Time to hang it up?

[koko-on-da-forumz]

it was also filled with a lot of positive toxicity and social drama. People would start cancellation campaigns (mass reporting people) over the smallest slights if they were disliked by the wrong person. FCs would detonate over innocuous jokes, etc...

For the record, this is just an FFXIV thing. It's like we took all of the the most immature, fragile-ego, middle school mean girls and threw them in a containment zone.

I think it's because the anime art style is the only aesthetic these people can enjoy.

[Ardeth]

I used to be on Mateus. It was the best and worst server to be on. I found lots of great people who were fun to play with, but it was also filled with a lot of positive toxicity and social drama. People would start cancellation campaigns (mass reporting people) over the smallest slights if they were disliked by the wrong person. FCs would detonate over innocuous jokes, etc... I know that's an issue everywhere, but IDK why, Mateus took it to another level.

It's just frustrating when you're actively trying to be positive. I just want to play the game. I don't want to deal with other people's dirty laundry. And what makes it worse is nobody is willing to give you the slightest courtesy otherwise. Like even saying, "Hello." At the start of a dungeon is rare anymore. Even staying long enough to get commendations out is rare. I've been playing since 2013, and it was really bad back then as well. I just expected after all this time and the multitude of communication apps that we as a playerbase would be more social and less selfish, but here we are. I'm in a group of people who care more about the reward than the gameplay. More about the wasted time than the comradery of it all.

It stinks. If I wanted to play with children like this, I'd go play Wow. At least in Wow, the aggression is more out in the open where I can deal with it easier.

I'm just tired of it all. I am actively starting to hate a game with a narrative of positivity because of all the negativity. And all I want to do is log on to play shoot the shit be friendly. I hate this.

And I know nice blog is coming, but it I spilt my heart on the table here.

[LianaThorne]

It's just frustrating when you're actively trying to be positive. I just want to play the game. I don't want to deal with other people's dirty laundry. And what makes it worse is nobody is willing to give you the slightest courtesy otherwise. Like even saying, "Hello." At the start of a dungeon is rare anymore. Even staying long enough to get commendations out is rare. I've been playing since 2013, and it was really bad back then as well. I just expected after all this time and the multitude of communication apps that we as a playerbase would be more social and less selfish, but here we are. I'm in a group of people who care more about the reward than the gameplay. More about the wasted time than the comradery of it all.

It stinks. If I wanted to play with children like this, I'd go play Wow. At least in Wow, the aggression is more out in the open where I can deal with it easier.

I'm just tired of it all. I am actively starting to hate a game with a narrative of positivity because of all the negativity. And all I want to do is log on to play shoot the shit be friendly. I hate this.

And I know nice blog is coming, but it I spilt my heart on the table here.

You're on a massive RP server tbh. Mateus is basically a miniature Balmung, so that's probably why you're encountering a lot of toxicity compared to other places. The venue RP crowd are personally one of the worst groups that exists in this game, it genuinely feels like dealing with teenage girls who get rabid for drama. They also like to use "it's just RP" when doing genuinely abusive things to other people, like flirting with other people in front of their spouses when they know it upsets them or being flat out racist/xenophobic. I recently encountered an RPer on Balmung that only played 14 to find women to cheat on his wife with while shes pregnant. It's not a crowd worth being in.

Not all Crystal is like that though, Diabolos for example (where I am) people will chat leisurely in NN and only really get butthurt if someone drops DT spoilers in there. There's also a lack of RP there so we don't have the weirdos drip over in the way they do Balmung/Mateus. If you feel up to it you're welcome to hang out in my FC till you find somewhere else to go with a larger social setting.

For the rest of your post though, this is unfortunately a product of years of people being screamed at by randoms in dungeons. People are genuinely afraid to speak now due to Square sometimes banning people for giving that advice if the person loses it and reports them (basically for obstructing someone else's gameplay or some excuse like that). Things are more social in extremes+ since you're kind of forced to talk to each other to understand mechanics and get a plan going, but dungeon content is definitely going to be quiet. Just how the game is now unfortunately.

[Ardeth]

I'm going back to the server I was on when my 3-day cooldown ends. I came over for a friend, and he ditched me. I should've seen it coming. I'm just so desperate for anyone to actually want to play the game with me in a casual way.

I've spent too much time dwelling on this, but I appreciate the kind words. Me complaining on the forums isn't going to suddenly make my game better. If anything, it's made me want to quit even more. All my friends quit. All my old FCs feel apart. I should've quit years ago, but I keep holding out hope. I think I'm legitimately done. I can't take you guys(the playerbase) anymore.

[lolnotacat]

And what makes it worse is nobody is willing to give you the slightest courtesy otherwise. Like even saying, "Hello." At the start of a dungeon is rare anymore. Even staying long enough to get commendations out is rare. I've been playing since 2013, and it was really bad back then as well. I just expected after all this time and the multitude of communication apps that we as a playerbase would be more social and less selfish, but here we are. I'm in a group of people who care more about the reward than the gameplay. More about the wasted time than the comradery of it all.

This is caused by a few things. Liana touched on one of them. What you can technically get gaol'd for in this game is so ridiculous that it's gotten to the point a lot of people don't wanna talk. And because of their customer service policies, they won't even tell you what you did that got you in trouble. They'll just give you some sanctimonious boiler plate that's the customer service version of "do better". I've had friends get in trouble for telling white mages in level 80 content that spamming cure 1 makes their job harder or that tanks shouldn't be treating provoke as part of their rotation in alliance raids.

Combined with data center travel and cross server roulettes, you get players who don't really care about the community. "Why talk to someone if I'm never gonna see them again?" (same problem WoW has) or "I got my comms and there's nothing I need from this raid/dungeon/trial, I don't need to stick around to hand out any comms. These other players are like NPCs and don't talk anyways."

As much as I like PF for convenience sake, it's nearly killed the prospect of making new friends in content. Just trying to get a conversation going in even the most boring content (looking at you Crystal Tower) is almost impossible as people just wanna get in and out.