How has your mindset changed with regards to other players since your started the ga?

[Frosthaven]

I played in 2013, and rejoined late 2019. For me the biggest change is in how people handle disagreements or criticism. And by that I mean the inability to handle either. At all.

I'm someone who loves to be told when I mess up, but I know it's too dangerous for people to assume its safe to assist me. So I end up just researching most of the things I need to know and tracking my own stats. I keep in-game chatter civil and minimal and just keep to my own circle of friends to avoid a lot of the drama I see unfold over nothing in parties I join.

I'll say everyone is a lot nicer these days, but it feels more like a mask of kindness than a genuine happiness. I dunno. Always feels like people are one wrong move away from snapping from having to swallow any grievances without a way to expel it. Maybe I'm crazy.

There's still some genuine humans out there too, they're just harder to find.

[ern815]

You mean the toxicity of the community? I think it's more or less on par as when I had started a few years ago. Actually, it was worst when I started out in ARR. I remembered I was fighting Odin in a party. Some of them were calling me names due to me being bad at avoiding mechanics. They were throwing insults rather than criticizing my game play which kinda sucked.

Nowadays I rarely encounter such toxic players which is a good thing, and the FFXIV community are actually quite nice these days.
We messed up, we are ok with it and we fight on to clear the instance. That was an awesome experience especially with the clear.

I was expecting some WoW refugees coming in and destroy the existing harmonious and friendly FFXIV community with their toxic attitude but nope, all is still very peaceful and harmonious. I'm glad that the overall FFXIV community still remains friendly and not extremely salty over the years that makes me feel at home again despite being away for a few weeks from the game. Of course there are a few bad apples from time to time, but always just move on or block them. They might already forget what they did to you in the past when you bump into them on the next instance/raid.

[SturmChurro]

Realized how sensitive FFXIV players are. Don't chat in-game anywhere close to how I used to in other MMORPGS before, and even now I will chat more openly in other games rather than this one.

[kelevra13]

Actually, since I'm not even done with Heavensward's post MSQs yet, I've experienced generally friendly players. There was a time where I queued for a trial and got Shiva EX and we all voted to bail on it with 3mins left coz we kept getting wiped. The players were chill about it. However, upon signing up for the forums and reading most of the topics, I find out now that endgame content as well as savage and extreme stuff are where the toxic players are. I'm now considering if I should renew my subscription or just avoid that content since I left online games (MOBAs, MMOs, competitive shooters etc) years ago due to toxic players in the first place.

TLDR: The forums showed me where the toxicity is, and it's making me reconsider playing XD

[Hysterior]

TLDR: The forums showed me where the toxicity is, and it's making me reconsider playing XD

No Honey! People who enjoy the game are in game, enjoying it,
Forums are a place to vent and whine, don't assume that the forum reflects the in-game community
End-game is not that toxic either.

If FFXIV is toxic, I wonder what adjectives we could use for other online games... like... F2P Shooters... ew....

[Esmoire]

Actually, since I'm not even done with Heavensward's post MSQs yet, I've experienced generally friendly players. There was a time where I queued for a trial and got Shiva EX and we all voted to bail on it with 3mins left coz we kept getting wiped. The players were chill about it. However, upon signing up for the forums and reading most of the topics, I find out now that endgame content as well as savage and extreme stuff are where the toxic players are. I'm now considering if I should renew my subscription or just avoid that content since I left online games (MOBAs, MMOs, competitive shooters etc) years ago due to toxic players in the first place.

TLDR: The forums showed me where the toxicity is, and it's making me reconsider playing XD

Honestly as someone at the endgame, my experiences have been positive. I do a lot of PvP, housing, Gold Saucer, and roulettes with friends. To no surprise, the most toxicity there comes out of PvP, but even then that's minor compared to other MMOs.

Most of the toxicity and poor behaviour comes from high-end raiders, though there's a lot to enjoy with FFXIV outside of that; in fact, the % of players especially on NA who actually raid are a small minority, and there's a lot of fun to be had at 80 without that. Even if you want to get into raiding, you can always avoid PF and find a more relaxed group of people to participate with. In general PUGs have less accountability, which makes it easier for people to ditch or be rude.

