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The Eorzea Prospect: A Look At The Community - MMORPG.com
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The Eorzea Prospect: A Look At The Community - MMORPG.com
I’ve played many MMORPG’s in my life, I’d venture to say most of them honestly, and I can truly say FFXIV has the best community bar none. But what makes it the best?
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Nobody cares about pvp or bragging rights like other games have these speed runs,world firsts to brag about,i hate bragging people.FFXI was a game built around helping people and even the design allows helping outside your group which again other games do not.
So the whole idea of helping and getting along is just a MUCH better environment rather than have arguments over who has the better pvp build,MY GUILD is world first etc etc,i don't like communities such as the WOW's and their clones.
That in no means is a knock on all the people in those other games,of course as witnessed a few times before and recently here,people will think you are insulting ALL of those people.There are good community people and bad in EVERY game and that is fact,i am only saying the scales are "slightly" tipped because of a game design.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Last week trying to do a Savage raid a healer was yelled at then kicked from the raid because he wasn't doing enough DPS. Yes, a healer was kicked for low DPS.
Unfortunately, this "DPS is the only thing that matters" mentality is becoming more and more pervasive.
Regardless, I recall reading good things about the community and not much bad, so it seems one of the better around.
To the contrary, in the FFXIV duty finder I have found the most absolute patient community in the genre. Can't count how many times people have been supportive after a wipe on easy content due to someone new at tanking or healing. Best community when it comes to casual queueing I have ever seen. Toxicity is extremely rare in my experience.
Lets see your Battle Stations /r/battlestations
Battle Station
I'm sorry. But having played and raided at a high lvl in FFXI, it was one of the LEAST friendly MMO's I've ever played. Finding an NA guild was a nightmare. Most high end pug groups were anti-NA because they were all JP players, who just disliked NA players. Finding groups to do your limit breaks took weeks sometimes. Not only that, you had to farm an insane amount of gil to have multiple sets of gear and food, plus travel supplies like oils, etc. Which meant farming low lvl stuff. I remember countless runs of 15-20 mins to get to a camp, then one person leaves without notice and the whole group would disband. While I love the style of that game, it was without a doubt one of the most unfriendly MMOs ever.
No game is perfect. FFXIV is toxic in different ways WoW is not. The only boon to FFXIV, is you actually have to learn the fights for raiding in this game in order to clear it. In WoW, weak auras and ilvl can sometimes carry you to victor.
But don't think elitest don't exist. Try pugging Savage this past week. People are just as cruel to folks who aren't 100% up to speed. One misstep? Berated, then kicked. Not given a chance to learn most of the time.
OP didnt say there is literally zero negativity or dbags in the game; just less of them. And he is right.
Lets see your Battle Stations /r/battlestations
Battle Station
I've seen tons of "who's the noob in the group who's never done this run before?" Followed by a vote to kick, kicking over someone watching the cutscene for a dungeon, and "learn to play scrub" screaming at newer players. That's pretty much why I quit half way thru heavensward is the community, atleast where I was playing, changed seemingly overnight.
And you'd be wrong.
I've been playing since ARR launched and this has nothing to do with "refugees" from any other MMO, the FF14 community has always been super elitist.
Any real FF14 player knows why you can no longer skip cut scenes in the MSQ Duty Finder but the white knights just have to come galloping to protect FF14s honor.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
I have seen this once maby playing since ARR launched so not sure where you seen this much toxicity.
Only time I seen toxicity is when ppl run dungeons with gear 30ish lvls too low... and in that case they sorta deserve it because you cannot do the dungeon. Example: healer going into a 59 dungeon with a lvl 29 weapon and lvl 15 through 40 gear. This is happening more and more now... and those ppl should be yelled at it is common sense.
Actually kicking someone in this fashion is against tos and can get you a suspension in ffxiv. If the dungeon is unclearable you are required to vote abandon or leave and take penalty.
Not once have I every seen someone get kicked for being new and i have been playing since 2.0, mmost if not all times people dont mind a new person because this means its a bonus for people who have already done it.
Saw plenty of people get kicked doing Coils of Bahamut. Doing that kind of content while its new will show what the community is really like.
Like @blackthornn I quit during HW because of the community as well, but came back right before Stormblood but didnt do as much of the high end content.
Would like to see some of the people here that think the community is the bestest ever to go into an Eden Savage group and say "Ive never done this and dont know the fight, will you teach me?" and see how well it goes.
Savage Content (and coil - they are the same tier) is not designed for pug groups, it is why everyone does it in statics for the most part.
Of course people are going to be less welcoming if you join an upper tier group without knowing even the basic mechanics. At that level you are expected to do your homework and learn about the raid before going into it if guides are available. Unless you join a pure learning from scratch group, which outside day 1 is extremely rare to find.
At that level you are also expected to have a mastery of your class. If you join and are doing 2-3k less dps then your job should be doing or simply do not know how to you use your tool kit for the given job you will be removed simply because the content is not clearable otherwise.
I have kicked over 50 ppl out of my groups for being sub par in savage/coil content... you can tell about 5mins into a run if the person is going to cut it or not just by how they are playing their job, are they making the same mistakes, and their reaction speed to mechanics. Savage content is not designed for learning the basics.
This lethargic mentality is encouraged by both the community (being way too patient at times) and the company itself (a draconian TOS that punishes anyone reported even for constructive criticism).
It's really hard for people to get a wake up call that they are not good nor are improving, when pointing that out is a punishable offence.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
Healers in FFXIV play a bit differently than how they do in most mmos. You are actually meant to spend equal (if not more) time attacking than healing. Many players that come from say WoW find that hard to understand at first or when getting into harder instances A lot of content is not meant to be beat with only 3 or 6 people attacking (not easily or quickly), all 4/8 players need to contribute.
So yes if a healer isn't attacking in savage raids, be it because they can't deal with multitasking or simply because "its not their role" then yeah they'll get the boot from any group that actually wants to meet the dps checks.
The TOS thing is a meme, you know? The changes they made to the TOS weren't to make things more strict: those rules were always there, they simply made them more clear and specific so people can't escape bans by using loopholes anymore. You are not going to get banned for giving advice, you will be banned if you act like a twat while doing it tho.
I would argue that the exact opposite has happened. The TOS rules became so vague, that any kind of interpretation is valid.
https://support.na.square-enix.com/faqarticle.php?kid=68216&id=5382&la=1
Take the following for example:
・Expressions that compel a playing style
・Expressions that any reasonable person would find offensive
・Other actions that are generally regarded as actions that inflict deep emotional distress on another person