Why does this game have such a terrible community?

@shoveller

But that's the problem - the low-level content that needs a few people to do can't be done by the low-level people because nobody will help the low-level people out

It can't be done by one low-level player. It could easily be done by 3, maybe 2. If you're the only low level person on your server, then that says something about your server. If you were in a linkshell, it's even more likely that someone would help you out, but again, your server.

If the community sees multiple "help me with this easy-as-crap quest please" shouts, and nobody does anything at all to resolve the situation, then it is directly the community causing the problem.

Perhaps people don't want to stop what they are doing/put their plans on hold to do this easy-as-crap quest. To be honest, this is something most people assume your linkshell should be helping you with. Some people might genuinely want to help but are already committed to other activities.


where's all the nice guys that say "You know what? That guy's been looking for a while - I'll give him a hand, sure. It'll take like 5 minutes with me along."

Obviously not online at the time you are doing this/ not on your server.

This stuff still goes on when 2.0 hits, I'll have no doubt in my mind it'll see the same "MMO surge" that most games do - bunch of players sign up and buy it, play for a month, then leave because it's not fun to play.

This is flawed for your argument, because the game would see influx of new players and thus, plenty of "peers" to run low level content with- which seems to be your only real issue.


Edit: visited the Sargatanas forums on the official forums; two posts for recruiting for a non-endgame linkshell on the top of the page. Have you even bothered to try there? Or are you going to start saying how you shouldn't have to use the official forums?

@ Koga no Goshi

What exactly are you complaining about? That /shout isn't a general chat channel for everyone to talk about all things random and peaceful? Linkshells are basically groups of friends on the most primitive level or group of co-workers on the most technical level. People aren't even that out-going IRL- they don't talk to random strangers unless they have a need to. If they want to make small talk, most people will do so with people they feel comfortable with.

Exactly what is a bad system? That there are linkshells that people would rather converse with than everyone standing around in Ul'dah. I bet a lot of people don't even respond to /say in large crowds because they don't even know if the speaker is talking to everyone in earshot range or a select group of people and just so happen to be speaking in /say. You think people ignore non-members? That's a pretty bold assumption. Would you rather every person who saw that /shout respond to that player giving them their personal reasons for not helping in /tell? that's so much more realistic. Nobody really ignores anyone on purpose. It's the /shouter's conscience that would create the feeling of being ignored in this situation.

Well for starters, what's bad about it is what you're seeing here in the forums and you react by just plugging your ears and screaming that you can't hear it. People saying that they can't get anyone to answer anything, can't ask questions in general, and can't find a big linkshell to get into. Please explain to me what benefit there is to the linkshell system that makes it so great over normal chat systems you mgiht see in any other MMO that counterbalances its clique-iness and the fact that it lets many new or starting out players slip through the cracks and experience FFXIV as a pretty excluding, nonsocial experience. I don't see that there is a good reason to be defending this system over a more inclusive one.

And here's where I can tell you're full of it.

What is happening on these forums hardly happens at all and is one of few isolated circumstances that people are assuming happens all the time and reflects the behavior or every server.

Nobody is plugging their ears and ignoring anything. If anything, you two are making mountains out of molehills and in turn blowing up something out of proportion and making it sound like it's the older player's obligation to prevent. People can ask questions in general. Just because one person doesn't get a response due to the lack of English-speaking people in the area/ online at the time doesn't make that the norm, get over yourselves. You wanna complain about this- do so on the Sargatanas server forums because right now that seems to be the only place worth complaining about this to. There's also a reason why the official forums have community boards for each server. Having no general chat has been the norm in FFXI, seems like only a few people really think we need it.

Seriously, you're taking this one instance and making a crusade about it. This seems like this could just as easily happen in any other game given the right circumstances.

Seriously Koga? Do you fancy yourself everyone's nanny to have to blow an issue out of proportion just because one person happens to be on a comparitively unpopulated/ busy server and can't get a linkshell @ the first crack or find someone to drop everything and help with content that's almost a year old in the midst of other things. So one player comes here with possibly a legit issue of not being able to find a linkshell as soon as he asked the immediate players in Ul'dha and suddenly the community is bad because one player couldn't get instant results? Maybe we should disregard everyone else who has posted on these forums who found a linkshell without incident?

There are players who made accounts of getting a linkshell in a matter or minutes/seconds after a shout- of course you wouldn't acknowledge that because someone is being overly vocal of not getting a specific party or a linkshell. shoveller even ended up with a linkshell invite anyway- why are you still pressing the issue? Should we ostracize rui (no offense, just for the sake of argument) because he was't around when shoveller was /shouting? No, chances are he was just offline/ not around. Should we ostracize shoveller for not being available to pick up a pearl asap? Obviously not. It's all about timing.

You're stuck on this whole idea of linkshells being these evil cliques rather than group of friends people are just more comfortable working events with. What are you here to even argue? The community? The need for a general chat? Or how linkshells are the bane of new players? There's nothing wrong with linkshells- they're there for people with like interest, playtimes, goals, and schedules to be able to do things together with and put more trust in than pick-ups.

You seem to be pushing for a WoW-esque general chat system. People argued it til the cows came home on the official forums about convenience, spam, etc. A developer-esque person stepped in an mention how it is currently impossible, but they would look into it:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/43074-2.0-New-Chat-Channels-request?highlight=chat
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/42293-UI-suggestion-Worldwide-shout-channel/page2?highlight=channel (developr quote on page 2)

No, I feel like you fancy yourself some kind of omnipotent being by focusing on one or two bad experiences in a new player trying to find a linkshell and then turning it around to seem like an epidemic of some sort. I already acknowledged how the server of Sargatanas may just be a poor social server- but it doesn't speak for the rest by any large margin

You seem keen on making a fallacy of composition, or at least want to cherry-pick the instances that would show this game to have a terrible community. I could go on but I'll stop there.

Yeah- blah blah blah because that's clearly all you're hearing with your fingers in your ears, which explains why you miss the point.

You can repeat yourself all you want, but you're not making any real relevant, valid points.

Define "very little" activity. As I already stated, I can run through the main city and see shouts for exp parties, spiritbonding parties, AF parties, whatever. And it doesn't seem to get into your thick head that despite having a linkshell helps you accomplish content, it's possible to get a party for less-involved things people are doing daily like exp/spiritbonding parties. Thing here is though, one person comes in here who can't get help with about a year-old content and you're setting up your soapbox. I already know that you have no real idea about the community beyond that- so do everyone a favor and stop trying. You're stuck trying to fathom how people getting started now in the wake of 2.0 and other patches aren't able to do everything without people who enjoy doing content with eachother.


Do you know one of the main reasons this game is not new-user friendly? (~Oh~ what a silly question, of course you probably don't) Because the developers have esentially flat-out stopped developing quests and content pre-2.0 for low level players. Pre-2.0 they are more insterested in keeping players than attracting new ones. Everything new will either be content catered to established, high level players or story content that will be gone come 2.0. Some high-level content will be gone/changed come 2.0 as well.

I personally don't reccomend this game for new players until 2.0- Are you shocked? I think you are, probably because you seem stuck on this idea that I don't believe that new players should be finding parties at all for old content most people have finished, in just one session of shouting for people. When what I have been trying to say is don't go expecting people not in a linkshell with you to stop what they are doing to help you with 2011 content- which was so few and short that most finished it within the month of implementation. It has nothing to do with cliques and everything to do with asking friends before random strangers.

But you can continue to pretend to know-it-all. After all, if you think people don't do any sort of high-level things outside of their clique-ish linkshells, it must be true. *snicker*