Endwalker vs shadowbringers story, which did you enjoy more and why? (spoilers)

[Lauront]

The FFXIV subreddit tends not to focus on 'discussion' in general, but when such threads take off, posters also tend to be pretty wary of groups trying to push an agenda.

Oh, they operate some manner of reddit neighborhood watch, do they? No, the truth is they simply seem to downvote anyone who disagrees with "common wisdom" on there, and their often highly subjective views on certain topics. I do not use the site much for discussion myself but I have observed how they react to dissenting views on a range of different topics, and dogpiling views that don't fit with the norm is common there, particularly around whether people like certain aspects of the game; and this goes back far before EW. Nonetheless, it is a source of feedback for the devs, much as is the even worse (on that front) Twitter. All these sites ultimately are a minority of the playerbase - SE controls this one and set it up explicitly to facilitate player discussions on their game, as well as provide feedback on aspects of it. Dismissing it as a source of that because of alleged dogpiling is spurious, to say the least.

It's also just a larger portion of the playerbase in general, which just makes it harder for small external group to control the discourse. And that's a good thing.

Not really - the amount of people there who focus on actively discussing topics is minute by comparison to its total membership.

What I find strange is that you seem to treat 'supporting the antagonists' as you put it as being equivalent to having membership to some faction, much like Alliance vs. Horde in Warcraft storywriting.

No, the way I put it was "fans of the antagonists". It has often been framed on the forum (and beyond) as team Zodiark/Hydaelyn, and the developers themselves have gone on record stating it amounts to two conflicting perspectives. With that said, I prefer faction-driven MMOs myself, but I am fully aware this is not one, and that their approach is more one of reconciliation - it does not change my view on which characters/perspectives I like best. It's a discussion forum at the end of the day, and I am offering my views on the topic, take it or leave it.

I wasn't privy to your lore forums experience when Shadowbringers was active, but I suspect that many of those posters that you've previously feuded with have since moved on. I've encountered earlier posts of yours where you seemed genuinely interested in discussing lore as opposed to pushing an agenda, so it's unfortunate that your prior conflicts ended up pushing you towards such a tribalistic viewpoint.

I remain interested in it. I've no idea what 'agenda' you think it is I am pushing. I very much stick to lore sources where I want to discuss the lore, unlike certain individuals who prefer taking more narrative approaches, which in reality are far more conducive to agenda-pushing... if you're confusing my dissatisfaction with certain areas of the EW story, or having my own point of view on some areas of the lore as an 'agenda', that is simply a confused, if not disingenuous, way of framing it. At the end of the day, the discussion was fairly civil here until you decided to dredge up issues with posters you have an issue with...