No Community

[aesteval]

I know I could just ask "hey what server are you all from?" every Duty Finder run I do... But it would be really convenient if you could just see who's on the same server (especially for new players trying to make friends)

Menu -> Social -> Contacts

Not sure if it works in duty, but shows adtet duty.

Having an icon next to name in duty could be another step in the right direction.

[Rinari]

I remember fondly the early days of Ragnarok Online, before fast travel. Simply travelling to a dungeon or meeting up with friends was a dangerous and thrilling experience. It could take hours to reach somewhere, and if you died, you had to start over from the last town. Sometimes players would set up merchants outside or even in dungeons selling much needed recovery items! Bringing along friends was a great way to mitigate the risk... and you really had to look out for each other. Everything was terribly imbalanced, there was no respec, and the best builds were often extremely difficult to level up at first. I took on Crusader, requiring me to level Swordsman first with Int instead of Str. It was a grueling experience and not many people took it on... but once I hit crusader, I was a powerhouse self-healing goliath that could tear apart the undead and dominate all of Niflheim and the guild wars castle defenses (which were undead). I became the lynchpin of my guild's castle attack strategy and we got us a castle!

[Newmanxeno]

He's "winning." He went full Charlie Sheen. Warlock post to follow.

[Newmanxeno]

Very nice.

Edit: No Warlock posts coming, I think I've got all the poison out

But seriously, why are you so worried about what other people like and do?

[Vidu]

...nope, still not getting what you're problem is. Or what you want to change - I know its a cheap argument to say "If you dont like it, look somewhere else" but it seems to be that in the end.


The relaunch of this game obviously happend with the idea in mind to appeal to a larger group of people because otherwise SE would have lost money on this project (read: it wouldnt have happend at all). I dont know when you, OP, started playing this game and what expectations you had, but FFXIV cant seen to fullfill those - and from what I've read from you, not because the game is to "bad" to do that but because the game isnt meant/designed to do that. Sorry to break it to you but if you game here because you wanted a remake of FFXI, you're wrong. (Just as my brother was wrong when he bought FFXIII and expected a game like FX - we all know that Final Fantasy games dont work like that! And I'd like to repeat my point here: SEs target group included most likely FF-Fans, so fans of a genre that tradionally solo and not catering to the typical MMO-player)

Maybe the focus of games shifted from "serious hard earned work!" to "just fun and relax", but yeah... the industry and the society evolved and apparently some of you got stuck in the past.

If there are enough people who share your view, maybe initiating an unofficial "oldschool"-server would be a solution? Or you just surronding yourself with friends who despite neon-green and punny-namens and enter dungeons only by traveling to the gate by mount and sit and wait around until everyone made - including that guy that used to have all the time in the world 14 years ago when he was 16 and in school and was running late from an important buisness meeting tonight.

I'm sure there are "hardcore"-games out there - just like we got Dark Souls for a hardcore-solo-experience. But they are niche, meaning: you'd have to dig a bit more for them and dont expect them in a AAA-production, since that wouldnt work from a buisness point of view.

You bought a product that isnt what you wanted - but the fault probably lies with you here. If I go to the store and buy "some green fruits" and am disappointed that I got pears and not apples, its my fault for picking the first green fruits I saw. Going back to the store and telling them "Hey, this doesnt taste like apple!" isnt going to achieve anything (or well, if they're nice, they'll point me towards the apples)

[Nanopizza]

I disagree. I've played a lot of MMO's and this is one of the most friendly and social ones i've played. I've made so many amazing friends through this game. My best friends at this stage in my life I have met through this game. This game has a lot of social elements and functions and the way progression is (mostly) achieved through group content makes it a very ripe place to make friends.
OP, I think you just need to find a community and become a part of it, friends aren't magically going to show up on your doorstep you must make an effort to talk to people and form friendships. Just start small, like saying "hello" at the start of a dungeon or trying to start some conversation, go into a social hub on your server and start talking, look on PF for some linkshells or FC's that suit what you're looking for. This game has loads of really awesome people playing it you just gotta find em!

[Hito-Shura]

I would like to add a little something.

I think some people feel a lack of community because the game enforces players to create cliques and remain in those cliques. Although FCs and linkshells exists to further improve the means for players to communicate and make friends, it still forces people to remain in their little chatrooms and ignore the rest of the world. I think the most important aspect of a server community is lacking and that would be server chat.

I got the chance to witness gameplay of Black Desert and I can't say it enough, the server chat is amazing. It keeps the community together despite all the guilds and wars with a constant barrage of news, jokes and drama. Such is missing in FF14 and sadly, the best someone can do at times is just stare at the their screen, go idle in Idyllshire and wait for their FC or linkshell to introduce a subject of conversation.

Towns feels like they are filled with silent, immobile zombies. Sure there is a shout option for announcement and stuff like that but since it's uncommon, I see it rarely used. Hell, even I am too shy of using it.

I think we need to connect the community together with a server chat(With a minimum level restriction to prevent bots) and allow people to enjoy its insanity with the option of turning it off. It would bring much more life and would allow some player interactions instead of the random emote from a silent observer. At least for those who have not made friends with anyone yet.

[Dzian]

I would like to add a little something.

I think some people feel a lack of community because the game enforces players to create cliques and remain in those cliques. Although FCs and linkshells exists to further improve the means for players to communicate and make friends, it still forces people to remain in their little chatrooms and ignore the rest of the world. I think the most important aspect of a server community is lacking and that would be server chat.

I got the chance to witness gameplay of Black Desert and I can't say it enough, the server chat is amazing. It keeps the community together despite all the guilds and wars with a constant barrage of news, jokes and drama. Such is missing in FF14 and sadly, the best someone can do at times is just stare at the their screen, go idle in Idyllshire and wait for their FC or linkshell to introduce a subject of conversation.

