Even our content creators cannot pretend to like the trashy writings of Dawntrail.

[ZavosEsperian]

To be fair, I don't think Zepla's a great example, she seems to enjoy trashing the game for clicks anyway. I'd definitely be more interested in seeing one of the streamers that are usually super into the game, like JesseCox or maybe Llamatodd or someone like that.

Zepla had the largest viewership out of all FFXIV streamers during launch. I know some will argue people didn't to watch during launch for story spoiler reasons, but Zepla elected to level PCT first which was a smart decision. She has also been consistently invited to various media events and is still one of the main faces of the game.

But don't take my word for it, there is a graph for this exact metric:

[Gaddes]

Zepla had the largest viewership out of all FFXIV streamers during launch. I know some will argue people didn't to watch during launch for story spoiler reasons, but Zepla elected to level PCT first which was a smart decision. She has also been consistently invited to various media events and is still one of the main faces of the game.

But don't take my word for it, there is a graph for this exact metric:

I didn't say she wasn't a big FFXIV streamer, I was saying I would prefer to hear from someone who has generally always been positive towards the game up to now and hadn't gotten onto the profitable hatetrain for FFXIV at some point. With how she spoke about Endwalker, why would it be any kind of powerful new statement to hear her speak negatively on Dawntrail? Now if Jesse or Preach or someone similar have a long conversation of how Dawntrail has de-railed their interest, I will be incredibly interested to hear their thoughts.

[ZavosEsperian]

I didn't say she wasn't a big FFXIV streamer, I was saying I would prefer to hear from someone who has generally always been positive towards the game up to now and hadn't gotten onto the profitable hatetrain for FFXIV at some point. With how she spoke about Endwalker, why would it be any kind of powerful new statement to hear her speak negatively on Dawntrail? Now if Jesse or Preach or someone similar have a long conversation of how Dawntrail has de-railed their interest, I will be incredibly interested to hear their thoughts.

Zepla largely has been positive for a majority of her career, which goes back to Heavensward. It is not an argument to say her opinion is not valuable respective to the game, as she largely became more negative towards it during EW patch content, which received mixed reception.

As for DT, I am sure you have seen the large number of threads here detailing people being upset with the direction of the game. Seeing someone such as Zepla being upset at the game is just evidence to suggest the game is going into a period of regression. If, for any reason, you are unable to come to your own conclusion related to DT without the input of a specific figure, that leads me to believe you are more of a follower, a sheep, than someone with the agency to come up with their own opinions regarding a specific product you presumably enjoy. I pity you if this is the case.

[Gaddes]

If, for any reason, you are unable to come to your own conclusion related to DT without the input of a specific figure, that leads me to believe you are more of a follower, a sheep, than someone with the agency to come up with their own opinions regarding a specific product you presumably enjoy. I pity you if this is the case.

Where have I ever said I need some specific figure to come to my own conclusion about the game? You are so far off the mark it's obnoxious. OP implied that some content creators pretend or exaggerate their interest in the game and that even with DT they cannot pretend to like it. In which case I simply replied that I would very much like to see commentary from someone who might normally be a bit more generous with their feelings on the content than someone who has already made a point of not pretending. How a content creator feels about the game has literally no bearing on how I feel about the content.

[tsuchii]

Zepla is trash.

[Volgia]

If this makes Zepla quit the FF Content creation scene, i'll take all the Dawntrail controversy we can get.

[Galvuu]

Zepla is trash.

If this makes Zepla quit the FF Content creation scene, i'll take all the Dawntrail controversy we can get.

I don't even watch the woman, but you guys sure are making very convincing arguments by blindly hating on her. I'm sure whatever she did definitely deserves this unprovoked reaction It's wonderful when the XIV hardliners show their real colors.

snip.

