Lore Forum Decorum - Just What is Meant by Good/Bad Faith?

[Fenral]

Anonymoose sometimes responds to me on Discord via DMs, and he basically said that this sub forum is no longer worth visiting. I'd give you his reasons, but I'm not comfortable speaking any further in his stead.

I wish it wasn't so, but it is very true that the Lore forum no longer discusses Lore very much. It's been characters, factions, character motivations, and Endwalker grievances for months now. While not necessarily completely devoid of Lore discussion, everything becomes bent around those topics, so much so that the place is like a snake eating its own tail.

I've been filling the between-patch downtime with Final Fantasy XI, which was Moose's game of choice for years, and it is a very different kind of animal than FFXIV, with few recurring characters and most expansion stories running largely independent of one another. With XIV, the newer lore was definitely crafted with planned story beats in mind, so there's simply less to talk about that isn't in some way informed by the characters and larger story.

That's also what I'll be going back to now, since there really isn't much left here that interests me. I wish at least Cillia had left contact info.

[SannaR]

Anonymoose was largely before my time. I vaguely remember him making a review post about EW, only getting to Garlemald or the moon, and never continuing. It made me wonder if he didn't like the story after that point.

As I said to a friend, I wanted to talk about ShB because I loved it. I needed to talk about EW because I hated it. I wish a megathread like on general discussion had existed at that time. It's frankly been a process to meet and interact with people who felt similarly because the FF14 community in general is highly intolerant of criticism or negative feedback.

He helped out with the 2nd EE and if you want to see how he felt about the Expansion most of the four? episodes of a spoiler cast going over it of Gamer Escape's pod cast has Moose on it. Moose like Ethys tend to have busy lives. Not that I know either IRL, but I do tend to try and keep up with what's happening with both of them.

[Iscah]

I miss what the Lore forum used to be like.

[Rannie]

I miss what the Lore forum used to be like.

^ this all of this

[Theodric]

I never got around to ever trying FFXI. The upcoming Live Letter will probably give us something new to discuss but it's still about a month or so until 6.2 goes live. I've personally been spending my gaming time on Dragon's Dogma and Elder Scrolls Online.

[Neoyoshi]

Judging from this thread alone, yeah I'd say it's a safe bet folks do not talk about lore as much as they used to on the forums; and when they do, it's posted in the incorrect sections *cough*general discussion section*cough*.

[EaraGrace]

I think it’s possible to improve the lore forums and make it more as it was, but to be quite frank I think it would require an understanding not to discuss a certain topic. I know I have played my own role in continuing that… discussion, and my own culpability, but I just do not believe that we can discuss this without tension. There’s more story to come and it may be best to just look towards that.

[Theodric]

A large part of the problem is the unfortunate series of decisions that led to the Ancients being tied to a considerable number of things throughout the setting. I was never overly fond of such an approach since I felt that it ultimately just served to rid many characters and factions of a lot of agency. It also makes it hard to discuss one aspect of the game's story without a conversation naturally giving way to something linked to that very same thing.

Furthermore, a lot of the other stuff that any of us may like is often not really utilised again. I quite like Hingashi though there's no guarantee that we'll ever see more of it. I like the Xaela - especially the Buduga - but they're also not necessarily going to be at the forefront again anytime soon, if ever.

So as much as I like them, there's not much reason to bring them up. Then there's other things like the strange door in the Dravanian Forelands that I'd like to see where it leads to but - again - it seems like that's something that won't necessarily be addressed.

[Jandor]

Anonymoose sometimes responds to me on Discord via DMs, and he basically said that this sub forum is no longer worth visiting. I'd give you his reasons, but I'm not comfortable speaking any further in his stead.

<snip>

The problem lies mainly with us users, but also with the game not being able to keep up with how quickly we digest it. Though I'm sure not too many folks are loading their plates up with heaping helpings of all that there is to know or see in the world of FFXIV. I, too, would love a Qiqirn spelunking kit thread if the game gave us enough info on it.

Well, he's pretty much right. We all know that if a Qiqirn spelunking kit thread managed to achieve multiple pages, it'd be because the conversation had somehow veered into Hydaelyn vs. Zodiark territory again.

"I wonder if the Ancients went spelunking?"
"We'll never know because evil crystal mommy killed them all!"
"Well evil crystal daddy wants to kill all the Qiqirn!"
"They'll be reborn as immortal spelunkers!"
"We don't even know if Ancients went spelunking!"
"We don't know if they did because evil crystal mommy killed them all!"

and round and round it goes.

So as much as I like them, there's not much reason to bring them up. Then there's other things like the strange door in the Dravanian Forelands that I'd like to see where it leads to but - again - it seems like that's something that won't necessarily be addressed.

I believe it's part of a policy of giving themselves options for adding stuff in later, as adding stuff in the ARR areas, which weren't built with later additions in mind, proved to be a bit of a pain in the ass.

I can understand why they do it, but it can be a tad frustrating when the game moves on and something that stands out, like said Dravanian door, is never explored further. Chekhov's empty gun.

[Alleo]

I miss what the Lore forum used to be like.

Me too. I know that even in the past people had fights. Names where called and it got heathed. But we still had enough good discussions. Now its just insults and fights. So I am not surprised that people like Moose stay clear of it. I am often just silently reading too and stay clear of certain threads.