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

[Sasarayu]

This is actually not a unique FFXIV phenomenon. I think every MMO ever probably had groups of players with the attitude "what are you talking about? It will always be like this! Things are perfect. They are never going to change!" but the difference is in other MMOs those have typically been players who socially exploit some clear unbalance in game design such as the example of guilds monopolizing world bosses or open world dungeons. It's perfect because they gated others from doing it no matter how unbalanced. Age old thing.

In MMO this comes down to "having friends" and in the case of FFXIV which is arguably a more accessible game contentwise than the old sandboxy types of MMOs where factions of players could "monopolize" content but also still a more collectivist and group dependent game than WoW (it's not just raids but for example treasure map dungeons and other things were you easily miss out on content if you don't have the friends) and more than anything FFXIV does not do much to make the individual player attractive to the collective through sheer individual effort alone, which is a borderline/pseudo sandbox heritage a game such as WoW has more or less managed to do away with over the years.

This is why those who are socially established, be it casual or hardcore, are much less inclined to see the benefits of change.

[kaynide]

Of course, but you're speaking from the company's perspective. This thread is about why other customers might be resistant to "constructive" criticisms.

Right right. The bad thing is, there really isn’t any way to “vote with your money” like you could with a burger shop, as it’s pay the sub for everything or not. I guess it might be more comparable to buying a car?

Though I’ve always been of the mind of doing in game kickstarters. Players buy generic crysta pledged towards something they really want, and if a threshold is met, SE will commit to make whatever it is. Players keep the crysta to shop in mogstation.

Personally I’ve never bought any, but if I knew I could influence getting a new job or dungeon, I would be much more likely to do it. Maybe big spenders get an NPC in dungeon they can name XD

[Nayout]

While I'm no fan of constantly swapped out 'borrowed power' systems (Artifact Weapons in Legion, Azerite gear in BfA, Conduits in Shadowlands), I'm not sure I can think of any that have had nearly the negative reception of, well, the majority of XIV's side-content? The most notorious of them all, the Garrisons, amounted to the same complaint people had about housing here, if a bit more intense: "Where'd all the people I used to see in cities and the open world go?"

That Azerite gear forced us to focus on a single spec (or pay gold fees to swap it around) isn't particularly different from the gear optimization issues in, say, leveling WAR vs. non-WAR tanks now in XIV. You want to play Outlaw Rogue optimally, former Subtlety Rogue? Pay up. You want that DHit back for optimal PLD play? Pay up. You want to be able to fully progress both tank and healer at the same time? Well, you're going to need a second character for that (or, in WoW's case, gold fees on a hybrid class, although there's truly no way around the weekly caps in XIV short of making a second character).

Things like the Titanforge or the corruptions that have had to "fix" more than 3 times since they were implemented, the RNG in absolutely the entire equipment system is something that has been a constant complaint by many in the forums.

I left the game in WoD but I keep reading the forums and my former guildmates keep commenting on the situation of the game.

example of guilds monopolizing world bosses or open world dungeons. It's perfect because they gated others from doing it no matter how unbalanced. Age old thing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapleStory2...rol_this_game/

It reminds me of this and one of the many reasons why the game closed.

[Controller]

I don't consider a lot of what some people discuss as "constructive criticism" on places like Reddit, more like "have a fit and if someone disagrees pile on them". There are things in this game I don't get and I'll gladly address my concerns.

Literal Truth.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

Why do people expect if they put out an opinion nobody will challenge them on it?

Most common one I see is the people asking for story skip because they don't want to have to do the storyline to unlock things- but the story is meant to be an integral part of the game. A story skip is no different from a raid skip that gives you the best gear without having to do anything. People might not always give the best criticism when people say they want a story skip- stuff like 'go back to WoW' is not exactly useful- but at the same time a fair amount of 'constructive criticism' of the game is just as useless.

As for more content- people realize that when you add more content somewhere you're taking it away from somewhere else, we know that the devs don't have limitless resources to make more of everything for everyone. If it were possible, I don't think nearly as many people would care if they kept adding more stuff they don't enjoy (well, some would, there's always a subset of players that get mad that things are added like LFR, very easy to duties, etc...). Players don't want more taken from the things they like to do in order to put in things they don't, and that's the case for everyone- the people asking for more savage/extremes/BA or whatever other high end content and getting mad that some people disagree would be just as fuming if people suggested putting in less of that sort of content in order to bring out more low end things.

