Quote Originally Posted by Striker44 View Post
Except that this place has always been a cesspool of negativity, even when the game was running expansions that were phenomenally popular. ShB is practically universally viewed as the "best" expansion, but if you were around the forums during that time, you'd think it was the worst thing SE ever did. And it's not "increasingly more frustration" - I've been here a long time, it's always been like this. Which in a way sort of makes sense - people who are happy are mostly just playing the game, while people who aren't complain, both to do so and eventually knowing they'll get an echo chamber egging them on around here. During ShB, it was the people who didn't like how the Ascians and Sundering got retconned. During EW, it was the people who didn't like how the retcon got retconned itself. During DT, it's the people who didn't like the "happy vibes" approach, sudden shift in the middle of the MSQ, or are just part of the segment of the gaming population who couldn't stand that they hired a trans VA. It's whoever is dissatisfied that spends most of their time here, while the people who like each set of changes just go back to playing the game.
That is kind of what the forums are for. We do have threads in here celebrating new decisions, patch content and the like. They are less than complaints, but they are there.

But yeah. What you are essentially suggesting is that what is being discussed here has no merit or value and we should just shut up and glaze SE more - as if that did not lead to EW and DT.
They know very well how important listening to the community is and yet they just seemingly do not do it. It is a frustrating situation that does not exactly lead to much positive feedback. And this will forever stay the case until they decide to hire people in the west to actually communicate with their base, play the game with them and have a back and forth exchange with the main dev team. That is the only way to not only get a balanced spectrum of input but also somewhat quell the frustration of being ignored for so long to a degree.
Until then this is place will be the way it is. There's no medicine for the symptoms of way things currently are being run.
And lastly... as SE said so nicely themselves - when people complain they still care. It's the quiet ones that leave first. Once the complaining in here stops you know FFXIV is on its way out.