Content creator irresponsibility in covering #FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[BunnyQueen]

This isn't new or shocking. Content creators are not journalists, and therefore do not have a code of ethics that compel them to cover events with a journalistic standard.

But it needs to be pointed out that many of the content creators covering #FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE are covering this in a way that completely distorts the substance of the strike. While they have very little incentive to change*, the community at large should be aware that not everything you hear from content creators are accurate or representative of events happening in the community.

These content creators are irresponsibly spreading patently false or inaccurate caricatures of the strike that suggest that most of them have not sincerely engaged with the criticisms made towards healing design. Many of the streamers streamed their reaction to the healer strike thread, and none of them have read more than one or two pages in that thread. Furthermore, I have not seen any one of them open the healer feedback megathread made four years ago, and yet they feel confident to tell their viewers that this strike is a kneejerk reaction to the 1T3D clear of the DT dungeon instead of a breaking point after 5 years of accumulated healer feedback and criticisms being ignored.

Good to see someone covering how badly they are covering the situation!

[Evergrey]

It's interesting how you are ignoring the log-shaming harassment encouraged by certain content creators.

To be fair, the "us vs them" started long before any of the content creator even thought of covering the Strike.

[MichiKyou]

I'm confused, why is there no credibility?

Many content creators have addressed that it is mostly only in easier content where healers feel a bit unnecessary - and usually only warrior can clear a dungeon without a healer anyhow (if you take a red mage anyway)

Kotaku literally had a published article about this that had incorrect facts in it, so, at least the CC know what they are partly talking about.

[Hanaya]

What's funny to me is that, according to a fair number of people, there's apparently no person who's allowed to have any criticisms on the current state of healers. When I described my current issues with healing in normal content, I was informed that I'm not allowed to have an opinion because casual content isn't real and I'm just bad at the game. When I described my issues with healing in regards to savage, I was informed that obviously I don't represent the playerbase since most people don't do savage, and therefore my criticism is invalid. Then I was told that, because I haven't healed an ultimate, my criticism is (once again) not valid, because I... haven't healed an ultimate.

Like, I think the healer strike is a little silly. But I don't understand why anybody who has a single criticism of healing is apparently #1: bad at the game and too stupid to have opinions, or #2: too good at the game, and therefore any changes they want to healing would mean that all of the #1 people would quit the game because they suck. Or something.

Personally, my main issue is that healers are actively punished for having a competent party. When my party is competent and I'm playing dps, I get to do the same rotation I do when my party sucks. When my party is competent and I'm playing tank, I get to do the same rotation I do when my party sucks. When my party is competent and I'm playing healer, I get to press 1 button for 90% of the fight, occasionally reset my dot, and not use 70% of my kit, because I'm already overhealing just using a couple of my ogcds. I'm personally in favor of adding more complexity to healer dps kits. It would make the game more enjoyable for healers who think healing is too boring and easy. The healers who already struggle now weren't really using their dps skills (or most of their kit) in the first place, so they can just continue to not use them, and nothing will change. I don't see why pressing one button for an entire fight is the apparently the peak of game design and should never be changed.

And fwiw, most of my friends who main healer are savage/ultimate raiders, and they feel the same way. We all get excited when we queue into content and our party fails every mech and dies constantly, because that's the only time we actually get to be engaged in content, instead of turning off our brains and pressing 1 button. And clearly, from all the people shitting on other people complaining about healing for being shitty gray parsing casuals (from what I've seen), many people who don't engage in high difficulty content also have problems with the current state of healing.

And btw, saying "go do ultimate/savage if you want healing to be fun" (pressing dosis for 8 minutes is still boring in savage, btw) is... kinda dumb? The game shouldn't be designed to only be enjoyable for a small percentage of players, it should be enjoyable for as many people as possible.

[BunnyQueen]

I'm confused, why is there no credibility?

Many content creators have addressed that it is mostly only in easier content where healers feel a bit unnecessary - and usually only warrior can clear a dungeon without a healer anyhow (if you take a red mage anyway)

Kotaku literally had a published article about this that had incorrect facts in it, so, at least the CC know what they are partly talking about.

