How do you feel now that XIV has become an evenue/egasm paradise?

[caffe_macchiato]

Probably because my social skills are low but it doesn't bother me. I just don't understand why the game has this kind of outlet. Isn't there better options like VR Chat itself?

VRChat actually banned mods recently. FFXIV isn't just like VRChat, it's surpassed it in many ways. FFXIV players have created multiple APIs to augment the game and interfere with client memory calls in a way that's outlawed in VRChat. In fact, several plugins modify server packets. Packet sniffing. You know, cheats. Square Enix doesn't care. FFXIV, at this point, is more moddable than VRChat (a fact!) and is only after Second Life and Minecraft in being the most heavily-modded online game. And those mods are used in conjunction with the "clubbing" and ERP scenes to an extent not scene outside of Second Life. Clubs. Mod sync. Hundreds of 18+ ERP venues being advertised on party finder at all hours of the day.

None of these things are inherently bad, per se. If the game was meant for it, then it's a good thing because no one loses anything. But FFXIV isn't that. It's a fantasy MMO. And what have we lost? FFXIV's culture has been fundamentally changed. SFW RP is gone. Cities are filled with idlers who stand around and do nothing. Interest in actual gameplay plummets. Chat is spammed with club ads constantly. That's not to mention the horrendous damage that's taken place in the raiding scene. And where's the company in all of this?

I'm sure Final Fantasy 16 will be a great game, but is FFXIV just being neglected at this point?

[Striker44]

For as prevalent as they are supposed to be, I never really see anything about them in game. Not being into savage I never really use the party finder for much, and even then you can filter it to only show duties you want to participate in. I doubt anyone is advertising a venue while marking it as a savage or ultimate party. I also spend little time in the hub areas so I'm not witness to anything that might be happening there, though the times I have been in Limsa it's mostly people just chatting, some shouting venue advertisements, but the 15 or 20 minutes I'm there don't bother me with it.

This. I know they exist, but frankly all I ever see is a random advertisement in /shout...if it wasn't for those, I don't even think I'd realize there was a venue scene at all. When queues are fast for practically anything I queue for, even odd raids at odd hours, it seems the OP's remarks about the game being "taken over" by nightclub venues lacks any connection to the reality.

The rest of us will simply have to hold our noses until a company with an actual dev team makes an MMO more competent than this one. The FFXIV of 2013-2020 is dead and Square Enix let it happen.

I feel sorry for people like this. They've become so bitter that not only are they continuing to play something they don't enjoy, they can't stand the reality that other people are having a lot of fun playing it. The 2020 thing is even stranger given how even the cabal on here that loves to naysay EW still praises ShB. And the 2020-2023 era of ShB and EW in general features the top 2 expansions in terms of rating and playerbase (just get outside these forums and you'll see it).

They'll either leave the game or, lacking a better alternative, they turn the game into what they want.

This actually gets at the core of an old-school sandbox MMO, where the developers give the players the tools, and the players use them to create their own social space, events, and so on.

[Renalt]

Not my scene but hey if people enjoy it and have a safe space for it then I'd say let them.

[R041]

VRChat actually banned mods recently

VRChat doesn't need traditional 'mods', it has a full open SDK for Unity. So you can do anything, and build anything. Whole game modes. So no, unfortunately it still doesn't surpass VRChat. It's like saying FFXIV is more customizable than making a game in Unity. The 'Mods' they had were just some quality of life random stuff and cheats. lol

https://docs.vrchat.com/docs/setting-up-the-sdk

[Canadane]

Those modded pics look like hot trash to me.

They always do. And somehow the cheating modder brainrot seems to think it looks better.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

What consenting adults do, has nothing to do with me.
Im here to play a Videogame.

[SannaR]

They always do. And somehow the cheating modder brainrot seems to think it looks better.

I've seen some good ones, but those tend to be few and far in-between all of the ones like those above. Then they normally have a shader on that is either too dark so you can't even tell what you're supposed to be seeing or so over saturated that even if you think Mid from XVI's type hair style is cute it still looks like hot trash.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Create 1 or 2 18+ RP Servers, that require age verification, maybe make sure its moderated so nothing illegal happens.
And just leave them to their devices away from the rest of the game and away from people who want no part of it.

Thats just me though. If SE and Co. disagree, its their game.

[Chie_M]

I don't care what they do in the privacy of their own estates, I just don't want it all over shout chat and party finder. Use Discord.

[VentVanitas]

I would probably be more neutral towards these blights if they didn't straight up murder Crystal Party Finder in cold blood. It's legitimately unusable now.