As well- maybe people just like the game? If people enjoy certain features that someone is saying they hate, what response are they going to give other than to say they like those features?

[Floortank]

I've seen a lot of debates recently between people about whether or not we should be getting more content, or just about people wanting different kinds of content to what we're getting right now, and while I don't necessarily agree or disagree with either side, there seems to be such a dramatic response to everything. If someone who's main interest is savage or ultimate raiding says they want more content on that side of the game

Asking for things is not constructive criticism. It's just... asking for things. It could imply criticism, but at best, just criticism. "I don't like this because there's not enough X feature." That can be a complaint... it's hardly constructive, though.

[Solarra]

I think the resistance can be due to several factors:
-Happy customers don't want to see a product changed and bad experiences with change in other games can also make people resistant to changes here.
-The way the criticism is worded can definitely provoke a more negative response to a topic.
-Some people just enjoy arguing for it's own sake and will come into a thread and stir just to see the response.
-Some people simply can't see an issue unless it affects them personally - 'X' isn't a problem for me, therefore 'x' isn't a problem

The one thing that consistently surprises me in regard to FFXIV is how vehemently people will argue against quality of life improvements that would either benefit them too, or wouldn't affect them at all.
I've seen people berated for asking for more bag space, better housing or ways to make the game more alt-friendly. The first two have been addressed to some extent by the devs, but I saw significant push-back on these forums when the issues were raised. The alt issue is particularly baffling as nobody ever suggested making them compulsory, yet the strongest responses always seem to come from people who have no interest in them.

Arguing against things that would make things better for everyone or arguing against helping a small group of players without negatively impacting others, I find very hard to understand.

[Arngrim_Greyashe]

For the same reason the male viera thread exists. People refuse to see the truth of the situation and instead substitute it with their own delusions.

[Melphina_Dragonfyre]

Different people like different things. One of the biggest challenges any video game dev team faces when designing or expanding a game is adding new content that's accommodating to as many people as possible within a given budget and time constraint. Most devs who have ever released a successful console game will almost always say that despite the game's success there was always "that one feature" or "that other system" they would have liked to have implemented but couldn't fit into the project before the release deadline. It doesn't matter if it's a shooter, a sports title, an action/RPG, a RTS, or any other genre. Creating content takes developer time and testing and correcting gameplay bugs takes even more of it. So from the FFXIV dev team's perspective, every option has to get weighed against an alternative and they have to do their best to balance everything. It's certainly a daunting task.

From a player perspective though, aside from people being adamant about their favorite things, they also come from all walks of life. FFXIV is so large that by now there are no doubt players from every race, creed, gender, religion, ethnic background and what have you. Most don't look at the professional aspect of the game when they write a post, but instead look at it from their personal perspective. Whether they realize it or not, their posts are personally biased. It's normal and a very human thing to do. And because of this you're going to have disagreements no matter what you say. It's the old saying "You can please most of the people most of the time, but you can never please everyone all of the time". When viewpoints differ in real life the exact same thing happens as they do on the form, and in most cases form debates are more regulated and down to earth because of the moderation here. But in the end people are people, and you can't ever change that. When people get very one sided with their opinions, whether they're doing it intentionally or not, it's just them expressing their desire to see more of the thing that they like based on their own experiences and perspective. And it's the devs task to take the cumulative feedback and use it to make the best decisions they can when moving the game forward.

[Alleo]

I think that with a lot of games people take any sort of criticism towards it as an insult towards them. So all criticism it the same for the no matter if one is just a "I hate x" or a post with many good thoughtout points. (And some just want to troll)

You will have people that enjoy the story of a game and that post that anyone who does not like it or complain about it just simply did not understand it..like the complainers are not intelligent enough..they are bascially putting down others to make them feel better. So maybe those that are so aggressive with even constructive criticism have low selfesteem too? (Or too much of it and believe to be always right)

Even here on the forum you have enough posters that are so unbelievable passive agressive to most of the criticism even if it makes sense or would not hurt the game or them in any way..until they too have something to complain about...

So I guess its just discussion culture in general. You will sadly always have those that are insulted by any criticism no matter how good it was..