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

[van_arn]

I started to notice people becoming very agitated and unappreciative in these types of parties towards the end of Stormblood. People began to reject well-intentioned advice and often became verbally abusive towards me in my own parties, it even happened a handful of times in voice chat. Fresh learners even started raging if your strategy deviated from what was in the video guides, even when the guide strategies weren\\'t actually being used in PF (o12s MTQ dash strat I\\'m looking at you >.>; ). The more of those experiences I had, the less I was able to hold onto that joy that teaching gave me.

People generally seem to have less respect for other peoples time, all the while hiding behind a fake-nice facade and feigning some kind of moral superiority. It\\'s become almost impossible to point out when someone is obviously taking advantage, as people will trip over themselves to defend the behavior for some reason. I\\'ve been called an elitist for asking someone in a 70+ dungeon why they were only auto-attacking 75% of the time (They were tabbing out to type in discord during most pulls, by their own admission). I\\'ve been called toxic and kicked from a Memoria "clear party" for asking why they were explaining the first mechanic in the entire fight to their friend. I\\'ve been told "It doesn\\'t matter" when people try to fully afk through MSQ roulette. I\\'ve been called salty for asking someone to help fight mobs in palace instead of remaining afk in the spawn room until the gate was opened. You\\'ll just have to take my word for it that nearly all of these situations were approached with a reasonable, often softened tone. I probably even have screencaps of some of them, somewhere.

Don\\'t get me wrong here, struggling with the game is fine. I have a lot of friends who would be considered "bad", but I still find a lot of joy in playing with them. My own SO was stuck on the SB Hien solo duty for three days xD! Rather, these kinds of cases I\\'m increasingly encountering are situations in which a player who knows better is actively trying to take advantage. I honestly hope I\\'m just unlucky, and that this isn\\'t a trend in the community.

It’s the trend. I’ve given up on ex/raid learning parties entirely because the ones I’ve tried recently have players new to the content trying to argue with people that have cleared the content.

Seriously, you’re an ass if you join a practice party just to call the person taking time out of their night to teach others a fight an elitist because they made you feel a sad. Actually try to learn from your mistakes before lashing out at someone helping you. If you don’t want to be told how to do better, remove yourself so you won’t cause drama for the other 7 people willing to listen.

[SturmChurro]

It’s the trend. I’ve given up on ex/raid learning parties entirely because the ones I’ve tried recently have players new to the content trying to argue with people that have cleared the content.

Seriously, you’re an ass if you join a practice party just to call the person taking time out of their night to teach others a fight an elitist because they made you feel a sad. Actually try to learn from your mistakes before lashing out at someone helping you. If you don’t want to be told how to do better, remove yourself so you won’t cause drama for the other 7 people willing to listen.

I stopped doing extremes entirely as well. I used to do them all the time, but just SO MUCH time wasted sitting in there for failure after failure.. after failure. When you find a decent party one person has to go, so then EVERYONE decides they have to go, and here we go again. redoing already learned mechanics over and over. Lucky if I'm ever progressing for tens of hours of time put in. It's a literal nightmare. I'll probably get back into it sooner, or later, but God. Even though, I've missed out on a decent amount of content, I haven't had the headache of dealing with that mess anymore.

[Vahlnir]

I stopped doing extremes entirely as well. I used to do them all the time, but just SO MUCH time wasted sitting in there for failure after failure.. after failure. When you find a decent party one person has to go, so then EVERYONE decides they have to go, and here we go again. redoing already learned mechanics over and over. Lucky if I'm ever progressing for tens of hours of time put in. It's a literal nightmare. I'll probably get back into it sooner, or later, but God. Even though, I've missed out on a decent amount of content, I haven't had the headache of dealing with that mess anymore.

I usually do 1 or 2 Extremes every expansion, sometimes more. But the only one I bothered with this expansion was Memoria Misera. And GOOD LORD was that awful. Trying to clear that on release was next to impossible. I spent days trying to complete it and gave up for awhile. I went through more learning/clear parties than I'd care to admit. Only one managed to get close one time, and even that seemed to be a fluke. Took a break from the game and came back after that. Managed to clear it (and farm it! who knew!) some 4-5 months after release. I'd like to say I was happy to finish climbing this mountain that seemed impossible months before, but I was just relieved to be done with it. I got my stuff and never went back. Thing is, that wasn't even a hard Extreme. So yeah, not much incentive to try more. lol

[ForteNightshade]

The ff14 community to me just seems so ...unenthusiastic, or apathetic at times. Hard to put the exact word to it and doesn't always apply to everyone, but just how it feels overall.

Where in other MMO's people used to really get into their gearing, classes, optimization and all the different content, a large amount of ff14 players just don't seem to care. They just do roulettes or craft a little and log off. They don't care if they're playing badly, they don't really want to be challenged, they're not in a rush to get the rewards, most generally just pug than find friends to group with.

