I hate raiding, I hate free companies

[Tsumdere]

The irony that this is first game in many many years that I have had no trouble making friends. Like, I can't avoid making friends in this game. Never had this much success in many other games, specifically mmorpg's. I second the person who said they are baffled at how people claim it is impossible to find friends in this game.

Too many MMO players lack crucial social skills and when confronted with that fact they would rather project their failures onto other people.

Not to say that casual content is a shining example of communication, because it isn't by nature of how this battle system works. But you can see how people fall apart when there isn't a crutch of forced interaction like there is in places like Eureka. And worst of all because they blame it on everyone else they never attempt to learn social skills.

[CidHeiral]

This is going to sound harsh, but frankly it really sounds like you're the problem in this case.

Based on some of the things you've said, it's likely that people find your attitude/behavior emotionally draining, and end up distancing themselves from you.

That's honestly some super red-flag kinda stuff that indicates instability people may just not have the energy to deal with. It's also not normal to feel such extreme bitterness towards your friends interests, and I can pretty much guarantee they can pick up on that bitterness/disdain when they interact with you, which leads them to interact with you less and less.

This reply really hit the nail on the head.

I've seen countless threads like this across many sites and 90% of the time the OP is clearly very difficult to get along with and also lacking in any self awareness about why that is. In this very thread other people are replying completely mystified why it's so impossible for them to make friends, then you look at their post history and they're a massive twat to everyone they interact with.

It reminds me of people you meet IRL who are constantly going through horrible breakups or getting fired or losing friends and they blame everything and everyone else but themselves. Bad situations happen to everyone, but if they happen to you all the time then the problem is you.

My advice to OP would be to take a step back and think about how your behavior could make people not want to engage with you. Most of the people you meet in game are working adults using their few hours of free time to have fun and if you're not fun to be around it's not a hard decision to cut you off. Nobody owes you anything, especially random people you meet on the internet. Sure, everybody has ups and downs and friends should be there for you then too, but even very good friends have a limit to how much nonsense they will tolerate. Address your own issues and you'll make plenty of friends. I hope things work out for you, OP, really.

[Crustyman]

After reading a lot of these replies, I'm glad I've kept all this to myself for the longest time, and just posted it here. Thank you all though for providing solutions for me, and I'm sorry that I've made myself sound like have a stick up my ass.

[Renalt]

Sometimes we need an outside perspective to help better ourselves. You kept an open mind to it and that's better than how most take it.

[Eraden]

After reading a lot of these replies, I'm glad I've kept all this to myself for the longest time, and just posted it here. Thank you all though for providing solutions for me, and I'm sorry that I've made myself sound like have a stick up my ass.

Is no worries. Can always turn new leaf. Be kind and patients and willings to say "hi" to others and soon Crustyman will find funs people to plays with!

[Velvet_Lunarfang]

I made my own FC to keep people from randomly inviting me. I realized I will never find a group of people to mount farm, map parties, even do savage raiding. I realized it was a fruitless unrewarding task in finding people in the ff14 community. At this point why bother trying to make friends especially online. In the end you don't matter to them and I highly bet they never even think of you. Better to just keep to yourself that is what I found out

[GrumbleBeard]

Something I'm not a huge fan of is how if you don't use discord, you may as well not even be in an fc to interact with people. It reminds me of how in ARR, the fc leader of the one I was in was really against members making skype calls and stuff with each other because it diminished chat in the fc itself and a lot of people complained about it. Honestly, he was right though.

[MrJadeOfStars]

Take the initiative, yes of-course! Next time I see someone I want to be friends with, they will be my friend...whether they like it or not. They WILL SUBMIT.

[Lunalepsy]

Me too. Raiding is one of the worst features a game could ever have. It takes away the social/adventure component of doing high-end content and turns it into a boring meeting that never ends.

[Leifei]

Thanks, my current FC is one that I don't wanna leave, but I'm just afraid some major event is gonna occur where I have to go find another FC. I just wish there was an easy way to tell my FC mates that I care for them, and I don't wanna grow distant. Since that's already kinda happening with one of the members, who I was pretty good friends with.

Read the book called "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. Also look into the Stoic philosophy. Both of these will help you greatly. Best of luck dude.