why are people so resistant to constructive criticism about the game?

[SturmChurro]

People are arguing about criticism towards the game not towards the players.
I fully agree with you that the casual community for this game is a bad joke and I don't know how many times on Frontline I've had to read "I'm just coming for my exp" when someone tries to win.

But people are discussing the criticisms of the game that many times try to turn this game into another.

Oh yeah, I missed that (I skim quite often). I've experienced this myself before when I created a thread criticizing ARR in the past. This community acts like this game is sacred, or perfect. "Go play something else" is like their favorite line. To them it's better to not touch or change anything. So I probably agree with the OP's sentiment (still haven't read it).

[Hanaya]

Oh yeah, I missed that (I skim quite often). I've experienced this myself before when I created a thread criticizing ARR in the past. This community acts like this game is sacred, or perfect. "Go play something else" is like their favorite line. To them it's better to not touch or change anything. So I probably agree with the OP's sentiment (still haven't read it).

Yeah, this is very much what I meant. I made this post mostly because I was thinking about how I'd see a lot of new players in the ffxiv discord talking about how they didn't enjoy arr due to the amount of fetch quest bloat in it, and a lot of people would respond with stuff like "well, the story is the point of the game; if you don't like it, then maybe this game isn't for you," and "dev resources are limited, so they can't change it" and so on. It just seems strange to me, because these new players obviously liked the game, they just had issues with certain parts of it, and in hindsight it was pretty valid criticism if the devs ended up deciding to clean up arr.

Like, I do understand that there are limited resources for the production of this game, and I don't want to get the content I specifically want at the cost of someone else's enjoyment. I just wish that when someone makes a comment or starts a discussion about what they'd personally like to see from the game, people could politely explain why it wouldn't work, or explain why they don't think it would be a good idea, instead of just automatically assuming that it's coming from a place of toxicity and disregarding it.

[Arillyn]

Yeah, this is very much what I meant. I made this post mostly because I was thinking about how I'd see a lot of new players in the ffxiv discord talking about how they didn't enjoy arr due to the amount of fetch quest bloat in it, and a lot of people would respond with stuff like "well, the story is the point of the game; if you don't like it, then maybe this game isn't for you," and "dev resources are limited, so they can't change it" and so on. It just seems strange to me, because these new players obviously liked the game, they just had issues with certain parts of it, and in hindsight it was pretty valid criticism if the devs ended up deciding to clean up arr.

Like, I do understand that there are limited resources for the production of this game, and I don't want to get the content I specifically want at the cost of someone else's enjoyment. I just wish that when someone makes a comment or starts a discussion about what they'd personally like to see from the game, people could politely explain why it wouldn't work, or explain why they don't think it would be a good idea, instead of just automatically assuming that it's coming from a place of toxicity and disregarding it.

Well SE did take some bloat out of ARR this last patch, which I think is fine. There was a lot of running around that didn't really need to be there anymore.

As for people saying go play another game - that's probably because within the last year or so there have been a LOT of new people come to the game (which is good) but there have been a fair amount of those new people that have also said (to paraphrase) "I don't like the story. I don't want to do it. It should all be optional and SE should change it and let me just do the stuff I want to do. They should make FFXIV like (insert random MMO name here)." And the story is a fundamental design of the game. And people who enjoy the fundamental game design are most likely tired of new people coming in and complaining about it and wanting the fundamental game design changed to be the same as the MMO they just left.