The Final Fantasy XIV Problem.

[Zebraoracle]

The ToS definitely does not say you can't offer advice or make requests of people. The ToS DOES say you can't harass people about it.

A couple of duty relevant ToS points:

You cannot force a gameplay style onto another player. Thus, either you leave the instance or you kick them.
You cannot harass other players.
You cannot engage in lethargic gameplay that gives an advantage to the opposition (other team, enemy mobs, etc).

The third point circles back to the first one - if someone's gameplay is dragging the rest of the team down, you can politely request them to up their game. This then circles down to the second point - If they refuse or become hostile, you can kick them, just as you are not allowed to harass people over gameplay, they are not allowed to harass/act like jerks in response to polite requests. Therefore, if they are refusing or acting hostile, there's the kick button.

[LianaThorne]

tooltips do not explain how wall to wall pulls work.

Tooltips do not explain how to differentiate between magical and physical attacks. Example. P1S the bosses aoes are physical damage not magical.

Tooltips do not explain how mitigation works or how it stacks.

Tooltips often do not explain how abilites interact with other abilities of the same class or other classes.

Some tooltips are misleading. Example: Before DRK QOL in 6.1 Bloodweapon duration stated 10s when it was actually 9s

It is extremely important to read tooltips but they do not explain the whole story and even with some players playing content they wont understand until other players explain it to them. However the same time FFXIV has many job changes yearly including tooltips so its hard for them to develop a hall of intermediate or something that can assist players because it would require constant upkeep.

Say it louder for the people in the back.

[Deveryn]

It's a work in progress. With duty support being added, they've been taking steps to make sure markers are more consistent from early on.

I don't think it falls solely on them to teach every little thing. They can only jam in so much info before it becomes too much and people stop paying attention to it. Wall to wall was likely something they didn't necessarily have in mind and only accommodate a little bit, so what are they even supposed to say about it?

People need to actually speak up more in parties. If you don't understand something, speak up. If you just go along quietly, it's assumed you know what you're doing.

[Jeeqbit]

One of the major problems here is that the game doesnt teach anything and prohibits any player to inform another regard a specific matter.

The game does teach things, but not everything. You are allowed to teach others, if they express interest in learning things. If they don't it might come across forceful and offensive. The best way is to get to know them outside of the dungeon or raid and if they seem interested in learning, teach them things.

Here I wonder what I should do with my experience if I can't share it.

You could join the Novice Network as a mentor and answer new player questions. They ask them all of the time. You can also advertise offering advice in Party Finder.

Also, if a new player wants to learn how to play XIV, they need to rely on external websites and tools and if they want to try hardcore contents they must have those information because that mode is build around them.

No it's not.

[KenaiChoppa]

I dont think the ToS says you cant tell people how to improve their game. They do try to avoid harassment. There is a different between:

"Hey! please use your mitigations/AOE attacks in wall to wall" / "When the boss cast this attack, you should do this"

and

"!@#! are you doing? How dare you play without studying the most optimal rotation for your class / knowing every boss mechanic?!"

In fact, i think FF XIV does a great job with teaching new players how to run dungeons. The whole "role system" is made so all players can join a party full of random players and know what to do and be able to finish the duty. In the later content they even give more clues so the party can easily know how much they can pull.

[Jokerz_93]

Tooltips are there. Read them. Not that hard

Apparently not everyone can read…

[Dzian]

You understand that there are issues when the players' learning curve do not match contents availabe for years..

Final Fantasy XIVs Learning curve.

Faceroll easy all the way to endgame then a sheer vertical cliff to climb that players are totally unprepared for..

all the way along you cant tell players there doing it worng because as long as they do anything at all. even spam blizzard 2 on blm they will do enough to clear content.. it's borderline impossible to fail.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I give people advice all the time and I've never gotten gaoled for it. Ever think maybe it's in your tone?

[Voltyblast]

I give people advice all the time and I've never gotten gaoled for it. Ever think maybe it's in your tone?

During a run as a healer, I gently asked the tank to use aoe, because...they weren't using aoe so enemies would always go to me. And I'd die. And then they die.

Their reply: "chill bro he's new".
I ONLY asked them to press one button, but that was enough to piss them off.

The tone has nothing to do with anything: some people are just jerks. But ToS defends the jerk so I'll stay quiet until we all die or we abandon the dungeon run.
Sure I could tell them what could be wrong but if asking to press one button is enough to piss them off, I wouldn't want to enrage them or report me because I'm telling how a boss works.
They asked for it, and I'm obliging it.

[Lunalepsy]

You understand that there are issues when the players' learning curve do not match contents availabe for years.

One of the major problems here is that the game doesnt teach anything and prohibits any player to inform another regard a specific matter.
We can aknowledge this by reading the ToS and its "guide lines" on how to interact with another player.
We cannot disturb another player's gameplay in any way.
We can't say "you are doing wrong" because we should let others to enjoy their experience in the best way they want.
And what if is that way ruining someone else's experience?
The problem with this is that a new player is not encouraged to say for example "sorry, I don't know what I should do, please explain to me". Instead they are encouraged to stay in their ignorance.
That also ruins other's gamplay but there is nothing written down within ToS.
A good ToS should guardening both sides, new ones and vetarans.
As the things are right now, veterans are punished to run DF contents and forced to be left in silence.
Here I wonder what I should do with my experience if I can't share it.

This policy leads where we are now, where people are incapable to clear normal content above ARR's one and it scares the avarege player who will never learn nothing more what they already think they know.

Transforming the game into one more "user friendly" could be a good path to walk, im not against that but building the game around the ideology that "you dont pay my sub leave me alone" brings only attritions also because the other side could say the same.
Also, if a new player wants to learn how to play XIV, they need to rely on external websites and tools and if they want to try hardcore contents they must have those information because that mode is build around them.

XIV lack of a proper build-in jobs' guide, and because of that I'm not surprised reading and seeing people don't AoE during pull mobs and being ignorant.
I blame SE for their ignorance, not them.
It took me 8 month before someone told me where to look to improve my gameplay and I was like "why the game doesnt teach you that"?
So it can be more user friendly and bring more subs?
User friendly doesn't mean you should know nothing, that's keeping ppl ingnorant.
User friendly means an UI that's tells you everything you have to know.
It means having a system that guide you hand by hand through out everything.
XIV is not user friendly.

FFXIV has a Casual Toxicity brought and enforced from the company itself and I will not surprise if it will end up in the same manner another award winning MMO did.
You can change the direction in which you stretch the wire, but the result will be the same.
That's the Final Fantasy XIV problem.

Because if you say something someone doesn't like, you will always be the evil person!