"We're people too." To the producer and Dev team of this MMORPG

[Dan4077]

The problem is that some people interpret this as a free pass to engage in an unlimited amount of toxic and entitled behaviour.



The latter is presumably what Yoshida was talking about. In this community, especially here on the forums, there's a tendency to villainize the developers to an absurd degree and indeed forget that they're people making a video game for us to enjoy. The greater their passion, the greater the product we'll receive; so excessive hostility is unproductive.

See the issue is some of us have been criticizing for awhile now, how many times does a person need to insert constructive criticism that a lot of the community has been echoing be ignored before it becomes toxic. Just as an example housing, a huge complaint. This was released in 2.1! They have done NOTHING to fix it. They just add more plots so more people become afraid to unsub

A funny thing I see, is a lot of people that seem to defend xiv (not specifically you but others) have not even been on the game an entire expansion. Then they come out at people that been here years voicing the obvious decline of quality compared to before. Because why? They were working on 16? Cause they promoted the people that were doing super well where they were? Cause the budget? If it was just me then I would not expect anything. However a lot of the vet players are begging for change. You name it, class design, UI, rewards, innovation, better pvp moderation, less story bloat, or w.e.

This is on them in the end for ignoring or taking years to address concerns and still they dance around with words not giving an actual response that equates to more then wait and see. numbers have dropped to be pre shadowbringers and are continuing to decrease with a known huge content drought coming before 8.0 spanning around to possibly near a year. The investors are even on them for the decline showing concern of yoshi being spread across too many projects. These are the facts, this is the situation. All I have to do is look at my fc, my friends list, the difficulty in filling groups. Toxicity is growing cause of lack of communication. Because yoshi loves to throw out statements that can only be left to interpretation. Then we have to wait months to years to get context on any of it.

Sure if you only been here a year or close to two, you might not realize how long some of this stuff has been brought up. Like gutting classes started in shadowbringers, the complaints on that have been growing and growing with yoshi saying they would do something about it. Then in a recent article back pedals saying nothings changing except they want to "add" on top w.e that even means.

[Regis_Paran]

"Stop being toxic!!!" - that became such a get-out-of-jail free card, it's a meme now.

Instead of ignoring trolls, they are being used as a convenient excuse to throw all criticism on the garbage file.
Stop hiding behing that percentile of actually hateful comments (tbh, they are mostly being posted for ragebait - and they are succesful, too). Look at the actual criticisms and acknowledge them, instead of quoting couple of deranged trolls out of hundreds or thousands actual fans. Stop hiding behing the virtue signaling and call others "-isms" or "-ists" for daring to not like what you made.

Stop being such a cowards and accept the fact that substabtial number of your customers are extremely dissatisfied with the product you provided.
Hiding in your clique, patting yourselves on the back and saying "ignore those haters, you did good" will not help you improve your work.

[AmiableApkallu]

See the issue is some of us have been criticizing for awhile now, how many times does a person need to insert constructive criticism that a lot of the community has been echoing be ignored before it becomes toxic.

This is a game. There is no excuse for engaging in personal attacks and non-constructive criticism.

This is on them in the end for ignoring or taking years to address concerns and still they dance around with words not giving an actual response that equates to more then wait and see. … Toxicity is growing cause of lack of communication.

The behavior of each player is on themselves. SE isn't holding a gun to their head.

And like any other non-essential in life, if someone feels they're not being listened to and no longer getting their money's worth, they can take their business elsewhere.

[Dan4077]

This is a game. There is no excuse for engaging in personal attacks and non-constructive criticism.



The behavior of each player is on themselves. SE isn't holding a gun to their head.

And like any other non-essential in life, if someone feels they're not being listened to and no longer getting their money's worth, they can take their business elsewhere.

Wrong, this is a product, not a game of go fish. We pay money and have supported this game and people are in their right to be pissed when they constantly get ignored. Also drop the just quit card already, people can complain while still enjoying an aspect of the game. If I do end up quitting I am also the type to not come back. So if they really do just use the last of the rope they been given then it will be so long for a lot of people, shoot a lot of people already have!

Fact is square let it get to this point and I have 0 empathy just because some people are cracking jokes/sarcastic comments at them or the criticisms is in more harsh tone cause they had to repeat it 25 times over the past 6 years, boohoo for the multi billion dollar company. I ran out of criticism so i am just throwing jokes and making fun now. Also when they stop holding my house hostage I can unsub, oh wait that's not happening. Once I am at the point of dropping that it's f this company I am out for good.

