Do you ever think about how people play games to escape yet...

[SillyCrow]

So I read this novel about a weird light novel the other day about someone reincarnated in a romance game in a nobility setting that solves her problems with the power of modern weaponry.

And I realized I was trying to emulate that in game.

[SaltyDaddy]

People socialize in MMO. Wow, what a surprise.

[NekoMataMata]

The people you're talking about don't play FFXIV, they live through FFXIV. It's why so many people piss their pants whenever the plugin/modding community looks bad, their actual existence is at threat if Square Enix were to remove clamp down on it.

A small portion of the XIV player base are terminally online and if you do anything that threatens that, you soon bring out the worst in these people. (It's why actual discussions around mogs/plugins get brigaded so much by certain people).

I think it's funny that people make Twitter and Instagram accounts for their OCs if they're not otherwise living as their OC anyway. Especially when it's all modded characters that look like they've come straight out of Second Life or IMVU. Bonus points if they're selling cosmetic mods or gshade/reshade configs for real money.

That explains a lot. Helps me to understand why people here are immediately getting aggressive. I'm not making threats, saying people have to quit or whatever, just making an observation, but there's already a handful of angry people here.

[Kaurhz]

People do use MMOs as an escapism, and quite frankly, that people use it as an escapism make it all the more enticing for people to incorporate parts of themselves IRL into their character, as the whole point is that they see their character as an extension of themselves in a fantasy world, disconnected from the woes outside.

[VelKallor]

Kaurhz: I think its a little deeper to be honest..these days, people seem more afraid than they were when I was younger..they jump at shadows, fear strangers as if everyone is going to put them in danger, then theres the constant in your face news cycles..maybe for many the game is a better world than the one they have to deal with outside the front door.

Youve touched on a very valid point, and, I think that runs a lot deeper..when people see the game as an extension of themselves..maybe its also a subconscious expression of where they would want to be rather than the world they live in now. i mean, ask many today where they would want to live, give them a choice between an idyllic city and the world outside, which would you choose?

Gridania vs wherever you live now?

Ive come from a time when none of what we see now existed...and maybe, you do have the right of it...ask yourself this: did they push themselves into this fantasy world..or has the world they lived in made this the better choice every day?

Its a frightening thought when you consider how we even got to this crossroads. Good post, Kaurhz, you may be more right than you realise.

[Midareyukki]

*Old man croaky voice* "Back in my day!!"

Escapism always existed. People just failed to learn how to deal with it. If it's not videogames, it was roleplaying, if not roleplaying, it was reading and writing crap. Even before the internet became a major thing, you had people utterly lost on television shows. Now, are we only going to blame the younger generations for it, or have the older generations do a trash job at teaching them better?

^^ just saying, older peeps: stop blaming youngsters' issues only on the internet and start looking into who failed to properly teach them the values you want them to exhibit~

[Xaruko_Nexume]

According to the forums, there’s an unlimited amount of gameplay content, so it’s really puzzling why people are using this game as a Second Life replacement. Many people say that modders, gposers and the “insta” players are all a minority. However, Mare has 20,000 people online at any given time. Those who don’t use Mare are even more numerous. And while there’s certainly an overlap between social players and raiders, the vast majority of parties in North America are for clubs and venues, not raids.

People need to re-think the broad consensus that FFXIV has an unlimited amount of gameplay content when people opt to spend most of their time not playing the game. And, as we can all predict, the social scene will only grow from here. While many people say that post-Endwalker has a ton of content, it’ll be two years until we get a new expac. You might not think that’s a big deal, but not everyone in FFXIV is satisfied with replaying ARR content all day. Some people are clearly not interested in farms and reclears.

This is what FFXIV is now, and unless if the game opens up to more long-term grinds, there’s no turning back.

So, the issue with your thought process here is that you seem to assume people are partaking in the "social" aspects of the game because there is a lack of content.

I find most people just doing the social stuff are doing so because they choose to do so, not because they have nothing left to do. Obviously there would be some outliers.

[Mimilu]

I find most people just doing the social stuff are doing so because they choose to do so, not because they have nothing left to do. Obviously there would be some outliers.

Gamers who are social and express themselves through in-game photography and fashion?! What a time to be alive! (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))

[AnnRam]

There's a massive crowd of people on FF14 that seem determined to bring real life aspects to the game?

A huge part of ffxiv's culture is gpose, but there's such an obession over it that it's almost like being on instagram. I haven't looked at my insta since the pandemic ended, but I was recently thinking and it just hit me that FFXIV is basically virtual insta at this point.

Community went to shit after Stormblood, now the game its basically a Second life viewer with people advertising MARE/Instagram in their profiles.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Community went to shit after Stormblood, now the game its basically a Second life viewer with people advertising MARE/Instagram in their profiles.

"I tell you what, community went to crap after 1.0"