How it used to be...

[Xia_Thas]

Back in the 1.0 days we had to band together to fight the game's design. We didn't have time to bicker with each other.

Real talk though, as far as MMOs go FFXIV has always had a better reputation community wise when compared to others (WoW, GWs, ect) As someone who has been playing WoW and FFXIV since their respective launches I can attest that I noticed WoW's toxicity much faster than FFXIV's. This can be blamed on a number of reasons, the biggest being popularity and WoW running for years before FFXIV 1.0 launched. The memes of WoW refugees however tiresome they are still have a moniker of truth in them. Since the launch of Battle For Azeroth (Some will argue since WotLK) Wow has been going through some rough changes that have not set well with their audience. You take those people who were already dealing with WoW's LFR/LFG ontop of frustrating game design choices that then come to FFXIV for something new and the Duty Finder becomes just another home for that toxic behavior.

Any kind of random matchmaking dungeon / raid system in any MMO is always bound to be toxic eventually. FFXIV imo took longer to get to noticably consistent toxicity but even then I usually have more good and neutral experiences than bad ones. This being said just because I don't personally experience it does not mean it's not present. FFXIV has been having it's own brand of toxic behavior as early as discussions about Legacy Players back in 2.0. We've seen the topic of hate and outrage change from Patch to Patch. In the end negativity will never be gone, especially in this current era of Out Rage Culture that is so popular today.

All We can do is have some self accountability for our actions. Where it would be easy to just baby rage or be sarcastic / petty, instead try to engage with positive input and feedback. This community reflects what we put into it.

[CazzT]

I guess no one has ever told you that duty finder randomly selects party members when you jump into a queue.

I don't choose who I "hang out" with when I solo queue.

"When everyone else is the problem, perhaps the problem is not everyone else"

Change is relative and you will never be able to reach a consensus on something that large of a scale.

Except we can. The degree of the change is the part that's relative. That there has been a change is fact. Your claim is that there has been no change. Which is false.

But I'm not going to waste my limited number of daily posts arguing about this.

[Oscura]

"When everyone else is the problem, perhaps the problem is not everyone else"

Yet again insinuating that I am the problem with a limited amount of facts or even context. Most of the instances of toxicity I have witnessed have been just that, as a witness. A tank yelling at a black mage and calling them names for not properly AoEing has nothing to do with me, but sure, insist the "common denominator" argument not realizing how hypocritical it is that you are insulting my character. Alliances yelling at each other while I sit there silently has nothing to do with how I act. I cannot control people.

Your claim is that there has been no change. Which is false.

hardly anything has changed.

Is reading optional for you?

Stop trying to gatekeep your moral high ground.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

I empathize with you. Someone suggested to me that one reason for the increase in rude people could be because of all the WoW refugees that are coming over to XIV. They told me that WoW's community isn't exactly known for being the nicest.

As a 'WoW refugee' myself, having played that game since Vanilla and many other MMOs- I'd have to agree with this. The only communities I've seen worse than WoW's are Fortnite, League of Legends pre-player run banning system, and Call of Duty. But no MMO has ever come close to being as toxic as WoW.

We also come from a different style of game- in WoW, the sole focus is speed. Anything that ever slows you down in any way is the worst, since content is not meant to be enjoyed- it's meant to be repeated, and the reward is the sole bit of enjoyment. It was far worse before personal loot- with greed/need rolls, losing to someone who didn't need it, or even just losing a roll would often create massive drama and enmity.

I personally find the actual content of this game to be enjoyable, and I think it's developed to be more enjoyable- even just putting mechanics in low level dungeons like the chimera boss or the boss that casts doom makes levelling more interesting than any WoW content outside of endgame, as 99% of it is tank and spank.

Thing is, a lot of WoW content is boring the first time you do it, because minimal effort was made into making it- and the expectation is you'll do that bit of content fifty times to level or grind gear.

I'll give an example just on the sort of behaviour that differs. If a tank or a party in aurum vale says they want to clear everything, or to let the seedlings pop for more xp- OR, that they would prefer not to- I've never seen a single person get angry about it. Not once, and I've done that one a fair bit since it's so good for getting to 50.

If you don't take shortcuts past adds in WoW though, at best you'll get people complaining or even leaving, at worst you'll get a votekick to the tank or people being toxic. And I don't just mean at endgame where there's mythic + (which force you to take the least amount of time), but while levelling, where mobs give decent xp (just perhaps not the most mathematically efficient). And this isn't a once in a dozen runs thing- this is almost every single run. Sometimes it'll break down for even more petty reasons- like a dps pulling early, or a tank pulling only two groups at a time while the dps thinks they should be pulling three.

What has been, in my experience, exceedingly rare bad behaviour in this game- is inversely exceedingly the norm in WoW. I do hope that the established positive community here wins out and refugees change to fit in, because I'd rather not have to deal with that nonsense anymore.

[Komarimono]

I wouldn't say it's due to WoW players. I'm a former WoW player myself, of what some would have called Elitist since was in a server first guild and top 25'ish world guild. (Simple Math, Andorhal)

I think people are just seeking abuse, if I am honest. They see a comment and immediately assume it's in the negative format. I'm one of those gals who doesn't care what people say, words being words and what not. Can insult me and I'll be like, meh... Who cares. But there's quite a few who only see the negative, concentrating on it scarily, when the positive is far more available and given.

I think the worst things I've encountered in this game was a grumpy roleplayer that jumped on me since I didn't use their pronouns lol A few times someone wanted to boot DPS or a healer since they felt they were slowing down the group, my reply being who cares it's just a dungeon.

So, if you concentrate on the negative, that's what you'll find imho. If you just act like a normal person, you'll rarely see it.

[Kanitezz]

All I did was say that someone suggested that one reason could be WoW refugees. Come on people.

[Komarimono]

All I did was say that someone suggested that one reason could be WoW refugees. Come on people.

And this leads exactly to my point I simply posted my opinion on the matter from experiences I've encountered, from my point of view of course. I'm sure no one was attacking you, we were just deflecting away the option it was WoW related.

I'm not really new to FF14, I just missed the reboot since after 1.23 I went back to WoW for a time. Even back then people would not necessarily blame WoW, but lean heavy in that direction for the games flaws.

[Kanitezz]

And this leads exactly to my point I simply posted my opinion on the matter from experiences I've encountered, from my point of view of course. I'm sure no one was attacking you, we were just deflecting away the option it was WoW related.

I'm not really new to FF14, I just missed the reboot since after 1.23 I went back to WoW for a time. Even back then people would not necessarily blame WoW, but lean heavy in that direction for the games flaws.

I get you were posting your opinion. I guess I thought people were thinking I was saying that the only reason was because of WoW. Which isn't close to true. Sorry If I offended anyone.

[Komarimono]

I get you were posting your opinion. I guess I thought people were thinking I was saying that the only reason was because of WoW. Which isn't close to true. Sorry If I offended anyone.

I'm sure few if any got offended. If they did, just let it go over ya shoulder. If they get offended, they need to look at themselves in a mirror honestly lol

[Xia_Thas]

I get you were posting your opinion. I guess I thought people were thinking I was saying that the only reason was because of WoW. Which isn't close to true. Sorry If I offended anyone.

You're good, you just got a taste of being the smoking gun for a debate.