Toxicity of wow community and thinking of going back to FF XIV

Community General Discussion
21

I have been part of hundreds of gaming communities.
WOW has one of the most layback, chill, helpful communities I have ever seen.

A lot of different people, at different stages of life, ages 8 to 80 play WOW. You will get a variety of personalities.

Comparing it to communities like: Halo, Civilization, Warcraft 3, Starcraft 2, Doom – people are SO nice in WOW.

Think of the games I mentioned above. The entire premise is to murder, conquer, and destroy everything the other person built.
You know how angry someone gets in Civilization after they have been peacefully expanding for 7 hours and you just come along with your armies and destroy everything they spent all day building?
Or how rageful or hateful a person gets when you camp the same spot in Halo with the sniper and headshot them 3 times in a row when they spawn?
People get very testy, nobody really “likes” losing – and winners often to gloat, or make snide comments. They commonly refer to each other as, “Trash” or “Garbage” because their superior skills at that game clearly makes them a better person than you.

WOW has a PVP element in combat and on AH – but overall, I see it as a cooperative/social experience.

I’m fairly new and decided to give it a shot after 15 years. I found people to be really nice, open and informative.

I mean, people are like holding each other’s hands in the dungeons. I’ve never played a dungeon crawler quite as central as WOW’s
(except maybe Left 4 Dead or Vermintide)

I’ve never experienced PVP, maybe that is more toxic than what I’m doing.

Remember, everyone struggles, some people are just better at hiding it than others.

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22

I play both. FFXIV’s community is 100x LESS toxic than this one, to be sure. No question at all. I prefer WOW as a game, but I go to FFXIV often to be reminded that there are decent communities in MMORPGs.

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23

What? I played both games since the start and FFXIV’s community was far more toxic than this one. And just about every person I know who has played both agree with that.

24

Your kidding yourself if you think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. It may just feel fresher if you haven’t been over there for a while.

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25

So, who are the ‘mentors’?

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26

They’re players who have completed certain requirements to get a special icon next to their name. Supposedly they are there to help new players, but in reality it’s a bunch of really obnoxious people. It’s bad enough that the community jokes about the “mentor crown” icon being like a neon colored frog - lets you know to stay away.

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27

You’re not wrong about that. It was a cool “idea” in theory but did not play out nor does it get used as designed. It’s used more for a “look what I’ve accomplished” sign.

Kinda like parses. They’re designed to show a metric and where improvement can take place but instead used to shame people.

28

Mentors are players that have reached max level with a Tank, Healer, and DPS class. And also have completed 1000 instances along with having more 1500 commendations.

Most who are mentors only do so for those achievements along with the associated mentor specific mount.

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29

You have an actual rotation as a tank compared to the priority system wow has for its tanks.

30

WoW is the most non-toxic online game in my roster of games.
WoW
WC3
Diablo3(I guess this one is actually the least Toxic since its 95% a solo game)
LoL
OW

31

Welcome to the internet? You must be new here. People are toxic, the room matters very little its just changing the coat of paint but people are people.

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32

No, I am not new to the internet. Not by a long shot. I’m well aware of what the internet cooks up.

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33

Hyperion is on the Primal data center, which is the “middle-of-the-road” one.
You should be safe from the weirder aspects.

Crystal was a third data center that was created to split off some of the servers from the others, and mostly included the primary RP servers (if you were aware of Balmung’s reputation, that’ll be a clue). It’s a friendly group, but last night I was definitely thinking the Novice Network had dipped into “too much information” territory.

And since I missed this earlier…

Tanking in FFXIV isn’t quite as focused on defensive abilities as it is in WoW, though those abilities are certainly present; you won’t be hitting your active mitigation at every chance you get, focusing more on your offensive rotation. However, you will be using your defensive abilities to counteract when a boss does a “tank buster” (strong single target attack directed at the tank); another common trait at higher levels is using your group mitigation on unavoidable damage.

As for Dark Knight, it’s a fun class… but there is one specific reason to try it out – the job’s storyline is easily the best out of all of them. Don’t boost the class, the level 30-50 storyline is arguably the best part of it. To put it into perspective, the writer for the DRK storyline was essentially promoted to do the main storyline for Shadowbringers (the latest expansion), which is being praised as one of the best plots ever in the FF series in a LONG time.

It’s a system that was added a while back, during Heavensward if I’m not mistaken. It’s mostly veteran players who should be volunteering to help new players, mostly through answering questions and inviting them to the Novice Network (probably the only public chat channel in the game). It comes with a crown beside their name (same place as the sprout icon for newbies), so sometimes it can turn into a status symbol… and a few people just do it to gain access to the Novice Network (you lose access when you lose the sprout and/or flower icons).

To rattle off the current requirements:

PvE Mentor

  • Level 80 tank, healer, and DPS.
  • Complete the level 80 tank, healer, and one of the DPS role quests (replaced the job questlines for this expansion, though each job gets a lengthy level 80 quest).
  • Do 1000 instances (Dungeon Master achievement).
  • 1500 Commendations

Crafting Mentor

  • Level 80 gatherer and crafter
  • Gather 300(?) collectibles
  • Craft 100(?) collectibles

Full Mentor

  • All of the above

Yeah, there are a few bad eggs out there and many unhelpful mentors… but most of them aren’t that bad. Most of the time, they’re taking the “open door” approach rather than actively looking to assist others; in other words, you have to go to them rather than having them come to you.

34

It can be resolved if we support Thanos.

FF14 feels terrible to get into.

But honestly if i was in your shoes i would never turn back to wow.

So why did you?

Sounds like you were already going to leave anyway.

Communities are what you make of it. You need to look for the good eggs and ignore the bad ones.

I doubt FF14 is a bunch of angels.

35

That’s not entirely accurate. In Savage and Ultimate, if you aren’t using your defensives pretty regularly, you are going to drain the healers pretty damn fast. Trick is knowing how to weave them in while also maintaining one for the buster.

36

I know your not, It is a sad truth of online interaction that people are toxic in general its just how long term platforms with people in it end up. Alot of new games are better at the start but do begin to turn the same its an aging process with games. People become comfortable on a game and pop off because after a while it no longer really matters as we mostly wont interact with 90% of people we meet online. I feel as a whole humnilty wasnt really ment for this kind of interactions as it makes a really detached and desensitized society with little empathy. In the end while I feel complaints on it are valid they are futile as its an issue that has no real way to be fixed as its just human nature to be confrontational and argue its basic animal sizing up the competition and asserting domination over someone else or just to feel a sense of power in a life where most of us feel powerless and have no real control of life.

37

Ffxiv’s community is no different. If anything it’s worse because of how passive aggressive it is. Say what you will about Wow, but at least Wow is upfront about it.

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38

Oh no… fool me once…

They’re not. It’s gotten a TINY bit better lately but it’s the only game I’ve ever played where people were given literal death threats on the official forums and subreddit for not playing some “meta” and others joining in the martyr.

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39

You play any game hours on end you will get burned out fast
with both the community and the game itself. Going to another game
isn’t a solution simply taking a break is a better choice. It sounds tough
but its do able.

40

This. That grass isn’t greener on the other side.