Live letters have lost their magic - Zepla

[Auro_Seldaris]

I feel like Zepla's tone in her video was way over the top—it’s like a neighbor coming to tell me they ran over my dog. Dawntrail has issues, but people are acting like it’s the worst thing ever, as if we’re in WoD/BfA/Shadowlands combined. She’s misrepresenting Yoshi-P’s words like he’s Ion Hazzikostas, which is bad faith stuff. She says, “I’m trying to be positive” while pouring on nothing but depression in every video. Enough already.

The forums are full of vitriol and pessimism, and it’s draining. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Zepla used to call FFXIV her lifeline, making people believe it was a paradise. But now, she's adding fuel to the fire with endless negativity.

I get that there are valid issues with Dawntrail, and there’s a difference between blind optimism and reasonable critique. But the constant doom and gloom isn't helping anyone. Positive change requires some optimism, not just tearing things down.

Zepla bailed on WoW during its hardest times, but the people who stuck around got rewarded. I have no doubt FFXIV can course-correct too—it just takes time. Zepla built the narrative of FFXIV being a safe haven, but now she’s burning it down over a rough patch. It’s disheartening, and I’ve lost respect for her. She made me love the game, but now it feels like she's stabbing me in the heart over a stumble. Forget it. Forget her.

Good lord. First of all, this is more than a stumble, this is a gradual decay that's been going on slowly for years. Second of all... You act like she's an ex-girlfriend that broke your heart. She's just a talking head on a screen, why did you put so much of yourself into her? Also, you must not have valued her that much, because you started to hate her the picosecond she disagreed with you.

Unironically, you sound like a cultist. This is how cultists treat people that betray the cult. This is how Scientologists treat people who they feel betray the church. They're "heatbreaking and evil" and they're suddenly the worst person in the world for the sin of disagreeing or going against the gospel of the cult.

[Nadda]

Good lord. First of all, this is more than a stumble, this is a gradual decay that's been going on slowly for years. Second of all... You act like she's an ex-girlfriend that broke your heart. She's just a talking head on a screen, why did you put so much of yourself into her? Also, you must not have valued her that much, because you started to hate her the picosecond she disagreed with you.

Unironically, you sound like a cultist. This is how cultists treat people that betray the cult. This is how Scientologists treat people who they feel betray the church. They're "heatbreaking and evil" and they're suddenly the worst person in the world for the sin of disagreeing or going against the gospel of the cult.

Gradual decay? Calling me a cultist for advocating constructive criticism? I’m not here to defend the game blindly. I care about it and want to focus on fixing things, not tearing them down.

The tone has become too negative, and this thread proves it. Positive change requires some optimism. Balanced neutral pragmatic and diagnostic non-emotionally charged verbiage to hyper-focus grievances in a logical format.

Zepla’s influence matters. She helped grow the community, but now her words are driving people away. That’s why I push back. We should be building up, not tearing down.

If she still values the game, her approach should inspire hope, not foster hopelessness. As a public figure, there’s responsibility for what she says and how it affects the community.

Your view seems to be that the game is doomed. I’m pushing back against that. The devs have the lion's share of the blame, but if we, as a community, can’t encourage hope, we’re also killing the game.

Words have power. We need to wield them carefully, especially those with influence.

Let’s lower the temperature. Critique without demoralization. There's nothing disagreeable with that approach.
Acknowledging overstepping and where things can go too far is just as important as the criticism itself.
If we desire the success of the game surely we can do it without driving our own people away.

If you want to snap somebody out of being a FF14 player it's not speaking to Wuk Lamat that'll do it - A Zepla video or your own words just might.
Eventually, FF14 will adapt and change, just like WoW has. Let’s ensure we don’t create an apathetic community like WoW’s, but instead, inspire people to return and enjoy the game.
What the game has to offer is still thousands of hours of enjoyment for newer players, we offer the best free trial experience of the major MMOs. I want to keep those players here.
Be critical, but let’s keep it constructive—less doom, more hope. (I'm saying this hoping this breaks through - Optimism! I esuna your doom!)

[Veritas-Ancora]

Positive change requires some optimism. Balanced neutral pragmatic and diagnostic non-emotionally charged verbiage to hyper-focus grievances in a logical format.

This constructed sentence makes zero sense. I don't even know what you're trying to convey, here.

Zepla’s influence matters. She helped grow the community, but now her words are driving people away. That’s why I push back. We should be building up, not tearing down.

You're wrong. People are conveying what changes they're unhappy with in this game. This is constructive criticism. She's not saying FFFF this game. She used rational logic in her video argument. She's telling people that the love for the game that she has cared for over a span of many years is fading away and she wants actionable items done to change its course. I'm sorry, but you're wrong.

If she still values the game, her approach should inspire hope, not foster hopelessness. As a public figure, there’s responsibility for what she says and how it affects the community.

Seriously, do you work for Square-Enix? Because this argument is flawed and illogical. Everyone here is providing constructive criticism of the game and it sounds like you want puppies and rainbows. As much as I like rainbows, they don't belong in constructive criticism. There are PROBLEMS. You don't ignore PROBLEMS, you identify them and request for them to be fixed. Imagine if the bugs forum operated the same way that the rest of the forum acted? There is a problem, absolute silence, nothing gets done, and nothing is fixed.

