What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Lauront]

Well you see, they'd be quite isolated without having the 14 main subreddit, Twitter, the aforementioned Youtube comments and various threads of this subforum, and elsewhere, to express their positive views (in this instance said 'positivity' amounting to bleating about how the critics are a "minority" on repeat.) One singular thread though might bring the whole house down... even though we are, as we were kindly reminded earlier, a tiny minority.

But sure, we'll stick a "Warning: minority opinions in here" or uh, "Danger: hate echo chamber" tag on the thread. Oh wait, no need, some of the kind souls of this forum have already gone ahead and done that for us. Phew. Crisis averted!

[Rulakir]

One wasn't enough to fully encapsulate my thoughts:

[KageTokage]

I think that's a pretty disingenuous reading of the situation. I would not say that the people who enjoyed Endwalker are being persecuted or shouted down.

I virtually never see anybody expressing frustration at people liking it, but I sure as heck see them attacking others for daring to imply that anything about it was poorly written or could've been better.

I do honestly kind of get a kick out of seeing how many people will dogpile me in Twitch chat and elsewhere for giving my blunt, honest opinion about the elements that bugged me that the majority tend to gush over, using tried and true flimsy counterarguments like "You just don't understand it!" in protest. At this point, I'm kind of numb to it after all the snark and ridicule various individuals have chosen to inject into this thread and elsewhere.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Something-Something: Everyones Opinions are Valid
Blah-Blah: We should get along.
Lala-lala: I guess its just more fun to fight over it.

I love how there is this war that both The Fans and the Haters of EW need to fight.
Many Loved it, Neat. Many Hated it, Neat, many are inbetween and see Pros/Cons: Neat.
Love how we can't just have that opinion and move on, we have to argue and fight about "No its objectively bad, no your just dumb its good. You are a white-Knight, etcetcetc.
Then we start bordering on Personal attacks, its just silly.

[Vyrerus]

Something-Something: Everyones Opinions are Valid
Blah-Blah: We should get along.
Lala-lala: I guess its just more fun to fight over it.

I love how there is this war that both The Fans and the Haters of EW need to fight.
Many Loved it, Neat. Many Hated it, Neat, many are inbetween and see Pros/Cons: Neat.
Love how we can't just have that opinion and move on, we have to argue and fight about "No its objectively bad, no your just dumb its good. You are a white-Knight, etcetcetc.
Then we start bordering on Personal attacks, its just silly.

It's just the earmarks of a fan base that care about it to a high degree. Enough that it's deeply thought about at least once a day (generally by the people who have more negative views towards it). It has a special war here, due to the perception that people who push a view here hard enough, for long enough, get their way eventually in game. Also the fact that negative views here cannot be dulled with down votes, nor have their ratios displayed before the arguments themselves.

All in all, it ultimately boils down to this being the favorite pastime of many posters here. They like to engage in forum discussion and debate to pass the time. Gaining new perspectives, new angles on what they've already seen till the new portions come along.

It gets heated because plenty of folks are attracted to drama and tension. It's sort of been engrained on other platforms, but it has its first roots in human nature. Even the "personal" attacks are largely theater.

[KageTokage]

The only time I feel obligated to "incite" anything is if people are misinterpreting or misremembering the lore surrounding the controversial elements of the story.

I've seen a lot of...weird takes coming from some of the people trying to refute the arguments here, and as one of those who was okay with the plot until I started grasping the deeper implications of everything, I feel a need to make sure the facts are straight if claims are being made.

I am otherwise content to let the sleeping dog lie until the next major lore bombs either add fuel to the fire or help quench it.

[Rulakir]

I've lost my patience with it. Many of those who come to this thread QQing about an echo chamber are ones I recognize from other threads who rarely, if ever, engage in good faith discussions and instead seem to like to stir the pot and argue for the sake of it. It's why I can't take comments about 'belittlement' seriously. Most of them are on my block list, but I still see the posts if they're quoted.

As for EW, it continues to live rent free in my head because I can't make peace with something I loved being turned into something I hated. I keep hoping (probably in vain) there's some way to salvage it. Despite my feelings about the story, I enjoyed other aspects of FFXIV and like the direction it's going as far as features, but EW decimated my desire to keep playing. Talking to others is cathartic, but only to a certain extent as the story itself remains unchanged. I'm hoping 6.2 provides something to change my mind and doesn't manage to make things worse.

[Theodric]

I virtually never see anybody expressing frustration at people liking it, but I sure as heck see them attacking others for daring to imply that anything about it was poorly written or could've been better.

I do honestly kind of get a kick out of seeing how many people will dogpile me in Twitch chat and elsewhere for giving my blunt, honest opinion about the elements that bugged me that the majority tend to gush over, using tried and true flimsy counterarguments like "You just don't understand it!" in protest. At this point, I'm kind of numb to it after all the snark and ridicule various individuals have chosen to inject into this thread and elsewhere.

Yeah, it's not just limited to the story either - the mere suggestion that something about the game could stand to be improved is treated like a deeply personal attack by some within this game's community. Then, in turn, they see it as justified to launch actual personal attacks towards whoever is providing that feedback.

A lot of people also seem to be under the impression that we're obligated to ask 'permission' to voice our thoughts. I've put a handful of posters on ignore precisely because it is clear to me that they're not here to debate or discuss but merely to police what is liked or disliked. I'll admit that my concerns with the game go beyond the story itself as of its current trajectory though there are still elements of the game that I enjoy and I have friends who still play it. So the whole 'just quit if u don't liek the story' that some like to trot out doesn't really work either.

I'm mostly waiting to see what 6.2 brings and if it wasn't for being lucky enough to own a house then I wouldn't be logging in at all lately. Admittedly most of my gaming time is spent on other games lately simply because there isn't much to do in FFXIV between patches once you're all caught up.

[Yeastyloins]

Yeah, it's not just limited to the story either - the mere suggestion that something about the game could stand to be improved is treated like a deeply personal attack by some within this game's community. Then, in turn, they see it as justified to launch actual personal attacks towards whoever is providing that feedback.

I've seen that with alot of die-hard fans of 14, they honestly come off as Harry Potter fans and it makes me not want to associate with 90% of the playerbase in addition to many people having the concept that the fact that either the game or their gameplay is an invalidation of their whole existence or something.

[BaconBits]

Think the only person I ever went out of my way to blacklist was this fellow that went on an unhinged tirade about how I only play in pre-made groups then tried to lecture me on how to play a healer properly without being a filthy elitist and Chadding my fellow co-healer. They somehow managed to extrapolate all that from me saying healer's 1 button spam "rotation" was boring.

Meanwhile all I do is run around various locations and take screenshots of my characters ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.