If a new patch is about to come out or new content was just released or some new piece of news is out, sometimes it isn't even posted here on the forums. It's just the same Duty Finder stories, show your catgirl and a few trolls or empty threads. For example, Ishgard ranking was just released and there was almost no discussion on the DoH forum and the Dungeons section is generally empty, just a rant here and there and very little discussion.

Maybe it's the content, how easy, fast and predictable a lot of it is and the safety bubble environment where player performance is something to be hidden away that just causes people to care less about it all over time. They play it, it's enjoyable and functions to spend spare time on, but hard to really get enthusiastic about it.

A lot of that idle chatter doesn't make it to the forums due to the lax moderation. Considering reddit had a 1,500 upvoted thread mocking just how many people have been banned here. Suffice it to say, the online community doesn't exactly view the OF in a good light, whether justified or not. Therefore, much of that discussion shifts to reddit itself or various discords because people aren't afraid to parse their opinions.

With that said, it's undeniable the ease of content has definitely had an impact. Crafting is more or less either meme'd on or people lament the "old days" instead of discussing anything current. It doesn't help nearly everyone knows bots are a notorious problem which heavily taints any excitement Ishgard has, especially when so little is done about crafting bots in general. It's rather sad seeing Ashe10 barely talk about FF nowadays outside how much he loathes the new crafting changes.

I can't argue I haven't felt similarly unenthused at times. It's hard to get excited about content I can absolutely faceroll without a modicum of effort. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the MSQ, normal raids and etc. I wouldn't be here if I didn't enjoy the game as a whole. It just... lacks something at the moment. Perhaps I've just been playing for long enough I can't get excited about the same patch cycles the way I did years ago. It doesn't help I'm more worried going into 6.0 about job adjustments and such. I know a friend of mine is terrified they'll destroy what's left of the jobs she enjoys since her prior favorites were Bard and Astro. Need I say more?

[AncientWillow]

Tbh i switched to ps4 for multiple reasons

for one, people are way to sensitive (this is also coming from someone who is extremely sensitive to so ya its bad), this isn't even with going on the person state a opinion = most likely one or two people reported or ban. (i'm sorry by devs are way to stick on "communication or social stuff"

for two, it kinda gets old how all the "hard" content is basically locked around social bs and rl time zone issues then people talk about it like it made them something lol (it didn't it just means your more social)

also well most if not all partys hardly talk anymore its just pop in and clear pop out restart. (unless its an alliance raid then everyone screws around because all alliance raids are a laughing joke honestly.)

and finally I expect almost 78% of us will never see a house in our names even if we work for the gil almost non of us will ever have one, then you turn around and see devs adding more outdoor furniture when most people won't ever get a chance to use regardless of how active they are lol

(this isn't just in ffxiv) but honestly online games its almost not worth talking anymore with how everyone is anymore not worth losing 75+ dollars of what you buy cuz someone has soft skin so to speak lol

[Vahlnir]

Tbh i switched to ps4 for multiple reasons

for one, people are way to sensitive (this is also coming from someone who is extremely sensitive to so ya its bad), this isn't even with going on the person state a opinion = most likely one or two people reported or ban. (i'm sorry by devs are way to stick on "communication or social stuff"

I can assure you that both versions of the game have sensitive, insensitive and other types of players. Because PC and PS4/5 share the same game with them being linked together and all.

[AncientWillow]

I can assure you that both versions of the game have sensitive, insensitive and other types of players. Because PC and PS4/5 share the same game with them being linked together and all.

ps4 is easier to resist typing though so u dont have to deal with it

[Vahlnir]

ps4 is easier to resist typing though so u dont have to deal with it

Not really. Most people have a keyboard to use. It doesn't magically go away just because you choose not to communicate.

[SturmChurro]

I usually do 1 or 2 Extremes every expansion, sometimes more. But the only one I bothered with this expansion was Memoria Misera. And GOOD LORD was that awful. Trying to clear that on release was next to impossible. I spent days trying to complete it and gave up for awhile. I went through more learning/clear parties than I'd care to admit. Only one managed to get close one time, and even that seemed to be a fluke. Took a break from the game and came back after that. Managed to clear it (and farm it! who knew!) some 4-5 months after release. I'd like to say I was happy to finish climbing this mountain that seemed impossible months before, but I was just relieved to be done with it. I got my stuff and never went back. Thing is, that wasn't even a hard Extreme. So yeah, not much incentive to try more. lol

Spending days is the norm, extremes are probably the hardest things to do in PF - even when they aren't relevant they can be. It's actually pretty ridiculous. What will happen is you get close, feel really good THEN that party disbands, and you gotta start from scratch all over again. Like every.. time. That's the worst part. It feels like luck more than anything else when you do get a clear, and god the amount of trap parties for farms even after you clear. I was done after Hades prog, haven't touched it since. I'll just wait until next expansion to finish off my extreme mount, still be annoying, but still easier.

I didn't even try the unreal or whatever they are now coming out with. .

[MPK]

I don't bother pugging anymore. Way less stress in my life after joining a static.