Let's make this viral- Improving our community

[Wobi]

The problem is: The ToS have, if you read them carefully, nothing in them that forbids treating newbies like dirt as long as no expletives are used.

Calling someone a n00b? No offense, since not a curse word.

Telling s.o. he/she should better quit/is the worst player ever (not in general, I am talking about the very special context of a new player)? Cannot see anything in the ToS forbidding it.

Starting a dungeon with "oh, <player's name> again! The tank that cannot hold aggro!" (assuming the tank is new and does indeed have some issues) causing other players to consider quitting? No ToS clause about that, as far as I have been able to understand.

Bottom line: You can be as mean and toxic as you like, as long as you do not use any curse words. Nothing SE wants to fix, as it seems.

MMO's are not a police state, they added the commendation system to encourage playing a bit nicer but they cannot just crack down on anything people perceive to be rude. This issues falls almost entirely on the shoulders of the player community as a whole. No one is forcing anyone to act like an unrepentant tool, any expectation of the devs to somehow force people to behave is a cop out.

I do everything I can to foster a positive experience with anyone I meet because I know full well that negativity breeds hatred and people eventually get kicked around enough that they either leave or it hardens them and they become what they used to hate.

[Anapingofness]

I agree w/ you OP.
The link was a good read.
Personally, I've been saying similar things since day one.

The most important thing to take away is that we make the community.
Our community may not be bound by servers like the old school MMOs but we are still a part of the FFXIV community. It is even more important that we reflect a positive environment so that the game can flourish.

Lastly, this is for newbies and vets alike.
Kindness goes both ways. ^^

[AmyNeudaiz]

snip

Well, I have all crafts to 50 and I do my best to help people when I see them in need. I've turned down dozens of trades for gil for melding requests and always give the meld reward back if I do take it and find out after that person is strapped for Gil. I can recall almost every instance that I've helped a person, but me being me I tend to go back later and check up on the person periodically and I find out that 9/10 people I help quit the game like a month later. It's disheartening. (And I mean went out of my way to give them lots of help, I don't stalk everyone I give a free meld to lol)

But I keep helping anyway because that 1/10 that stick with the game usually give me a /wave when I pass by them in town and it's generally just a good feeling. I know there's a couple of people on my server that see me as an angel lol. To me that makes it worth it but like I said before this game doesn't really make community easy, especially with some people having the "I don't need your help" attitude.

[EA9Sol]

Good read and very true. This is my first pay to play mmo and I wanted to have a good time. For few months it was a blast. Even some endgame stuff wasn't horrid to do; but now? Everyone wants you to watch/read guide then expect you to know their play style. And the funny thing is not every guide is the same so it's kinda a pointless to do so when guide say to do x and party dose something else. What happened to planning a strategy and working together? Oh, we don't have time to to type in chat "run to glowing plates when boss cast doom" or what have you.

Heck, I'm weary for doing any df dungeons because I might run into a jerk player. I might not be the most social person, but if anyone needed help I would not hesitate to help. And with post like this I may find a tiny glimmer of hope that this community with get better....hopefully.

[Sigurd_Volsung]

It starts with us making the effort. We see the problem. Each of us can make a difference in changing it.

[Jynx]

Improving the community is on all of us, not just the devs or GMs.

It can't just fall to us though, without the proper tools we are fighting a impossible uphill battle.

[Macka]

The problem is: The ToS have, if you read them carefully, nothing in them that forbids treating newbies like dirt as long as no expletives are used.

Calling someone a n00b? No offense, since not a curse word.

Telling s.o. he/she should better quit/is the worst player ever (not in general, I am talking about the very special context of a new player)? Cannot see anything in the ToS forbidding it.

Starting a dungeon with "oh, <player's name> again! The tank that cannot hold aggro!" (assuming the tank is new and does indeed have some issues) causing other players to consider quitting? No ToS clause about that, as far as I have been able to understand.

Bottom line: You can be as mean and toxic as you like, as long as you do not use any curse words. Nothing SE wants to fix, as it seems.

You first need to know the meaning of cursing because you seem to not know.

curse word
noun
1. a profane or obscene word, especially as used in anger or for emphasis.
2. any term conceived of as offensive.

[stupiddog]

You first need to know the meaning of cursing
[...]
2. any term conceived of as offensive.

Sorry, I guess I used the wrong term. I think the word I am looking for would be offense or libel (in the judicial sense)

[Jacost]

It can't just fall to us though, without the proper tools we are fighting a impossible uphill battle.

Even so, it's a fight worth fighting.

[stupiddog]

MMO's are not a police state, they added the commendation system to encourage playing a bit nicer but they cannot just crack down on anything people perceive to be rude. This issues falls almost entirely on the shoulders of the player community as a whole. No one is forcing anyone to act like an unrepentant tool, any expectation of the devs to somehow force people to behave is a cop out.

I agree that it should not be a police state where you would be banned for loosing hold of yourself on a bad day once in a (long) while. However, I feel that the status quo we have now is the result of either (or both?) of the following:

a) Rules are too vague / leave too much room for interpretation / are too "laissez-faire"
b) Rules are ok, but not enforced often enough for the penalties to be taken seriously

Or it could be that SE does not see that there is a problem at all. If all the so-perceived "sissies" unsub due to "natural selection", and the number of remaining subs is sufficient, this could be an acceptable state (for SE).