I'm very old. I played Doom, when you had to load .wad files and play over a BBS. I submit this information, as a point of reference for how many online games I've played. I do this so my praise of this community, is placed into the perspective of someone who has been through a lot of communities in online gaming.

Given my post title, it's pretty easy to figure out, that this is going to be positive, and well it should be. This is easily the most friendly, and supportive community that I've found in an online game. I'm not sure if anything else is even a close second. Toxicity has become the norm, not just in gaming, but culturally. I'm not sure how FF has avoided it, but I'm thankful for it.

I just wanted to create a post to say thank you:

Thanks to the healers, it's a tough job, it's often much tougher than people realize, especially when things go smoothly in a run. It seems like..."sure...that's how it should be". It's only that way, because the healer is actually good.

Thanks to the tanks, the ones that grab agro, are attentive, and are obviously doing their best to fulfill their role. I find that % to be shockingly high.

Thanks to the DPS that pay attention, that don't stand in bad, heal themselves when it's warranted, and use all of their abilities to help the party. I find this % to also be shockingly high.

And last of all, and most importantly, thanks to community that takes time to try and explain to people that are new or having problems, what they can do to make things better. I recently ran a dungeon on one of my DPS jobs, where the tank was obviously very new, and had almost no knowledge of FF systems. Instead of being hostile, the healer in our group spent time explaining why the tank should be doing certain things (this tank wasn't using any defensive cooldowns ever). In any other game, that would be nothing but a toxic hatefest. This healer also stayed well beyond the end of the encounter, to have a conversation with this tank about what things they may have been missing via the UI, or just general advice. THAT is why this community is hands down, the best that I have ever encountered in my many years of online gaming.

A salute to most of you. Civility, compassion, and basic decency are things that have left quite a few facets of our society. It's refreshing and hopeful, to see that it still exists. The many decent people that exist in this community should take pride in the fact that they are preserving and fostering the continuation of something very important, and something that is much bigger than just a video game.

We live in an age of derision, and it's heartwarming to see, and be a part of, a community where intelligence, compassion, and empathy still exist and thrive.