:^) Look how nice the 14 community is:
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:^) Look how nice the 14 community is:
In-game is moderated.
Waits for inevitable reply/accusations pertaining to toxic positivity
In-game is moderated a little more stricter, and for the most part the severity of loss is much higher.
If you're banned on forum, I don't think the ban extends to in-game. If you're banned on forums, then you're banned on forums alone. Whereas with in-game you have the potential to lose hundreds or thousands of cumulative effort.
If bans on forums extended to in-game bans, then a lot of what happens here would quieten down.
Plus, the purpose of a forum is to debate and discuss more than anything else, so you get a lot of conflicting personalities, and generally speaking people can take disagreements as an attack, regardless of what side. Compared to in-game where you're more just using it as a social outlet, so the interactions are more of a social manner.
Not mean-spirited at all, I'm just being honest and I've seen many forum goers proudly proclaim how toxic and immature they are and wear it as a badge of honor unironically. If you don't fit into that description then I'm sure you're a great person and you don't really apply to this, no?
Thats a good point, though I wasn't aware just how poorly the forums were moderated, I was kinda just making a joke over how ratchet it gets in here. I also assumed your square account was just your square account and if you got banned that was it for that account, so that actually makes a lot more sense, theres not really any consequences so people just treat it like twitter lol
I'd attribute it to precisely that. As someone who has been posting around these parts for roughly a decade now, I have met and befriended many individuals here on the forum who I otherwise never would have met in-game due to playing on a completely different server/datacentre.
It's not particularly difficult to curate one's forum experience either. If you can't agree to disagree with someone and find some middle ground then the ignore function exists to settle any major differences. In my experience, there's a vocal group of posters who treat any criticism of the game as a deeply personal attack.
Then, of course, there's the unfortunate fact that a lot of the 'toxic positivity' types have been caught engaging in stalking, harassment and either sending or cheering on credible death and sexual assault threats sent to players they dislike over the perceived 'crime' of being critical of the game's current trajectory and priorities.
It also ignores that a lot of posters critical of the game have repeatedly asked for more moderation themselves only to receive repeated radio silence. For example I made this thread a few years back asking for our community representatives to serve as a more visible and active presence:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...epresentatives
We had one introduce themselves not too long ago and they have not made a single post ever since. Ultimately this forum is under the complete control of Square Enix so blaming players for the current state of the place strikes me as a misguided endeavor - it could quite easily be 'cleaned up' and I disagree with the idea that this place is any more toxic than either Twitter or Reddit. Furthermore, the development team have admitted to gathering feedback from those two places in addition to a certain notorious Japanese site that is prone to being far, far more hostile.
I mean if the forums were moderated as heavily as in game you basically wouldn’t be able to actually have a discussion because you can barely present a dissenting view in game without risking someone reporting you (and no this isn’t a case of “you are just rude but don’t want to admit it”)
You notice the moderation though, people rarely insult each other, at most you get some heated arguments but nothing ban worthy, if anything the forums are a more accurate representation of the actual community opinion on things without the ever present threat of the ban hammer in the main game
Anonymity and an audience lead people to indulge in otherwise uncouth (if not contemptible) behavior.
Moderation is a really difficult thing to balance.
I know there are those who don't like 'whataboutism' here, but I've experienced the polar opposite of what is experienced on this forum, having been perma-banned from the over-moderated official forum of a game I used to play for making negative comments.
Accurate representation of the community, perhaps, but hardly representative of everyone who has tried FF14 before. You have to stay subbed to be on the forums. Tons of players have quit the game and will never discuss its shortcomings on the forums.
The FF14 "community", if it can be called that, is now an extremely insular echo chamber because of survivorship bias.
That's pretty much the same case for most games, for some reason. Reddit is usually the church full of zealots and the forums are always one or two mods away from the site becoming 4chan.
Consider that many of the people who play the game actually use these avenues of communication and their forum persona might be different from their game persona; they might be very heated and toxic here to vent their frustrations but they're nice guys in other places.
