Zepla: Endwalker is the Worst FFXIV Expansion I have played

[Renathras]

Damn, same!
Eureka/Bozjan is the proof that difficulty create bonds.

I don't think that's quite the way to word it. Eureka and Bozja, outside of BA/DRSav, aren't really "hard", per se. Especially the field stuff (FATEs/NMs). It's more that the tasks require/heavily encourage working together, and the barriers to working together are very, very low, as you can join and leave parties whenever you feel like it.

I think it's more the combination of that flexibility, ease of grouping, and targeted objectives (you have various ways to get the parts you need, but you know what you need and can set about getting them however you choose), combined with some mysteries (what all things you need, how to get which Logograms, etc) for people to experiment with and share knowledge with others, that makes it work.

Things don't need to be Savage or Extreme or etc difficult, they just need to (a) give people a concrete goal to work for, (b) be accessible to lots of people, and (c) have low barriers for people to join in. That's what builds community and engagement.

There's a reason it's only a minority, and only a very small minority, that does Savages in general and Ultimates in the very small case. Difficulty isn't the end-all if there's not accessibility.

On a little tangent, I do see some irony in how the perception of content creators seems to change depending on whether people do or don't agree with them.

It is really funny how the same people that have for months, if not years, said Zepla doesn't speak for them...are now in full agreement with her and acting like she speaks for the whole community. All it took was her getting upset like they do. I think it's a bit different with the people disagreeing with her now, as they didn't insist she spoke for the community before, they just noted agreement when it came to her, just as they note disagreement with her now. Little change there.

I get the "If even X thinks it's bad, and X is terminally positive, it MUST be bad!" consideration, but it comes across as kind of flakey to go from "This person speaks for herself only" to "She's so stunning and brave and this is a sea change!" basically hinged on her posting one video of being as upset as they've been.

If you are viewing this as some sort of personal attack,

An attack on anyone who disagrees is not a critique - and I happen to disagree, in part (again, I've stated critiques with the game, the short list being (a) no exploration zone is bad, (b) open world feels empty, (c) relic grind is meh, (d) healers need to play differently from each other [not "be harder", just "be different" would suffice], (e) 1 new dungeon every 4.5 months sucks, (f) we need the X.Y5 stuff in the X.Y patches, not even more delayed just so Savage raiders don't feel like they have "too much to do" [I would honestly put the Savage raids in the X.Y5 patches, since the Savage raiders could do the extra content with everyone else, then when they shift to their Savage raids, everyone else still has the other stuff they can do, so everyone wins], and I'll stop there since this is the short list).

Again, she could have simply just...not said that part. It's something I call people on here as well. "I'm upset with the game. Also, people who aren't upset with the game are lazy and bad faith shills!!!". Ever see Ace Ventura 2?

"Inquincu Ocha!!"
"What does that mean?"
"It means 'White Devil'."
"Ah. Tell them I come in peace."
"Inquincu Ocha say..."
"I---...notice you put that 'inquicy orcha' thing in there."
"This is how they know you."
"LEAVE THAT PART OUT next time."

It's super easy to have critiques of the game - I DO IT ALL THE TIME (amusingly, without getting tons of likes and supporting quotes of me doing so) - I just don't insult other people or the playerbase to do so. When the insulting posts get the upvotes, one can be forgiven for thinking it's not the critiques being supported, it's the insults. And vindictive, meanspirited insults are not critique. And noooo, no amount of "We're just oh soooo frustrated, though!" makes it okay.

Either critique the game or don't.

When you attack other players or try to preemptively dismiss people offering counter arguments by making a ridicule or caricature of counter arguments of those who would leverage them, you're in the wrong.

Attack the thing you dislike. If that happens to be other players, not the game, it's possibly time for you to leave.

EDIT:

yet another blah blah blah.

waaah waaah waaah people are giving their opinion on the internet that dont align with what i believe in, i feel attacked and harassed !!! quick make them quiet !!! dont let them speak !!! they need to only say what i want them to say !!!

Case in point.

This is the sort of thing wrong, which is why three alt TwinPeaks here has an issue with me calling it out, since it's how she behaves. She can't offer a rational critique to save her life, it seems, so she just rampages against anyone who doesn't attack the game and attacks and belittles other posters.

Then hyper-likes her post with her alts to make people think others agree with her bullying.

Note she doesn't point out my critiques of the game (that would interfere with her saying I'm a shill), and she ridicules me as calling being attacked "people giving their opinion...i (don't) believe in". Of course, she doesn't know what I'm saying, because she doesn't read my posts. She doesn't want debate or discussion. And reading posts would kind of require that. So she "summarizes" my posts wrong because she doesn't care to get it right. She wants to bully and harass.

People like that are who I have a problem with.

.

If you have critiques of the game, offer them - I do it all the time.

But if you're attacking other players/users/the playerbase, that is not a critique of the game. I'm not sure why this is a hard concept for some people. Because it's not a hard concept. They don't care to critique the game, they just want to attack other people.

THAT is the problem.