Difficulty of normal content.

[jdtuggey]

The key take-away is that it's FAR MORE friendly and accepting that practically any other MMO. Having played nearly all of them, the other communities are what I would call "horrific" most of the time.

Possibly, I'll admit that I've had experiences on ffxiv that are way more horrifying than a lot of other drama I went through elsewhere,
so much that I suspect I've just been unlucky the times I've involved myself in the community and lucky (luckier?) with other communities ?
The way I perceive it is that toxicity in other communities is upfront and direct, bad people just advertise themselves to you, you're free to block em, rofl.
It's more underhanded and subtle on ffxiv, and it grows and grows without you noticing until it blows up spectacularly.
Comes from people you might consider friends too, so there's more considerations into blocking them.
I acknowledge that this may only be my own experience of it, I've chosen not to engage really in-game anymore.
I'm still a mentor and I care about getting sprouts in and chipping in to help and to meme a bit on NN. ;P

Which is why I do believe that this thread has already run its course

It sure has. It's a bad look for everyone. I feel like everyone should take a deep breath and give this exp a couple more weeks. ♥