As humans we are suceptible to peer pressure and "hive mentalities", sometimes we subconciously assimilate attitudes that otherwise would be unexpected from us. I consider myself a chill guy and I've had a pretty possitive experience in game and try to make it the same for others, but I won't deny I have also fallen into the whole toxic posting once in a while.
The forums are 'bad' due to posters appearing who say every other poster is like a screaming twelve year old and that they're "attention starved children", not to mention "lonely 40 year old women and neckbeards".
Especially ones who imply that their so called bad behaviour is due to lack of a healthy social life or mental illness.
Low activity moderation that doesn't read its own forums and is strictly policy-based + obvious first port of call = toxic hell, every time. It's better here than the average Steam discussion forum at least, which is sort of like saying falling into lava is better than falling into acid.
Some people have no fallback because they've already been run out of other discussion forums. Some just never bothered to look. Some use it as their toxic opinion dumping ground because it won't fly anywhere else. Some use it as a source of entertainment through being annoying on purpose. Some are pedants wandering around from place to place to quibble over their favorite minor subjects. Many will lie to you about why they are to present themselves as higher-minded than in reality. The reasons are many, but the truth is always thus: any serious, productive discussion that happens here has always been largely by accident (or involves really stretching the hell out of the definition of 'serious, productive discussion'.)
But maybe that's become the point over the years, whether intentional or not. If you wanted to set up a honeypot to lure most of the worst posting behavior into one place and away from topical subforums, well, it'd probably wind up looking a lot like this.
the forums aren't that badly moderated; it's just nobody uses the report button here and then complains when nothing is done.
i've used it countless times and have seen the posts removed like that guy who was editing people's quotes to make them sound like pedos from a couple months ago.
But then there is basic moderation that would improve the forums without controversy.
Like locking threads when someone goes on a “necro threads that have been dead for years” spree.
Immediately banning accounts of people who were already banned.
Actually enforcing the rules we have.
These basic things would already clean up the forums quite a bit.
I feel part of the problem with these forums are the the trolls and infamous posters (the ones who love the negativity they get for their problematic posts) who keep thriving because people feed their threads.
If everyone who disagrees simply stopped posting there, they would die out, but I presume the urge to point out their wrongs is bigger than that. Honestly, that doesn't achieve anything because these posters just feed on any kind of attention, good or bad. Sadly the lack of moderation won't help either.
On a technical aspect, the forums looking like a 2000's relic is enough to keep a lot of actual good threads going on. The most obvious aspect is the lack of a notification function. You need to keep manually visiting the threads you engaged to see if you have responses, that from an usability aspect is a game killer for a discussion forums.
Those negative threads thrive because those posters actually have fans. When you behave like Xenos but disguised as a forum poster, people feed off the raito of gotcha insults.
People are bored. Negative threads create more discussion than suggestion threads because it's entertaining and helps get you through the boring day. We rarely see real 'not trolling or fanfac ideas' suggestions on these forums. But when we do, we rarely see past page 2 of comments. It's been mentioned before that the devs meteic for forum feedback is through the upvote system. Sadly for these forums the only times I ever see upvotes get high is when someone got school yard burned from petty insults and passive aggressive hostility.
The trolls here are so goddamn well-fed they’ll be demanding only the finest cuts of filet mignon soon. Lose some weight tubby!
Addendum: I mean metaphorically tubby not fat shaming tubby
If you've read these forums enough, you'd discover they are not saying how much they love FFXIV but rather the opposite.
Well arguably we have a person who uses lots of accounts to make posts and some like to argue it is for attention, but other than that, I think it is just something to do for fun or while waiting in a queue.Quote:
you're some weird attention starved children begging for your parent's attention.
Consider that many of the people active on these forums have actually played since 1.0, ARR or Heavensward. They have seen a lot of changes to the game and so many of them are nostalgic for things the way they used to be which has resulted in feelings of negativity and burnout. People mostly just come to the forums when they have a complaint rather than when they have something positive to say. That's just how it works.Quote:
spurting Mean Girls comments over any and everything.