[HeulGDarian]

Honestly as someone at the endgame, my experiences have been positive. I do a lot of PvP, housing, Gold Saucer, and roulettes with friends. To no surprise, the most toxicity there comes out of PvP, but even then that's minor compared to other MMOs.

Most of the toxicity and poor behaviour comes from high-end raiders, though there's a lot to enjoy with FFXIV outside of that; in fact, the % of players especially on NA who actually raid are a small minority, and there's a lot of fun to be had at 80 without that. Even if you want to get into raiding, you can always avoid PF and find a more relaxed group of people to participate with. In general PUGs have less accountability, which makes it easier for people to ditch or be rude.

No it doesnt.

[LittleImp]

I've gotten kind of burnt out from dealing with people; I'm not sure if it's the community that's declined, or simply my patience.

I used to run learning discords and host a lot of learning parties simply because I enjoyed watching newer players learn and become passionate about playing the game. It gave me a kind of vicarious enjoyment that allowed me to relieve some of my best triumphs/memories...

I started to notice people becoming very agitated and unappreciative in these types of parties towards the end of Stormblood. People began to reject well-intentioned advice and often became verbally abusive towards me in my own parties, it even happened a handful of times in voice chat. Fresh learners even started raging if your strategy deviated from what was in the video guides, even when the guide strategies weren't actually being used in PF (o12s MTQ dash strat I'm looking at you >.>; ). The more of those experiences I had, the less I was able to hold onto that joy that teaching gave me.

People generally seem to have less respect for other peoples time, all the while hiding behind a fake-nice facade and feigning some kind of moral superiority. It's become almost impossible to point out when someone is obviously taking advantage, as people will trip over themselves to defend the behavior for some reason. I've been called an elitist for asking someone in a 70+ dungeon why they were only auto-attacking 75% of the time (They were tabbing out to type in discord during most pulls, by their own admission). I've been called toxic and kicked from a Memoria "clear party" for asking why they were explaining the first mechanic in the entire fight to their friend. I've been told "It doesn't matter" when people try to fully afk through MSQ roulette. I've been called salty for asking someone to help fight mobs in palace instead of remaining afk in the spawn room until the gate was opened. You'll just have to take my word for it that nearly all of these situations were approached with a reasonable, often softened tone. I probably even have screencaps of some of them, somewhere.

Don't get me wrong here, struggling with the game is fine. I have a lot of friends who would be considered "bad", but I still find a lot of joy in playing with them. My own SO was stuck on the SB Hien solo duty for three days xD! Rather, these kinds of cases I'm increasingly encountering are situations in which a player who knows better is actively trying to take advantage. I honestly hope I'm just unlucky, and that this isn't a trend in the community.

[Alleo]

Well over the years my wish to not run stuff with strangers just got stronger thanks to some really horrible runs and the attitude of the players there. I dont need people to be the very best or to always play near perfect but the amount of really bad players in duties annoy me. Overall though I just got more and more into crafting and solo stuff so I still somewhat enjoy the game.

My biggest change was towards the devs and SE. At first I was really "soft" on them when they did stuff wrong or when we got more cash shop items. (Heck I even bought some myself to support them) But over time that changed. I mostly see them as someone that simply want to just earn as much as possible with the least amount of work. The increase in cash shop items and the decrease in ingame content really helped that. Also going against your own words doesnt help either. So I guess the biggest mindest change was towards them.

[HeulGDarian]

Its not even that , I can understand bad nobody is good at everything or even if they play one thing they can be new or dont know how to look for stuff, But actively avoiding advice? then we got tanks who have 1000s of hours of experience and good gear actively doing single pulls on dungeons then if someone asks for more or if frustrated rescue them be called elitist, and that their justification is that they just have a different playstyle? Then we got the whole ACT situation where people ,even after yoshi p went to lengths to explain they dont add something like that to the game cause of the toxicity it would create not cause of the info, ask that yoshi bans people who use it? People who want for savage and super savage to be nerfed or removed cause they want bis despite bis being useles for anything but supersavage? I mean damn ive raided quite a bit in pf i have only seen someone be a complete jerk only once and i have had 6k+ hours on this game. I think the situation has been worsened with the current job/role design as well, make a job simpler and people who were lazy find a reason to be even more lazy.