How did the community become this toxic?

[Skyhound]

The community has not changed at all, this is exactly how it was at launch. The elitists come out to rush the newest content of the game and then sell carries once they're done. Give it a couple of months and you'll see it die down.

[Kiayin]

The problem is though, it doesn't matter what we like, if enough people don't actually buy it, the companies can't make it worth doing. Games are so not cheap to make now, mmos even more so, that the risk is too high with the rewards being less. Niche games even more so. I love some of the odder Japanese games, but know it's not worth the cost to translate and sell over here for most companies, but get happy and buy them when they are, even if i already bought the import version.

I completely agree! If it's not profitable, a company shouldn't do it of course. They need to make a living. Not every game needs to be the next big thing though. I find all those kickstarter/crowd-funded projects and the resurgence of indie games quite telling. As long as you know your target player base, you should be able to make reasonable estimates and not overreach yourself. Games that try to cater to everyone can be just as much of a gamble - as SWTOR has proved. But I don't want to derail the OP's topic any longer and this is just my personal opinion anyway. ^_^

[Lucke]

Stuff

Which is why I think the video game market will crash (Again) if nothing changes. Why do you think indie games are so popular now? They're the only ones with balls to try something different. AAA titles are very unimaginative and not innovative at all because big companies are too scared to take risks. Indie companies really have nothing to lose if their game isn't a hit. If Square changes something and tries to be different, people go nuts and the company loses reputation. Therefore, Square would rather play it safe, guaranteed customers but little in the area of innovation.

[Teon]

Thinking about what i saw on past mmos, i came to this simple conclusion just naming some famous ones:

Wow at beginning had a great nice community working together happily.
Once it became extremely toxic to an unplayable level, we moved out.
What's left then is utter junk, who joins now slowly learn how to be a pathetic douchebag. Let's move to the next mmo.

Gw1 at beginning had a nice community working together happily.
Once it became extremely toxic to an unplayable level, we moved out.
What's left then is utter junk, who joins now slowly learn how to be a pathetic douchebag. Let's move to the next mmo.

Gw2 at beginning had a nice community working together happily.
Once it became extremely toxic to an unplayable level, we moved out.
What's left then is utter junk, who joins now slowly learn how to be a pathetic douchebag. Let's move to the next mmo.

What's commmon here? The common part is on every single mmo out there you will always find this common issue:
douchebags everywhere, an unplayable community (regardless of how amazing a game can be), we leave because of the community, not because of the game
Sure, the community, selfcentered douchebag to the core, will always fingerpoint the company releasing X content allowing the growth of douchebaggery.
FFXIV will have the same destiny and part of the list

Fact is, the playerbase is what ruins mmo, nowadays. Question is, how you can show them the logic and reality about it?

I can theorize about "where there is interaction between players to clear the content, the game's community will be toxic, sooner or later".

As strange can be, it's true.

I can think of 2 phantastic community i met (i will limit the topic to international games): Hawken (mmo fps) and Path fo exile (diablo-kind mmo).
Both indie, like this poster wrote, he got he point

Which is why I think the video game market will crash (Again) if nothing changes. Why do you think indie games are so popular now? They're the only ones with balls to try something different. AAA titles are very unimaginative and not innovative at all because big companies are too scared to take risks. Indie companies really have nothing to lose if their game isn't a hit. If Square changes something and tries to be different, people go nuts and the company loses reputation. Therefore, Square would rather play it safe, guaranteed customers but little in the area of innovation.

Why both has a so great community? Because on both, the player play for himself. Alone. Interaction is minimal just if and when. The player's performance matters.
If the player is a loser remains a loser, regardless of other player's performance.
Some may laugh a bit about the lower score, some douche may even write on paper his name. Fact is , it's quite difficult you will meet him again. And maybe that lower score will learn to play a bit better, not being the lower anymore.
At the end, his progress didn't even barely touched the playerbase, noone was even aware of him and if he progressed or not.
His progression at best made that random group better on that particular unique match, tomorrow may be different.

At the end, the playerbase will never be what some of us may have experienced during EQ's gold days.

2014 mmo gamer is a hopeless douchebag, it's useless to think different or think a thread is gonna fix the entire playerbase. It will not

Waste of time. It's 2014, wildstar, teso, EQ will be online soon. Again let's move, hoping next is better

[KenzieLynch]

I think the game is still full of people who have no real interest in it long term. FFXIV:ARR is still the newest MMO of note after all, and so a large portion of the user base are just daisy hoppers with no vested interest in the health of the economy or forming lasting relationships with other players. It's a rat race to complete the hardest content / get the best gear / make the most gil and I suppose that's where the WoW vibes come from.

If there is going to be a proper community for this game, then you will probably see it start to flourish once TESO launches and many of those players move to that. The player base will thin out substantially but hopefully what we are left with is an actual community. Just have to give it time.

[Teon]

I think the game is still full of people who have no real interest in it long term. FFXIV:ARR is still the newest MMO of note after all, and so a large portion of the user base are just daisy hoppers with no vested interest in the health of the economy or forming lasting relationships with other players. It's a rat race to complete the hardest content / get the best gear / make the most gil and I suppose that's where the WoW vibes come from.

If there is going to be a proper community for this game, then you will probably see it start to flourish once TESO launches and many of those players move to that. The player base will thin out substantially but hopefully what we are left with is an actual community. Just have to give it time.

Accordingly to my post , what will be left is utter junk. Just try to log now on gw2 or wow, and tell me what you find: utter junk communities on both, a bunch of pathetic douchebags

[Vahlnir]

Accordingly to my post , what will be left is utter junk. Just try to log now on gw2 or wow, and tell me what you find: utter junk communities on both, a bunch of pathetic douchebags

Considering the community isn't as bad as the forums make it out to be, I seriously doubt that.

[Teon]

Considering the community isn't as bad as the forums make it out to be, I seriously doubt that.

Well. I wasn't trying to over-generalize. Let's skip the pointless "don't generalize" , yes?
Sure you can be lucky to find 1-2 snowflakes, nice players to group up again. 2 players compared to 500 douchebags around you doesn't make the game better , nor the community anything acceptable.
If you won the lottery being on a superb nice populated FC stick on them, don't stop to sub and pray they don't too (nor you kicked/bored of them). Because if happens, you're screwed

My post was from direct experience on every mmo mentioned. What you see on the forum is direct experience, opening a thread to talk about it. A lot attempted to post "don't generalize, my guild is superb".
Didn't change the fact wow, gw1 and gw2 were and are a bunch of douchebags, logging now

If this forum is filled of "this community is utter junk" over and over, and loggin you sadly agree meeting douchebags quitting at 1st wipe, trashtalking at first fail, quitting once they get the loot on CT, abusing of kick...
it start to becomes real, and well..
we just quit.

It happened already, a lot left for various reasons, a huge more will leave once Wildstar (with his awesomeness about housing) and TESO will be out. Let's not forget the incoming EQ
Good luck with who is left

[WizardShotTheFood]

Fact is, the playerbase is what ruins mmo, nowadays.

As always, the worst enemy of the gaming community is in fact the gaming community.

[ComradeTao]

The best thing you can do to combat toxic players is not be one of them. That doesn't mean be a white knight and yell at everyone you see being nasty, just don't be like that.