FF14 and toxic positivity

[Kolaina]

This thread contains the exact same faces as the other two buzzing threads.

The forum community is small and niche compared to the entirety of the games community. Those who are active are far fewer. Most only come out to pounce on someone who doesn’t fit the narrative, then go back to lurking as soon as the dust settles. So you will always see the same faces.

Add to that, people have different interests. You’ll see certain people more often in the post your pics threads and hardly ever in the tales thread for example. Seeing the same faces just suggests you are attracted to the same discussions as some others

[Misplaced_Marbles]

The community is just toxic in every direction.

Welcome to (insert any community). If you want something better, you'll need to go back in time a few decades, and even then you shouldn't expect much. That's humanity for you.

[Jeeqbit]

And what if you're up against concerns for which there is a lack of a suitable/strong defence?

Then maybe the defense will concede and agree with the criticism. An example is the widespread acceptance by a lot of people that "ARR is slow and turns a lot of people away". You don't see a lot of disagreement with that when someone says that in the game.

You can relay the perspective of the developers (to the extent that you're aware of it), but I don't understand what "winning" has to do with it.

Winning doesn't really matter, my point was that if someone makes a criticism and then can't handle the debate that follows and instead goes and says "the FF14 community has toxic positivity" then maybe it's either because they could not think of a way to defend their criticism, or maybe the majority of people just don't agree with the criticism. Neither case necessarily means that "toxic positivity" exists. This is what my original point was saying.

[Theodric]

The premise of this thread isn't that people can't handle criticism of their criticism. It is that a vocal portion of the community has a habit of resorting to very unpleasant tactics in order to deflect and stifle even the most constructive or innocent feedback related to the game.

[LittleImp]

The premise of this thread isn't that people can't handle criticism of their criticism. It is that a vocal portion of the community has a habit of resorting to very unpleasant tactics in order to deflect and stifle even the most constructive or innocent feedback related to the game.

Do you mean to tell me that constantly accusing people of being sock-puppets or Titanmen alts isn't valid feedback?

/s

[Gethard]

Hmm, there's a novice network? I should check that out. Personally I think there is way too much negativity in almost every online community that exists, and the flipside ("fanboying") can be just as toxic in different ways, but I look around and see players everywhere, day or night, putting on concerts and special events and it has been so long since I saw any sign of a healthy community in an MMO that I'll take the fanboys over the haters every time.

[Illmaeran]

I don't agree with the idea that there's "Toxic Positivity" nor that there's "Toxic Negativity" in the game. Positivity and negativity both abound, drowned in a sea of aggressive and inflammatory language.

Different people have their unique perspectives which influence their outlook on the game. By nature, different people have varying capacity for empathy, which in my experience here on the forums, the more empathetic people tend to be the ones who are most positive toward the game and CBU3. That empathy helps build acceptance of the difficulties the company's faced in the past couple of years with the corresponding defense of the CBU3 team. On the flip side, those who are naturally less empathetic tend to be people who are more blunt, speaking their minds with less care of how the words impact the receivers. Their points are often valid and have equal right to be expressed, but it's typically the way they're expressed that leads to problems.

I think the forums have an issue with a low tolerance of wording, sensitivity to perceived tone, ability to at least make a modicum of effort to see the message behind the language, and willingness to ask for clarification to make sure the point is understood before rebutting.

[Jeeqbit]

Hmm, there's a novice network? I should check that out.

You can ask anyone with a crown icon next to their name if they will invite you to the novice network (it's their job to that they agreed to do). If they don't you can ask another one.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

The premise of this thread isn't that people can't handle criticism of their criticism. It is that a vocal portion of the community has a habit of resorting to very unpleasant tactics in order to deflect and stifle even the most constructive or innocent feedback related to the game.

Didn't you say something along the lines of "people who like hydaelyn don't have as refined tastes as me" in that story thread? Is that not the same thing?

[Theodric]

Didn't you say something along the lines of "people who like hydaelyn don't have as refined tastes as me" in that story thread? Is that not the same thing?

The playful comment was in response to posters who have consistently insinuated over a number of years that if somebody likes the antagonists in a video game, then they are bad people with flawed morals. In addition to sending weird threats and comments outside of the game itself through Reddit, Twitter and Discord.

Speaking of which, it has long been a problem within the lore community where certain posters will repeatedly harass someone, then when they get even the slightest bit of pushback in response, they throw up their hands and feign innocence.