LuckyBancho data shows that FF14 is in decline

[Blossoming]

I'm sure there is some of that going on but it actually had more to do with gate keeping. Back when people in PF would dig through your achievements to see if you cleared the content before. This was back before PF provided a way to filter that directly. If a new player bonus appeared in a PF, someone would go out and scout achievements and the person who had them hidden would typically get kicked.

Yeah this had been a thing since 1.0, they’d check to see if you had a speed clear of the current dungeons to join certain linkshells etc. I do remember if they weren’t viewable there was all this taboo and like “what are you hiding?!” type stuff going on lol

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Hiding anything in FFXIV is weirdly extremely frowned upon for some reason. People look at it like you got something to hide or be ashamed of if you hide anything about yourself.

Hide FFlogs? - You probably bought a clear
Hide your Achievements? - You probably cheat or lied about clearing something you did not really clear.
Hide your Adventure Plate? - People won't take you seriously for some reason.
Hide your main on the official forums? - You must be a troll.

The list goes on and on for anything that can be hidden. The only one that you can pretty much get away with is hiding your friendlist. lol

In terms of not using your main on the forum, at least in this thread, it comes from them using data from a survey where the results are skewed because the data gathered is not public by default, trying to push a narrative, while using a system that let's you hide who you are, effectively proving how bad the data is.

[Ivtrix]

Right and part of the reason people went and hid them was because there was a period where people would dig through them and use it as a method to be like “well you didn’t do this so you didn’t do everything!” Gets so tiresome seeing people use collecting achievements etc as a stick to beat people over the head with.

Outside of balance issues and wanting to filter discussion to those who are familiar with understanding the dynamic of savage+ play and how jobs function at that level, I think that digging through someone’s information to try to one up them is essentially useless and pointless.

Sometimes I will check out someone’s lodestone to get a frame of reference of what content they do participate in and compare it to what they are arguing (can be anything not balance) and at worse sometimes it’s just an eye roll and nothing more.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I think not everyone posting on alts is a troll - and given the drama and behavior here I can see not wanting to risk your main account.

But a certain number of alt accounts are clearly trolls, and there have been enough obvious trolls with accounts made within the past month who then act insane, resulting in people being skeptical of new posters.

Sometimes I will check out someone’s lodestone to get a frame of reference of what content they do participate in and compare it to what they are arguing (can be anything not balance) and at worse sometimes it’s just an eye roll and nothing more.

Yeah pretty much this. There are some people who need to have opinions on everything, even content they haven't even experienced themselves lol.

[LittleImp]

Right and part of the reason people went and hid them was because there was a period where people would dig through them and use it as a method to be like “well you didn’t do this so you didn’t do everything!” Gets so tiresome seeing people use collecting achievements etc as a stick to beat people over the head with.

It will never not be funny to me how modern gamers are so mindbroken that they think achievements are content, and then try invoke them as a purity test when someone criticizes the quality or replayability of a feature.

[Bonoki]

Yeah pretty much this. There are some people who need to have opinions on everything, even content they haven't even experienced themselves lol.

Sums up Reddit and these forums in a nutshell. But sometimes it has a place and purpose. Especially along the lines of "I do not engage with this content whatsoever and absolutely refuse to because X reasons", so it does still at least count as a form of feedback. Just on here, it often is pinned against people who do enjoy the content so it's met with a hostile, "Maybe you should go get your feet wet before you complain about it".

Sometimes I will check out someone’s lodestone to get a frame of reference of what content they do participate in and compare it to what they are arguing (can be anything not balance) and at worse sometimes it’s just an eye roll and nothing more.

Sometimes over in the PvP section of the forums, you'll see people talk about their frustration on CC, ranked PvP, and FOMO rewards speak about their opinions and often get shut down by someone saying something along the lines of like, "Bro you ain't even in top 100! Your opinions don't count! Go git gud!" A little exaggerated I admit, but it usually goes something like that. If you have a 'bad take' the first thing people will do is scout you out to look for an explanation.

It will never not be funny to me how modern gamers are so mindbroken that they think achievements are content, and then try invoke them as a purity test when someone criticizes the quality or replayability of a feature.

Depends on your definition and interpretation. I think the weight and difficulty of the amount of provided achievements is largely at play here. For example, a normal Console/Steam game that has achievements for Xbox/Playstation/Steam I would probably consider to be a subfield of content to a certain extent. Now for FFXIV? I would flip this and not really consider it content because of the sheer volume of achievements the game has and the ridiculous amount of them that require 10000 X of something. Personally, I tend to ignore titles as a form of content, but the ones that offer a mount, minion, or glamour I'd be more open to calling those achievements content. [See people wanting Shadowkeeper as a Blue Mage reward behind achievements as an example]

[ZephyrMenodora]

Subs up Reddit and these forums in a nutshell. But sometimes it has a place and purpose. Especially along the lines of "I do not engage with this content whatever and absolutely refuse to because X reasons", so it does still at least count as a form of feedback. Just on here, it often is pinned against people who do enjoy the content so it's met with a hostile, "Maybe you should go get your feet wet before you complain about it".

I think feedback that you don't do certain content is totally legit. My issue here is when people Noob-splain over those who do engage with the content based solely on conjecture and things they heard second-hand.

[Larirawiel]

No, those aren't roughly comparable games. They ARE MMOs, but none of those games had a player count inflation like FFXIV did, meaning they don't have those players to lose.

The posting, i answered brought covid-19 as a reason for the graph. And i highly doubt, that covid-19 is the reason for it. Because if it was a reason then other games would be also affected in a similar way.



Cheers

[Bonoki]

I think feedback that you don't do certain content is totally legit. My issue here is when people Noob-splain over those who do engage with the content based solely on conjecture and things they heard second-hand.

I agree with this. The conversation is tricky though because sometimes people Vet-splain at the same time. "It's not that hard, just do it" (Aka: Skill Issue), and refuse to understand a new players pov. It's a back and forth battle for sure.

[Ivtrix]

I agree with this. The conversation is tricky though because sometimes people Vet-splain at the same time. "It's not that hard, just do it" (Aka: Skill Issue), and refuse to understand a new players pov. It's a back and forth battle for sure.

Yeah I’m def guilty of vet-splaining sometimes.

But sometimes there are some outlandish claims like “people like SMN because they finally get an easy dps job for once” …like all jobs are designed with an approachable entry level playstyle by design. Except black mage, which has a comparatively higher skill floor.

But you’re right it’s a constant back and forth battle especially with people who frequent the forums a lot and also a lot of people who don’t. I think everyone gets frustrated having to reiterate their points for the 69th time because someone new jumped in.