Paladin can do the same thing.

[Evergrey]

-snip-

Mm.. I think the combat in FFXIV leaves little room for healers to heal, as long as the others in the group can avoid stuff.
Which most can, since pretty much everything's marked out now.
All boss fights goes on a preset rotation, so people can learn those rotations, regardless of what difficulty the content is, and avoid almost all incoming damage.
And for a job such a healer, which has a toolkit designed for when people do mess up or take a lot of damage, there's little to do when those said things almost "never" happens.

I would like to see the damage in duties get upped a bit, make the HP bars move some more.

[Lyth]

People attach a disproportional amount of importance on influencer takes. A lot of these are behaviors are present within the broader community as well, so you could say that the influencers are themselves influenced, in a bid to stay up to date and relevant within our community.

If you have a platform, you're free to use it however you want. But I'm curious about whether some of these people consider their brand impact on the companies that they represent.

FFXIV's PR successes have been in no small part contingent on Yoshi-p's reputation as a game developer. The legends state that he turned this game around by looking at 1.0's failings, listening to player feedback, and playing FFXIV as a fellow gamer. MMOs are ideally 'community-driven' games, so having a development team that authentically feels like a part of that community is a really powerful tool. That's why the perception of being genuine and down-to-earth is so important.

But it doesn't take much to erode a reputation. When you have a media tour influencer suggesting that the development team's 'silence' on healer feedback is driven by disdain for players in the linked clips, and miming slapping the faces of the community when describing Yoshi-p reactions, it creates a bit of dissonance with that 'humble, down-to-earth' perception.

Perhaps it's an accurate representation of the team's views nowadays. These influencers are presumably people selected by SE as ambassadors for their product, so they probably know those attitudes better than we do. But it's a pretty bad look. There's no 'professional code' for being an influencer, but I think higher quality ones generally conduct themselves in a way that enhances the reputation of the product. You get what you pay for.

[lulunami]

When someone's livelihood is dependent upon a new game being successful, you can predict with high accuracy what they are going to say. These content creators are not your friends. You should not hate them or harass them. However, know where their loyalties lie. Follow the money.

[Reinha]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2170924009?t=00h38m14s

I QUOTE:

We are just saying right, the way you're playing the game, you are not really playing the game. You are just being put in the game... you are just a plus one. You are just being there because... you make up the game. You know what I mean? It's like it's like it's like it's like... the world. This NPC is there for a reason. You are like one of them. This is why we call you guys bots.

Ohhh now it makes total sense why some people are so mad that healers are leaving feedback in the correct place about what we don't like about healing and why some of us refuse to heal anymore.

People consider us NPCs, like duty support. They expect us to make the queue pop, to raise the vuln collectors and to enable everyone else's hero fantasy. Meanwhile we're just pressing one skill most of the time. But who cares what the trust NPC thinks about its rotation, right? Their job is to play the role that is chosen for them, follow the party and shut up.

This strike is unacceptable to them because only real players are allowed leave feedback and choose which jobs to play.

[ShadowyZero]

Willem's post though was in turn a response to my post about Shadowyzero's post, which was literally based on fabrication. "Content creators are in the pocket of SE because they don't say anything bad about the game" is patently ridiculous. Heck, Zepla literally made an entire vid about how much she hated Endwalker

Zepla is a poor example to use she folded and did a complete 180 on her stance due to being bullied and pressured and tell me if your so wise on content creators why don't any of the ones who address actual complaints from the real players ever make it to media tours or get exclusive interviews with YoshiP? and the content creators only speak on issues that matter to "THEM" not to the wider and broader audience because they don't plain care what their opinion is this is AGAIN their money maker game i garauntee you if this strike actually did succeed their views would tank hard then they'd say its the developers fault for not addressing feedback wow funny how that works doesn't it? they are hypocrites so stop trying to defend them you look like an absolute tool or shill for them. they are not going to notice you much less care about you