Even if it were pure expository segments with dumb fetch quests (which is terrible writing and terrible gameplay), what we're offered is an infantilized caricature. Ul'dah is my favorite starting city-state, and the comparison is night and day.
Within the first 25 levels, you get to see that:
- Ul'Dah is a beautiful city in the desert, bustling with commerce and craftsmanship;
- By virtue of that, Ul'Dah is very well-connected and quite innovative (alchemy guild, lots of mercantile trade routes, guilds of magic);
- In Ul'Dah, wealth is the measure of a man's worth, to the point it's tied to their religion ("divinity is the color of gold" on every fountain, the Ossuary rewards better tombs and rites of interment to the wealthy who donate, etc);
- Ul'Dah paid the highest price, in wealth and man, in the battle of Cartenau;
- Their entertainment is tied to gambling, and it's seen as a legitimate avenue of wealth acquisition (Gold Saucer, gladiatorial matches, etc);
All lovely, right? But, on the flip side, you also see:
- Ul'Dah treats the poor and refugees poorly- they, wrongly, believe that you "earn your lot in life", and leaves the Ala Mhigan refugees to starve and bake in the Sun, unwilling to bend to help them, save for rare exceptions, even though they never had a chance to shine or prove their worth;
- The Monetarist faction has an immense amount of influence on the politics and daily life of Ul'Dah, and they will use it to greedily squeeze every bit of profit out of the common citizens they can;
- The Monetarist faction and the Monarchy are at odds, and this friction often leads to problems;
- There is a systemic issue of corruption and bribery in Ul'Dah that reaches all the way to its law enforcement. You're quickly introduced to corrupt members of the Brass Blades, and eventually to spies and corrupt members of the Flames.

So much of this is organically integrated in msq or side quests. Some side quests even delve into Ul'Dah's dark past with the Trader's Spurn. You see the good, the neutral, and the bad. This goes for any of the original city-states, even Ishgard. The racism and religious zeal of Gridania (their disdain of Duskwights, or leaving people to die to appease the Elementals), the crime and piracy of Limsa, the systemic classicism and discrimination in Ishgard, as well as the paranoia regarding dragon-sympathizers brought by the war. Everything is gray, there are good men and cruel men in all these city-states, there is a good, flourishing side to their culture and history but also a dark, grim one.
I get nothing like that in DT. The game even contradicts itself, going on about long-standing problems that are always resolved in a couple of minutes (or days at worse, if it's Gulool Ja Ja's doing). This isn't human. It's so detached from any experience you have- how can I believe this place where everything gets resolved in minutes or is otherwise a perfect fantasy-land? Even in Mamook, we undo decades of strife, suffering and resentment in minutes. I don't know. Maybe it's me, but I just can't really hold my suspension of disbelief.

[Jojoya]

Trying to give special weight to content creator statements is pointless.

If they're expressing their opinion as a player, it's no better than an opinion expressed by any other player. Not every player is looking for the same game experience.

If they're expressing their opinion as a content creator, it's been influenced by their need to appeal to what their audience expects to hear more often than not. It may not accurately reflect their personal opinion.

Zepla largely has been positive for a majority of her career, which goes back to Heavensward. It is not an argument to say her opinion is not valuable respective to the game, as she largely became more negative towards it during EW patch content, which received mixed reception.

As for DT, I am sure you have seen the large number of threads here detailing people being upset with the direction of the game. Seeing someone such as Zepla being upset at the game is just evidence to suggest the game is going into a period of regression. If, for any reason, you are unable to come to your own conclusion related to DT without the input of a specific figure, that leads me to believe you are more of a follower, a sheep, than someone with the agency to come up with their own opinions regarding a specific product you presumably enjoy. I pity you if this is the case.

Didn't Zepla also say that she realized during the break she took from the game during EW that most of her problem had been burnout after playing the game for 6+ years and the expansion wasn't as bad as she originally made it sound?

Seeing someone like Zepla being upset means nothing. She's not the only one that's been playing that long. There are long time players still happy with the game. There are long time players that aren't.

[ZavosEsperian]

Seeing someone like Zepla being upset means nothing. She's not the only one that's been playing that long. There are long time players still happy with the game. There are long time players that aren't.

Yoshi-P himself thanked Zepla for her video that was critical of Endwalker at the media tour which was specifically targeting the lack of content within Endwalker's patch content. It is clear she has more clout with the developers do than you do defending their honor on the forums.

[Jojoya]

Yoshi-P himself thanked Zepla for her video that was critical of Endwalker at the media tour which was specifically targeting the lack of content within Endwalker's patch content. It is clear she has more clout with the developers do than you do defending their honor on the forums.

And you think other content creators weren't also thanked for their own videos?

If he thinks so much of her opinions about the game, it's strange she didn't get to have one of the one-on-one interviews that Preach, Quazii and a few other content creators got to have with YoshiP.

I'm not here trying to defend anyone's honor. I'm saying that it's silly to sit there licking the feet of any content creator when there are hundreds of thousands of players that have their opinions that are just as valid as the opinion of someone who streams or posts videos online.