[Exmo]

FFXIV is not a game? lmao

Anyway, lots of people here have lost sight of reality. Nobody has said you can't criticize the game. Yoshi-P's whole quote was that criticism is welcome and accepted, but when it gets toxic, they struggle to respond to it because it comes from a place of hate.

[Regis_Paran]

FFXIV is not a game? lmao

Anyway, lots of people here have lost sight of reality. Nobody has said you can't criticize the game. Yoshi-P's whole quote was that criticism is welcome and accepted, but when it gets toxic, they struggle to respond to it because it comes from a place of hate.

Well, thay can choose to reply to legitimate criticism, then. There's plenty of that. Much more than the one arbitrarily labelled "toxic".

[Exmo]

Well, thay can choose to reply to legitimate criticism, then. There's plenty of that. Much more than the one arbitrarily labelled "toxic".

"Arbitrarily" doing a lot of lifting in this post.

Realistically they do listen and respond to feedback. All the recent QoL improvements for Cosmo Expo demonstrate that. Yeah they don't respond to all feedback immediately or even eventually but no person and no company on this planet does. They're often slow to respond or don't respond in ways you might like but that's life. Quibbling over that is silly.

[Dan4077]

FFXIV is not a game? lmao

Anyway, lots of people here have lost sight of reality. Nobody has said you can't criticize the game. Yoshi-P's whole quote was that criticism is welcome and accepted, but when it gets toxic, they struggle to respond to it because it comes from a place of hate.

First the "wrong" was to his statement in general. It is a product first period. Like I said it ain't "just a game" that people will use to try to minimize the reactions, it is a monthly transaction in the form of a game. Also I stated already why it got toxic and why should we care now when they don't care to take the feedback? All that is left is unsubbing and toxicity at this point. People are tired of it and they have no other way to show it because apparently square doesn't know how to respond to constructive feedback either lol.

People do not want to just shut down years and years of investment and friend circles just because "game bad now". First came constructive criticism, now people are at 2 points, they either quit, or they are on the verge of quitting waiting to see if they can salvage this mess. Now yoshi is on his apology tour using magic terms like, we will do better, we got too comftable, we will change all those great promises. But no one cares at this point, they are words nothing more.

[Exmo]

Using the general "you" here.

Getting disillusioned, tired, hopeless, giving up?
Can't blame you.

Responding with toxic comments, death threats, calls for devs to be fired, insults, slurs, setting the house on fire on your way out?
Can blame you.

I don't like the sentiment of saying the devs made you become this way and say those things, therefore you're not responsible or it's ok. No. People are responsible for their words and actions.

There are times in life where responding to a bad situation with unsaintly behavior is easily overlooked or forgiven. "They made a videogame I don't like" is not one of those times.

Now, for those people like you who say you just don't care anymore and toxicity is all you have, how do you expect people still in the community to respond while you bring everyone down and poison the well? If your attitude to that is "don't care, not my problem, I've no empathy for anyone else here", why should anyone care about how justified you think your poison is?

[Halivel]

Now, for those people like you who say you just don't care anymore and toxicity is all you have, how do you expect people still in the community to respond while you bring everyone down and poison the well? If your attitude to that is "don't care, not my problem, I've no empathy for anyone else here", why should anyone care about how justified you think your poison is?

I'm in a Japanese speaking CWLS on Chaos that specifically has a rule against excessive doomposting (accent on excessive), and it will result in a warning first and kick if the behavior is not stopped. The sentiment around that rule is "we get it that you're unhappy, but if you can only talk about the negatives all the time and make everyone else's evening worse as result of that, then it's probably not a good place for you".

Personally, if a friend of mine in any project reaches a point where the game only invokes negative emotions in them, I will suggest they take a break or leave entirely. I've left plenty of games in similar fashion myself. Because I'm here to rest and enjoy my evening. If I don't anymore - I pull the plug. And I wouldn't even say the games I stopped playing became bad per se - they just decided to move in a direction that doesn't include my preferences as a target audience.


Another thing I'd point out is that if the feedback you provide, even constructive one, never really makes it into the game, you should consider that there's an odd chance it's not compatible with what developers want for their project, which can and does happen. FF14 wouldn't be the first game where it happens, and certainly won't be the last, either. And when that's the case, there's not much you can do about it tbh. You either keep being persistent with your feedback (sometimes for years, unfortunately), make peace with it not becoming a thing and go with the flow, or reach the point where it's not fun anymore and leave.