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

[seolhyun]

zepla continues to be BASED

[angienessyo]

The answer to that is literally in this very thread, with people talking about how Content Creators have sway over their audience. When the biggest XIV creator starts saying negative things about your game, despite the amount of people going "I'm a free thinker, and won't let their opinion affect me!", there's a major chunk of people who either share that opinion already, are on the fence, able to be swayed, or will just agree with everything their "queen" says about the game. So when content creators start slamming your game in public, you NEED to listen. Because now it's someone with an impressionable audience spreading opinions about your game.

I mean, you don't have to look any further than a lot of the battle design we've seen in DT for proof they're listening to the feedback. Smaller hitboxes are back, dungeon and overall fight design are more creative than they've been in years and years. The main thing content creators and the community as a whole complained about in Endwalker aside from the content drought, was the fight design. So I'd actually be surprised if the story didn't see improvements in the future after all the complaints about it.

[TheOperator3712]

I thought the devs claimed to read the forums as well?
I think the fact that there are very well articulated complaints in this forum and even on Steam is going to carry a lot of weight with the dev team.

Well yes, but actually no. In all likelihood YoshiP and other devs don't have the time to sit down and read the forums themselves. Especially the English forums. So they probably have a community team member that "reads"(skims is more likely) the forums and then gives them a summary.

The problem with this method is that it's only as reliable as your community team. Community teams in NA tend to attract Twittervists. So, look at how the game is being received on X and you'll likely find out what the devs are hearing about the forums.

[Ritsugamesh]

Zepla is hardly alone in her criticism of the story, with the most recent example being Preach also calling the nonsense out as he plays through the MSQ:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2193053068?t=1h45m1s

It's hard to disagree with either of them tbh.

Preach has come up as one of the most positive and based content creators that engage with FFXIV. He's been nothing but respectful, created one of the best synopsis on EW as a holistic expansion, and has tons (literally years and years) of analysing and assessing MMOs of all stripes. He fell in love with FFXIV, I've watched his journey, and he has showered praise for the MSQ in particular. When he's giving the same energy as Zepla is there is a serious problem.

[Gortys]

I'm very interested in the responses from the Grinding Gear guys as they seem to be their own version of a two-headed Mamool Ja. Kyle tends to be the voice of reason, tries to be positive, and expresses more about why writing directions may take certain turns. Garrett is the pure fanboy who doesn't mind making his like/dislike of plot elements or game play styles known. I don't always agree with Garrett, but I feel he does a very good job at articulating in a moment why he dislikes something without reducing it to "this is garbage".

[Kathryn]

Awww shucks guess ill never be one of the forum cool kids *genuinely disappointed*.

I always struggle to connect with people as I tend to speak too plainly.

Holy crap, I've been accused of gaslighting people on this forum so i looked it up as its not my native, I need to start my villain arc if im this good.

verb: gas-light

manipulate (someone) using psychological methods into questioning their own sanity or powers of reasoning.
"in the first episode, Karen Valentine is being gaslighted by her husband"

For me to be making people question their own sanity through responses on a forumboard fml, im good...

[CNitsah]

She started doing it in Endwalker and she does it in every game now.

If I'm not wrong, she only complained about EW patches... which a lot of us did. Maybe, just maybe, it's just her own honest opinion that a lot of people share. I mean, I barely watch any english stream (I mean I know what Zepla and Xeno look like, I've heard of Mrhappy, but I have no fucking clue who the other on the graph shared earlier are), but to me, the few time I watch her, she is still trying to be apologetic of the game most of the time. It has to be really far gone for her to be negative about it. Honestly I'm just glad there are some content creators to voice those problems that were big enough to unite everyone but Twitter.

[Sephira91]

I mean, you don't have to look any further than a lot of the battle design we've seen in DT for proof they're listening to the feedback. Smaller hitboxes are back, dungeon and overall fight design are more creative than they've been in years and years. The main thing content creators and the community as a whole complained about in Endwalker aside from the content drought, was the fight design. So I'd actually be surprised if the story didn't see improvements in the future after all the complaints about it.

This.
The developpers are listening to feedback so I also believe they will adjust the writing of the MSQ down the line. After all, it is one (if not THE) selling aspect of the game when people recommend this game to their friends in a lot of the cases.

[ThorneDynasty]

There's also the fact that content creators tend to have a vested interest in keeping a positive opinion of their main source of content. There are very few streamers these days who thrive on negativity - Practically none that basically only play a single game for views. It just doesn't last.

The idea that a streamer whose career is built on FF14 is "grifting" by faking negativity for clicks is frankly ludicrous. They have so much more reason to want the game to stay good and popular than you or me.

[Aulainn]

If there's any more streamers who hate it, link here. I had a hobby of watching random streamers cry to Shadowbringer and Endwalker. Thanks to Zepla I now want to make it a hobby of hearing people rant about Dawntrail.