No Community

[bardaboo]

I've made many real life friends from this game, even met up with a few of them. Probably 10 or so on facebook.

Look for an active fc to join. Play with them. Join voice chat. Ask them questions about their life. Volunteer info about yours.

This game works just like a real life party, if you sit secluded, chances are people will leave you alone.

[Stravioli]

You would understand if you spend your entire childhood to adult since 90s with playing plenty of MMORPGs and MMOs on PC only.

I get you guys are going to give this guy some flak for a broad generalization, but please understand, he does have a point. Just compare the community activity in Runescape or Ultima Online to that of Everquest II on the PS2.

Without a little moderator, a large open social network would be pretty bad. I expect some 'good enough' solution could be found though.

The reliance on moderation has ruined social interactivity in chat channels as well as RP communities; People need to be exposed to each other without fear of ban hammers. Not to mention trying to solve RP problems through reports? Come on guys, either commit to your RP or don't be in the RP community.

[Lexia]

I guess I wasn't aware so many people were struggling to make social connections in Final Fantasy XIV; but I think that it may be that the game allows for a wider demographic of players that could be causing the issue with finding like-minded players.

What type of social connections we talking about here? Sure I have people I talk to in game on a regular basis, but nothing like when I played XI. When I played XI I made some good friends that I talked to outside of game and got to know quite well and talked to even after leaving XI. I have not found that type of connection while playing XIV.

You are right OP. It's because this game is crossplay with PS4. Console players aren't meant to socialize (pretty casual they are), just do quests, dungeons and enjoy their little limited fun they have been enforced to. Then also there is no massive PVP which is very important thing for a MMORPG. Too casual i say, too much.

Consoles have nothing to do with it, XI had players on PS2 and they still managed to talk just fine. But XI and XIV are too different as you said XIV too casual so I can see part of your point.

[ErryK]

I get you guys are going to give this guy some flak for a broad generalization, but please understand, he does have a point. Just compare the community activity in Runescape or Ultima Online to that of Everquest II on the PS2.

The difference is, XIV is not exclusive to a platform, unlike all three of those games you mentioned. On top of that, there is no reason to marginalize an entire group of people who play on PS4, they could just get a keyboard and mouse, attach it into their PS4, and be just as effective as a PC player, both socially and in skill.

[ADVSS]

For making lots of friends and interacting, for me the biggest period was when I -wasnt-
in any FC, but rather had a social linkshell instead. The 4 person party for regular content makes it a tad harder to inclide more than a couple friends, or FC mates. Anyway for making friends I personally feel like not being in a FC made it a lot easier because I abtually had to utilize things like PF etc while when in a FC I find myself only interacting with a small circle of friends no matter how big the FC is

[aesteval]

I get you guys are going to give this guy some flak for a broad generalization, but please understand, he does have a point. Just compare the community activity in Runescape or Ultima Online to that of Everquest II on the PS2.

Think about the difference between a PS2 and PC and the difference between a PS4 and PC. That's two generations of consoles that have shown consoles trending more closely to PCs than not (excluding Nintendo.) The difference between PC and PS4 at this point is minimal it may as well be similar to the difference between a Mac and PC but with a restricted private marketplace.

[Kosmos992k]

-Free Company
-Linkshell
-Friend list
-Keyboard
-Hands

Done.

Also;

-Instance
-Keyboard
-Hands
-Hello

Done

[Parisstilton]

You would understand if you spend your entire childhood to adult since 90s with playing plenty of MMORPGs and MMOs on PC only.

Granted I haven't played many mmo's but I have played many other games on many different platforms from my childhood (in the 70's!) And call me stupid if you want but I still don't understand how having ps4 playing with pc makes people less social.

[Vidu]

I honestly dont really see the problem - the game is supposed to provide you with game-content, not with a friend.
OP is mentioning things like trust and hardship to build a friendship on and claims that the game isnt providing any of it - I would like to add that shared fun is also a good basis for friendship (and that the game provides that) aswell as that I dont share the feeling that the game doesnt provides us with means to overcome hardship together and build a certain trust. I have built very close friendships in this game excatly through those - several friends and I are pretty much in snych in content and know that we will look out for each other (granted often not because the creatures in the dungeons are so terrifying but because the other people are...), but still. (A WHM-friend and I perfected our hallowed ground-benediction-cmbo, by just pressing the buttons at the same time and laughing about it for the next 5 minutes, wiping the whole raid)

People who want to socialise, will. People who just want to play this game solo, will. Both are okay (as long as the solo-people are fine with having a bit trouble in savage etc.) - you cant force friendships after all.

I also dont understand what one would do to tackle this "problem"? Make content harder and less appealing to solo player and punish them for wanting just two hours of gaming in the evening after 8 hours at their job, surronded by people?
There are plenty options to engage and interact with people, if you choose to do that - if you dont, thats on you. And for the people suffering from anxiety... I dont want to be rude here and I know the pain from it, took me long to get over it, I dont think a game should hold your hand through that (and at the end of the day its still up to you either way - the game wont do the typing for you after all).

The only thing I can think of would be an advertisment board or so for linkshells and FCs, to make it easier for you to find a community to fit in, if you want that. Other than that, I really cant thing of a fix - probably because I cant see the real problem to begin with. Or well, rather how its SE job to fix people becoming less and less social...

[Kosmos992k]

The difference is, XIV is not exclusive to a platform, unlike all three of those games you mentioned. On top of that, there is no reason to marginalize an entire group of people who play on PS4, they could just get a keyboard and mouse, attach it into their PS4, and be just as effective as a PC player, both socially and in skill.

Indeed all of the PC master race vs Console generalizations are extremely unhelpful.

Just about any USB keyboard including the ones so cheap they could give them away in boxes of cereal, will work on PS4. And I would also have to point out that the use of a controller is not limited to console gamers, a lot of PC gamers use controllers as well. If you are playing on a 50-inch screen from your couch, a controller works better than a keyboard and mouse from a comfort point of view, and to my knowledge there is no skill difference between controller based players and those with keyboard/mouse.