Genuine Question for Frequent Negative Posters

[Rithy255]

negative posts are fine, people who complain don't always "hate" the game they just want better for the game zzz.
I rather people complain and be vocal then silent and accept everything for what it is, a lot of people feel negative towards certain things such as The lack of actual balancing, with instead of trying to make each job feel unique but also balanced, each job just plays the same, people feel negative towards the lack of content and having to wait likely a year for anything new soon, Most people want to play ff14 not "go play something else lol".

Let people be negative and let people be positive it's a good thing that everyone can share what concerns them about the current game.

[Ivtrix]

A lot of people feel that way but it depends who you are. If you are in the Novice Network, an active FC, hunt linkshells (especially spawner and conductor linkshells) or do alliance raids, hunts, roleplaying, pugging or activities with a static a lot, then there is lots of interaction. There also was in Eureka and Bozja but I don't know if there is still much there now. If you talk in some of the thousands of FFXIV discord servers regularly or use social platforms such as twitch, twitter or youtube, there is lots of interaction as well.

From playing the game themselves, watching popular youtube channels, and managing the social platforms such as twitter. But there is obviously a translation barrier here since the developers are japanese and we are writing in English.

There were discords for each job but they became a single discord called The Balance and they have a website now too. No official ones for the game of course.

But the developers here are Japanese. And if they spent all day getting trolled on the forums they wouldn't develop anything.

Even in the balance the conversation remains the same. People also complain that their feedback falls on deaf ears. If devs are in the balance no one really is aware of it.

[SomeGuy22]

I really appreciate your thread, OP, it's nice to see a post promoting actual discussion between the parties. While I mostly lurk, most of my posts here are negative in nature.

Do you overall dislike the game?

Of course not, I wouldn't be here if I did. But I do feel that every single change the devs push I love it a little bit less.

What do you still enjoy about the game?

The music, glam, BLU, and some of the fights. Frontlines is some welcome chaotic fun too.

Why the frequent focus on negative aspects?

Because, as of now, I feel stronger about the negative aspects than the positive ones.

If I'm having a blast with a game, I'll just... play it. Last thing on my mind is going to be creating an account on the official forums just to give the devs a thumbs up, y'know? Hell, I only started checking this place out to see if I was alone in my dislike of the MNK rework, and was surprised to see people already feeling their feedback was being screamed into the void.

That'll either make you silent or make you shout even louder, and the more you love something, the more likely you'll be on the latter camp. That's why the forums feel so negative. I'll bet you that the harshest critics in here are the ones who love/loved the game the most.

[dspguy]

I hear some "Well, I like X Y and Z about the game, but not A B and C." I'd say, quit while you are ahead. What game will you play that you like 100% of it? If someone likes certain aspects, enjoy those aspects. Let's say I hate Blitzball, does that mean I will never play FFX ever again? Let's say that I hate raising chocobos... will I never play FFVII again?

No, that is nonsensical and so is the notion that someone has to like 100% of the game in order to not complain about it.

[Shinkuno]

I will give some credit to the 14 team outside of some bugs with EW patches they release their content without test servers and manage to do most of the QA internally. t.

The only thing they do is release buggy / overtuned content and then gaslight people like you that dont even do the content that they ToTaLly TeStEd it and mock high end players that they must "just be bad"

If you actually did content youd realize that this game would massively benefit from a test server

[Mcg55ss]

Even in the balance the conversation remains the same. People also complain that their feedback falls on deaf ears. If devs are in the balance no one really is aware of it.

There's always going to be a group complaining, even in wow there's always a group complaining if he came from that you should be used to it cuz God knows I am after 17 years. It's just like eureka and exploratory zone some people are disappointed there isn't one this expansion and complaining about it meanwhile some people are happy there isn't one. Then you go classes design old astrologian some people liked it but it was a complicated class and square thought that it was so complicated it scared new people from trying it so they simplified it a bit that's going to piss off the people that mastered the old way but the people that were intimidated by and play it now or going to enjoy it. Someone will always complain whether the change is liked by 99% of community there's still 1% that's going to complain.

[LittleImp]

Do you overall dislike the game?

No. I'm just generally unhappy with the direction of the patch content since Shadowbringers started it's major patches.

