Endwalker is the most controversial expansion

[Kickwars]

The claim being refuted, though, was that the Garleans were uniquely bad across all time and space (out of anyone anywhere, ever).

Eureka Orthos is a very clear glimpse into how bad the Allagans were. Probably worse than the Garleans.

[Dikatis]

The claim being refuted, though, was that the Garleans were uniquely bad across all time and space (out of anyone anywhere, ever). How then are those connections "irrelevant"?

So is recency bias. Regardless, that's the evidence the game puts forth. The claim was made that the Garleans were uniquely bad, so what evidence obviously stood contrary to it was brought up, as it normally should be. That was all.

That's not what I said though. I said that Garlemald is responsible for more death and destruction than any known nation on Hydaelyn other than Allag. We know this because of the Eighth Umbral Calamity future in which Eorzea is reduced to anarchy by the mass loss of life caused by the release of Black Rose. Then there's Garlemald signing off on Project Meteor. If you're going to criticize me, at least quote me properly instead of trying to strawman me.

Okay. But that still doesn't make the Garleans inherently more sympathetic when they've done literally everything that was done to them but on a scale magnitudes greater. And it'd be one thing if it was a war to retake lost lands. It's another thing entirely to conquer entirely distant lands for nothing more than vanity given that Garlemald's "peace" involved the ruthless exploitation of the conquered lands and performing human experimentation worse than death. It advocated for genocide, the destruction of all cultures aside from its own, raids on supplies, extermination squads, abductions, enslavement, and rape. Garlemald was also complicit in Project Meteor and the deployment of Black Rose, both of which caused calamities that wiped up untold thousands. Project Meteor was intended to flatten all of Eorzea and destroy all life and resources upon it.

For all the city-states' failings, the Garlean Empire is, objectively and unsconscionably worse on the scale of misery and death it caused. None of the allied city-states have squeaky clean consciences except for perhaps Radz-at-Han on account of its neutrality. I cannot fathom the idea that Ala Mhigo is somehow more culpable and less sympathetic than the Empire who attempted to destroy an entire continent and potentially risk nuclear winter. There's a reason why only 1 in 13 members of the Eorzean military were willing to participate in a humanitarian mission of peace to Garlemald, since almost everyone in Eorzea has been wronged by Garlemald when not every Eorzean has hurt a Garlean.

The Garlean Empire is also directly responsible for the destruction of multiple country's infrastructure, such as Ala Mhigo, Bozja, and Doma. We also known from the Sorrow of Werlyt questline that the XIVth Legion firebombed Werlyt and left its villages burning. Even the supposedly egalitarian Gabranth bombed Dalmasca into submission and either killed or starved 70,000 people. No single nation on Hydaelyn other than Allag has caused as much harm as Garlemald, as per Emet-Selch's design.

The Eorzean city-states are hardly clean (as shown with the destruction of Sil'dih), but none of them have left a continent-spanning trail of destruction in their wake (save for, as mentioned before, Allag).

[thevanguard]

Look up the stats yourself and you'll see. Luckybancho did it's census not long ago (I know, not the most accurate but we don't have much else).
We're currently in a lul part of the expansion so lower population now is normal ( plus the fact this is a filler story we currently have). But looking at overall, the game is still growing. Will we reach the peak we had before? Maybe but probably not. The conditions with COVID and wow imploding were special cases back then.
This isn't me saying ew has no problems, it has plenty, but this is solely in regards to population. In that sense, you're oh so large cranium is wrong.

Everyone loves citing LuckyBancho but never noting that their data collection periods are longer, it counts alts and endgame bots, it has very low correlation with actual activity since people who play for an hour and change some gear are counted the same as people who are playing 24/7.

If you want actual activity, look at Steam.

[Thurmnmurmn]

Everyone loves citing LuckyBancho but never noting that their data collection periods are longer, it counts alts and endgame bots, it has very low correlation with actual activity since people who play for an hour and change some gear are counted the same as people who are playing 24/7.

If you want actual activity, look at Steam.

I agree it's not the best representation. I already say as much in that comment that was deleted for some reason (the one you replied to).
We did have a thread in here not long ago that showed the steam stats and it actually showed similarities. If you look at the per expansion stats, the population is still increasing every expansion.
The outlier in there is totally the shadowbringers and ew launch population being insanely high for reasons we all know. If we look at prior to and now though, it's still bigger now. Like the current steam numbers are pretty close to the shadowbringers launch numbers, and we're on a .4 patch.
And I understand it's no where near the peak obviously. But FFXIV was already considered massively successful with these old stats that we now beat.