What makes XIV's community so unique?

[Brigandier]

The low social activity is due to,

• low server population,
• lack of content to talk about,
• being out for over a year with what little content it has beat to death.

To sum it up, here's the average FFXIV conversation:

<Player1> Yo man what's up, done anything in XIV today?
<Player2> Yeah man I did a leve.
<Player1> Amazing.

or

<Player1> Wanna do Ifrit for the 1000th time?
<Player2> No.
<Player1> Aite.

As far as socializing goes, it's hard to make friends in FFXIV simply because there are very, very, few things that require players to work together towards. As much as I hated Dynamis, Einherjar, Nyzul Isle, and Campaign, they did give people a lot of opportunities to interact.

[Rau]

Low social activity due to,

• low server population,
• lack of content to talk about,
• been out for over a year.

This is true on all accounts, no doubt. However, what I noticed was that the casual conversation in other games didn't really just stick to the realm of the game. It went into real life, other games, etc. All in public chat. This only happens in linkshells/parties/tells in FF.

As for the size of population, I would assume the amount of conversation would be reduced proportionally by how many less players we have here. However, it is exponentially less, almost to the point at times of no one saying anything at all during certain times of the day.

why is there a de facto stigma to /say and /shout?

[Brigandier]

why is there a de facto stigma to /say and /shout?

I think the general idea that everyone is seeing what you are saying has a lot to do with it. The FF crowd is much more cranky and prone to butthurt than most, and people are quick to GM the least little racial/sexist/generally messed up remarks (which pretty much flood Aion's LFG channel, and it's hilarious). I've even been Mordion Gaol'd in XI for an "offensive bazaar comment" (it wasn't directed at anyone). Even though the fact I got Mordion Gaol'd for it was stupid, the GM did give me a nice tidbit of advice: "We really don't care what you go on about between friends, just tone it down a bit in areas that the entire server can see."

When I talk to someone in XI or XIV, it feels more like a direct conversation intended only for those involved, while /say is for those clutch situations (i.e., asking if someone is partying in a particular spot), and /shout is just annoying to talk over with all the Ifrit requests, meld requests, etc.