The game is ok right now, but it could be much much better. It doesn't really matter that the game is bringing in some new Mare user or scorned WoW player that will quit in 2 months when they get bored; Most of my friends are walking away from game out of frustration with the poor quality patch content. I don't blame them, because I can't even find a reason to log in either.

What do you still enjoy about the game?

The way PVE encounters are structured. Many of the boss fights in this game, even in casual content, are satisfying to progress through and optimize for the first time. To me, even fighting a dungeon boss for the first time can have the same appeal and feeling as fighting a savage boss.

This, and the social aspect of the game, are the primary thing that kept me playing it. I don't mind parts of the story; Segments of it are good, for an MMO, as long as you don't take it too seriously and try to view the narrative as a whole; If you do that, certain things really start to break down honestly.

Why the frequent focus on negative aspects?

I was on the debate team in high-school. I graduated college with an art degree. I spent 4 years of my life sitting in 4-6 hour critique sessions 3-4 times a week. A few years of that industry later, I career changed into the QA field and now write automation designed to break other software. Needless to say, arguing and looking for problems is just kind of part of my nature.

I also just really, really don't like the practice of "white-knighting". To be frank, something about people tripping over themselves to defend a product to the point of near delusion just kind of motivates me to argue with them. Most of the criticism I post is usually prompted by seeing someone else say something I strongly disagree with, rather than being something I post organically for its own sake. True-believer types tend to astroturf the tone of the discourse around games in a way I consider unproductive, so it feels necessary to balance them out a bit.

[Shinkuno]

There's always going to be a group complaining, even in wow there's always a group complaining if he came from that you should be used to it cuz God knows I am after 17 years. It's just like eureka and exploratory zone some people are disappointed there isn't one this expansion and complaining about it meanwhile some people are happy there isn't one. Then you go classes design old astrologian some people liked it but it was a complicated class and square thought that it was so complicated it scared new people from trying it so they simplified it a bit that's going to piss off the people that mastered the old way but the people that were intimidated by and play it now or going to enjoy it. Someone will always complain whether the change is liked by 99% of community there's still 1% that's going to complain.

But at this point the only people that defend this game are people that only afk the game on their second screen. The could make every class have a 100 button rotation and it wouldnt affect those people anyway. Just like having another Bozja wouldnt affect those people cause they dont play the game anyway but not having it impacts everyone that plays the game.

[Mcg55ss]

But at this point the only people that defend this game are people that only afk the game on their second screen. The could make every class have a 100 button rotation and it wouldnt affect those people anyway.

And yet world of Warcraft just had a post yesterday about an article that had final fantasy 14 number one MMO and wow retail number 3 and most were defending that final fantas 14 was number one they were complaining that they thought number three was too high for retail that it should be out of the top five.

[Deo14]

OP

I'll just copy paste what I already told to Jojoya, it sounds little off-topic without context, but it should convey general message:

Do we need some to follow some regulations of minimal positive things we say, just so we feel like we're legitimate? I'm talking just for myself - I very rarely talk here about things I like. You can check all my 300+ posts, I bet there is not a single praise about this game's music, even though that's one of my most favorite things about the game. I have something positive to say, but I usually won't say it, I don't see a reason. You yourself described it as "at the least does not see as a problem with the game" - why would I start talking about something that I don't see as problem? What would I achieve by that? Would it spark some interesting discussion? Very unlikely. This is why I don't just throw random praises into the void, I don't see a reason. It doesn't mean I passionately hate the game as some seem to think, it's just different mindset and different personality traits.

Long story short - why? Why would I post some positive things in forums meant for feedback? If I wanted some positive fluff, I would check mainsub or similar media meant for this, there's more than enough of that in there. As for the rest:

Why do you stick around in the game/forums?

I want to engage with the game because I like it, but nowadays there's not much to do, so I spend more time in here.

Does something about it give you enough joy to be worth your time?

I still like the game, and there are good discussion in forums every now and then. And if not, there is often drama to fill the rest.

Is there something that gives you hope that things will get better, and thus you're not ready to leave just yet?

I don't see any indicators that game will change direction. I'm just waiting to see how will DT turn out, if jobs become drastically even worse, or if DT will have same mistakes as EW, then I'll just either quit or become one of those who plays for 1-2 months per expansion.