Maybe it's time for a casual "strike" if not complete departure.

[CidHeiral]

I've already explained why it's partially on me and partially not, but I guess you won't be satisfied until I blame myself 100% and pretend that the game's community is all sugar and roses like you do.

It's 100% on you, but it's not about blaming yourself. It's about taking personal responsibility for your circumstances. It's like when people want to start going to the gym and they say "oh well there's too many people and one of them made a rude comment and I'm tired and it's too far too walk" etc etc. At the end of the day you either have the motivation to make it happen or you don't.

And of course the community isn't all sugar and roses! I've run into plenty of jerks in this game over the years but they're not difficult to avoid and as much as you're trying to paint otherwise those people are in the extreme minority.

Again, if you don't want to try there's nothing wrong with that, my point isn't to convince you to do savage. My point if that if you're unhappy where you're at you're the only one keeping yourself there.

Still, you do seem like the rare hardcore player who isn't completely dismissive. I think I can finally start counting them on TWO hands now.

Thanks, although I hope you see the irony in commending me for not being dismissive when you're dismissing an entire group of people.

I meant it when I said I think you can do anything you put your mind to, I think that's true for everyone, but only if you get out of your own way.

They do exist elsewhere in the content I have reached, Shadow of Mhach being the place I really started to notice it because it has some brutal mechanics I've failed (though in the case of Doom, that's not entirely on me), and it was a large part of why I haven't even tried Return to Ivalice, because apparently its even harder and thus, I expect I'll run into even meaner individuals.

I promise you 99.9999999999999999% of people in alliance raids do not care if you die. You could die ten times on every boss, nobody cares. Everyone is aware it's casual content. The odd time someone does say something just right click their name and mute them. Problem solved.

[Erzaa]

I'm not interested in being carried either though, I want to contribute or I wouldn't queue in the first place, the problem is that my contribution is lacking after a certain point in the game's difficulty-scaling and I'm not inclined to be a bother when I'm not sure I even can get better. If I'm getting body-checked on Mhach, things like Extreme/Savage/Ultimate/etc of any kind are completely out of the question, and in those modes people DO care.

I mean... I'm in a similar boat there. I died over 20 times my first time in CT, more during Void Ark and it went up every single alliance and even normal raids after. You'll learn the mechanics by repeating them, or looking up a guide (if that's your preferred way). Seriously, nobody cares what anyone else does in an AR, it shouldn't keep you from doing them.

AR's are very much meant as casual content, you just throw bodies at the boss until it eventually dies. Only way we don't get carried, is if we do it the first week, where everyone's dying. Stop worrying about the fact that you died, and worry more about what killed you. Over time, you'll notice mechanics begin to repeat and you'll get better at recognising what's probably coming.

As for EX/Savage/Ultimate, well I don't do those either. Lots of players skip them, but Normal Raids and Alliance Raids are good learning tools for later Normal Raids and Bozja and stuff like Deep Dungeons. All those very much do fall under casual content. Trust me, as a casual who's very much barely average at the game, they're all doable, just takes time and ignore the noise, don't even look at chat.

Based on my skill level and the content I've cleared? Yes, I'm apparently defined as a casual by FF14's presumed metrics.

So am I. That's not something to be ashamed of. Just play the content, if you like it, stick with it, if you don't, move onto something else you like doing more. Stop worrying about what some random person you're never going to see again thinks.

[ZXN]

If you're unhappy with the current state of FF14, then you should consider unsubbing for awhile.

I'm not saying this like some others are because "haha fuck the casuals FF14 would be better without you!" , and I am not saying it because "Well Yoshi-P said if you don't like it you're free to leave lmao" and are attempting to invalidate any genuine concerns/criticisms players have. I am saying it because there are a lot of people, in many threads and posts, that are just genuinely unhappy playing currently, but are still forcing themselves to continue playing. While you can definitely blame the devs for the current state of things, you cannot blame the devs for you willingly continuing to force yourself to continue paying your sub and playing the game if you're not having any fun with it.

Endwalker had many players going "This expansion is shit, the story sucked, there is nothing that interests me, job balance is dogshit, everything is way too easy and blah blah blah...so I'm going to stop playing!"...only to then keep themselves subscribed the entire expansion, even if they only used 2-3 days of their whole 30 day sub-time actually playing each time, because they came up with reason after reason that convinced them that that HAD to keep playing. Now Dawntrail is doing the same, just with similar/different "prompts" this time, and it's only been one patch.

The "It'll get better next patch!" or "It'll get better next expansion!" mindset is absolutely not a road FF14 should be going down. This "It'll get better next X" mindset is the same mindset WOW players have had and dealt with for literal YEARS, and it made many of their players fucking miserable, and reminder: many FF14 players mocked and made fun of WOW players for it. What if things don't get better next patch? Hell, what if things don't really get better for the rest of Dawntrail? Given how things are, just right this moment with current patch/content: Are you confident enough in the devs to tell yourself and potentially friends "Dawntrail is going to be worth staying for!" and keep yourselves subscribed until the next patch, or even subscribed 16+ months until 8.0 launch, under the hope that it just will get better? Last thing this game needs right now is to start pushing players down that same path of going "Well, it'll get better in the future" and then have them force themselves to keep playing a game they clearly are not enjoying.

I'm definitely not trying to be mean or make players possibly feel stupid or bad for continuing to play FF14, and I am definitely not telling players to quit outright, but I feel players should be genuinely asking themselves "Is FF14 currently in a state where I can continue enjoying myself and is worth subbing for?" but won't because...well, for some: they won't like the answer they came up with.

[CidHeiral]

This isn't about being "too tired" or "too far" it's that I'm not wanted there in the first place, and it won't be just one person making a rude comment if I insist otherwise and try anyway.

Alright well I tried my best but you're clearly dead set on living in this fantasy world you've concocted for yourself. I hope you're able to find fun with the game eventually whatever path you choose to take.