Elitism and How It Is Ruining The Gaming Community [Discussion, Feedback, and Rants]

[Ayiana_Arch]

EDIT: Thought I'd clear some things up. The AK run I described was before I joined any FC or LS. This is based off of my experience in my server and what people have told me. I don't know if it is all true (requiring DL for AK for your first time or something). The thread is to generate ideas for this unavoidable problems and to see if other people on any other servers are experiencing what I am. Coming on here to whine about my rant doesn't serve a purpose in this thread. And with that said, here you go:

Now before I get started, I know that elitism is (unfortunately) a healthy part of a Massive Multiplayer Online game. They're what drive the community, even though they can be annoying.

I haven't played many MMO games, but from what I've read and understood, this is the worst endgame community anyone has been in. There are elitists left and right with no way to avoid them. There have been several reports of elitists ruining the experience for people or complaining about the smallest details. I understand that things such as Amdapor Keep and Wanderer's Palace require at least Darklight armor, but what gets me is the amount of people who whine about players watching the cutscenes during the game. This is a Final Fantasy. The entire series is renown for their stories, and yet we have people who are saying you're not allowed to watch the story because I say so or else I'll kick you. I know that the patch from this morning helped with that, but I can nearly guarantee you that it will continue. People will still use Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium for speed-runs to get their Allagan Tomestomes of Philosophy, as they still give the highest amount out of any of the other dungeons in the game. There was a user on my server, Midgardsormr, who was declaring that if you're a PlayStation 3 user, before you can even be a part of his party, you had to have Relic+1, FULL Darklight, AND a Photo ID, practically preventing anyone from getting in. Not only is this against the rules of the game, as you cannot single out who is playing on what system, it is also the disgusting truth that elitists are ruining this community. I'm getting tired of seeing things like "LFM Titan HM Farm. Have FULL DL and Relic. AVOIDABLE MISTAKES WILL NOT BE TOLERATED" and things like this. I know I can just get rid of shout altogether, but we can only avoid it for so long before we have to go back to it. The Duty Finder is also bringing the worst out of people. We have elitists saying that, even for a CM run, other people's gear sucks and they shouldn't be here. There, unfortunately, should be an instance server for people who are doing the storyline CM and Prae and then people who are doing speedruns. That's my alternative idea to avoiding some of this mess. What are your thoughts on this? Hopefully SE will see this and take action.

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Balmung is especially bad for elitist behaviour being a legacy server

Literally, you won't get a pre-made team for anything unless you have full darklight and a relic (Save for HM primals, which are typically DL + weapon from the primal below); afterall why would they? - 90% of the players already have all level 50's and full gear before the server even launched. Why rub shoulders with newbies who (heaven forbid) might not yet have the dungeon on farm yet? (Though i have AK on farm but my lack of full DL and a relic means I must be teh suckzors)

If you're on a legacy server don't expect to actually play with your server-mates, it's DF way or no way (Unless of course, you already have full darklight and a relic, in which case you're in with the in crowd)


I've been practicing Titan HM and can reliably get deep into phase 5, but DF teams always end up with dead DPS every single time and can't finish the fight (Usually they eat a bomb or landslide); which is to be expected. But I can't take that education to a premade team on Balmung to finish the fight, because I need to prove that I've beaten titan at least once before before anyone'll let me on their team; so it's a catch 22

I think the problem lies in some people doing speedruns via DF. Fixed parties have a right to choose their party members but a DF party does not.

- First timer uses DF to enter Castrum.
- Gets in a speedrun group
- "Skip the CS or you're griefing"
- Ignores them, the newcomer has the right to watch the cutscenes
- Gets harassed

Now there are people trying to DF AK while undergeared (full AF and 49+ other stuff is enough to beat it, but say that to 90% of AK parties). Same thing, these people are relentlessly harassed.

People feel that they are entitled to choose their party members in DF, when they are not. If I get a bad party member in DF, I see how far it goes and leave after it becomes obvious this is going nowhere, no harassment needed.

I guess to put a more statistical approach to my (end-game) dungeoneering and experiences:

Duty finder runs have been generally positive:
- Of 4 titan HM attempts: x1 Tank bailed immediatly. x1 Had an abusive player. x2 Had patient players willing to practice
- Of 7 AK runs: x3 Could not clear demon wall. x2 Had amazingly nice players. x2 Were unremarkable
- Of 3 CM runs: x1 Had an abusive player. x2 The tanks bailed before the run was complete

Pre-mades on Balmung have been very negative:
- Of 3 titan HM attempts: x2 Had abusive players who bailed. x1 Didn't even begin*
- Of 1 AK run: x1 Had an abusive player who bailed

*On that particular run, the team leader upon seeing my less-than-100% DL gear forced the team to re-form and broadcast in Mor Dhona zone chat that I was a "filthy casual expecting to be carried and to black list me", which unfortunatly a surprising number of players actually obliged their request


Conclusion:
Generally, people are more polite and friendly on the duty finder. The elitists tend to stick to pre-mades so they don't have to rub shoulders with mere mortals. However, even then the Duty Finder displays a VERY high amount of toxic behaviour (38% of runs had players who were verbally abusive, and/or bailed from the run due to the team's perceived inadequacies), which is something that needs to be addressed urgently for the health of the game. A strange trend however is that people's behaviour tends to be worse towards members of their own server, than to total strangers they are unlikely to meet again; apparently in Eorzea shitting on your own doorstep is how the cool kids do it.

This is the kind of stuff the topic was made for.