These forums are weird

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

Seems like a stark contrast of those inside the game. Everyone's so nice and positive, and the story generally seems to be well liked by the players.

Then I come here and it seems like every topic on the front page is just negative, angry, or bitter.

What's the deal?

[Rehayem]

Seems like a stark contrast of those inside the game. Everyone's so nice and positive, and the story generally seems to be well liked by the players.

Then I come here and it seems like every topic on the front page is just negative, angry, or bitter.

What's the deal?

We are screaming into the endless void in hopes SE will hear our criticisms because we care about the game and wish it to be better, but when all you hear is silence, zero acknowledgement and bliss ignorance to real issues at hand that disheartens people's passion, you will see people be negative, angry and bitter.

[Jeeqbit]

People more often leave feedback when they had a negative experience rather than a positive one. Although occasionally people have such an extremely positive experience that they do as well.

We are screaming into the endless void in hopes SE will hear our criticisms because we care about the game and wish it to be better, but when all you hear is silence, zero acknowledgement and bliss ignorance to real issues at hand that disheartens people's passion, you will see people be negative, angry and bitter.

Even if they did, they couldn't respond to very much. If they spent even a fraction of the time we did trying to argue with us, it would be an endless argument like trying to swim in a sea of trolls.

Industry shifted to social media like twitter instead to do that though.

[Boblawblah]

No moderation combined with very dedicated trolls tends to do that.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Im sure in the old days in Ancient Rome, the forums were exactly like this too, just with less anonymity

[caffe_macchiato]

Seems like a stark contrast of those inside the game. Everyone's so nice and positive, and the story generally seems to be well liked by the players.

Then I come here and it seems like every topic on the front page is just negative, angry, or bitter.

What's the deal?

1) Churn. FFXIV has a steady player growth due to new players coming in to replace old ones that leave (Source: Lucky Bancho). Except, the old players are still here and make criticism about why they leave. The new players have no need to complain since the game is free and they have no investment.

2) A lack of places to talk publicly about the game. Balmung Ul'dah has a /shout chat that's similar to these forums in its opinion on the game, but conversation is filled with sex and ERP so you might have not seen it.

3) The "sweet and friendly" paradox. FFXIV has fostered a culture where people are extremely nice up-front due to the censorship from GMs and the overall need to be agreeable in order to make friends and do content. Negative comments are left to other sites like the forums. I have met some forum posters in-game and they have never said a negative thing about the game there. Of course, this is an anecdote, but it's just as true as yours.

4) You do not have a class that is level 90. This means that you don't have experience in endgame raiding or activities that other people do. You have nine years of mostly single-player, "solved" content to do by yourself to keep yourself occupied. Plenty to do. Once you finish it, then what? Perhaps a "break" to "play other games" like Yoshida suggests? Many of us have already taken a break. We pay monthly in the hopes that someday we can have something to do in our favorite video game, which is this one.

A single-player game is fun for your first play-through, but after you finish it, then it's over. Why are we required to pay monthly for this? We were lured to FFXIV in the hopes that it would be an online game similar to WoW, Fortnite, Minecraft, Apex, GW2, PSO2, OSRS, etc. that has a persistent online community. That's what it was from 2013-2022 before the big single-player shift. You don't know what that's like. Now we've lost our favorite game and many of us are still in shock and bewilderment that it could fall apart so quickly.

It takes a lot for us to piece our (personal) lives back together again. Eventually we will, and we'll leave this place so you can have the game all to yourself. While you idle and play other games, of course.

[Arkdra]

4) You do not have a class that is level 90. This means that you don't have experience in endgame raiding or activities that other people do. You have nine years of mostly single-player, "solved" content to do by yourself to keep yourself occupied. Plenty to do. Once you finish it, then what? Perhaps a "break" to "play other games" like Yoshida suggests? Many of us have already taken a break. We pay monthly in the hopes that someday we can have something to do in our favorite video game, which is this one.

A single-player game is fun for your first play-through, but after you finish it, then it's over. Why are we required to pay monthly for this? We were lured to FFXIV in the hopes that it would be an online game similar to WoW, Fortnite, Minecraft, Apex, GW2, PSO2, OSRS, etc. that has a persistent online community. That's what it was from 2013-2022 before the big single-player shift. You don't know what that's like. Now we've lost our favorite game and many of us are still in shock and bewilderment that it could fall apart so quickly.

It takes a lot for us to piece our (personal) lives back together again. Eventually we will, and we'll leave this place so you can have the game all to yourself. While you idle and play other games, of course.

The rest of your post was fine but hilarious and insane screeds like this are simultaneously why nobody takes this forum seriously while also being the main reason to come here.

[EliaStormblade]

Many of us have already taken a break. We pay monthly in the hopes that someday we can have something to do in our favorite video game, which is this one.

Don't like what you get, but keep paying the monthly sub to play things you don't like. Shiggy diggy.

Why are we required to pay monthly for this?

Because it's a live service game. You pay to play it. If you don't like playing it, you don't pay. Easy as pie.

[caffe_macchiato]

Don't like what you get, but keep paying the monthly sub to play things you don't like. Shiggy diggy.

To be fair, I'm not allowed to talk about what I really do in FFXIV on these forums.

Because it's a live service game. You pay to play it. If you don't like playing it, you don't pay. Easy as pie.

So true. Except, one small problem. You see, when you tell people to leave your game, sometimes they actually do. You don't want people to leave your game, you're just throwing it around as rhetoric. But they will. It's happened to other MMOs before. I don't need to say the name, because most of you already know. You don't think it can get worse? It can. Or do you not remember the absolute meltdown in 2021 when "that other game" fell apart and died because--guess what--people actually did leave.

It's a self-solving problem. We'll leave soon enough, just like you want. You don't really want that to happen, but it will.

[aveyond-dreams]

-guess what--people actually did leave.

It's a self-solving problem. We'll leave soon enough, just like you want. You don't really want that to happen, but it will.

Tuesday's my last day. After this patch those of us after the actual story of the game's world and not some bland crossover with FFIV have nothing left to grip us and there's no repeatable content scheduled for the whole rest of the expansion. Can't wait to see what happens to the population of this game in the coming months. Exodus would be an apt word for the effect I anticipate, despite having very much hoped for the opposite in what should have been an expansion that encapsulates all the excellence we used to enjoy for the past 10 years.