Can we dial back the forum vitriol...?

[Colino]

I thoroughly agree with OP, with the caveat that I please ask you all don't dial it back TOO much. After all the horrible topics and arguments General Discussion has been providing me with entertainment for many years now and I hope that doesn't stop all of a sudden.

[Kazrah]

Yes, tone down the vitriol. My god, we're not WoW players.

[RichardButte]

There's three kinds of arguments that take place in gaming forums that are openly hostile:

A) A plea to the developers (to nerf, buff, or change the game to the whim of the poster) - These will quickly get shot down by players who like things the way they are, and because the FFXIV devs are receptive to both positive and negative feedback, people feel the need to shut down any discussion of features that they feel change the game in ways they are not receptive to.

I can understand folks being displeased when others suggest large-scale changes to the game, but most of the suggestions I'm referring to are ones that would have 0 affect on actual gameplay but are instead entirely geared toward simply making certain parts of the game less cumbersome (usually suggestions about UI, inventory space, etc.).

It's those situations where it makes the least sense because there's nothing at stake for other players to be worried about losing.

Again, take my "Recommend Gear" button example from the OP: NO ONE is harmed by this feature, it doesn't change a single aspect of actual gameplay nor difficulty. It only makes the selection of gear more convenient and overall improves the quality of life for everyone who wants to use it.

But I promise you there are people who crapped all over it when it was suggested, even going so far as to get angry and post things like, "Is it THAT hard to go through and just select your gear? Next, you'll want the game to level your character for you as well!"

The thought process seems to be something along the lines of:

-See a suggestion for a QoL improvement (an improvement that's not trying to suggest a big change to the game, nor trying to pass itself off as a change that's 100% necessary).

-Insist that, because the change isn't 100% necessary, it shouldn't be added to the game.

-Dial the snark up to "11" and insist that because they've personally never needed this feature, no one else should either.

This is the part that I find confusing. I could understand if a person vehemently rejects a suggestion about sweeping gameplay or difficulty changes, but again, these are QoL suggestions that are receiving this treatment!

[Bongaboi]

I leave my vitriol for my reactions to failed syntheses at Limsa Lominsa or when I get wiped. I don't leave it on the forums and I have a zero-tolerance policy for such comments on my blog entries on the Lodestone. I'm chill like that.

[Bongaboi]

In the English side of forum communication, it appears everything has to be perceived as a personal slight in some way.

#gamebalance

[SnugglesD]

This may sound awful, but I can kind of see where a lot of the vitriol comes from.

The developers of this game are incredibly receptive to community sentiment. More so than any other mmo I've played. That sounds good on paper, but in practice, it leads to a lot of wasted dev time on a lot of features that could easily be pushed back for things that would breathe some life into the game. (Egi glamour, anyone?) We just got an expansion so things are shiny and new now, but the tome treadmill starts on Tuesday and its about to be 2 more years of the exact same thing.

Come to the forums, which is where the dev team takes all of their feedback from, and you'll find no less than a dozen requests on the front page of new posts for petty things that don't matter to anyone but the very small, very vocal minority that posts on the forums.

On phone, so can't edit. Apologies for the ensuing double post.

[SnugglesD]

No matter how kind and patient a person is, after 4 years of seeing more and more dev time being allocated to glamour and things like /goose, and less and less to actual content, patience wears thin and tempers rise. I'm not condoning the nastier responses here, but understanding goes both ways. You don't get to demand to be understood and treated fairly without giving others the same treatment.

A little responsibility would go very far on both sides here.

[Hyperia]

Ever since the moderators on Reddit started stomping out the mean posts, it's been nicer there than here.

[Avatre]

Bump because well...just look at what's been happening in some of the posts(large pull and duty finder venting mostly) today...

People have different play styles, people have different personalities...if you don't like what someone is doing(especially in a dungeon), just finish it and move on. You likely won't see them again unless you are looking for them specifically.

[YitharV2]

Ever since the moderators on Reddit started stomping out the mean posts, it's been nicer there than here.

I personally disagree with Rule 1b because people went to Reddit because of the fact that they got banned here. And I now understand why this forum had such a policy of banning people. But anyways, it just seems weird that censorship is the reason people joined r/ffxiv yet the censorship is worse than OF now.

I don't know. It feels like people generally want the sub to be dead 9 months out of the year or something.

I think it really comes down to this, since it feels like the subreddit is where people come to talk about what they don't want to talk about.

"My name is Susie Snowflake and I should be exempt from ever seeing content in this subreddit that does not match my interests."

Also, one thing is SE reads the official forums. They don't read Reddit.