Genuine Question for Frequent Negative Posters

[Hurlstone]

I must admit, I used to have more energy in these debates but honestly… I just think very few of the regular 'complainers' actually care about the state of the game or what they say. It makes trying to debate these topics feel rather worthless, given how jaded some people appear, and I really do not think the game and its flaws can be used as an excuse.

This sort of statement is where a lot of the objections to "negative posters" come from. It's not that you personally dislike the game, but that you claim those who like it are automatically something less than a real player.

Some people like to stand around in Limsa looking pretty, but there's plenty of people that just play the game as an actual game – but not 24 hours a day.

I'm here because forum discussion is a hobby in itself – any time I start playing a major game, I will look for a forum to it so I can discuss the game with other people who like the game (which does not mean liking every aspect), and if it provides dev feedback then all the better.

If you don't like a thing, say you don't like a thing. But don't say that people can only like the thing if they don't really play it.

That's the an issue too, there is a spiteful element to much of the constant negativity/trolling. People who play are just AFK'ing/ERP'ing, and anyone who dares disagree with a criticism is just a ‘white knight shilling for the poor billionaire company’. Even the self-admitted trolls have changed their tune of late and decided to go for more personal attacks to get more ‘enrage’ engagement. Its even stranger due to the fact that there are so little ‘white knight’ posts/trolls here… out of all the places on the web which discuss the game, this is the most 'open' I would say.

Because feedback isn't always negative.

If people only speak up about the things they dislike, and not the things they do like, they might change something on the false impression that nobody is happy with it in its current state.

Exactly, all type of feedback should be recorded. Dismissing praise and positive comments is just as bad as dismissing constructive criticism.