Are FCs "guilds" or LSes "guilds"

I really can't figure this out after seeing how fragmented the community is on US servers like Balmung. It's like the individualistic culture of western civilization just overrode any kind of common sense, and everyone set off to make an FC just to get a house. Then they realized they needed benefits, so they decided to pretend to be guilds and recruit people just to rank up the FC.

And then the end game feels like pickup group hell because no one can get enough people at any one point in time to do anything except the most basic of content, with learning parties basically being dead after the first two weeks of content release.

I know there are "real" guilds with people that are organizing events and actually doing content, but it feels like that is the exception rather than the norm.

Does anyone else feel this way? I'm seriously feeling burned already just trying to get people to come together and do end game content. It's like they think an organized group in discord is going to be drill Sargent land just because of how aggressive the pugs are with purging people who started EX content late, just hit end game, or don't have a schedule that fits with most pickup groups.

Come to Aether. We have cookies!

FCs are Guilds, and Linkshells are Social Circles. You're better off looking for group clearing linkshells, personally.

Your strange hatred of individualism aside, I think your situation is not that uncommon. What you are looking for is a "static", which is usually organized by discord, partyfinder recruitment and/or linkshells.

FFXIV has the big advantage that you can socialize with anyone, without having to sort out those who will slow down content progression of more ambitious players. Guilds like in WoW, that pretty much need to be organized in a way that sorts out players by game skill and time investment, not so much social structures, are part and parcel why MMORPGs are lacking in community.

FC are the proper guild-like experience, they have access to enhanced housing : airship/submarine and other cosntruction project requiring a group. They have access to many bonuses via GC action.

LS are merely channel people use around fixed activity : hunting, being a lalafell or Raiding static.

FC works like every other guild-like feature I've seen in my MMO experience so far.

People creating FC/guild to get the bonus is a norm in every game, joining a friends FC or a static raiding/progress FC is the norm too like in every other MMO I played. Different players for different approach of guild feature is norm in every MMO cause its a massive multiplayer game.

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Originally Posted by Colt47

It's like the individualistic culture of western civilization just overrode any kind of common sense, and everyone set off to make an FC just to get a house.

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It's a free civilization.

You are not alone. To your question, I would tend to reply "both and neither". For a part, the community tend to fragment because of dramas.

There are dramas comming from new players in MMO who feel that HL players don't pay attention to low levels.
The dramas that come from stalkers.
The dramas that comes from entitled players :
_Hey watch how PGM I am. Admire me. Praise me.
_That's not Fortnite, LoL or some kind of e-sport. You're totally anonymous man, please give me a break. I don't care about your FFlog and what you think about mine.

and probably others.

There are also players who are here from the ARR beta and have seen a lot of player just leaving and who don't really feel to start everything from scratch again and again.

For a part, some players rush for whatever reason and people who want to take the time are left behind.

Then there are two solutions : playing somehow as a mercenary or trying to find big FC.

There are also people who are making a static and end creating their own guild because they are a static (and to escape dramas).

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Originally Posted by Niyuka

Your strange hatred of individualism aside, I think your situation is not that uncommon. What you are looking for is a "static", which is usually organized by discord, partyfinder recruitment and/or linkshells.

FFXIV has the big advantage that you can socialize with anyone, without having to sort out those who will slow down content progression of more ambitious players. Guilds like in WoW, that pretty much need to be organized in a way that sorts out players by game skill and time investment, not so much social structures, are part and parcel why MMORPGs are lacking in community.

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I think there is a situation right now where it can be hard to find an event simply due to the number of different channels events can get organized under. For instance, if someone makes an LS to do hunts, they'd probably shout to get people into the initial LS and then those people would make sure the LS stays alive by advertising it. But now, we also have Cross World LS, so people have to be recruited for the Cross world LS and then they have to also keep it alive. Plus those people have to be spread across all available servers. This is on top of the FC system already in place.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Colt47

I think there is a situation right now where it can be hard to find an event simply due to the number of different channels events can get organized under. For instance, if someone makes an LS to do hunts, they'd probably shout to get people into the initial LS and then those people would make sure the LS stays alive by advertising it. But now, we also have Cross World LS, so people have to be recruited for the Cross world LS and then they have to also keep it alive. Plus those people have to be spread across all available servers. This is on top of the FC system already in place.

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There are people who are willing to share hunt/fate callouts to their other LSs and their own FC. I used to have a macro that does just that to all 8 of my LSs and my FC, though I haven't been in a hunt LS since Stormblood so I no longer have need of it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Colt47

I think there is a situation right now where it can be hard to find an event simply due to the number of different channels events can get organized under. For instance, if someone makes an LS to do hunts, they'd probably shout to get people into the initial LS and then those people would make sure the LS stays alive by advertising it. But now, we also have Cross World LS, so people have to be recruited for the Cross world LS and then they have to also keep it alive. Plus those people have to be spread across all available servers. This is on top of the FC system already in place.

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Things like Cross-World Linkshells were made at the behest of players so that they could more easily communicate in-game with friends that they may have on different servers from their home server, something that FCs cannot provide as you can only be in an FC on your home server. Most of the CWLS I’m in are just a bunch of friends that don’t share the same server—we use them to chitchat, complain, or ask for help/advice without having to alt-tab or utilize a separate device (if you’re a console player) for Discord.

That events such as Hunts were organized using these venues is not all that surprising, as now Hunters from different servers can collaborate together to do what they enjoy. The same can be said for statics—honestly, it’s wonderful to be in a CWLS with my static mates because we can discuss things in-game as well as in our Discord without having to be in a party together.

As for Hunt callouts, I’ve been in LS prior to CWLS that advertised the Marks in multiple discords. Even the Novice Network on my server gets calls for S-ranks. So I don’t think there’s any issues with keeping these venues alive.