Normalize criticism

[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.

[StriderShinryu]

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.

^^^ So much this ^^^

FF14 has been trending towards exactly where it is now for years. You don't have to like it, and it's certainly not without it's (many) flaws, but it's pretty clear what sort of game we're looking at and are going to be looking at for the forseeable future.

Take it as a "just unsub then" if you want but it's really just a reality check. There's a bunch of common complaints that are just not going to be "fixed." Either get used to it or find a game that fits what you're actually looking for.

Anyway, another thing to keep in mind for criticism is to actually provide some sort of realistic solution, don't just complain for the sake of complaining. And no, just because some modder did it so the devs can do it isn't a realistic solution.

[Alleo]

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.

I mean how would should they voice it in your opinion so that it makes it acceptable? If I say that I dont like x and then give a example from another game arent I bascially giving them the answer on how I would like it?
For example I write that I dont like Lord of Verminion and would love something like Pokemon instead. Isnt that feedback they can work with?

What more should people do? We are not devs, we should not need to post a huge wall of text explaining exactly how we would do it. (And some of us do that and they are still called whiners by others.)

In the end if someone likes content its quite normal if they post that they just like it. There is somehow no need to explain it more in detail on what they like or why they like it. For most negative posts though its already common to write at least a few reasons to why they dont like it. IMO that should be enough as feedback.

(And a I dont like it is at least way better feedback for the devs than the people just silently leaving the game)

An important part of civil discourse is for both sides to remain objective. People often get very defensive if their ideas are not accepted by others, which is simply not helpful.

Moreover, as some others said, suggestions on tweaks or adjustments are great, but ..and how to say this.. some suggestions come from an amateur(?) prospective that quickly gets hate.

I guess remaining objective on something that you care about quite a bit is probably not that easy but I agree, that it should be at least civil. I also agree that there are those that simply cant accept that others might not like their ideas but honestly a lot of time the tone of the answering posts also dont help.

I remember reading about a topic where the OP was annoyed at the RP NPC feature and I guess she made the "mistsake" of saying that this feature might even make her unsub. Otherwise though it was simply her opinion and she even wanted to hear why some like it. I was honestly a bit shocked how harsh some of those answers were...as if she had kicked someones puppy instead of just complaining about one feature of the game.

Some people might not accept that not everyone agrees with them and some might want to change things that are basically the basic systems of the game but for me a lot of people simply post their view on different features they dont like (small features too) and then get told that they should unsub or that the NA forum is just full of whiners and horrible...

It probably does not help that the general forum is infested with trolls even if they sometimes have some interesting topics that might be worth discussing.

Unfortunately for the devs ideas and negative feedback will be more common, as nature of people- people don't really comment frequently on what's going well, so that's a bit sad. Definitely don't forget to comment on things you liked lol.

And yet when positive threads exist they barely stay active for long. I guess its partly the nature of a forum itself but sometimes even such a discussion is shut down and not always by the negative crowd either. The amount of posts in the support male viera thread that wanted the thread to die is probably quite huge. Instead of just letting people post in there even if it was running in circles some just needed to post how the arguments annoyed them...instead of just ignoring the topic.

We also had a small thread about the hype for the island sancturary and a few of the posts there were saying that people should not be hyped because afterwards they will just complain.

But I do agree with you, we also need the positive threads because even if some of us like to complain (I do) we mostly do it because we really like the game and want it to be better than its right now. I just wished that those that only go into threads to complain about complainers would use their energy to create interesting positive threads.