Quote Originally Posted by Amarande View Post
Cliquism, already a notable issue in XIV, is enhanced as well, because of the system encouraging small groups to spall off rather than mingle together in a larger FC.

The fact that everyone's in separate FCs also encourages people to base their communities in social media rather than in game, too. This has the double effect of big SM and its policies placing heavy pressure on the development of those communities, and of players tending to drift away more readily than otherwise from XIV, since they're no longer a FFXIV community, they're a Discord or Facebook community that plays XIV sometimes (which has its benefits, but also its problems - in particular, it aggravates the already significant problems with content lulls and those who join/return during them often struggling to pop queues).
That's not a problem created by game design. That's normal social interaction and it's that normal interaction that has influenced game design over time.

People don't tend to enjoy constantly being in large groups. They prefer to be in smaller groups with like-minded individuals who have similar interests. They like to truly get to know the others they play with instead of being near anonymous names lost in a sea of other near anonymous names. Occasionally they will join larger groups for special events but otherwise stay within their clique. Sometimes someone new will appear who fits in with the group and will be invited into it.

Game developers have learned that you can't try too hard to force players outside of their comfort zone and so they make changes to better accommodate the patterns players actually follow.

Take a close look at your own social circles. How well do you really know the people in them? Do you spend most of your time interacting with those you really don't know anything about, or are you spending your time with those you know better?