Do you ever think about how people play games to escape yet...

[NekoMataMata]

Deflection?

I have zero idea of what you're trying to say or point out, or how it really relates to the thread, so sounds like a deflection.

[Kansene]

I have zero idea of what you're trying to say or point out, or how it really relates to the thread, so sounds like a deflection.

To elaborate on my initial post:

I expected the topic to be about wanting escapism, and having it ruined.
Most commonly I experience this in the form of people bringing real-life drama, politics or other controversial and jarring topics into said escapism venue.

I was then surprised to find that the post instead spoke of gposing and how it feels like instagram.
I thought that to be a far less intrusive thing to escapism than the expectation I had going in, and expressed my preference for the latter over the former.

As a non-native speaker I might have worded myself in a manner that got lost in translation, or otherwise been too brief or unclear. For that I apologize.

[NekoMataMata]

To elaborate on my initial post:

I expected the topic to be about wanting escapism, and having it ruined.
Most commonly I experience this in the form of people bringing real-life drama, politics or other controversial and jarring topics into said escapism venue.

I was then surprised to find that the post instead spoke of gposing and how it feels like instagram.
I thought that to be a far less intrusive thing to escapism than the expectation I had going in, and expressed my preference for the latter over the former.

As a non-native speaker I might have worded myself in a manner that got lost in translation, or otherwise been too brief or unclear. For that I apologize.

I agree that this might be the lesser of the two evils, if we're going to compare them but I don't think that makes my observation any less valid.

I very, very rarely see people shouting about rl activities in-game though, and I spend quite a bit of time afk at Limsa near the market board. I assume that GMs would take action if they saw it, and most people know better.

[Kansene]

I agree that this might be the lesser of the two evils, if we're going to compare them but I don't think that makes my observation any less valid.

Absolutely, I can see the annoyance factor for sure.

[Caddo]

To elaborate on my initial post:

I expected the topic to be about wanting escapism, and having it ruined.
Most commonly I experience this in the form of people bringing real-life drama, politics or other controversial and jarring topics into said escapism venue.

I was then surprised to find that the post instead spoke of gposing and how it feels like instagram.
I thought that to be a far less intrusive thing to escapism than the expectation I had going in, and expressed my preference for the latter over the former.

As a non-native speaker I might have worded myself in a manner that got lost in translation, or otherwise been too brief or unclear. For that I apologize.

Yeah I kinda came in here thinking the same. I love Gpose and never really linked it being similar to Insta because... well, I'm not getting any younger and the only thing I've made on social media in the past 2 decades or so, is a Facebook lmao.

(a Twitter as well when I was on the PS4 because it was quicker to send it there to pull off for my PC than usb storage, but I don't actually use it.)

[Melorie]

I feel like this is more about how FFXIV truly tailors towards second-lifeesque characteristics and brings communities that are more inclined to enjoy games such as The Sims and other simulations games. The amount of fashion customization and the high quality of animations make this possible. Thus, you get more people interested in these aspects of the game instead of other MMOs.

If you're familiar with the sims community, animal crossing, poupée and that famous mobile dress-up game and other simulations-like games this is not uncommon.

We're also in a more visual era, there's a huge amount of communities that loves doing storytelling through screenshots in a lot of different games. This isn't much different from "fakes" you had in social media back in the day like myspace, orkut, etc. It's a creative thingy that it's been getting bigger and bigger given how easier it is nowadays to edit a photo and make an instagram and such.

Personally, I don't believe that the whole "escape from real life" thing. I play the game because it's my hobby, NOT my escape. A leisure isn't a escape from your life, it's just a leisure. If anything I feel like people bring very little of their real life inside the game and act like they're inside a bubble where they can only talk and discuss things that are game-related or about their own character, which makes the whole social part of the game really boring. I kinda miss when I actually made friends with people that played games and not their characters tbh.

[Amarande]

I feel like this is more about how FFXIV truly tailors towards second-lifeesque characteristics and brings communities that are more inclined to enjoy games such as The Sims and other simulations games. The amount of fashion customization and the high quality of animations make this possible. Thus, you get more people interested in these aspects of the game instead of other MMOs.

I think it also is a major influence that the "venue RP" style is arguably about the only really enjoyable social option left for the working adult, particularly one of medium gameplay skill whose RL is not amenable to a static group.

As I suggested in another thread, pickup group gaming really does seem like it only functions well when the situation is either very easy (i.e., where you don't really have to worry about skill at all, like roulette level content or unsync farms) or where you have an exclusive player pool of high skill players (in order to help overcome the natural disadvantages that come of not having a team that's well familiar with each other - also because many high echelon PUG players actually do know each other so some of the benefits of staticing are realized anyway).

In the middle (such as a working adult attempting to push higher tier content without the benefit of consistent group mates), it's usually a mess, which is why you get 40 bazillion threads hither and yon grumping about the pain in the rear that attempting to PF (or really PUG in any game) non trivial stuff so often is.

If this is true, then eventually, all that reasonably leaves most of us to do is roulettes, simple content like maps, hunts, and past xpac mount/glam farms, and ... yep, Second Life style social clubs - which in turn FFXIV does tend to unusually foster (the housing system here benefits heavily, as most other MMOs don't lend themselves nearly so well to customized meeting locations due to either not having enough housing customization, or it being too clunky to travel to a housing area as a group unless everyone is part of the same guild).

[Melorie]

I think it also is a major influence that the "venue RP" style is arguably about the only really enjoyable social option left for the working adult, particularly one of medium gameplay skill whose RL is not amenable to a static group.

That is true as well! The perhaps most social "interaction" I had with FFXIV during gameplay was while fishing and eureka (at it's peak), and even so, the style of the combat of the game doesn't always allow people to type and talk. The rest is mostly hello, gg, bye.
Then you get these venues where everyone gathers there and spam bnee knees but that doesn't actually create memories inside the game with other players, you know? I don't mean to say that FFXIV must have a old-style grind, but I remember many of the group-levelings/group-grinds I did in older MMOs and had fun exchanges there while also progressing towards something in the game. Even in game events like Guild Wars or LOTRO you actively do stuff and progress it and talk with other players in the process while FFXIV is just... do a quest. End of story.

Players also have to be quite creative in order to create their own events and are somewhat limited - little amount of mini-games in general. The IS is solo, Blue Mage Carnival is solo, you can't queue for PvP with a friend, so and so. I actually enjoyed the variant dungeons, even with all it's faults, because it gave me a much needed content for 4 players, given that getting 8 people to clear something is often a pain, but having a group of 4 friends is somewhat doable.

Anyway, you have a point. The way the "being social" is allowed in the game is quite limited too.