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.

[Boblawblah]

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

[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.

[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.

[Ath192]

People say things differently in game but they are still people. Food for thought here. How do you know you got that commendation because you left a good impression or because you sucked so much it was a passive aggressive “you sucked” trophy?

Be careful about feeling good for getting them lol.

But yeah a few of us are bored and unhappy the game isn’t innovating. Some of us have quit and it’s likely more of us will go if the game doesn’t get better in the future. For new players the experience is pretty good all things said.

The problem doesn’t start until you invested a lot in the game and there’s nothing to do afterwards because the devs made everything too easy to get. Then you ask for more stuff here and a bunch of people tell you to go play other games. That’s usually the story of this place.

[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.

[AnnRam]

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?

If you say anything bad in game like "stupid, idiot etc" you get banned for 3 days, then 7 and next perma ban. That's why nobody says anything negative in game and if they do they risk to get banned/suspended, of course there are trolls or people with 200 accounts that don't care about anything.