No Community

[Lunafreya]

I've had a full friendlist four months from when I started playing. This isn't a community issue, this is a "learn to talk to people" issue.

Okay but how many of these people actually talk to you and not just wave to you in cities? I'll wait.

[Xlantaa]

I have friends, linkshells and static in the game. And I am not a social person. I make friends in this 3 years despite being unsocial. I can confirm you have plenty of tools too interact with others. Now we have cross server parties, only need now cross server Linkshells.

People who want to be social will aways find the way. Not only in the game, you have also Discord, TS, Facebook, or whatever.

[aesteval]

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

See now, here's where I'm tempted to link an image of the PS4, with focus on the USB ports, and ask what exactly is so different between PC and PS4 given how blurred the line differentiating the two is. PS4 has the exact same interaction options as the PC version. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. But it's ok, feel free to keep thinking that there is.

[Rinari]

I haven't had any trouble finding little social groups to join up with in FFXIV. It's actually been the best social experience of every MMO I've played thanks to linkshells and a generally friendly community. Most of my friends were made just goofing around Limsa streets. Others I made through the novice network while I was in it.

That being said, I could see room for improvement. The novice network is great, but restricted to mentors and novices, which leaves a huge gap when you're booted out after finishing ARR MSQ. It would be great if the game had an optional social network you could join after graduating from novice network. I guess the problem would be moderation. The novice network seems to work well because it is moderated by mentors, who also self police somewhat. Without a little moderator, a large open social network would be pretty bad. I expect some 'good enough' solution could be found though.

[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.

[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.

[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...

[Callinon]

I think people spend the vast majority of their "free time" in game searching for social connections because the actual game doesn’t provide any. This game is suffering from a fatal lack of community. It sought thru mechanics to empower the solo gamer and in the process precluded them of ever making a real friend. Some of the prerequisites to a meaningful friendship are shared hardship, sacrifice, and trust - all of which have been meticulously removed from this game lest it be “too hard". I think in not forcing people to eat their veggies they've gotten fat, unhappy and restless - which does not bode well for XIV.

One of my best in-game friends I've done practically no content with. I also didn't know her prior to playing the game (we live in different countries). We met in an FC and just enjoy talking to each other.

There are social connections out there. Go find them.

[MihaelB]

Well it's the community's fault to blame too as well as the mechanism we have been given.

A linkshell can fit 128 players only, a free company can fit 5XX players yet on each server, how many players are divided into the 500+ FCs on each server, isolating each other in the process?
If each free company could host 300 players in each one and players bothered to go join those, you'll have your 'communities' and the house situation under control to a larger extent.

I used to feel the lack of community on my old server but since joining Tonberry, I haven't been happier. There are hundreds of us scattered still but our server hosts several strongly dominated sub groups which makes it feel more worthwhile.