The Official Forums is an EXTREMELY poor example of a "Good Community"

[Tehmon]

I think it's a given that all official game forums that are hosted by the gaming devs/company themselves will be absolute hellholes.

[SlouchyBard]

- Many people have many different opinions, and people cannot handle a difference of opinion too well, and this is exhibited in a variety of ways, be it personal insults or passive-aggressive attitude, or just a general pointless and sarcastic monologue.

So if I dont like someone's opinion it gives me the justification to be a jerk because that is how some people want to "express" themselves? Sweet.

I do agree with your points though.

[VerdeLuck]

Most of those threads just go on for too long. It usually goes
1 - person suggests something
2 - people give good counter arguments
3 - OP or people with their opinion respond back
4 - back and forth for a few rounds
5 - people get bored and start to get more and more hyperbolic because why not? no one is changing their mind
6 - it devolves into trolling.

like most forums once the trolling starts, it's too fun to stop. That's why we have a 100+ page thread about dps meters, it's too fun for people to get firemage to reply again and again and bait him over and over.
if you want serious discussion, interact with about the first 5-10 pages of a thread then ignore it.

[Rokke]

I think a lot of the "angry" takes are because people feel like they aren't heard.

There's been a lot of feedback on multiple things over years, but the english community seems to be sidelined most of the time and getting very little aknowledgement for things they bring up.

This leads to a loop of frustration and eventually people just shouting into void.

Its not even just the english community, the forums as a whole feel abandoned. In ye olden days every language would get occasional responses from a mod, community rep member, or sometimes even devs, but radio silence is the norm now.

It doesn't help that the amount of player to dev Q&As has dropped over the last few years due to covid. Yelling into the void is a pretty apt description.

[NekoMataMata]

Because you can't say anything in game, not even "turn your stance on please" because it may get your account suspended for "bad behavior" and reddit it's full of fake "PMA".

Twitter it's the worst place so far the amount of whiteknights protecting with their lives every single decision of SE is stunning.

Twitter is the worst because people will sit there and dox others while at the same time acting self-righteous. If you do something that a lot of FFXIV twitter users don't like then they immediately try to dig up whatever they can on you, as if you gave them a right to.

Don't get me wrong, some of the stuff people on there complain about is horrible, but that doesn't make it right to attempt to dox said person for their behavior.

[Kolaina]

After being hit with a demeaning and all-too-common racial stereotype after mentioning my race and gender on here and that post being upvoted I realized this place and the people here aren’t the greatest.

I also admit Ive gotten real heated here before. And now at this point I maintain a distance and glance at the occasional thread. But I keep interactions to a minimum. It’s done wonders.

I wonder why you would bring it up as those things should hold zero relevance in a gaming forum.

[xxmiamorecadenza]

I wonder why you would bring it up as those things should hold zero relevance in a gaming forum.

The thread was about ethnic hair styles. I make characters that look like me. I interact with fellow POC’s that want the same thing for their characters.

So me being black = me wanting black hairstyles.

You may think you did something there but you rly didn’t.

[Kolaina]

The thread was about ethnic hair styles. I make characters that look like me. I interact with fellow POC’s that want the same thing for their characters.

So me being black = me wanting black hairstyles.

You may think you did something there but you rly didn’t.

No. Didn’t think I did a thing. Just didn’t see the relevance of real life race or gender on a gaming forum. Now you’ve explained the context and still, not necessarily relevant.

I was always told not to share personal information with strangers. Don’t be surprised when it comes back to bite you in the end

[Joven]

The thread was about ethnic hair styles. I make characters that look like me. I interact with fellow POC’s that want the same thing for their characters.

So me being black = me wanting black hairstyles.

You may think you did something there but you rly didn’t.

I'm pretty sure they weren't going for some kind of "gotcha" moment as that is a legitimate question. This an internet forums. We're all of us anonymous and as such things like our age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc are irrelevent. Choosing to willfully surrender that information opens up the possibility of what you experienced, hence the reason for the anonymity.

[DixieBellOCE]

Its not even just the english community, the forums as a whole feel abandoned. In ye olden days every language would get occasional responses from a mod, community rep member, or sometimes even devs, but radio silence is the norm now.

It doesn't help that the amount of player to dev Q&As has dropped over the last few years due to covid. Yelling into the void is a pretty apt description.

This basically.

The community moderators only ever step in to remove a post, they don't talk or communicate in any way with the player base.

Its the same downhill road that Blizzard went down, and its a path of no return.

They need to step off twitter/reddit/other forums and focus on their OFFICIAL forums.