So what made you all this way?
You have no idea lol, a couple years ago some posters would pull up your fflogs if you posted an opinion they disagreed with to try to dogpile you. Even something as innocuous as "I like the current Summoner".
People say it's toxic positivity, but this forum just developed a culture where there is one accepted idea or solution and posting to the contrary gets you piled on.
Right now it's "the game is boring, we need another bozja, relics are too easy, we need Heavensward jobs back". Posting contrary to that will get a bunch of bad faith replies in the forums trying to dunk on you and messages in-game.
They go with the minimal moderation. it seems to work with japanese, french and german forum, but not on the english ones. Some well known trolls are free to roam, and even when they eventually get banned, they have a new alt account in the hour (that everyone knows it's them anyway).
Some people say it's because of negative comment, but I disagree with that. Most people that complains about the game make pretty good points, but a lot of people on both side cannot not take any criticism personally and every thread derails into an ad-hominem fight. It's not only because of the trolls. They just have to start some fire and disappear, and some "normal" users will keep it going. At this point it's ridiculous. A moderation team is needed for the english forums, because people can't behave themselves.
Then there are the people that can't differentiate criticism and hating the game... When you point that out, they will say "some do, but most don't" based on nothing. Yeah, telling people they hate the game when they do make a criticism is good way to create some nice ambiance. We don't even need the trolls to start those fire.
This also. last time I created a thread about needing more moderation, it litterally had 2 upvotes. Nothing is gonna change if people are not even able to understand how SE collect feedback when they said how they use the forum to collect feedback. Weirdly the "Endsinger needing some sync" has been heard. It's one of the few thread over the last few month that used the like system like they said they use it, and we needed the help of reddit to do that. Doing twelves thread about the same subject don't help, supporting the existing thread does.
FFXIV forum: People behaving like ******* to farm for likes of the same ilk.
They dont rly care about facts or truth, all they want is to just argue and make war of anything they can. :)
If you think these forums are toxic, go log into the General Discussion of another game whose name I shall not mention here (but it rhymes with Borld of Borcraft). The last time I was there, a little over a year ago, it was so toxic that if you spent much time there you would come out of it with white skin, green hair, a penchant for jokes, and a hatred of Batman.
I do wonder if it's some 'burn out' thing myself as I don't think they've always had a predominantly negative tone - or perhaps I just didn't notice it.
I mean, I joined early 2022 having started playing the game December 2021. One of the first things I did here was make a thread asking for advice, as was finding elements of the MSQ difficult and even came to question whether I should persist with the game. And I received a lot of friendly replies and good advice.
But it does seem that the 'tone' changed somewhat as more players-come-forumites completed 6.0, didn't enjoy it nor the post-Endwalker patches, and clearly found themselves reflecting on their dissatisfaction and discussing said dissatisfaction here.
Maybe things will lean toward some more positive-themed discussion when 7.0 launches - who knows?
You basically said the most probable reason people acted as they act is because they "lack healthy social life" or "are mentally ill". You also described them as "children starved for attention" and "Neckbeard". You basically insulted 80% of the forum users. It's kinda mean spirited, and you didn't even realise it. This is part of the reason, people don't even realise when they stop being civil. As I said, it's very weird it only happens on english forums, and japanese, french and german ones are decent.
You didn't notice it. I was posting here in Stormblood and it was like that then. Back then, I was defending Eureka against all the people who didn't like it (and now somehow people miss it after seeing the alternatives in Endwalker). Back then, people were wanting Heavensward job design back. Of course, then we got Shadowbringers, which simplified jobs even more and even the very announcement of it all invited criticism here.
So I was around here again at the end of Shadowbringers (2021) and same sort of thing which hasn't changed since.
However, I think many of the most negative posters probably actually quit or unsubscribed or stopped posting during Endwalker, so that might be why you didn't notice it. But it is still a fact that people are more likely to come to the forums when they have a complaint.
