How has your mindset changed with regards to other players since your started the ga?

[Aldora]

I've been reading all of the comments in this thread and mostly lurk about in other threads (mostly the "Tales of the Duty Finder"), just to get an idea what players think of the people they encounter in the game. And to be honest, reading the comments about the bad experiences players have within the game, based on rude / toxic behavior from others, does hurt.

I've been here for quite a while now (since the Alpha of 1.0) and a lot has changed since then. At the very beginning, the atmosphere of the game was quite similar to FFXI, where you would form little groups within the FFXIV community and run the content together. You basically only had contact with the group you were in and you would make the most out of it. People knew that if you were being a jerk, eventually you would build up a negative reputation and feel the repercussions from it (because people would most likely ignore you).

If you wanted to run a dungeon, you would gather people through the linkshell and go to the entrance of the dungeon in order to start it. With the introduction of the Duty Finder, things started to change. You would be paired up with random people and since you weren't likely to see each other again, it didn't really matter that much if you were being a jerk to others or not. This, in general, didn't change the way we tackled the content that much. Only the means to gather people to run the content became more accessible.

In the years that followed, the playerbase got better at playing the game and with it new playstyles were adopted by the players. People started to push the limits of the group, by making speedruns for the dungeons. After a couple of months it was starting to become the norm for running content within FFXIV. This also resulted in the bar to be raised for everyone. If you were not performing at a certain level, you would be considered to be "bad". Regardless of your experience with the game or MMO's in general.

So, basically rude / toxic interactions between players has been present in the game ever since ARR. But, still the general populus within the game was laid back and friendly.

When you have a game that increases in popularity, it will attract more people from different backgrounds and different levels of experience and interests. Due to this, it will be more common to come across people who aren't as nice to you, as you would be to them.

If i look at myself over the years. I started off as a friendly but cautious player. Playing with a lot of random people and also raiding in content like Coil, made me more confident in my abilities. Still, some behaviour i see in game (like fighting for aggro between tanks) is really off-putting if you are just looking to relax and have fun. I don't want to be "on edge" (like you would be for Progression runs in Savage and Ultimate) all the time and want to relax every once and a while too. I put effort in everything i do, but i don't want to feel that i need to be a "top tier" player 100% of the time.

But, looking at the discussions on the forums, seeing people leave after 1 single wipe, complain if they see certain mechanics because the encounter was not pushed (and skipping phases) or jump at each others throats, you would have trouble seeing it differently. People also don't really talk that much, unless spoken to. (That's why i always great people at the start of a duty, ask questions to check what they want to do and say "Take care" at the end of duty.)

However, i still believe that in general the people are still fine. You can still crack jokes and have fun while running content with randoms. But, you usually have to start the conversation yourself.

I'm not perfect, but i do my best to make playing with me comfortable and fun.