A FFXIV Player's view of the WoW Player's Mentality

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
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Hey all, Shaanis here again.
No doubt this topic is gonna draw a lot of ire from the WoW community but heavily consider it for a moment, that’s all I ask.

So I come from Final Fantasy 14 on the server Balmung and have played WoW since Warlords of Draenor, not the best expansion but hey it was a starting point for me so that’s where I draw a lot of my perspectives on this subject from.

So I am gonna start with a bit of a comparison here between player mentalities and express the pros and cons I feel are a problem for WoW as well as FFXIV since I am heavily invested in both.

The WoW community is very heavily based off of the solo player mentality for the most part outside of guilds this is a bit problematic for new players and or players who are struggling with certain content in game.

First and foremost yes this is partially based off of me dying a lot… mostly because I take on things I shouldn’t, but with that I have learned more than just “git gud”.

What I have personally seen has been the non-desire from other players to help other individuals in need, while there are occasionally a few? At large… its the solo player mentality that if you cant do something alone? You are no use to anyone.

As a player who personally does not like guilds but likes communities as a whole? This is a bit disheartening because we’re playing a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game not a single player game.

This is where my view on FFXIV comes into play, In FFXIV were I to mess up as I do from time to time in WoW? All I would have to do is ask for a rez in /shout and people would help more than 75% of the time.

FFXIV’s community is very heavily based on working together and striving to make things better for everyone, not just one person and having seen Classic WoW? It kinda sucks to see retail in the state its in with the mentality of the players.

So as personal as this post might come across, my question to everyone is what can we honestly do to try and make this community feel more like a community again and less like a single player game?

Because being honest, I have met a lot of wonderful people here but wish I could meet so many more.

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The FF XIV community is, at least in my experience, overall friendlier…but I wouldn’t put it on a pedestal. It has its own brand of toxicity. People are passive aggressive instead of outright hostile. And there’s an issue with playstyles that will likely never be solved.

Here people are expected to “get good”. In FF XIV, not so much. When even a small amount of effort is needed a lot of people cry foul, even those being affected by it. I’ve never seen a player base defend bad play more than I have in FF XIV.

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I played FF14.

The community was just as if not more toxic than WoW.

I tanked less and got yelled at more in FF14.

I would say the only reason it is said to have a “better community” is because they have more moderation in chat.

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Usually when anyone gets yelled at in FF XIV it is because people are tired of staying silent and want things to move along. There’s an almost obscene amount of tolerance there. In some cases way more than there should be. Moderated chat is partly why people stay silent though. You could say something like “It’s a beautiful day” and possibly get reported for offending someone. It is THAT strict.

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There is not really such a thing as bad play as much as there is different skill levels in a game, as people progress they begin to get better and thats something I feel the WoW community really needs to learn again.

Tolerance, something which has been sorely missing for quite a long time.

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There really is such a thing as bad play though. Like wiping a dozen times in a dungeon. Or dying to the same mechanic so many times the healer just decides to leave you on the floor.

Some people DO progress, sure, but a lot of people in FF XIV sadly do not. They are content to play as they always do, even at the expense of their fellow party members.

And their party members seem perfectly fine more often than not with carrying their broken corpses across the finish line. So the cycle continues.

I’m all for tolerance and effort, but there’s a line there when it comes to an MMO and playing with others. As the goblins of WoW say…“Time is money, friend!”

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FFXIV may not have the same type of toxicity, but it has the GCBTW mentality, where you get reported if you say someone did bad dps even if it’s to help them.

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I’d like FFXIV more if less absolute creeps seemed to play the short females…

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Remember being declined pugs for being a SeaWolf Scholar.

But, both, if not all have their own mentalities of toxicity in some form.

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thats because in FF14 dps meters are against the rules and is a reportable and even bannable offense

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I’ve played both for years. WoW since Cata and FFXIV since ARR, max level in both, and I completely agree. I feel like a lot of the toxicity in FFXIV happens outside of the game because people know they’ll get banned for it in game so they’re usually more passive aggressive as you mentioned.

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Right, but people don’t need a meter to see if someone is underperforming.

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crazy a game with half the players has half the toxic people

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This! It’s hard to speak up about anything because they’ll assume you’re using a dps meter even if you’re not, you can just tell because 1 the abilities they’re using and how they’re using them and 2 how long it’s taking for things to die. But say anything and trust me you’ll likely get reported. It can be annoying so I’ve learned to just not even say anything in XIV anymore when it comes to things like that.

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The moonguard goldshire of ffxiv.

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It’s more than Balmung, trust me. All one has to do is look at the Party Finder in the evening to see that. Night clubs, courtesans, bath houses, the list goes on. All with an 18+ minimum age for participation.

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OP, that game is boring…

Why do you need to advertise it here?
Do you get paid for it?

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On a side. I am really enjoying my Bow/Bow Bosmer Stamsorc in Cyrodill.

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In my experience the FFXIV community is even worse than the WoW community. It just happens to be more subtle due to the hugbox levels of moderation, which in turn leads to toxicity taking the form of gaslighting and cliquey behaviour. Which personally I find far more toxic than someone yelling at me. At least the yelling is more honest.

Yes, there really is such a thing as bad play. WoW tends to teach you the basics very early on and there are very few unique mechanics outside of mythic raiding. At a certain point you should be expected to know how to deal with these mechanics, even if you aren’t expecting them.

I will be brutally honest. This is usually the sort of comment I see coming from people who make no effort to improve and when they get called out for this, instead of engaging in introspection, attempt to gaslight the people around them by trying to make them feel guilty for pointing out there own faults. So I guess its no wonder that the game that creates an atmosphere of gaslighting attracts those people.

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no shocker here, OP is 11/12 LFR :thinking: :thinking: :thinking:

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