Help the community as a whole

[Ephier]

After playing this game for quite a long time, I have seen the community as a whole decline quite a bit. This is quite a bit of a rant, so please do not take offense to anything that is said here that may pertain to you.

There is nothing wrong with being a casual. You have a life, you have kids, too much work, other things you want to do. That is absolutely fine. What is not okay is just being bad for the sake of being bad. There is a handful of players who just have no intention of bettering themselves as players. A lot of this is due to SE's hand holding of players. Telling people good job for every small thing they do instead of actually encouraging them to do the best they can do.

My issue with the general attitude from a lot of the casual or "hardcore" community stems from a lot of the entitlement they think they have. Tanks not doing their jobs, Healers not healing, DPS being abysmally low on charts. Now it could be that they do not know they are not performing well (Add an ingame parser SE) as someone is telling them they are fine. Then they have an encounter with someone who is not satisfied with what they are doing and they get upset.

When someone gives criticism, whether good or bad, it is because they feel that you are doing something that they believe is wrong. I am not saying that all criticism is correct, but I do believe you should analyze all that is directed towards you.

If someone tells you your damage is low, don't get butt hurt. Go try out SSS and improve your rotations on dummies.

If someone tells you that you are a bad healer, it might not be because you are not healing, but because you are not doing everything you can do. Healing is one of the hardest and most versatile roles in the game. You control a lot of what goes on in fights. Don't be afraid to experiment, by DPSing when you know a tank is fine, using cooldowns like divine seal and soils outside of boss fights.

For tanks, simple things like holding aggro and positioning is almost all everyone is looking for. If you are going to pull big packs of mobs, use cooldowns to help the healers out.

TL;DR: Don't respond to criticism in a negative manner, instead evaluate it and use it to improve yourself.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Don't worry, World of Warcraft Legion is coming out soon and all the baddies will go back to their garrisons for a while. Then we can farm our tomestones in peace.

[Ephier]

Don't worry, World of Warcraft Legion is coming out soon and all the baddies will go back to their garrisons for a while. Then we can farm our tomestones in peace.

I don't want the baddies to go away, I want them to get better. This doesn't just pertain to expert. It is about every type of content in the game.

[Canadane]

A big problem is the nerfs that content receives. The biggest example would have been Steps of Faith. This was the fight. It differed from normal fights, offering diversity. The bosses HP was high, and there were many mechanics involved. This offered people to play to personal potential while also working as a team. It was a great experience (though it could have used a 'vote reset' option), allowing players to test their might against a challenge that caused them to differ in their normal approach.

But then people complained, and money talks, so in came the nerfs and now the fight is impossible to lose. You don't even need Dragonkillers or anyone on cannons these days.

If we continue to gate people off from content, it'll force people to get better, or simply play without the new content. However, this is probably the worst decision a business could make, so it'll never happen.

Old raid content could still be fun and challenging. Twintania of all things could still pose challenging to newcomers. Instead, they'll be seeing something like this, not even lasting a full minute.

[duceTRE]

Go try out SSS and improve your rotations on dummies.

While I agree that SSS can help, I think that SE can add to it and make the player dodge things. Think of it like the one GATE thing in Gold Saucer. I think something along those lines can be done, and will possibly improve some players.

[Claymore65]

To be fair, a lot of people get upset about HOW the criticism is presented. Saying "Hey, I noticed you aren't using Heavy Thrust. If you try and keep the buff up, you'll deal a lot more damage" is much more helpful than simply saying "Your DPS is low! Step it up!" or "Stop being awful". Oftentimes what people think is "criticism" is really insults and name-calling, and does little to actually improve the player. Unfortunately, the line between "Constructive Criticism" and "Rude insults" varies depending on the person. In my experience though, if you remain polite, and possibly including a joke or two, most players appreciate the advice.

I totally understand getting frustrated though. Sometimes a player will simply refuse to try harder, or stand out of AOEs, or will freak out to even the most polite of advice. Unfortunately, this is part of dealing with a large online game. Some players will be great at the game and polite, other will be poor at the game but friendly, and others will be incredibly rude and disrespectful. Part of playing MMOs is learning to deal with people you normally don't want to deal with.

[Joe_Schmoe]

Help the community as a whole

Not sure if this really pertains to FF XIV or your post, but for what it's worth this was the 1st thing that came to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxX0JvFMtDY

[Thayos]

The lack of server communities is this game's biggest problem, and really that starts with the lack of a diversified endgame.

We need an endgame that extends beyond 8-person hardcore statics. Like in FFXI, players need to have a reason to get better -- and that includes busy players who have more important priorities that keep them from being able to join statics. This is hugely important seeing as how today's average gamer is 35 years old and very likely to have more important things to do most days.

Broaden endgame -- and give FCs a reason to tackle endgame together so that not everything is instanced and anonymous -- and player skill will rise.

The probably isn't even really one of skill. This game's difficulty rests more on memorization than anything else, and the vast majority of people can memorize scripts given enough repetition.

The problem is one of engagement. The game needs to give more players reasons to take the game more seriously, and that's a lot to ask when so many players feel excluded from the game's narrowly focused hardcore raids.

[Saint_Angeles]

Good point, OP. We should really be open to criticism and keep level heads. That's what veterans do.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I think they need to add some kind of rewards for clearing Stone sky sea.

It really does serve as an eye opener if your rotation and gear are seriously bad. However a casual player has no incentive to participate in this content and the potential exists for them to continue playing oblivious to the fact of just how bad they are.

If casual had a reason (like glamours) to take on stone sky sea challenges then you might have more people realizing how bad they are and least be aware of the fact that they need to improve and hopefully choose to act on it.