Do people on these forums only complain endlessly?

[Hurlstone]

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A fair point. Agendas and biases are found in ever corner of social media, and no individual will be free of them. None of us are impartial, and it really dose not helped when comments in communities can be drowned out by whichever side is dominate. At the same time, I just feel it can be disingenuous how those other sites are completely written off by some here. Positivity there is not always gonna come from a lack of ‘critical thinking’ or ‘herd mentality’ as some say. Heck, I have seen people say that art commissions posted on Reddit and Twitter are a symptom of its toxic positivity and that just seems… bonkers to me.

I will say that only one of my friends even sets his eyes on the forums, but all of them collectively are a mixed bag.

Interesting! Funnily enough of the people I know who play and have beaten Endwalker, they have all said they loved the story haha. I think individually we will all get different reactions like from our own circles.

And I think that's the positivity we should all have: if we play it, it's because we like something about it. If we complain, it's because we want improvements. If we have zero faith, then it's just simply not for us and we're wasting time.

Indeed, whilst there are certainly people who do seem to like just wasting time and trolling for fun, I think most of us on both sides of this debate simply do want the game to improve and continue on its adventure. We just disagree on where the quality currently falls on the scales. Plus, we are talking about lore here. Whilst story is more important here to the game then in other MMOs, I suspect more players (Not us, story and lore is why I play haha) are concerned about getting their voices heard on things like job balances, new gameplay modes, race features, housing etc.

Even in controversial threads, you have people reasonable enough to draw a line between a complaint and an unreasonable expectation..

Some people are obvious trolls, but that's not the case every time. So many threads get derailed and people in them get insulted just because people disagree with the topic and think those who agree just want an echo chamber.

True enough. I think there are many people on both sides of the debate that want to debate these things in more civil manner, but it does not take long for such issues to fall into a barrage of veiled insults and false narratives. I personally feel its often weighed in one direction more then the other here, but like you said, we can only know where people stand on these things in a limited way.

[Midareyukki]

Heck, I have seen people say that art commissions posted on Reddit and Twitter are a symptom of its toxic positivity and that just seems… bonkers to me.

Are they all very stoned?

Interesting! Funnily enough of the people I know who play and have beaten Endwalker, they have all said they loved the story haha. I think individually we will all get different reactions like from our own circles.

Do keep in mind. Feeling displeased doesn't necessarily mean "utterly exhasperated and performing blood curses on the dev team". All of my friends save for exactly one say that they loved the story. Regardless of any further implication, bc past that you have the usual "but it felt rushed"\"but some moments were utterly tedious". The one that didn't like the story only plays the game for the gameplay and wants nothing to do with its plot, but that's the exception, not the norm. She's... peculiar.

Plus, we are talking about lore here. Whilst story is more important here to the game then in other MMOs, I suspect more players (Not us, story and lore is why I play haha) are concerned about getting their voices heard on things like job balances, new gameplay modes, race features, housing etc.

There are. And my personal displeasure doesn't come from a story I consider to be good, even if it has creases. It comes from racial aspects. But even so, they don't deter me from playing the race. They do interfere in my enjoyment of my character, but it just shows that I like the content enough to support it.

True enough. I think there are many people on both sides of the debate that want to debate these things in more civil manner, but it does not take long for such issues to fall into a barrage of veiled insults and false narratives. I personally feel its often weighed in one direction more then the other here, but like you said, we can only know where people stand on these things in a limited way.

I know it's easy for people to point the flaws. Rarely ever is it easy to point to the stuff you like without the flaws weeding in. But admitting that is healthy. And once you accept that, then you can say "but apart from all that, my enjoyment of the game has been this". And "this" is usually positive, which is what the crushing majority of players in the community feel, regardless of whether they're exhasperated by one aspect or two of the game. As a whole, the game is enjoyable.

But just because it's enjoyable it doesn't mean it cannot be improved upon, and that should not be stifled. So many good things only exist because fans brought attention to them.
And just because some stuff needs improvement, it does not mean that it's the end of the world and that anyone who tries to rein you back in is blindly defending the devs.