Can we not shame people who don't like the MSQ?

[TheMightyMollusk]

Disagreeing and discussing are not the same thing as launching into a variety of ad hominem attacks, which is what usually happens.

Then keep scrolling. If people are too busy trying to score epeen points or whatever to actually have a reasonable discussion, they're not worth the time. Report it if they take it that far, but don't waste the time otherwise.

[Tlachtga]

Nah. the community loves a good dogpile whenever someone has criticism on the game.

nothing gets them going like a bit of cyberbullying while claiming to be part of a nice and welcoming community.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

Where is this shaming? On social media sites I don't use?

[Raoabolic]

I wouldn't say shaming, but more confusing. It would be like playing The last of us or Life is Strange for the gameplay. You are kind of missing a huge part of what the game offers but it's your money, so who cares? Just don't go asking dumb story related questions in chat if you are going to ignore said story.

[Remish]

Idk... I feel like on the forums anyway, that people who like the story get blasted more. The number of negative "Endwalker is bad" threads on here are way more frequent than the praising threads. I can't even have a decent discussion with someone about it without being told I'm a blind suck up or some other such thing. The amount of "Endwalker is bad" threads with the number of likes the posts get sometimes near convinces me that people do genuinely dislike Endwalker. I normally don't engage because I don't want to seem like some cult follower.

[LittleImp]

Where is this shaming? On social media sites I don't use?

Happens in the game a surprising amount, particularly in places like the Novice Network. Sometimes you'll see a sprout make an offhanded comment about a certain part of the story being boring, or say that they are mostly interested in endgame. God forbid they ask a question about story skips. Without fail, they get dogpiled by people telling them to unsubscribe from the game, or that the game "isn't for them". I've seen it happen on a smaller scale in FCs as well.

[Raoabolic]

God forbid they ask a question about story skips.

I would talk about how story/level skips are a huge problem that has rotted the community but that ship has sailed. At this point just tell them to go for it and buy a glamour or two while they are there. They can just skip the majority of the story and leveling is an afterthought now but I guess buying your way past the gatekeeper is the standard for most games now.

[SilverObi]

Usually when I see the recommendation of playing a different game, it's after someone has expressed their disappointment that XIV has such a heavy emphasis on story or that it doesn't work like other MMOs where access to content isn't gated behind story progression. Even in the NN it's a fairly even divide between "yeah it's fine to skip if you don't enjoy it" and "you will be missing a lot of the context for why people like the story if you skip".

In my experience a lot of people actually support skipping either ARR or SB with offhanded remarks about the grind or (in SB's case) nothing important happening anyway and about the only time I see someone getting dogpiled when talking down about MSQ is when they either have skipped or purposely misrepresent story beats or events and cause a lore argument.

Also OP seems to be quite bored if he's making all these hot button topics, perhaps it's time for a break until the next major patch?

[SpanishInkwehsitor]

I've tried airing my grievances about the MSQ and the content getting locked behind story instead of level/gear requirements. The community at large is not interested in even the OPTION, and Square wants your cash because they're struggling indie developers.

My suggestion is just go ham on the skip button, 90% of the cutscenes is talking without substance anyway. For the rest of it you got Youtube and the Wiki if you're REALLY interested in what's happening. Both of those are way easier to absorb the plot than the actual presentation, especially in the case of ARR or Stormblood.

[ForteNightshade]

If you don't like the MSQ, then that's fine. Not everything is for everyone. But if you post about it in a public place, people are allowed to disagree and discuss it. If you don't want to discuss it, then just keep scrolling.

The problem is a good number of people act as though you ran over their dog if you so much hint you skip cut scenes or don't care much for the story. Naguura considered not streaming FF when she came over from WoW because of the sheer amount of harassment she got for buying jump potions despite saying she planned to go back through the story later.