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

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I was invited by a group of friend when I first started this game so naturally I didn't converse with other players as much as I would as a newbie because when I lost track I would simply ask my friend. But there were few times I actually forced to converse outside my comfort zone & I'd take those earlier experience to speak my piece.

Frankly speaking, everybody's response were friendly. Actually, too friendly for comfort. Nine out of ten times. At first I think this is probably normal for a subs-based MMO (this is my first subs MMO) since the fee would naturally shaves off some lowkey trolls/bad mannered players from the effective community, until one of my early ARR dungeon run gone so wrong. A terrible newbie mistake. I felt so bad & expected such disastrous run would definitely spark tension in the party..wouldn't it?

No
They weren't angry. At least not in chat. They weren't upset. At least not in chat. It was too good to be true. This odd feeling stays with me until I got randomly invited into a friendly, homey FC that eventually mentor'ed me---molded me into the player I am today.

Perhaps at least 5 out of 10 times they spout those 'nice words' weren't actually what they were thinking. While I can understand why, I wish players can be more upfront what's in their mind. Like Gameovers, I missed the innocent perspective toward the game and its community I possess a half year ago.

[SturmChurro]

No
They weren't angry. At least not in chat. They weren't upset. At least not in chat. It was too good to be true. This odd feeling stays with me until I got randomly invited into a friendly, homey FC that eventually mentor'ed me---molded me into the player I am today.

Perhaps at least 5 out of 10 times they spout those 'nice words' weren't actually what they were thinking. While I can understand why, I wish players can be more upfront with their mind.

Yeah, sometimes people aren't actually being passive-aggressive. I guess people just assume everyone is passive-aggressive. Yeah, I'm sometimes guilty of this, not going to deny it. If I had added context to my post this would have been one thing I posted about. That's a big problem with this community, there are, at times, people meaning well and you just cannot tell. Why I prefer just to not chat at all, and I regret chatting when I do.

[Liam_Harper]

The ff14 community to me just seems so ...unenthusiastic, or apathetic at times. Hard to put the exact word to it and doesn't always apply to everyone, but just how it feels overall.

Where in other MMO's people used to really get into their gearing, classes, optimization and all the different content, a large amount of ff14 players just don't seem to care. They just do roulettes or craft a little and log off. They don't care if they're playing badly, they don't really want to be challenged, they're not in a rush to get the rewards, most generally just pug than find friends to group with.

If a new patch is about to come out or new content was just released or some new piece of news is out, sometimes it isn't even posted here on the forums. It's just the same Duty Finder stories, show your catgirl and a few trolls or empty threads. For example, Ishgard ranking was just released and there was almost no discussion on the DoH forum and the Dungeons section is generally empty, just a rant here and there and very little discussion.

Maybe it's the content, how easy, fast and predictable a lot of it is and the safety bubble environment where player performance is something to be hidden away that just causes people to care less about it all over time. They play it, it's enjoyable and functions to spend spare time on, but hard to really get enthusiastic about it.

[Vickii]

Since I caught up on the content and am doing end game stuff for the first time it’s really noticeable how terrible the standard of healers are.

Take Eden and Puppets. Almost always one of the two healers fails to mechanics and dies repeatedly, despite being in full Eden/Nier gear.

Also as a MCH with very little self healing you really do notice how bad it is. I’ve died to raid wide aoes simply because they choose to glare rather than top me up. I know people complain at them to dps, but my singular drill is probably 10 glares or something. Do your job.

[NealSnow]

That finding competent people for raiding is like finding a needle in a haystack and the playerbase LOVES to complain about moot crap that really is never as big a deal as they will make that molehill out to be to themselves or others though.

[Driavna]

The ff14 community to me just seems so ...unenthusiastic, or apathetic at times. Hard to put the exact word to it and doesn't always apply to everyone, but just how it feels overall.

Where in other MMO's people used to really get into their gearing, classes, optimization and all the different content, a large amount of ff14 players just don't seem to care. They just do roulettes or craft a little and log off. They don't care if they're playing badly, they don't really want to be challenged, they're not in a rush to get the rewards, most generally just pug than find friends to group with.

If a new patch is about to come out or new content was just released or some new piece of news is out, sometimes it isn't even posted here on the forums. It's just the same Duty Finder stories, show your catgirl and a few trolls or empty threads. For example, Ishgard ranking was just released and there was almost no discussion on the DoH forum and the Dungeons section is generally empty, just a rant here and there and very little discussion.

Maybe it's the content, how easy, fast and predictable a lot of it is and the safety bubble environment where player performance is something to be hidden away that just causes people to care less about it all over time. They play it, it's enjoyable and functions to spend spare time on, but hard to really get enthusiastic about it.

The target audience of this game is what you are describing. Players just log in to do whatever they enjoy and that's about it, they don't take the game seriously. The attitude you are describing is very niche in any current MMO, just happens to be even more niche in FFXIV.

[ItMe]

snip

Is this an impression you've gotten through the game or through the forums?

[Goji1639]

The in-game community seems alright overall.

These forums, however, are hilarious. This is such a chill and easy game, it's funny watching some of you try to contrive pointless drama and elitism. "The healer wasn't DPSing!! The tank single pulled!! My expert roulette took 18 minutes instead of 15!!" I mean, why pretend that stuff actually matters? Just relax; go find a difficult game to play if you want to feel like you're some kind of skilled gamer.

[Vahlnir]

"The healer wasn't DPSing!! The tank single pulled!! My expert roulette took 18 minutes instead of 15!!" I mean, why pretend that stuff actually matters?

Time is the most valuable resource in an MMO. People want to make the most of their time. I don't see why that is unreasonable. That said, I'm not as anal about how long my roulettes take as some, but I also don't like to spend upwards of 45 minutes to an hour in a single instance if I don't have to. Thankfully I rarely do, mostly because I'm tanking 95% of the time when I'm not leveling things, but it can be frustrating when it does happen. I think Gunbreaker was the best thing to ever happen to me in this game. It gave me a whole new level of patience I didn't know existed.

[Goji1639]

Time is the most valuable resource in an MMO. People want to make the most of their time. I don't see why that is unreasonable. That said, I'm not as anal about how long my roulettes take as some, but I also don't like to spend upwards of 45 minutes to an hour in a single instance if I don't have to. Thankfully I rarely do, mostly because I'm tanking 95% of the time when I'm not leveling things, but it can be frustrating when it does happen. I think Gunbreaker was the best thing to ever happen to me in this game. It gave me a whole new level of patience I didn't know existed.

I don't think I've ever seen an instance take 45 minutes, but yes there are certain absurd outliers where becoming annoyed at the situation is reasonable. Still, it's so rare it's barely worth complaining about, and if a run is going THAT bad it'll be obvious about 5 minutes in; so just make a polite excuse and bail.

Most of the wannabe elitist whining on these boards isn't about completely absurd disaster runs, though; it's about people being mad "on principle" because they feel someone isn't trying hard enough. It's almost like people are insecure about how easy this game is, and think adopting a pseudo-elitist mentality will get them some hardcore gamer cred.