MMOPC78: I have to (unfortunately) disagree that the community is "better." When I first played FFXIV: it didn't matter if a player was doing side content, "optional" content, or whatever. If a player asked for help in chat: they got it no matter what it was they were doing. Now? I've seen and experienced the "get gud" mentality, the do it solo replies, and the "just skip" it knee jerk reactions. So no: the helpfulness and friendly community of FFXIV is almost gone in that respect. While there are some that enjoy solo play (which baffles me in a MMO): I want to play and experience FFXIV with the players of the game. However, it seems as though that the FFXIV community would rather "make" a player play solo than integrate them into playing as a MMO. The whole mods/cheating thing doesn't address the core issues of player behavior in FFXIV. The community as a whole needs to get back to the pre-Endwalker days and return to being the community that was touted as being so "helpful, friendly, and waiting to see other players succeed in all aspects of the game." Right now: the community is more fractured that a sundered star.
Eleiem: The mod situation is crazy. Went to a venue once and the one question everybody asked was "mARe??". It has come to a point where you're expected to use mods to go to venues or get into the social aspects of the game at all. Many of the people who uses them straight won't even consider you if you don't use mods as well.
DBExplorer: new players: THIS GAME IS GREAT
old players: back in my day it was better!
: p
shadowcat1606: I'm one of those WoW-Refugees (kinda, sorta, somewhat, technically, lol) and considering that the community was one of my main reasons for finally quitting WoW for good during Shadowlands... well, i can't say if it's better or worse now than it used to be ten years ago, but i can most definitely say that i like the FF-Community a lot more.
Mr.Genesis: With how common 3rd party tools are in other mmos it's not farfetched newer players will do things like this.. Even I use ACT and Dalamud with 2000 hours
KaozKaiser09: Been playing for 11 years straight now (2013 early access ARR) and will say the community was a lot more “together” back then, mostly because:

1. Everyone was in their “honeymoon period” everyone was new (including legacy players). Players were still working out how the game works and would type in-game to teach others mechanics and people were receptive because there were very few outlets to get info so people chatted in-game more especially without the existence of #2.

2. Discord didn’t even exist (released in May 2015 around before Heavensward) so unless you really vibe’d with someone to invite them into your Mumble or Ventrilo you were most likely chatting in-game.

3. The game was an absolute success but its popularity wouldn’t really increase till around Heavensward~ (undoubtedly ShB was peak with The Great Exodus happening.) As to say the FFXIV community was the FF community predominantly.

Of course it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows back then the amount of content was severely lacking you were either chasing BiS, become Omni-crafter playing Market Sim, or leveling every class to 50. Prior to CT and more casual content the endgame was pretty cutthroat Coils was a slog because of the terrible ilvls back then so it bred a lot of elitism back then.
doppelkammertoaster: Mods no! Purely cosmetical is fine, but nothing that makes mechanics easier. It has led to the insane design decisions in WoW, it's a race, and everyone who doesn't use mods can't play content anymore.
FutayuriShironeko: Cosmetic mods are simply our way to deal with the issue of SE not providing good character customization.
gerfe2: Let me just throw this out here.

The FF14 playerbase is awesome. The community is NOT a constant and never has been. The "community" is the online presence on reddit/instagram/twitter/tiktok/whatever the kids are using and is generally young people that are new to the game and going through the MSQ. They are a completely different group of people every two years and their views on the game are completely irrelevant to the actual long term playerbase. They really don't have any understanding of what the game is - to them it's just MSQ which to the actual playerbase is maybe 5-10% of the game.


Just so you understand the average person in the FF14 "community" is probably 16-18 years old. The average person in the playerbase is like 27-35. These are just two completely different groups of people. I've been in 4 raiding groups and never met anyone under 25.



This is actually the biggest issue with the game currently. The MSQ has gotten so long that the only new players that can get through it feel like there's nothing to do because they're conditioned into thinking the game is 100% MSQ. So they just quit when the MSQ is over and their satisfaction of the game is 100% tied to the quality of the story.

I think we're at the point where the only people that are enjoying the game are long term players and only <1% of the new players every EP actually go on to add themselves to the long term playerbase. The developers do need drastic action here or the game will become more and more irrelevant every EP - the covid boom should not be expected to repeat ever again. Even if we have another covid style event, XIV won't be the game people flock to.
Ikarei_: As a wow refuge during shadowlands, I had severe thick skin. It was such a nice change where DF members were so inviting, giving out tips.
Obviously there were the odd 1% of toxicity but that gets blacklisted quick.
sushioishii8950: The change in the community is really about the horde of WoW refugees looking for asylum, but they bring their WoW culture over with them... WoW players are accustom to giving feedback and voicing concerns, while mods were basically required to play WoW, so it doesn't surprise me the FF community is going that direction.
TheSynysterGamer: Took me 9 years to finally use mods in this game. I never realized how much those combat vfx mods could be a much needed refresher in a time where i felt like i needed a new mmo to replace 14 lol i probably would've quit the game this expansion if i was still playing on console tbh
Kikkia2018: WoW trade chat on my server yesterday was talking about FFXIV, caught somebody say “ff14 is for gay twinks” and a minute later critique Dawntrail with everybody else haha. I also play on MG though and people there are (usually) nicer than the top servers. They get pretty serious about their RP though.

I’ve been playing on MG since Legion or BFA and I haven’t seen anybody mention FFXIV until after the influx of WoW players during Shadowbringers/Endwalker. Happy to see so many people enjoy both games, even if we all discovered it later than we should have.
AKozX: I think mods are a good thing (cosmetic), it allows people to be more creative with their characters and makes features from the base game more usable such as gpose and housing .etc

Sadly there are cheaters in every game but it doesnt make it okay, it would be good that SE Cracks down on cheats without negatively impacting harmless third party such as QoL plugins and glamour mods.

You don’t need third party to beat content (Excluding TOP P5 fuck that stupid shitty fight) but third party has made my FFXIV experience so much better and more fun

Aug 31 2024

Buy FFXIV GIL