Reverse WoW exodus

[Colt47]

I feel like the normal reasonable people left. I genuinely do. What we have left is the mmo equivalent of sloppy seconds.

It's weird because at one moment, 14 feels dead as hell. Maybe not in people afking, but like when you try to engage socially or try to be civil, this game is a corpse. I'm not talking about the 1000k people in a zone breaking the hunt train. I'm talking about the game. The queued up for frontline or msq or leveling. That game is dead. Anti-social. Anti new player, whatever you want to call it. Either out of contept or fear from moderation, this game is socially dead. Sure, your FC or your friend group are lovely, but your average player doesn't care. Your average party member is just in it for the reward. The joy of doing it is dead.

I just feel like if you told me 11 years ago, the community would devolve twice, I wouldn't believe you, but here we are. From the indistinguishable Wow/FF14 players of 2.0 to the heavily moderated players of today. Both kin in their contept for a social aspect. Both content with getting theirs while leaving you to twist. The passive aggressive arrogant sort. The "My game is the best game ever!" sort. The hypocrites and those who prop them up.

If there is an exodus, it's of the people who cared about the game. About its health and future. Because it's hollow now.

I don't share that opinion about the community. It's sort of an expectation that people are going to complain when something goes wrong and they are more likely to complain if they are still trying to play the game and want to play the game, then if they dislike something and just jump to another game. The main issue with the forums is that it often inflates minor issues into bigger ones due to herd mentality. If someone dislikes viper changes and makes a post they are going to have other people who are either going to disagree with them or agree with them post. Then it turns into an echo chamber because there is no outlet or summation to conclude the conversation. Typically, people talk about things because they want action done so a confirmation of inaction or action is generally all that is needed to conclude the conversation.

However, there's no community management on this forum nor a direct line to give feedback on the game anymore. Sure, they have moderators but what is the point of moderation if there is no person to conclude the conversation?

So my own conclusion is that the forums are a relic of FFXIV's original development and are only kept around for legacy purposes.