Normalize criticism

[Minarisweet]

As far as I know forums are here for feedback and expressing dissapointment and anger at the game is good enough feedback since it does indeed point out there's something wrong with X feature of the game... yet a big portion of the forums is people against people having an opinion and most responses are just unsub from the game, which I think is doing nothing for anyone. SE is good at listening to players and I think we should encourage our voices being heard instead of silenced.

[Jeeqbit]

It's important for SE to be able to see whether the crowd is saying yae or nae to something. That's not to say something should actually be done if everyone is saying yae, because it may be a silly idea, not realistic or not make sense like we think it does. There may be downsides to doing it, or it may not be enough of a priority for the wider audience.

[ItMe]

This is a great suggestion.
Civil discourse is beautiful.

Though... I can't help but notice you only have 3 posts to your name yet you've been here almost half a year. There's nothing wrong with that, but considering the topic it begs the question: will you be joining in and engaging with the community voices and responding to opinions? Or are you just calling on the rest of us to do more of that?

[Minarisweet]

This is a great suggestion.
Civil discourse is beautiful.

Though... I can't help but notice you only have 3 posts to your name yet you've been here almost half a year. There's nothing wrong with that, but considering the topic it begs the question: will you be joining in and engaging with the community voices and responding to opinions? Or are you just calling on the rest of us to do more of that?

I do look at the forums often and like some stuff but I try to not post anything unless I have strong emotions about it. Its also kind of discouraging that most of the posts I see of topics I'm more interested at like complaints about combat content and how to make it better get a good amount of people trying to defend it by questioning the poster's morale and these same people usually have the most upvotes. Its why I'm also making this post, calling out the people I tend to see who don't like others having complaints about the game since for them the game is flawless and if there's any issue with it its a you issue according to them.

[Roeshel]

SE is good at listening to players and I think we should encourage our voices being heard instead of silenced.

I actually don't know about that.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-healer-issues

It is a pretty big thread but nothing has been changed for one year.

I don't personally agree with everything but removing the uniqueness of the fairies was rather dumb. I always wondered why I have two when they both do the same.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

My issue with most of the criticism that gets posted to general discussion is "I don't like this thing, make it a thing I like" or "please make this game... A different game"

Those are not helpful.

[Wind-Krysvein]

There seems to be a sort of vicious cycle here with posts criticising the game. It goes something like this:

Person #1: posts complaint (by making topic)
Person #2: posts agreement/rebuttal
Person #3: posts agreement/rebuttal
Person #4: posts a short, snarky rebuttal. Gets more Likes than the others and is usually crowned the "de facto response" to the topic's criticism: often results in people Likepiling on top of it instead of writing out their own thoughts.

Tell me you haven't seen this pattern repeated at least a few times in the recent past. Honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if people are making posts like it on purpose to get invisible "internet points", although that's pure conjecture on my part.

For troll posts it's fine, but for something that was clearly written with genuine thought, it may have the effect of stiffling conversation that should probably be happening. Regardless if it's for or against.

[hobostew]

I don't really get where this idea that criticism isn't allowed even comes from. All people do here is complain about literally everything! If you have something you want to convey to the devs then you should go ahead and do it. It may happen that people will disagree with you and you should expect that but you have to keep in mind that you aren't here to please the crowd. If you feel there is something that could be done better or that you want added to the game you should just go ahead and post it anyway.

I'm not sure if it was Yoshi-p or maybe Ion over at WoW that said that they appreciate feedback particularly when its specific and detailed. A lot of the times people will throw around buzzwords and ultimately say very little and I imagine that kind of feedback isn't all that helpful. I feel that's also something to keep in mind.

[Irisdina_Wiloh]

Snip.

I think you're spot on with this, it's beyond annoying. If you visit the sub forums for DPS for example, I seeing likes being used in there as I expect was intended, to signal what is a good post and one that most people agree with, whilst other posts maybe get a like or two. This is how it should be, not everyone vying for likes because their ego demands it.

I've been around for awhile now, I don't post often. The amount of people I have seen go from being prominent forum posters to ghosts is quite sad and part of the reason they've gone is plainly because of how this forum functions. Good debates get ruined by people who want to post snarky comments and add nothing of value to a thread.

The other thing is peoples inability to argue their views without all hell breaking loose and it getting real nasty, real fast. There's lots of straw manning, lies and disingenuous comments being flung around constantly. The moderation of this forum is really lacking and it could do with a clean up and more active moderation honestly.

[Puremallace]

As far as I know forums are here for feedback and expressing dissapointment and anger at the game is good enough feedback since it does indeed point out there's something wrong with X feature of the game... yet a big portion of the forums is people against people having an opinion and most responses are just unsub from the game, which I think is doing nothing for anyone. SE is good at listening to players and I think we should encourage our voices being heard instead of silenced.

What forums are you reading? Only time I see someone get told to unsub if they want to completely revamp how the entire game works. People have come onto Final Fantasy forums and suggested Square Enix just ignore the story and focus on putting out more raids. People have come here wanting to turn the entire game into a sandbox pvp MMO.