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

[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.)

[caffe_macchiato]

According to the forums, there’s an unlimited amount of gameplay content, so it’s really puzzling why people are using this game as a Second Life replacement. Many people say that modders, gposers and the “insta” players are all a minority. However, Mare has 20,000 people online at any given time. Those who don’t use Mare are even more numerous. And while there’s certainly an overlap between social players and raiders, the vast majority of parties in North America are for clubs and venues, not raids.

People need to re-think the broad consensus that FFXIV has an unlimited amount of gameplay content when people opt to spend most of their time not playing the game. And, as we can all predict, the social scene will only grow from here. While many people say that post-Endwalker has a ton of content, it’ll be two years until we get a new expac. You might not think that’s a big deal, but not everyone in FFXIV is satisfied with replaying ARR content all day. Some people are clearly not interested in farms and reclears.

This is what FFXIV is now, and unless if the game opens up to more long-term grinds, there’s no turning back.

[Johners]

There's a massive crowd of people on FF14 that seem determined to bring real life aspects to the game?

A huge part of ffxiv's culture is gpose, but there's such an obession over it that it's almost like being on instagram. I haven't looked at my insta since the pandemic ended, but I was recently thinking and it just hit me that FFXIV is basically virtual insta at this point.

The people you're talking about don't play FFXIV, they live through FFXIV. It's why so many people piss their pants whenever the plugin/modding community looks bad, their actual existence is at threat if Square Enix were to remove clamp down on it.

A small portion of the XIV player base are terminally online and if you do anything that threatens that, you soon bring out the worst in these people. (It's why actual discussions around mogs/plugins get brigaded so much by certain people).

I think it's funny that people make Twitter and Instagram accounts for their OCs if they're not otherwise living as their OC anyway. Especially when it's all modded characters that look like they've come straight out of Second Life or IMVU. Bonus points if they're selling cosmetic mods or gshade/reshade configs for real money.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

According to the forums, there’s an unlimited amount of gameplay content, so it’s really puzzling why people are using this game as a Second Life replacement. Many people say that modders, gposers and the “insta” players are all a minority. However, Mare has 20,000 people online at any given time. Those who don’t use Mare are even more numerous. And while there’s certainly an overlap between social players and raiders, the vast majority of parties in North America are for clubs and venues, not raids.

People need to re-think the broad consensus that FFXIV has an unlimited amount of gameplay content when people opt to spend most of their time not playing the game. And, as we can all predict, the social scene will only grow from here. While many people say that post-Endwalker has a ton of content, it’ll be two years until we get a new expac. You might not think that’s a big deal, but not everyone in FFXIV is satisfied with replaying ARR content all day. Some people are clearly not interested in farms and reclears.

This is what FFXIV is now, and unless if the game opens up to more long-term grinds, there’s no turning back.

Or, hear me out, those people not doing the content elephant be doing the content even if it had a broader range and more content released.



These people are only here to mod the game and play second life. That's it.


Also, can I just say I don't understand why mods like these are so popular? They look awful. I'm not going to say the current models and textures we have are amazing HD masterpieces, but almost every gpose modder I see just has their character full of terrible looking flat textured models.

[Mimilu]

I'm confused, how is using gpose and posting screenshots on social media "bringing real life aspects" to the game? Because people are posting things outside of the game and/or the lodestone? ( o´∀｀o).。o○ ꏂ ?　꒱
When I read the title of this thread, I read it the same way Kansene read it, bringing IRL events and rhetoric into the game/official forums.

[Connor]

Isn’t it kind of inevitable that any fantasy world with social aspects will end up having real world things bleed into it? I can understand like setting up a social account to share pictures appreciate the games art designs, in-game rendering, glamour design etc.

At the same time though I do feel like using ffxiv as a means to portray an idealised version of yourself is…unhealthy. Like setting up an Instagram and taking a bunch of pictures of scantily clad Miqo’te women when you’re a fat guy (MMO many men online lol). Not that there’s anything wrong with playing whatever gender you want; but setting up an account as if the character is the ‘real you’ doesn’t seem like the best coping strategy. Then again, if that’s what they want to do who am I stop them lol. If it makes someone happy (and they’re just posting normal selfies of their character), does it really matter what they do? Obviously it’s a whole other kettle of fish when it comes to sexualising them though.

I guess what I’m saying is: outside of problematic uses of things like GPose or screenshotting, does it really matter what people do with the game. I’d like to hope that ‘problematic’ is something extremely rare lol but I have no evidence to support that other than wanting to believe in the basic decency of human beings lol

[RobynDaBank]

I guess what I’m saying is: outside of problematic uses of things like GPose or screenshotting, does it really matter what people do with the game lol

These plebians don't play MY way, what I consider valid and "actually playing the game" instead of posing and playing with their Barbies, clearly these are the terminally online who need to go outdoors and touch grass and not me, the one scoffing at them from my ivory tower.

[Greyhawk]

While I have deleted all of my social media accounts (and thankful I did), yeah I'd have to agree it's pretty thick in this MMO. That could be culturally driven as well, as the Japanese culture is just as obsessed with it. It shouldn't get in the way of others' game-play though and that is where I have a problem with it.

I was actually in a a group not more than two days ago where the tank was stopping before each boss and doing their posing and emote shit and not pulling while we were all there waiting.

Needless to say, I had enough by the second boss and just started pulling as healer. I think they got the point.