Can't say I've developed a more cynical take on the playerbase over time. Nothing really dictates that a game will somehow not have rude people, especially when it's popular. I could tell right away that overall the community is friendly, but of course not everyone is going to abide by that. It's the internet. Though all in all, the only thing that has changed about me is, having played everything to cap and explored almost every facet of the game, is that I can better rationalize my empathy. That is to say, I know the common mistakes, and I know what people of a certain job want to achieve, and I know how first time experiences for things usually look. It means I am better able to support them or catch them on their fall.

Generally I have only had my perception of the community better over the near two years I've been here. I never had an illusion some people won't somehow have bad behaviour; you see it on the forum, Reddit, social media, etc. Of course it can happen in game as well when you have millions of active players where some of them can have undiagnosed mental health problems, experience a bad day, a super toxic mindset, or in general just a really bad attitude. Life will have people with circumstances they struggle with, can't help, or have no interest in doing anything about, and you'll find them on FFXIV or out in the wild. For me that doesn't diminish the fact that for a really popular online game FFXIV's community is relatively good.