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

[Sathona]

When i first started i thought the community was great, ho boy... was i wrong..
and the forums are a prime example of what i mean.

[Driavna]

In game is ok, nothing I haven't experienced in any other MMO, with the exception of a portion of the casual player base being very toxic. On forums, or something similar like reddit, it feels like the Tumblr of MMOs. Totally rub me the wrong way.

[Videra]

My mindset has become: Save me from the existential nightmare that is crystal duty finder

[HeulGDarian]

My mindset has become: Save me from the existential nightmare that is crystal duty finder

come to moogle we have baguettes

[StriderShinryu]

It's strange for me. My actual experiences in game haven't really changed all that much since I started. I'm in a great FC and mostly have a pretty good time doing whatever it is I choose to do. They player base, at large, still seems fairly friendly and supportive overall.

But I absolutely have noticed that everyone has apparently forgotten how to talk to each other. It's like a wave of collective muteness has swept over the game. People just make assumptions about what should be done and how and there's a pervasive feeling of everyone just being expected to know exactly how to do everything in the game. This lack of communication is just clarified by the forums where people do talk but don't seem to be listening to each other at all. It's almost all "my way or the highway." In game things either go fine or they fall apart completely simply because no one outside of their given clique wants to or cares to actually cooperate.

[Driavna]

forgotten how to talk to each other. It's like a wave of collective muteness has swept over the game.

I think current TOS do not help with this situation at all, the rest is due how convenient MMO's are this day. You really "don't need" other players, sure, you are better of having "friends" to play with for an optimal experience but that required effort. I mean, is not even for MMO's. I play another game that you only need 1 more player, and that forums is full of "Unplayable game, I always get paired with a bad player".

[Aldora]

I've been reading all of the comments in this thread and mostly lurk about in other threads (mostly the "Tales of the Duty Finder"), just to get an idea what players think of the people they encounter in the game. And to be honest, reading the comments about the bad experiences players have within the game, based on rude / toxic behavior from others, does hurt.

I've been here for quite a while now (since the Alpha of 1.0) and a lot has changed since then. At the very beginning, the atmosphere of the game was quite similar to FFXI, where you would form little groups within the FFXIV community and run the content together. You basically only had contact with the group you were in and you would make the most out of it. People knew that if you were being a jerk, eventually you would build up a negative reputation and feel the repercussions from it (because people would most likely ignore you).

If you wanted to run a dungeon, you would gather people through the linkshell and go to the entrance of the dungeon in order to start it. With the introduction of the Duty Finder, things started to change. You would be paired up with random people and since you weren't likely to see each other again, it didn't really matter that much if you were being a jerk to others or not. This, in general, didn't change the way we tackled the content that much. Only the means to gather people to run the content became more accessible.

In the years that followed, the playerbase got better at playing the game and with it new playstyles were adopted by the players. People started to push the limits of the group, by making speedruns for the dungeons. After a couple of months it was starting to become the norm for running content within FFXIV. This also resulted in the bar to be raised for everyone. If you were not performing at a certain level, you would be considered to be "bad". Regardless of your experience with the game or MMO's in general.

So, basically rude / toxic interactions between players has been present in the game ever since ARR. But, still the general populus within the game was laid back and friendly.

When you have a game that increases in popularity, it will attract more people from different backgrounds and different levels of experience and interests. Due to this, it will be more common to come across people who aren't as nice to you, as you would be to them.

If i look at myself over the years. I started off as a friendly but cautious player. Playing with a lot of random people and also raiding in content like Coil, made me more confident in my abilities. Still, some behaviour i see in game (like fighting for aggro between tanks) is really off-putting if you are just looking to relax and have fun. I don't want to be "on edge" (like you would be for Progression runs in Savage and Ultimate) all the time and want to relax every once and a while too. I put effort in everything i do, but i don't want to feel that i need to be a "top tier" player 100% of the time.

But, looking at the discussions on the forums, seeing people leave after 1 single wipe, complain if they see certain mechanics because the encounter was not pushed (and skipping phases) or jump at each others throats, you would have trouble seeing it differently. People also don't really talk that much, unless spoken to. (That's why i always great people at the start of a duty, ask questions to check what they want to do and say "Take care" at the end of duty.)

However, i still believe that in general the people are still fine. You can still crack jokes and have fun while running content with randoms. But, you usually have to start the conversation yourself.

I'm not perfect, but i do my best to make playing with me comfortable and fun.

[StriderShinryu]

I think current TOS do not help with this situation at all, the rest is due how convenient MMO's are this day. You really "don't need" other players, sure, you are better of having "friends" to play with for an optimal experience but that required effort. I mean, is not even for MMO's. I play another game that you only need 1 more player, and that forums is full of "Unplayable game, I always get paired with a bad player".

Not saying you're wrong at all as I don't have any info/experience to say otherwise, but my personal take is it's likely the whole ToS situation has probably been overblown. To me it seems far more likely that a few people who were toxic jerks but swear they weren't got justifiable bans for "just trying to help" and then started complaining about the ToS which led to a chilling effect. Maybe the moderation team is completely inept but I find it hard to believe that someone would get sanctioned for legitimately being helpful even if the recipient of the advice took it the wrong way.

Once again, though, no personal experience with this. I just know that when I have tried to actually communicate in game and be helpful (or to ask for help myself) I've never had any issues.

[HeulGDarian]

Not saying you're wrong at all as I don't have any info/experience to say otherwise, but my personal take is it's likely the whole ToS situation has probably been overblown. To me it seems far more likely that a few people who were toxic jerks but swear they weren't got justifiable bans for "just trying to help" and then started complaining about the ToS which led to a chilling effect. Maybe the moderation team is completely inept but I find it hard to believe that someone would get sanctioned for legitimately being helpful even if the recipient of the advice took it the wrong way.

Once again, though, no personal experience with this. I just know that when I have tried to actually communicate in game and be helpful (or to ask for help myself) I've never had any issues.

i dont think the ToS is the problem. I know a friend of mine who got banned for retaliating against insults but besides that i always thought that unless you got concrete evidence since you have to speak with a moderator it would be like crying wolf and you might actually be punished in return

[Tlachtga]

almost sounds like that you are the bad guy who keeps yelling at other people and then get mad when people call out your toxicity.

That's a cute jump to conclusions. Still perpetuating the facade, I see. The FFXIV playerbase can't be bad! It must be me!

Actually I just enjoy a cooperative experience where everyone contributes their share of the effort required to beat the duty.

FFXIV has become...not that.