My impression of English Forum

[MintnHoney]

people here never post something to discuss, but to angry or rant about something.

You'll find that this happens most often when players come in to leave feedback, as this is supposedly the place where YoshiP and his crew wants feedback to be left, and then other players will come into the thread and either agree or disagree, and in most cases try to add their 2 cents. Whether they feel justified in doing so, it always turns into an argument because "discussion," on either side of the proposed feedback, devolves into an "us vs them" mentality of those in support of the feedback vs those not in support.
Which, frankly, shouldn't even be happening because feedback, at least in my opinion, should be something given in private to prevent this scenario from happening so often. Feedback isn't meant to be discussed amongst players, because players cannot determine the value of the feedback on behalf of the developer; therefore, discussion over feedback, about its validity or otherwise, is just an effective way for feedback (mostly negative, but also the positive as a direct result) to be scrubbed away without Squeen needing to involve themselves.

Basically, if you want people to "stop being angry" on the forums to the dramatic degree you're thinking of, then Squeen needs to make a place to provide feedback that doesn't subject said feedback to a public trial. An email inbox, for an extremely simple example.

[Krotoan]

The forums, and specifically the GENERAL forums are an exceedingly poor representation of the community. I'd say a good third of the regular posters in general here are only here to argue and troll (and a good third of THOSE are the same person).


If you actually want discussion about a feature or lack of feature or game mechanic I suggest finding the subforum dedicated to that arm of the game. Those people actually want to talk about things for the most part.

[Remish]

Honestly, I would love the forum sanctions to be tied in with in-game sanctions. Banned on here? Should be banned in-game too, frankly.

Might actually help simmer down some folk.

This actually already happens. Just not for every forum ban. It like most things depends on the severity of the situation. Some things are a ban in just the game. Some are a ban on just the forums, and other times you can be banned on both at the same time. Though it takes something really extreme for a forum ban to result into an in-game ban. There's a reason that most people use Reddit and Twitter instead of the official forums. They can't have their feelings/complaints/passive aggressive behavior traced back to their characters.

[ForteNightshade]

Honestly, I would love the forum sanctions to be tied in with in-game sanctions. Banned on here? Should be banned in-game too, frankly.

Might actually help simmer down some folk.

All that would accomplish is killing any and all activity on this forum. It simply wouldn't be worth risking your account on the whims of very random and inconsistent moderation. Just off my own anecdotal experience from various friends and people I've played with, some of been permabanned for a single swear word offense... yet if I type that same four letter word in the search box right now, I'll find... oh, let's see: five pages of it showing up. A friend of mine was flagged for mentioning that website we all know and love some time back despite the fact we've seen threads dedicated to talking about parsers and just about every other third party program under the sun. In fact, someone made a thread naming literally all of the major plugins that lasted for weeks.

Moderation here often comes down to mass reporting, which will encourage witch hunting.

[caffe_macchiato]

womp womp

Final Fantasy XIV is a video game, not a religion.

[NekoMataMata]

however, the more I looked into the English Forum, the more my curiosity turned into sadness, and interest into horror; the amount of hatred toward not only other players, but also the game and developers themselves are very scary to see, for, in my 20 years of gaming, I'd never seen such a hatred from the community that "loves" the game before. What I saw were not constructive criticisms, but abuses, guilt-tripping, gaslighting, and hatred towards not only the players but the people behind the game and the game itself, calling and labelling them with something they are not, strawmaning their statements and actions, as well as various forms of fallacies, as well.

Yep, welcome to the English forums. It's honestly like wandering into a debate club where everyone is here to argue arbitrary points for no real reason.

A large part of this is really that it's just a vicious cycle. When I first started using these forums this was the behavior that I was greeted with, and this was what seemed to be the only tool you had to fight back.

On a personal note I've been trying to be better about responding to these people and being better when I do respond to them. Dropping to their level in responses isn't healthy and it probably gives them a lot of satisfaction. I don't think a lot of them are genuine trolls. They believe what they're saying, but most of them are willing to go to extreme lengths to prove themselves right. You're not going to make any headway with these people so the best that you can do is hope that any onlookers understand the non-sense you're dealing with.

[Renathras]

I tend to find that those people equate the message with the messenger..always a fatal flaw. Doesnt matter who says it, if what they say is true or accurate, whoever says it isnt important. I had one poster call my posts "rage filled" which is hysterically funny, considering they are nothing of the kind.

This forum has this weird idea that they "represent the community"..which they dont. I wont agree on "tribalism", more a hivemind that doesnt approve of others disagreeing with their "meta" on what they believe people should think of the game. Caliing someone a "white knight' is also a pejorative, to some people here, the cold brutal fact is some of them will NEVER be satisfied, no matter what the devs do.

I can't say enough how much I agree with this post.

In one thread, someone told a lie about me. I exposed the lie outright. They repeated the lie in a reply. Now, because in that forum area, a lot of the people disagree with me (that I don't think Healing is horribly broken and while I think SCH and AST need big changes, I think WHM and SGE are in pretty good places and only need minor tweaks), they will Like/upvote any post bashing me. So even with me outright exposing someone as lying about me and that they were trying to derail a legitimate discussion, their posts got 7-10 Likes despite having zero value to like, all because they were attacking me (the messenger) of a message they collectively disagree with.

And yeah, the "u mad" and such is just hilarious (I usually just laugh at those and respond in a similar vein at the absurdity of it) considering how my posts are generally neutral in tone and offering direct and dispassionate arguments and/or rebuttals.

And it's also insane to me how a handful of 5-10 people (it's usually no more than that) of consistent posters in various parts of these forums somehow think they speak for the vast majority of the playerbase. A playerbase which is so content with the game they don't even bother coming to post on these forums, and may not even know they exist, and for whom those people definitely do not speak.

[icemage]

All that would accomplish is killing any and all activity on this forum. It simply wouldn't be worth risking your account on the whims of very random and inconsistent moderation. Just off my own anecdotal experience from various friends and people I've played with, some of been permabanned for a single swear word offense... yet if I type that same four letter word in the search box right now, I'll find... oh, let's see: five pages of it showing up. A friend of mine was flagged for mentioning that website we all know and love some time back despite the fact we've seen threads dedicated to talking about parsers and just about every other third party program under the sun. In fact, someone made a thread naming literally all of the major plugins that lasted for weeks.

Moderation here often comes down to mass reporting, which will encourage witch hunting.

It's more than five pages, the forums only display at most 5 pages from your current page.

[NiceNox]

Final Fantasy XIV is a video game, not a religion.

I do understand your sentiment and message. I can assure you that I don't see Final Fantasy XIV in the same light as the religion or take it seriously as a kind of spiritual guidance. With that said, I do however have a special place in my heart for Final Fantasy XIV. As I've stated before, Final Fantasy XIV has helped me from the nasty place in the past, and well as has inspired me to live better and see life in a more positive note. And because of that, I do care quite a lot for, not only the game, but the official community around it as well, after all, I see Eorzea as another home, and if I feel like something is wrong with my home, I will not shy to express my opinion in a polite and careful manner.

I am grateful for your comment and reminding me to not get too attached to the virtual world. If my post has made you uncomfortable in anyway, I would like to apologize for such inconvenient as well.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Took another peek at the WoW forums and theyre much saner than us. We desperetly all need to seek help and do better as a community.

"Our actions will speak louder, than words. Please look forward to us"