Why Are the FFXIV Forums So Bad?

[Orinori]

:^) Look how nice the 14 community is:

[Darkobra]

In-game is moderated.

[Avoidy]

In-game is moderated.

The forums are moderated, too. But the posts that get deleted are generally ones that are critical of the game, which were of course reported by fanboys who couldn't bear to read about how their favorite toy isn't perfect. It's understandable to think we don't have moderation, though; I didn't think we had mods either, until I got slapped with a 10 day ban for saying a new cash shop glam was terrible looking and encouraging people not to buy it so the shop team would maybe stop producing lazy slop. But spreading that kind of nEgAtiviTy is a bannable offense, and apparently swearing is too, when it's in a post that a fanboy disagrees with.

To answer OP's question, these forums are awful because you basically have 2 types of people here for (apparently) opposed reasons. One group took the devs at their word about wanting to hear feedback, so they came here to provide it only to learn that actually no devs read this place or provide any semblance of a response to any posts. And another group is here to insist nonstop that the game is 11/10 perfection while pushing back on every feedback thread they see, even if the request is totally reasonable. Anyone coming here to provide feedback is simply mistaken about the purpose of this place, and they learn this when they post feedback and get told that they should just quit the game if they have any issues with it. If you want to actually talk about the game in a critical manner, there're barely any places to do it. This community is high on its own farts.

It also doesn't help that we do have people who post genuinely interesting critiques of the game sometimes but they do it on these alt accounts in a trollish provocative manner so that half the community here just dismisses genuine feedback with a kneejerk "TiTanMeN!!!" response and doesn't even read the thread they're replying to. And those types of trolls are drawn here because Defenders of the Game can't help themselves and have to just reply to everything even if it's by someone they can't stand. It's like watching a train crash in slow motion. I don't like it here but I can't stop checking back when I'm bored at work.

[Carin-Eri]

Waits for inevitable reply/accusations pertaining to toxic positivity

[Orinori]

Waits for inevitable reply/accusations pertaining to toxic positivity

Thats definitely a comment of all time

[Theodric]

Waits for inevitable reply/accusations pertaining to toxic positivity

I'd attribute it to precisely that. As someone who has been posting around these parts for roughly a decade now, I have met and befriended many individuals here on the forum who I otherwise never would have met in-game due to playing on a completely different server/datacentre.

It's not particularly difficult to curate one's forum experience either. If you can't agree to disagree with someone and find some middle ground then the ignore function exists to settle any major differences. In my experience, there's a vocal group of posters who treat any criticism of the game as a deeply personal attack.

Then, of course, there's the unfortunate fact that a lot of the 'toxic positivity' types have been caught engaging in stalking, harassment and either sending or cheering on credible death and sexual assault threats sent to players they dislike over the perceived 'crime' of being critical of the game's current trajectory and priorities.

It also ignores that a lot of posters critical of the game have repeatedly asked for more moderation themselves only to receive repeated radio silence. For example I made this thread a few years back asking for our community representatives to serve as a more visible and active presence:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...epresentatives

We had one introduce themselves not too long ago and they have not made a single post ever since. Ultimately this forum is under the complete control of Square Enix so blaming players for the current state of the place strikes me as a misguided endeavor - it could quite easily be 'cleaned up' and I disagree with the idea that this place is any more toxic than either Twitter or Reddit. Furthermore, the development team have admitted to gathering feedback from those two places in addition to a certain notorious Japanese site that is prone to being far, far more hostile.

[NekoMataMata]

Waits for inevitable reply/accusations pertaining to toxic positivity

What do you want people to say when this is clearly bait? Fresh character posting like a certain you-know-who. I don't like to witch hunt but they're not even trying to hide it at this point and you're sitting there lapping it up.

They're aware that they don't need to bait with outlandish topics when simply posting something about positivity/negativity/anything about the forums is such easy bait that most forumers find irresistible.

What makes it worse is the fact that this behavior is apparently acceptable to most of you as long as the sentiments provided by the OP align with your own.

[ZephyrMenodora]

What do you want people to say when this is clearly bait? Fresh character posting like a certain you-know-who. I don't like to witch hunt but they're not even trying to hide it at this point and you're sitting there lapping it up.

They're aware that they don't need to bait with outlandish topics when simply posting something about positivity/negativity/anything about the forums is such easy bait that most forumers find irresistible.

What makes it worse is the fact that this behavior is apparently acceptable to most of you as long as the sentiments provided by the OP align with your own.

I don't find the behavior acceptable and I have an extremely poor/comical vision of how I imagine such posters behind the screen. But...I can't put the energy in caring more than the moderation team, so here we are.

I am impressed with how disruptive ONE person is to an entire forum...not impressed with that person, but that it's allowed to continue.

[Orinori]

What do you want people to say when this is clearly bait? Fresh character posting like a certain you-know-who. I don't like to witch hunt but they're not even trying to hide it at this point and you're sitting there lapping it up.

They're aware that they don't need to bait with outlandish topics when simply posting something about positivity/negativity/anything about the forums is such easy bait that most forumers find irresistible.

What makes it worse is the fact that this behavior is apparently acceptable to most of you as long as the sentiments provided by the OP align with your own.

I'm really not baiting, though in hindsight I didn't mean to have the rude vibe the OP had, I was more or less in a joking manner trying to explain the demeanor and how ridiculous it is given the assumed average age of forum users.

I was actually genuinely curious why the forums just seem like an entirely different atmosphere and why this exact thing you're demonstrating here happens. There has been a ton of super interesting and helpful answers, basically summing up to lack of moderation and anonymity combined with a lack of punishment being tied to SE account.