Is It Just Me....?

[Sigma-Astra]

General Discussion, while receiving the most activity, is also the one section most prone to conflicts of ideas or interests. People use General Discussion to talk about controversial topics because GD is where those topics will gain the most traction, and since the FFXIV forums have regulars like any other forum, those more inclined to disagree with each other will most likely bump into each other with relative frequency. It’s also very likely that the new app has caused a sort of polarization among the forum community. You’ll inevitably see arguments between people on both sides of that discussion who are very vocal with their opinions, and those arguments have, in some respects, dominated GD. Most other sections of the forums seem innocuous enough, and in this respect GD stands out.

On this note, it's kind of interesting how General Discussion has more traffic than...let's say the boards designated for certain servers too from what I've noticed. It seems like, based on first impressions mind you, that the individual server boards get more FC recruiting snippets than anything else. I wonder if it's feasible or even worth it to keep the servers separate at that point on the forums and maybe just condense the individual server topics into just their data centers?

Or would that become too chaotic and a pain to navigate through topics, I wonder. It sometimes seems like a lot of dead space just lying around that no one really uses except for certain things.

[KaldeaSahaline]

I learned my lesson about posting in-depth discussions in sub-forums. No one visits them.

To go into some detail, things have been heated lately, more so IMO than in the past. A lot of that has to do with the direction of the game I think. Speaking strictly personally, I've been really vocal lately because I'm unhappy with the state of the game. I see so much potential, but am constantly disappointed with their design decisions.

I still love the game and there are aspects that I still enjoy (MSQ/Raiding), but that's really about it these days. I may tend to come off as antagonistic at times, but generally my goal is to correct misinformation (rampant in the community) or shower-thought different content forms (my Eureka/combat redesign/Paladin rework, etc.). Where I clash sometimes is when someone says XYZ, but never qualifies why they believe XYZ. It's ok to say FF14 combat isn't fun because X where X contains insight, examples, or critical thinking, but a ton of people here make blind statements with nothing to go off of. I very frequently challenge those statements in an effort to learn more about how someone feels, or learn something new myself.

[Okamimaru]

I think it's because people love the game... they have visions of what it's supposed to be and are passionate... conflicting views fueled by that passion is what leads to the hostile feel... of course there are a few crazy/clueless/troll type folks sprinkled in but I think this games forums are pretty tame vs other game forums...

[MageBlack]

I'm just sick of the seeming need to make mountains out of molehills and completely over-exaggerate your position then expect to be taken seriously. But that's the internet for you, if its not "the worst thing ever" then no one pays attention.

[ChaoticCrimson]

Well, it is social networking, after all. Angry internet people have been a thing for ages, and probably won't stop being a thing. The FFXIV forums aren't exempt from this, but from my experience most of the time it's pretty congenial here.

[Mahrze]

I'm just sick of the seeming need to make mountains out of molehills and completely over-exaggerate your position then expect to be taken seriously. But that's the internet for you, if its not "the worst thing ever" then no one pays attention.

Culture of Hyperbole is a thing now a days.

[Stormfur]

Ehh.. forums are forums. You're going to get all kinds of people here with all kinds of points of view. "Thankfully", only a sliver of the people who play the game are registered on the forums, so while it looks like the sky is falling over here, if you step away from the forum (and maybe Reddit), it really isn't that bad.

[Kewitt]

At some point the Internet became mean because people found that in general no one know who they were so they could get away with it. Where as IRL if you act like that you would get slaps across the face.