An interesting contrast between player communities

[Equitable_Remedy]

Coming out of the live letter, Reddit seems to be generally very hype while these forums generally seem to be drowning in misery (and very concerned about teleportation fees).

Both Reddit and the forums are very self-selecting subsets of the player base and neither represents the player base more generally, but it's interesting to see general attitudes diverge so wildly coming out of the same event.

Each venue has different norms, people, etc. (though certainly with some overlap), but the contrast is stark.

[ElHeggunte]

The official forums have been an echo chamber of mopiness, hyperbole, and victimhood for a long time now so I'm not at all surprised. Reddit can be its own kind of cesspool, but at least it's in a more entertaining way rather than depressing.

[NessaWyvern]

Reddit FFXIV also removes a lot of stuff that doesn't enforce a positive community, so it might be a bit skewed from that.

[Ajantisz]

Coming out of the live letter, Reddit seems to be generally very hype while these forums generally seem to be drowning in misery (and very concerned about teleportation fees).

Both Reddit and the forums are very self-selecting subsets of the player base and neither represents the player base more generally, but it's interesting to see general attitudes diverge so wildly coming out of the same event.

Each venue has different norms, people, etc. (though certainly with some overlap), but the contrast is stark.

Reddit is full to the brim with sycophants, go on there as a test and say you think they should get rid of Alphinaud. The ability to downvote threads means you dont see the criticism as readily too.

[Fawkes]

What subreddit are y'all talking about, because /r/ffxiv is like 60% "lol sch bad" memes

[Jeeqbit]

Reddit upvotes certain things so that you don't see the rest. The only reason people come to the forums usually is to complain because we are told the feedback on the forums is gathered by the developers.

[MoofiaBossVal]

MMO Champions FFXIV subforum > FFXIV Official Forums = FFXIV threads on 4chan > FFXIV thread on Spacebattles > Gamefaqs FFXIV forum >>>>>>>>> Something Awful threads > r/FFXIV subreddit > Twitter

The good FFXIV communities:

• MMO Champion has a lot of honest discussion about the game, little discussion of the story.

• The FFXIV Official Forums has some indepth posts on both gameplay and story, but many times the back and forth discussions tend to not go anywhere much because there is strawmanning and people missing each other's points. There are also some hardcore fanboys/cultists here, though not as many as on other forums.

• You will find honest discussions of FFXIV in threads on /v/, namely the gameplay (but also sometimes the story). Strangely, the WoW general on /vg/ has more actual discussion of FFXIV than the xiv general. Don't bother going to the XIV thread on /vg/ as no one actually talks about the game in there, it's just people posting their glamours. The drawback is that this being 4chan, threads are deleted after a few days so it's cumbersome digging through archive sites if you want to find discussion on a specific topic, and it's difficult to make friends there.

• Spacebattles has indepth discussions of the story. Also has good recommendations for gameplay for newcomers. Little to no discussion of the gameplay. Is a little bit of an echochamber.

• The Gamefaqs forum for FFXIV also has good discussions (namely the gameplay but sometimes the story) but people don't reply to each other as much and there aren't as many indepth discussions.

FFXIV communities you should avoid:

• Something Awful is filled with hardcore fanboys and cultists. The one guy there who doesn't think FFXIV is god's gift to mankind is regularly mocked and derided by many of the posters in that thread. The moderators will also ban you for dissenting to the narrative that FFXIV is the bestest thing ever. Also you have to pay money to register an account there, which is ostensibly to keep out the trolls, but it just results in the userbase being made up of incredibly egotistical people who think they are in a very special elitist club.

• The r/FFXIV subreddit is just fanart and memes being posted and cultists pretending everything is nice and happy and that there are no problems. Anyone who bothers trying to make an indepth discussion or doesn't go along with the consensus is downvoted and ignored. I know there are other r/FFXIV subreddits but the upvote/downvote system is cancerous and leads to echochambers.

• Twitter lol. Only good for following fanartists (the best ones are Herodio2013, Falcon_xiv, kuroimori_twee, and Q6Q6TIKIN)

I don't know what the r/FFXIV Discord is like, but given how bad your average fandom Discord is, I'm going to presume it's just as awful. Honestly Discord is best used for small communities.

[True-to-Caesar]

Moofia summed it up perfectly.

Reddit game forums are basically echochambers and very rarely any real discussion can happen there because the upvote/downvote and hive mentality don’t favor discussion. So you mostly see memes, art and the “X is so good” thread. But nothing in-depth.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

What subreddit are y'all talking about, because /r/ffxiv is like 60% "lol sch bad" memes

That's what they meant with hyperbole. I've just been through the FFXIV subreddit, and there is not one thread on the first page saying anything about "SCH bad".

[Reap00]

Reddit FFXIV also removes a lot of stuff that doesn't enforce a positive community, so it might be a bit skewed from that.

That is a good thing. This forum could use some moderation as well.