Your view seems to be that the game is doomed. I’m pushing back against that. The devs have the lion's share of the blame, but if we, as a community, can’t encourage hope, we’re also killing the game.

Again this is flawed. We are PAYING CUSTOMERS. If you went to a restaurant and complained to the waiter that there were flies in your soup, and the waiter just stared you down without a single word, would you say "Let's encourage hope!" or would you want the issue reported and dealt with? That is what all of the people in this forum have been doing. They're asking to the point of demanding because nothing is being done to fix the issue.

Words have power. We need to wield them carefully, especially those with influence.

I'm sorry, but how dare you? You're going to tell a woman how to do the job she's been doing for years? Zepla knows what she's doing, don't patronize her or her influence.

I really can't believe the arguments you are throwing out here. "Let's hope and magically everything will be better!" That's what this argument is. It's not even an argument, it's the very definition of white knighting.

[yesnt]

Gradual decay? Calling me a cultist for advocating constructive criticism? I’m not here to defend the game blindly. I care about it and want to focus on fixing things, not tearing them down.
[...]
If we desire the success of the game surely we can do it without driving our own people away.

Bud. We are not fixing anything. The only people who can fix this are the devs of this game.

I haven't heard people say they are quitting the game because the community is so bad. I don't have the impression that people are leaving because of other players. It's because the game is not in a good state. That's zero percent our fault.

[Veritas-Ancora]

Bud. We are not fixing anything. The only people who can fix this are the devs of this game.

I haven't heard people say they are quitting the game because the community is so bad. I don't have the impression that people are leaving because of other players. It's because the game is not in a good state. That's zero percent our fault.

The only reason people would be quitting due to the community is because of the absence of the community.

Free Companies are feeling it. You log in, nobody's doing anything, nobody's talking. It's dying.

The community isn't getting toxic, despite a few White Knights trying to call everyone else trolls. It's the Five Stages of Grief.

Denial.
Anger.
Bargaining.
Depression.
Acceptance.

You can feel it in the forum posts. People don't want the game to be in its current state, and so that's why we're on the forums more often than we are in the game.

[Mondschnee]

Free Companies are feeling it. You log in, nobody's doing anything, nobody's talking. It's dying.

I can confirm this, I have talked to multiple FC leaders and they find it incredibly hard to motivate players or even motivate themselves to do something together becaue of what I assume is still the aftermath of Endwalker's solo approach.
That for most people there has been no hype for the story doesn't help.

We will see how this is going to play out once more MMO-like content is finally being released.
As critical as I personally am of parts of the game rn, I do hope the community and FCs will find joy in coming together again soon.

[Fawkes]

I can confirm this, I have talked to multiple FC leaders and they find it incredibly hard to motivate players or even motivate themselves to do something together becaue of what I assume is still the aftermath of Endwalker's solo approach.
That for most people there has been no hype for the story doesn't help.

We will see how this is going to play out once more MMO-like content is finally being released.
As critical as I personally am of parts of the game rn, I do hope the community and FCs will find joy in coming together again soon.

Nothing changed in Endwalker, the game has always been that way. There's never been FC content, you've always had to self-motivate. It sounds totally normal to me for a FC to fall apart after 1-2 expansions. People quit or take breaks during lulls, some of the people who still play leave to try and find more active FCs. It sucks but that's how it is.

[Auro_Seldaris]

Nothing changed in Endwalker, the game has always been that way. There's never been FC content, you've always had to self-motivate. It sounds totally normal to me for a FC to fall apart after 1-2 expansions. People quit or take breaks during lulls, some of the people who still play leave to try and find more active FCs. It sucks but that's how it is.

"Don't worry that this game and its content cycle is so slow and bland that you can't keep a group together. That's just the way it is!"

Just because "that's the way it is" doesn't mean that it's right, or that it should continue.

[Supersnow845]

Nothing changed in Endwalker, the game has always been that way. There's never been FC content, you've always had to self-motivate. It sounds totally normal to me for a FC to fall apart after 1-2 expansions. People quit or take breaks during lulls, some of the people who still play leave to try and find more active FCs. It sucks but that's how it is.

My old FC that was basically built around running new casual content day one blind then disseminating strategies and fun optimisation techniques 100% fell apart from a reduction in content, a reduction in ability to do content any way than the on rails approach the devs desired and an increase in less core members ability to solo content without requiring the FC to help them

Acting the game hasn’t become more FC hostile for anything other than player generated social content is just wrong, this game has become so much more hostile to dedicated PVM FC’s, FC’s aren’t just your local book club in (insert generic large house)

[Mondschnee]

Nothing changed in Endwalker, the game has always been that way. There's never been FC content, you've always had to self-motivate. It sounds totally normal to me for a FC to fall apart after 1-2 expansions. People quit or take breaks during lulls, some of the people who still play leave to try and find more active FCs. It sucks but that's how it is.

Nothing changed in Endwalker, what? There was a lot of content that encouraged players to play solo, from Island Sanctuary to Variant Dungeons to Duty Support reworks (if you even wanna call that content). That's 2,5 years people had to fill with the usual raiding content, Deep Dungeons (which can be completed SOLO) and maps.

And btw, this is something Yoshi-P has admitted to, improving the solo experience was apparently Endwalker's expansion-goal.