Toxicity and Community

[EtherRose]

Snip

I don't think you know what a community is. A community is people with common interests living in a particular area. The common interest and area is we all play FFXIV. The player base IS the "Community" of the game.

[Equitable_Remedy]

It's weird how all of these "community is toxic" threads started flooding the forums right around the time that a certain streamer announced that he was going to play the game.

Probably a coincidence.

[technole]

XIV is much bigger than it was during Stormblood, almost feels like two fold. Anytime you have growth, it will bring bad apples along with it. Many always liked to say "well FFXIV is different, it's not like that community..". Right.

Some are just a little surprised because they sat in their little bubble all-day to see what is really out there.

[Rinhi]

It's weird how all of these "community is toxic" threads started flooding the forums right around the time that a certain streamer announced that he was going to play the game.

Probably a coincidence.

probably has to do with countless of players decrying WoW/all of the WoW community as toxic from anecdotal evidence or just hearsay while saying the same things don't happen in XIV, even though they do
but if you post about them, you get harassed, victim blamed or people make excuses why it happened and how it's just a few bad eggs (but they don't make this distinction in WoW's case, mind you), or hell, in asmon's case, blaming WoW for the harassment he received in XIV

[Neoyoshi]

For me, I find community within my small family FC and people who are just overall pleasant folk to be around- that's a very small demographic for me personally and whatever type of joking or messing around it's a very much a contained and private thing- usually taking place on a private Discord among my friends.

I think when I was younger, I might have been able to be the type of person that hangs out in Limsa and who enjoys that banter to a certain degree, however the older I get, the more I feel like I'm beginning to cherish quality personalities and friendships; so I've very much changed to a Quality over Quantity outlook.

That's also altered how I look at things like a community, even in a video game- I kind of see habits and trends in mmorpg's today that I noticed back when things like Myspace, Friendster and Facebook came out; where it all of a sudden became a click away to amassing very large hordes of friends; heck- i even got on that train for a little while.

But quality friendship takes time, commitment; it's very much true for community as well- it's something that requires some fostering and growth; this can be a absurd obstacle course in a environment like a mmorpg, with new and old people coming and going, it can be frustrating at times for that to feel like a community at all.

That's why i stick to Guild communities and the Free company in this game, because that can be fostered more easily and by it's nature, can create quality friendships.

I don't believe people we've never even spoken to can be dubbed "community"; i can't just walk out into Limsa or any large gathering in the game and think; "this is the community I'm a part of" - that's just ridiculous. That's like walking out in the middle of a busy Time Square and yelling: "Hello there my fellow community members!" - which incidentally; (as a New Yorker), that isn't the strangest thing a person might see in Time Square.

[Shalan]

It's weird how all of these "community is toxic" threads started flooding the forums right around the time that a certain streamer announced that he was going to play the game.

Probably a coincidence.

It's actually a conversation that's been had in the community repeatedly over the years, this isn't something new. Last time it was a big topic was around this time last year (or the year before?) following some youtube videos about FFXIV fans attitudes towards criticism of the game and a series of threads about gameplay norms and player skill. I suppose the scale might be larger now, but the game has been steadily growing so that's to be expected.

I fully expect the drama to die down soon only to be kicked up again in another year or so, just as it always has.

[Jojoya]

Then you missed my point. It's not "toxicity" its using your freedom to create and carve out your own community. One that is an actual community rather than a loose collection of players vaguely connected by interest.

Everyone else is dirt for you to grind beneath your heel

Those are not the words of someone trying to build a community.

It's weird how all of these "community is toxic" threads started flooding the forums right around the time that a certain streamer announced that he was going to play the game.

Probably a coincidence.

We've had these threads all along. They're far more numerous at the moment thanks to said streamer having a history of being part of the problem in another game and publicizing how he's now giving this game a try.

In the end, people need to stop generalizing entire game communities as toxic because they aren't. It's individuals within those communities who are. The better the policing tools and enforcement a game has, the fewer those individuals tend to be and the less likely others will have problem experiences.