Towns feels like they are filled with silent, immobile zombies. Sure there is a shout option for announcement and stuff like that but since it's uncommon, I see it rarely used. Hell, even I am too shy of using it.

I think we need to connect the community together with a server chat(With a minimum level restriction to prevent bots) and allow people to enjoy its insanity with the option of turning it off. It would bring much more life and would allow some player interactions instead of the random emote from a silent observer. At least for those who have not made friends with anyone yet.

Something to note regarding chat in general is it's often frowned upon entirely.

a dozen people having a conversation in iddyllshire via the /s or /sh. and people frown upon it and say take it to your linkshell or even /tells... it's very anti communication.

the same can be said in duty finder, people say be friendly talk to your group. yet if and when you do theres always going to be them people that tell you to stop talking and start fighting, again it's very anti communication... I did a weeping city for tails and 7 or 8 of us were cracking jokes and having a laugh, and people were complaining we were filling the alliance chat with to much talk and not killing the bosses. if we wanted to talk we should do it after the raid... so once again its very anti communication...

In a way though I see this game as kinda like face book. I mean sure people have 500+ facebook friends, but how many of them are actually friends....
same thing in XIV, I've got social connections all over the place. 80+ people on my friendlist. plus quite active and social in my fc and ls's. yet if asked I could probably name 10 of these people. because that's how many actually have any kind of bond with...
another example is work. I work in a pretty large company 200 members of staff sociable and friendly with most of them. yet when employees leaves noone ever sees them again. because the connections are so superficial. 200 people there but maybe 3 i'd invite to a wedding or some other meaningfull life event....

then you get big free companies that have 500 members and people say they're great and friendly. but how many of those memebers could you actually name without looking at the roster......
or if 100 of them suddenly left. how many of them would you remember?

while social aspects do exist they are incredibly shallow and superficial for the most part. and sometimes I think they do need to work on that.

I see in threads quite frequently people say ffxiv isn't great and it isn't. but the only reason they play is because some of their friends do. so comments like these show that good social connections help the player base. even when the game isn't that great in there opinions.. so if they could bolster the social aspect and give it some actually depth and meaning it could help a lot in keeping players around.

also see the opposite being true. how many people pick up the game and put it donw in there first months cos the social element is so superficial they don't make many friends or meaningfull ones at least and again the game isn't that great so they drop it....

[Vidu]

while social aspects do exist they are incredibly shallow and superficial for the most part. and sometimes I think they do need to work on that.

And how would they do that? Please no more FFXI-nostalgia as answer though - I dont mean to be rude, but from what I've heard so far FFXI wasnt all cake and sugar either, not even when it came to the great social aspects of the game. I havent played it myself, but feel I have both sides of those stories a bit now - needing an escort to a city? Sure, great way to bond! But also hella annoying to relay on other people all the time - Having to wait for your casters mana to refill? Nice, time for a little chat! But also infact a time when the game fails as game, because its not letting you play it.

Maybe they do need to work on the social aspect of the game - and I would actually consider a "marketboard" for FCs and LSs a good idea, that would make it easier to find like minded mini-communities within the game.
Because heres actually my next point: I dont agree with "we need to connect the people more as one big community" - specially not when we're talking about forming meaningful bonds. You cant form and maintain meanigful bonds with a hundred people, its simply impossible. (And personally I'll take one very good friend about 5 "just" good ones, but that might be me)
Same with the server-wide-chat - I cant really imagine having hundred people talk in there and it being anything but "noise" for most of the time. In a way the community decided against this by already not using shut that frequently to chat (granted, its annyoing that you always need to "confirm" that you really want to shout...) - maybe a compromis can be reached by having "town-chats"? As in: chats that are only active in the larger cities and always only for there city, so if you want to have a chat with people, you can go into the town and well, talk!


Now, for my last bit... you'll say that I'm white knighting here but thats not what I'm having in mind - I guess we all know that this game is not perfect. But saying its not a great game doesnt seem fair to me.
There are a number of questions we have to answer here:
1) What is a "great game"?
2) What kind of game does FFXIV WANT to be?
3) What kind of game IS it?
4) What kind of expectations do/did you have for FFXIV?

No one can answer 1) ofc, or well - everyone can answer that for themself, I guess.
4) is totally down to everyone themself aswell, obviously - and if your expectation is/was another FFXI, you're asking a banana to taste like an apple. So either learn to like bananas too or stop eating them - you're doing no one a favour if you're forcing yourself to consume something that you dont like.

2) and 3) now - I'm not gonna answer those in length, but in regard to this thread and all that talk about oldschool-MMOs: Does FFXIV wants to be an oldschool-MMO that was up-to-date 15 years ago? No, it does not.
It wants to appeal to a larger variety of people and yes, thats often sad for those who witnessed the rise of a genre, I get that
With appealing to a larger variety of people there are ofc also more complaints - and they're going into every direction (more gates, less gates - more dungeons, more new stuff) They obviously cant please everyone, but that doesnt make this game "bad".
And they have to find a compromis for the topic of "more player interaction" too - to make it possible for anyone who would to prefer to play alone or doesnt want to join some sort of a static to enjoy the game aswell (that is: if they want to keep the income from those more casual people too - and seeing how much money they're spending on this game, they probably want that... and if thats benefitting me too by giving me quality content, I'm game!)

I'm really not sure how SE would solve this "problem" - and I'm also not really sure if its actually their job at all. After all they're a games company, not some sort of... "social networking" developers. We have asked for more flexibilty when it came to form groups and such (changing how lockouts in raids are working for example), so apparently the majority of players today prefers not binding their game progress to another person and I can understand why.
Form bonds if you wish - but thats down to you, after all.