Ableism and elitism from the hardcore community is damaging FF14

[Ativan]

There have been numerous threads within the past few months of people gatekeeping others from playing FF14 because of a perceived lack of skill or effort. Coincidentally, there is also an influx of players from another well-known MMO happening concurrently. While I am loathe to suggest any correlation between the two, the reputation of each game speaks for itself.

I would like to remind players that Yoshi P has said that this is a Final Fantasy game first, and an MMO second. Final Fantasy games have always been casual, because it's a story-driven game. The narrative is the important part of Final Fantasy games, not gameplay or technical mastery or hardcore grinding.

Even in the implementation of Final Fantasy XIV, Yoshi P has always stressed that he wanted FF14 to be a game where people who are busy in life can also enjoy at their own pace casually:

"During the release of Final Fantasy XI, it was considered the first generation of MMOs. Back then you were not able to do anything alone. Like, you can’t do any sort of solo play. You had to gather a party, you had to stand there to shout out and gather a group of people. That alone could take an hour. Then you had to walk over to whatever dungeon or quest with your party, and then you can’t come back for another four hours. That took a long time, but that also contributed to why it was so addicting. But now, people’s lives have become so busy, and there are just so many things to do that you can’t really allocate that chunk of time to play an online game. So when it came to Final Fantasy XIV we have taken that into consideration."

Source: https://www.cgmagonline.com/2015/03/...-with-yoshi-p/

"It's alright not to play it everyday. Since it's just a game, you can stop forcing yourself if it's hard on you to keep that up. Rather, it'll just pile up unnecessary stress if you limit yourself into playing just that one game since there are so many other games out there. So, do come back and play it to your heart's content when the major patch kicks in, then stop it to play other games before you got burnt out, and then come back for another major patch. This will actually make me happier, and in the end, I think this is the best solution I can answer for keeping your motivation up for the game."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...otivation_and/

However, there have been numerous hardcore elitist threads made in the past few weeks that reek of ableism. The community must resist them. Because if we don't, FF14 will go the way of a currently declining MMO that millions are unsubscribing from. In the forums, in the game, and on various social platforms like Twitter and Reddit, I am seeing more and more apathy and ableism.

I am talking about threads, tweets, and posts containing language like these:

I don't mind a few mounts being inaccessible to all players. There should always be some mounts or glamours that people can only get by clearing the hardest raids/content in the game.

When you see a player playing horribly, tell them that they need to improve. Explicitly tell them that you will not be giving them any commendation. If they're especially bad, to the level where they are leeching or INTing, put an ignore marker over their head.

Most normies would lose their s*** if exclusive stuff was explicitly locked behind some sort of performance metric (you can buy savage/ultimate clears but this probably wouldn't be the same since the only way would be to give your account details and let them pilot).

You are trolling if you are not using essences and actions in Delubrum. Anyone who is not using these essences and actions are intentionally trolling the raid by making a 15 minute run 45 minutes.

Most of the playerbase begins to understand that they were actually s*** at the game all along.

Pulling during cutscene doesn’t matter. At all. It does not kick the watcher out of cutscene, and it’s not like they miss any important mechanics, either.

These people are leeches. Pure and simple. I encourage everyone to use alliance chat to tell them to stop leeching.

The condescending and hostile attitude displayed by the "good", "hardcore" players as displayed on various social media indicates that there is a sizeable, loud minority in this game that want to force everyone to play the game the way they do. We must reject this.

Here is why this sort of hostile attitude from hardcore players is ableist:

• When you ask why a player is "AFK", have you considered that they might have a real life emergency that demands that they leave the computer? Not everyone has the privilege of typing "afk" in the chat. They might be on PS4/PS5 and don't have access to a keyboard.
• Demanding someone to do their entire rotation is extremely unhelpful and toxic. This game is plagued with button bloat and not everyone has the finger dexterity to execute 20 to 30 buttons in their opener on a keyboard. Some might have numbness in their fingers due to a stroke or because they're diabetic. Yet others might be veterans from a war who lost their fingers and can only press the most important buttons in their rotation. Judging them is ableism.
• When you ask why someone could not dodge AoEs, have you considered that they might be visually impaired? They might also be colorblind, and so cannot decipher certain mechanics that are color-coded even with the colorblind filter, such as the blue/red divide in Angra Mainyu in the World of Darkness. They could also simply have a slower reaction time because of older age. Remember that 2% of the playerbase is middle-aged and older, and we cannot have the same reaction time as someone in their 20s.
• When you skip cutscenes while someone is still reading those cutscenes, you are being ableist. Not everyone is capable of reading text-dense cutscenes at an equal speed as you. People may be dyslexic, which could impede their progress at reading. Visually impaired persons may also take longer to read the text of a cutscene. Finally, some cutscenes may be triggering and can catalyze anxiety in people. They might need to take a breather before resuming play. When you skip cutscenes for these people, you're not only being impatient and toxic, you're also being blind to the needs of people who cannot read as fast as you.

These are just some of the reasons and examples of how FF14 is being damaged by toxicity and ableism. If we want to prevent this game from going the way of another MMO currently being plagued by toxicity and ruin, we must tell such toxic individuals that their behavior cannot be tolerated. If you see someone putting ignore markers or skipping cutscenes and pulling without waiting, they are likely violating the Terms of Service. We need to report any sort of harassment like these to the GMs, to make sure that FF14 remains a space that is welcoming to players of all backgrounds and ability.

[SilverObi]

Let me check the clock... oh it's Titanmen-style boosted crafter alt troll thread time once again!

[Ativan]

Let me check the clock... oh it's Titanmen-style boosted crafter alt troll thread time once again!

The fact that the first response is a tirade against boosting, accusing any booster as troll is indicative of the problem with ableism in this game. have you ever thought that people boost because they are too anxious to play with others? Boosting helps players with social anxiety to skip to the part of the game where it is only necessary to play with NPCs.

[Xtrasweettea]

[PMSJordan]

This has to be a bait post…right?

[Skiros]

So many words just to say: "I don't want to play the game and I want to get carried."

[ReynTime]

FF9 is the easiest FF and even that one demands more of the player than the non high-end pve expects in XIV. None of the other FF games are comparable... Except maybe Easy mode VII-Remake.

[Garnix]

have you ever thought that people boost because they are too anxious to play with others? Boosting helps players with social anxiety to skip to the part of the game where it is only necessary to play with NPCs.

I need to know...How many players boosted for this specific reason?
In fact, I would actually like to know how many players boosted and knew before even using the boost that they could play through the 71+ dungeons with NPCs.
Also, if that's truly their reason, I hope they played at least until level 15 before boosting.

[Ativan]

So many words just to say: "I don't want to play the game and I want to get carried."

The lack of empathy in this response is truly disturbing.

[Ativan]

I need to know...How many players boosted for this specific reason?
In fact, I would actually like to know how many players boosted and knew before even using the boost that they could play through the 71+ dungeons with NPCs.
Also, if that's truly their reason, I hope they played at least until level 15 before boosting.

Many. There are many people like me who don't want to be harassed by hardcore, elitist players who prefer to play by themselves. Trust was a major feature mentioned in all the reviews of Shadowbringers.