Community - The Most Likely Cause of the Game's Downfall

[Stihllodeing]

I have no problem with the loot system. I played DCUO when everyone could need on a piece of dps gear. THAT was crazy. So I'm happy with the loot system. It works well.

About the community. I've only had to deal with trolls in-game on a limited basis. With that said, most forums I frequent do state that his community is one of the worst out there. I really began to question why after seeing it so much and came to a few conclusions:

1) The community has been in the spotlight for a VERY long time.

Not just the FF MMO community, but the community in general. People commonly associate ARR players with the player on a forum who trashes SE to no end because of say Lightning Returns or Kingdom Hearts. Even though they are entirely different games altogether, we as a community will still feel the effects of those players. I'm not saying the player base is a bunch of angels, but there is bound to be guilt by association.

2) The cash shop debates.

It was just ridiculous. Did people have a right to fear for "pay to win"? Sure. Did people have a right to "like farm" about it? No. I don't know about you guys and gals, but I seen some forumers who were ESPLICITLY making threads for getting the community worked up. They created thread after thread after thread about it, and where are they now? Did they quit? Well if they quit, was it out of protest or humiliation? The cash shop obviously isn't pay to win. There's a reason the topic died down. It's a shame those same posters can't come out and say, "Ya I'm still playing and feel kind of silly now". I'm not saying no one stated a legitimate and well thought out thread of concern, but those threads were overshadowed by the attention seekers for sure and the effects have resonated. Just a monkey on our back as of now.

3) The lack of a moderator presence in the official forums.

Most successful forums (or forums I believe to be successful and rather drama free) are the ones that have very obvious and direct moderator intervention. They place warnings in topics for all to see. Sometimes they just delete a post entirely and replace it with "Post has been removed by moderator for violation/flaming/off topic" or will have an actual warning sign with a comment and warning from a moderator. It's not that the moderators in those forums make themselves a part of conversations, but they don't ghost erase posts without any sign of intervention. I also see the moderators here just lock a thread instead of cleaning it up which isn't fair to those who were engaging in stimulating conversation.

4) People don't read that much in this forum.

You see it all the time. Someone will read a thread title, post what they believe to be relative to the title and not read the previous pages of the conversation to see if it's still relevant. I don't read every single post all the time either, but the skimming is just too much to stomach sometimes.

Anyway, I think those are some big reasons as to why people might think this community is so toxic from the outside in. Because when it comes down to it, I've experienced more trolling, baiting, flaming, bigotry, racism, etcetera in many MANY other games several times over.

I know these aren't necessarily the points you were making OP, just wanted to throw this out there.

[TouchandFeel]

As I see it, the attitudes of this game's community and most online communities are a reflection of the state of society in general, we do live in the age of online after all.

Blatant self-entitled dickery is quickly becoming the norm in modern society. While there are still good people out there who make the world a nicer place for others, I consistently see more acts of selfishness than kindness while going about my day.

Societies and communities are made up of people, us. When you hurt someone else in the community, you are hurting the community and inadvertantly are hurting yourself since you too are a part of the community.
Strengthen and improve the community and everyone benefits, including yourself.

So please, let's all do our best to not be selfish jerks, online and in the real world.

[Riviere]

I always click need, except in low level dungeons.

[Catwho]

I learned the hard way that if you want an item in this game, you HAVE to go on a class that can Need on it. I got yelled at for much the same thing when I won the caster robe in CT on my black mage. I had wanted that robe for a long time, so I deliberately queued as a black mage (and not bard or scholar or war, my other main jobs), and when it finally dropped, I Needed on it. A guy who was tanking immediately started complaining that his black mage "could have used that."

Well, guess what, I could have been on my ilvl 110 WAR in Crystal Tower too, but I queued as a black mage precisely because I wanted the Crimson Robe. If he had really wanted the caster gear as much as I did, he too could have queued on black mage. He chose to queue on tank, either to shorten the wait or to also get a shot at tank gear. That was the opportunity cost he decided on, and I shouldn't be expected to pass on a piece of gear I've been after for over a year.

[Jynx]

Don't hate the community for acting ultra insular. Duty finder breeds this community by removing any community building blocks and even making it hard to try and create a community.

Blame the game's ecosystem for catering to these players.

Everything SE does is counter community right down to the base game systems.

[Izsha]

Catwho gets it.

You want gear, go on that job and need. The loot system encourages you to play the job your gearing, but still have the off chance to slowly get gear for other classes. You want to insta cue on tank but get dps gear? To bad. Go get on dps. You want tank gear, but don't want the responsibility and go on dps? To bad.

If you want gear then just PLAY the job you want gear for. This loot system rewards you on the job you olay. Stop QQ ing about not being able to greed everything your little heart desires. Straight up entittlement. You earn the right to need by playing the job.

[Evangela]

I learned the hard way that if you want an item in this game, you HAVE to go on a class that can Need on it. I got yelled at for much the same thing when I won the caster robe in CT on my black mage. I had wanted that robe for a long time, so I deliberately queued as a black mage (and not bard or scholar or war, my other main jobs), and when it finally dropped, I Needed on it. A guy who was tanking immediately started complaining that his black mage "could have used that."

Well, guess what, I could have been on my ilvl 110 WAR in Crystal Tower too, but I queued as a black mage precisely because I wanted the Crimson Robe. If he had really wanted the caster gear as much as I did, he too could have queued on black mage. He chose to queue on tank, either to shorten the wait or to also get a shot at tank gear. That was the opportunity cost he decided on, and I shouldn't be expected to pass on a piece of gear I've been after for over a year.

that guy sounds like a 12 year old brat.

[Stihllodeing]

Don't hate the community for acting ultra insular. Duty finder breeds this community by removing any community building blocks and even making it hard to try and create a community.

Blame the game's ecosystem for catering to these players.

Everything SE does is counter community right down to the base game systems.

That's right, don't hate the players hate the game. Rubbish. People should be held accountable for their actions. Imo, this type of attitude is what contributes to the "me first generation" much more than anything SE could design.

[Kallera]

That's right, don't hate the players hate the game. Rubbish. People should be held accountable for their actions. Imo, this type of attitude is what contributes to the "me first generation" much more than anything SE could design.

Except by design they cannot be held accountable by their actions, even outing the offending player can be interpreted as a witch hunt and reported.

[FranSeara]

A few choice words..."Can I please have that Fran?" "Would you pass that for me Fran?" Ok, yours. Works everytime..