when I hear the complaint about the game being lonesome, or not being very social, it's because they're looking for social function in the wrong places.

I come from a VERY Social Free company in which we have a LS that allows a greater alliance of members to chat with us. Our Free Company chat is pretty quiet, because our Alliance Linkshell is the primary mode of conversation, and it's pretty constantly going.

Anyone who says they're alone on Balmung, needs look no farther than any of the continually ongoing Roleplays throughout the public areas, or the shouts in Reverants Toll for FC recruitment or, if you're the particularly masochistic type, the shouting matches inside any of Aether Cluster's Crystal Tower raids. And that's not even touching the incredibly friendly and vocal Roleplay Community Forums that is constantly trying to network people and share ideas and opinions.

You have to be doing something habitually wrong to avoid the social aspect of FFXIV's unofficial RP server. If people aren't being active on your FC, it may be time to find a new one. But don't expect people who are pushing for accomplishments in game to be typing away at the keyboard while doing it. FFXI was a very passive game in comparison to this one. It took forever to get a party, and partying amounted to pressing the right button at the right time, then WAITING till the next button came around. There was very little required motion unless you were moving to a monster, But I digress.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of people socialize on VIP programs as it's easier to do when doing other content, so joining a group with a Voice Program might help your experiences as well.

There probably should be a guide somewhere on how to be social on games like these now, because people who are out of the loop always feel as if there's nothing going on when the truth is that it's abuzz with activity beneath the surface.

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Originally Posted by Caoihmin

Is it me, or is the most annoying "look at us" conversation when FC members are in a instance party together but use FC chat to herald their accomplishments or discuss their current coil run?

No wait, it's the "verified" female player exploiting her sexuality by "pretty plz'n" her way to gil, clears, and free materia for her Zodiac. Oh, and free crafting too.

No wait, it's the incessant "I'm the offspring of the RNG gods" item linking in chat so we can all "grats" you into a false sense of self-worth and FC importance.

FC chat? You can have it.

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My favorite is when 7 ppl in your LS or free company sell runs. Then they put pf up for a farm. Person joins and someone says "kick that scrub! I sold t9 to that scrubbidy scrub!". or they just use chat to bash every person that joins.

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Originally Posted by Zfz

Shorten.

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I love your story.

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Originally Posted by Caoihmin

Is it me, or is the most annoying "look at us" conversation when FC members are in a instance party together but use FC chat to herald their accomplishments or discuss their current coil run?

No wait, it's the "verified" female player exploiting her sexuality by "pretty plz'n" her way to gil, clears, and free materia for her Zodiac. Oh, and free crafting too.

No wait, it's the incessant "I'm the offspring of the RNG gods" item linking in chat so we can all "grats" you into a false sense of self-worth and FC importance.

FC chat? You can have it.

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This is probably the first game I've played where there's been an endemic amount of players who are incapable of feeling happy for others, and are permanently embittered and salty. It's crazy to me, in every other game I played when someone reached some sort of milestone you can tell others and they are generally happy for you, in this game there is a good chunk of players who could literally be the grinch.

Said players should not be surprised they are having trouble being social when they seem to lack the basic human empathy required to socialize. Seek a mental health professional if this is the case.

Like many have said, taking the initiative in being social goes a very long way. You don't even have to actually type any conversation. Doing something as silly as dancing while waiting for a Fate to spawn or /chuckle when someone else uses a /doze or some other emote lets everyone else know that you're free to chat.

Great place to find people to talk to is waiting for the Cactpot draws on Saturday. Seriously, just take a seat at one of the tables. As long as you don't have /away up, someone WILL sit at that table with you. And if you follow up with a wave or a "hi", conversation does start. And it spreads, quickly :D

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Originally Posted by SarcasmMisser

Triggered

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Not all truth is puppies and rainbows Freud. Put down your "Everyone's Just Peaches" book and deal with it.

And if I choose to remove myself socially, in a VIRTUAL reality, from immature and unhealthy conversation spawned by those who find their sense of worth in a game, that's my prerogative. I have enough genuine gaming friends who share the same mindset that it allows me the freedom and privilege to do this.

And....that's my cartharsis. What's yours? Knee jerk replies because someone has offended your delusions? Pffft.

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Originally Posted by Caoihmin

Not all truth is puppies and rainbows Freud. Put down your "Everyone's Just Peaches" book and deal with it.

And if I choose to remove myself, in a VIRTUAL reality, from immature and unhealthy conversation spawned by those who find their sense of worth in a game, that's my prerogative.

And....that's my cartharsis. What's yours? Knee jerk replies because someone has offended your delusions? Pffft.

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I guess what you've said applies to yourself too lol.

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Originally Posted by Caoihmin

Not all truth is puppies and rainbows Freud. Put down your "Everyone's Just Peaches" book and deal with it.

And if I choose to remove myself, in a VIRTUAL reality, from immature and unhealthy conversation spawned by those who find their sense of worth in a game, that's my prerogative.

And....that's my cartharsis. What's yours? Knee jerk replies because someone has offended your delusions? Pffft.

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I clearly hit a sore spot. Maybe one day you will learn the basics of socialization and stop blaming others for being happy.

I unno I enjoy all the linkshells I'm in, and my Free Company is pretty active. Maybe it's the man in the mirror causing your woes?

Argh these people are linking items they've gone at lengths to obtain and others are happy for them. This vexes me uncontrollably to the point that I withdrawal from social groups, but they are the unhealthy and immature ones.

http://content.internetvideoarchive..../27427131_.jpg

By far the most damaging thing to FFXIV is this. Duty Finder makes the game feel like it's an instance-only game and not about people you can build long-lasting relationships with.

My wish is that they would an option to search in your server only so that the people you meet in Duty Finder you can keep in touch with and run future dungeons with.
There also needs to be a better goal-system which pits certain affiliations (Limsa affiliation, Uldah affiliation, guild affiliation) into partying up together.

The game has a bit too much freedom. A few restrictions to socialize would do wonders.
By far DF is what brings the game down the most. The game honestly already has millions of people already.

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

By far the most damaging thing to FFXIV is this. Duty Finder makes the game feel like it's an instance-only game and not about people you can build long-lasting relationships with.

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i disagree entirely.. having played games with no duty finder type feature having to sit at first dungeon for hours spamming chats for parties is a pain in the backside duty finder feature in ff14 is great for lots of reasons

considerin that first dungeon normally only took 5 mins to complete so waitin hours n hours to get a party was extremely annoying so yeah 10 thumbs up to SE for adding duty finder to ff14 :3

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

The game has a bit too much freedom. A few restrictions to socialize would do wonders.
By far DF is what brings the game down the most. The game honestly already has millions of people already.

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No thanks... I mean if that's what you want, then go ahead and put that restriction on yourself.
I've gotten better about this, but when I first started the game I was so shy I had my friend queue in any story dungeon with me. After my IRL friends stopped playing, I had to grow a pair and queue myself up. Even as a DPS I was so nervous, it was awful.
Imagine how hard that would've been for me (or anyone like this) if I had to actually go around on server off-time, actually going up to people/shouting for help? I'd still be level 20 or something.

...like I said, I've gotten better about it, no longer that shy or anything. But really even if I was the epitome of social mingling having a bunch of other servers to connect to during off-hours is amazing. There's maybe like five other people on my server when I play (exaggeration, ofc, but you get it) so connecting to those five other people awake on the other servers is great.

I don't want to be FORCED to socialized. If I choose to be an antisocial loner, that's my choice. If I wanna go out and talk to people, I will do that.