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[Dzian]

I get what the OP is saying. And it's true in many ways.

While I have quite a lot of friends in XIV I'd honestly say most of them are pretty superficial... it's just how the game is. If You're around to run roulettes with then you go together sure no worries. If you aint around they just go without you or you go without them.. There's never much consideration for other people except when its convenient...

I'm still great friends with half of my endgame LS in XI see some of them every couple of months go out for drinks or pizza, Others I still play other games with. 4 of us played the division together for example start to finish... even 7 years or so after we stopped playing XI still great friends.. But in XIV I wouldn't say many of my friends are even close to that level... got 80+ people on my friendlist I could probably name 10 of them without actually looking at my friendlist that's how superficial the rest are....

In one form or another it's a fairly common opinion and has been for a long time.. The reason so many statics fall apart is because the bonds between its members are mostly superficial and easily broken once there's no self gain or a better opportunity comes along. No purpose in sticking with it and helping the others who helped you out once you're done.. This is something that has been said a lot in the forums regarding savage and stuff...

Some people say the same with relic and stuff. A group of people start out working on them together and then one of em ends up joining a light farm or something and is suddenly way ahead of his friends..

I think it's also why people have been asking for real content designed around free companies actually working together rather than just jumping in the duty finder individually and go... In some cases PotD 51-200 works for this. Because it requires a fixed group of players which means you typically form bonds with people. People have been asking for this kind of content ever since beta. because FCs are literally nothing more than a glorified chat channel.

Then when it comes to duty finder it's not necessarily social anxiety that stops people talking its just the feeling of it being worthless. I could have a great group of players in a party, crack a few jokes along the way, complete and leave the duty. Done!, I might never see those same players again, or if I did it might be weeks or even months later when I cant even remember there names or they mine.....

Or its why people feel they can act like a douche in content. Who cares if you p*** off someone in the party, Probably never meet them again so whats it matter....

The social element is pretty shallow for the most part...

This game was designed to do things as a group. The only time you do things solo is some quests in MSQ.

Yet at the same time everything is designed to be done "solo". got no friends? or connections at all? It doesn't matter just queue the duty finder and go.. You don't need a group of players or to build bonds or anything.
Yes you're doing content with other people but they could just as easily be ai and it wouldn't really matter because the level of connection between players is so superficial

Using relic as an example if I wanna get lights I don't need my friends or a group of players. All I need to do is hit the duty finder and go... I can do it on my own with no thought to the other people in my party nor them any thought to me. just 4 or 8 people all "soloing" even if they are in the same party. they're still "soloing"

[Vidu]

cut for convience

The thing is though: if your friends choose to do content without you because its possible it was still their choice to go ahead and do this content. They could have waited. Me and my friends are doing excatly that - we wait for each other. I could be running Dun Scaith right now, but a friend of mine wont be online for the next two hours and because I want to run it together, I wait. (Same in reallife: If you want to spend time with a group of friends, you choose a day when everyone has time - sure, you could go and see that movie alone, but if you want to see if with your friends, you can also wait two weeks - your choice, their choice.)
Not being forced to do the content with the same group everytime (and being screwed when someone doesnt shows up!) doesent seem like a bad thing to me?
If you want to form a bond you can do that - and you're doing it now because you want it rather than because you have to.

Right at this very moment there is a thread asking to open PotD a bit, so you're not forced to go in with a fixed group everytime anymore - and while I dont agree with that to preserve the difficulty of that content, I feel we need to have a look at both sides here. Not being forced to spend time with your friends, but having every option to do so, seems the better option to me. Its not the games fault if people rather get their stuff done asap instead of playing with their friends.