Why I'm leaving and don't know if I'll come back

[KitingGenbu]

Is there anything wrong with trying to find reasons to stay, though? "I've run out of avenues to have fun in this game and any hope that such will appear any time soon. Please advise," isn't exactly outlandish.

It kind of is since people like to make a spectacle about leaving. If this particular individual wanted to be taken seriously about the issues they are having with the game, then articulate it as such completely, not "I'm leaving and might not come back." Doing so only draws trolls (like myself) and other people rolling their eyes saying "Not another one of these." Of course there are many people who do not like the game in its current state, myself included, but many dont need validation to leave, since I suppose many of us have more self-assurance. For example, I tend to come back to the game only for the story, usually around free logins, but I wanted to use my amazon codes and stick around for deep dungeon so I paid a sub for the first time this year, then I'll leave again. I dont need a thread saying what I'm doing, I just do it lol and so do many others. Am I saying follow the crowd? No. But if someone needs reassurance in making decisions about themselves in terms of entertainment, one has to question if entertainment is really the most important thing they are looking for or something else.

I will say that the "I guess its time" thread did spark a lot of good discussion amongst the community and also broadened the NA/EU awareness of how the JP community feels about the game, since we desire similar interests for the game. But sadly, that might not be known given the title of the thread in itself. People should try to make things more interactive if they have issues with the game, which the JP community tends to do, or so it has been translated to me. Words like "I" "me" "my" are very powerful and come across as arrogant to a lot of people, drawing conclusions such as "Who is this person? Why should I care?" which is something you dont want companies to think either since they will automatically skip it even if it has a lot of good information in it.

[Aarik]

Serious question here; I didn't want to make yet another thread like this so I figured I'd post here. Is there a way to erase your character data completely? I know you can unsubscribe, but I'm talking about erasing your toon. There's probably some stupidly obvious way that I've missed... but yeah.

Frankly, I'm a little too naive when it comes to FF...I get too trusting. Usually I'm not, but for some reason I get my hopes up every time when they are talking about the next patch, or their future plans...and I resub. Stupidly. I regret it within the week, but I've already given them my money. Point is....I'm tired. I'm tired of the misdirection, the way they talk about all these amazing, promising concepts...and then never, ever implement them. I'm tired of watching the quality of patches drop with each new one...I'm tired of watching the game I used to love turn into what it is now. Yet I know once they start talking about the new patch, or 'planned features', I'll fall for it again. So if the option is available, I'm rather heavily considering deleting my character; that way next time I get naive, I'll remember that there's nothing to go back to...and I can move on.

...wow I got a bit wordy there. Sorry for that, but is there a way?

[Shurrikhan]

It kind of is since people like to make a spectacle about leaving. If this particular individual wanted to be taken seriously about the issues they are having with the game, then articulate it as such completely, not "I'm leaving and might not come back." Doing so only draws trolls (like myself) and other people rolling their eyes saying "Not another one of these." Of course there are many people who do not like the game in its current state, myself included, but many dont need validation to leave, since I suppose many of us have more self-assurance. For example, I tend to come back to the game only for the story, usually around free logins, but I wanted to use my amazon codes and stick around for deep dungeon so I paid a sub for the first time this year, then I'll leave again. I dont need a thread saying what I'm doing, I just do it lol and so do many others. Am I saying follow the crowd? No. But if someone needs reassurance in making decisions about themselves in terms of entertainment, one has to question if entertainment is really the most important thing they are looking for or something else.

I will say that the "I guess its time" thread did spark a lot of good discussion amongst the community and also broadened the NA/EU awareness of how the JP community feels about the game, since we desire similar interests for the game. But sadly, that might not be known given the title of the thread in itself. People should try to make things more interactive if they have issues with the game, which the JP community tends to do, or so it has been translated to me. Words like "I" "me" "my" are very powerful and come across as arrogant to a lot of people, drawing conclusions such as "Who is this person? Why should I care?" which is something you dont want companies to think either since they will automatically skip it even if it has a lot of good information in it.

All great points. And in this case there certainly doesn't seem to be much of a question involved anyways. Simply wanted to point out that the form of address itself wasn't entirely without some merit, even it could have done more if introduced differently. I'd rather have that discussion in the wrong places than forbid it occur because it's misplaced.

But at the same time (and I'm speaking in general again here), I can't help but think that the poster-centricity isn't something limited to the OPs, and that maybe such click-baity titles are a particular way of dealing with that. If you were to place the same core content within two differently titled threads, one baiting criticism or spite, and the other asking openly for a real discussion, the prior or a combination substantially including the prior is more likely to see significant conversation, if only because it's less likely to fall off the front page and into obscurity – that advantage snowballing over time as posters find thought or other posters to attack or agree with.

Make a thread openly inviting ideas on any but the most controversial topic, and it sinks really quickly. Give a task, a list to quickly fill, or something to scorn, something to correct, and it lingers. For better or worse, click-bait works here. Real, well-labelled topics focused in their discussion, much less so. From what I've seen popping on briefly a few times per day on average since ARR, a lot of our best stuff is mired in a much less formal sense of argument. And at this point I'm not sure there's a contradiction, or even a paradox, in that fact (assuming my sample / findings are at all representative). They start off from the sympathetic and the critical, and hopefully starts climbing up the registers until it reaches the technical posters (beyond just the initial helpful or invested few). In the end, rival or collegue posters seem as likely to bring someone back to the thread as the OP. More posts you can get originally, the more arguments you can start... Idk. Sorry for the rant. Just feeling sad and ranty, I guess.

[KitingGenbu]

...

I dont like that you're so smart. I'll probably make a thread on it lol. But yeah I see your point.