Why Are the FFXIV Forums So Bad?

[sindriiisgaming]

Just curious, in-game its pretty pleasant, most people are reasonable and easy to talk to, the game has a pretty bustling social scene, I've made plenty of friends that I've linked with irl, but on here you're all like 12 year olds screaming at each other over who loves FFXIV more like you're some weird attention starved children begging for your parent's attention. Literally every discussion post is littered with lonely 40 year old women and neckbeards spurting Mean Girls comments over any and everything.

So what made you all this way? Was it years of neglect and moderation from Square-Enix? Lack of healthy social lives? Mental illness? I'm curious

10/10 neumenon alt
ironally this person commented on another thread calling this commuity toxic

[Raikai]

I feel part of the problem with these forums are the the trolls and infamous posters (the ones who love the negativity they get for their problematic posts) who keep thriving because people feed their threads.

If everyone who disagrees simply stopped posting there, they would die out, but I presume the urge to point out their wrongs is bigger than that. Honestly, that doesn't achieve anything because these posters just feed on any kind of attention, good or bad. Sadly the lack of moderation won't help either.

On a technical aspect, the forums looking like a 2000's relic is enough to keep a lot of actual good threads going on. The most obvious aspect is the lack of a notification function. You need to keep manually visiting the threads you engaged to see if you have responses, that from an usability aspect is a game killer for a discussion forums.

[Bonoki]

I feel part of the problem with these forums are the the trolls and infamous posters (the ones who love the negativity they get for their problematic posts) who keep thriving because people feed their threads.

If everyone who disagrees simply stopped posting there, they would die out, but I presume the urge to point out their wrongs is bigger than that. Honestly, that doesn't achieve anything because these posters just feed on any kind of attention, good or bad. Sadly the lack of moderation won't help either.

On a technical aspect, the forums looking like a 2000's relic is enough to keep a lot of actual good threads going on. The most obvious aspect is the lack of a notification function. You need to keep manually visiting the threads you engaged to see if you have responses, that from an usability aspect is a game killer for a discussion forums.

Those negative threads thrive because those posters actually have fans. When you behave like Xenos but disguised as a forum poster, people feed off the raito of gotcha insults.

People are bored. Negative threads create more discussion than suggestion threads because it's entertaining and helps get you through the boring day. We rarely see real 'not trolling or fanfac ideas' suggestions on these forums. But when we do, we rarely see past page 2 of comments. It's been mentioned before that the devs meteic for forum feedback is through the upvote system. Sadly for these forums the only times I ever see upvotes get high is when someone got school yard burned from petty insults and passive aggressive hostility.

[Connor]

The trolls here are so goddamn well-fed they’ll be demanding only the finest cuts of filet mignon soon. Lose some weight tubby!


Addendum: I mean metaphorically tubby not fat shaming tubby

[Jeeqbit]

on here you're all like 12 year olds screaming at each other over who loves FFXIV more

If you've read these forums enough, you'd discover they are not saying how much they love FFXIV but rather the opposite.

you're some weird attention starved children begging for your parent's attention.

Well arguably we have a person who uses lots of accounts to make posts and some like to argue it is for attention, but other than that, I think it is just something to do for fun or while waiting in a queue.

spurting Mean Girls comments over any and everything.

So what made you all this way?

Consider that many of the people active on these forums have actually played since 1.0, ARR or Heavensward. They have seen a lot of changes to the game and so many of them are nostalgic for things the way they used to be which has resulted in feelings of negativity and burnout. People mostly just come to the forums when they have a complaint rather than when they have something positive to say. That's just how it works.

[VerdeLuck]

You have no idea lol, a couple years ago some posters would pull up your fflogs if you posted an opinion they disagreed with to try to dogpile you. Even something as innocuous as "I like the current Summoner".
People say it's toxic positivity, but this forum just developed a culture where there is one accepted idea or solution and posting to the contrary gets you piled on.

Right now it's "the game is boring, we need another bozja, relics are too easy, we need Heavensward jobs back". Posting contrary to that will get a bunch of bad faith replies in the forums trying to dunk on you and messages in-game.

[CNitsah]

They go with the minimal moderation. it seems to work with japanese, french and german forum, but not on the english ones. Some well known trolls are free to roam, and even when they eventually get banned, they have a new alt account in the hour (that everyone knows it's them anyway).

Some people say it's because of negative comment, but I disagree with that. Most people that complains about the game make pretty good points, but a lot of people on both side cannot not take any criticism personally and every thread derails into an ad-hominem fight. It's not only because of the trolls. They just have to start some fire and disappear, and some "normal" users will keep it going. At this point it's ridiculous. A moderation team is needed for the english forums, because people can't behave themselves.

Then there are the people that can't differentiate criticism and hating the game... When you point that out, they will say "some do, but most don't" based on nothing. Yeah, telling people they hate the game when they do make a criticism is good way to create some nice ambiance. We don't even need the trolls to start those fire.

It's been mentioned before that the devs meteic for forum feedback is through the upvote system. Sadly for these forums the only times I ever see upvotes get high is when someone got school yard burned from petty insults and passive aggressive hostility.

This also. last time I created a thread about needing more moderation, it litterally had 2 upvotes. Nothing is gonna change if people are not even able to understand how SE collect feedback when they said how they use the forum to collect feedback. Weirdly the "Endsinger needing some sync" has been heard. It's one of the few thread over the last few month that used the like system like they said they use it, and we needed the help of reddit to do that. Doing twelves thread about the same subject don't help, supporting the existing thread does.

[Reap00]

Just ask yourself why you post such a mean spirited topic and maybe you will find your answers.

They do have a good point. These forums are a cesspool. So much trash. So much negativity. I am sure SE ignores everything here. I certainly would.

[Zeastria]

FFXIV forum: People behaving like ******* to farm for likes of the same ilk.
They dont rly care about facts or truth, all they want is to just argue and make war of anything they can.

[Tahbitha]

If you think these forums are toxic, go log into the General Discussion of another game whose name I shall not mention here (but it rhymes with Borld of Borcraft). The last time I was there, a little over a year ago, it was so toxic that if you spent much time there you would come out of it with white skin, green hair, a penchant for jokes, and a hatred of Batman.