That's pretty normal, but especially in the New Player Forum.Quote:
first things I did here was make a thread asking for advice, as was finding elements of the MSQ difficult and even came to question whether I should persist with the game. And I received a lot of friendly replies and good advice.
There's no chance. People who have been here as long as I have will surely agree. :DQuote:
Maybe things will lean toward some more positive-themed discussion when 7.0 launches - who knows?
It's been going on since 2013.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...al-Fantasy-XIV
The forums are moderated, too. But the posts that get deleted are generally ones that are critical of the game, which were of course reported by fanboys who couldn't bear to read about how their favorite toy isn't perfect. It's understandable to think we don't have moderation, though; I didn't think we had mods either, until I got slapped with a 10 day ban for saying a new cash shop glam was terrible looking and encouraging people not to buy it so the shop team would maybe stop producing lazy slop. But spreading that kind of nEgAtiviTy is a bannable offense, and apparently swearing is too, when it's in a post that a fanboy disagrees with.
To answer OP's question, these forums are awful because you basically have 2 types of people here for (apparently) opposed reasons. One group took the devs at their word about wanting to hear feedback, so they came here to provide it only to learn that actually no devs read this place or provide any semblance of a response to any posts. And another group is here to insist nonstop that the game is 11/10 perfection while pushing back on every feedback thread they see, even if the request is totally reasonable. Anyone coming here to provide feedback is simply mistaken about the purpose of this place, and they learn this when they post feedback and get told that they should just quit the game if they have any issues with it. If you want to actually talk about the game in a critical manner, there're barely any places to do it. This community is high on its own farts.
It also doesn't help that we do have people who post genuinely interesting critiques of the game sometimes but they do it on these alt accounts in a trollish provocative manner so that half the community here just dismisses genuine feedback with a kneejerk "TiTanMeN!!!" response and doesn't even read the thread they're replying to. And those types of trolls are drawn here because Defenders of the Game can't help themselves and have to just reply to everything even if it's by someone they can't stand. It's like watching a train crash in slow motion. I don't like it here but I can't stop checking back when I'm bored at work.
These forums are infested with trolls that use various sock puppet accounts and post multiple bait threads every single day. Occasionally they get suspended or banned, but they invariably come back with another not-so-subtle forum alt and start all over again.
To the unfamiliar, it may appear like some of them are posting legitimate conversation topics and getting undue hostility out of nowhere. But often, it's because they are a known troll who doesn't mean anything they say and are just trying to stir up drama. Typically, if you see someone who only joined the forums in the last month and they keep making new threads constantly, they are a bad actor. Another big red flag is if you look up their character on the Lodestone site and see that they have paid to boost all their crafters and maybe one battle job to max level, despite not even playing the game. One such example even admitted they don't play, they made a whole topic just to say so.
Really? My experience here has been pretty much the polar opposite. These forums are basically the Hate Olympics to see who can screech the most about how terrible FFXIV is. Every day, it's people saying the game is dead, Yoshi-P owes us an apology, the devs are lazy and incompetent and don't care about the game anymore, everyone has quit FFXIV for <insert new game just released>, FFXIV hasn't been any good since Heavensward, etc. Now, there are of course legitimate criticisms and complaints to be made about the game, but the way people go about it here can be really irritating and tiresome.
It comes in waves. They'll latch onto a topic like "The FFXIV community is so toxic" and then create new threads about it for days on end. It was their personal mission to make sure everybody knew how sick and evil FFXIV players are. And if anyone gets the least bit snarky back, they're just like "See!? Did you see that everybody!? Way to prove my point!! #GCBTW."
Recently we had a run where somebody would post literally every video they could find of streamers listing off all the problems with FFXIV. Nothing wrong with wanting to talk about it per se, but that's just it, they didn't even have anything to say. They just wanted to post something negative, and leave. Sometimes there was more than one thread about the same video.