The community of Final Fantasy XIV is considered one of the friendliest and nicest among MMORPG communities. The party chat is not toxic, newcomers are always helped, and players are generally great. Is that true?
Insults and toxic behavior are part of everyday life in many online games. When a match or dungeon goes badly, tempers often flare faster than a CPU without thermal paste, and insults are plentiful.
But not in FFXIV. In the forums and on social media in the MMORPG bubble, it is often said that the FFXIV community is one of the friendliest overall. It is praised for having a non-toxic chat and for always helping new players.
The community itself also likes to emphasize that it welcomes new players and that toxicity in group content is not tolerated. Indeed, the average experience for newcomers in this MMORPG is more positive than in most other online games.
However, since the world is a complicated place and people are complicated beings, this is only one side of the coin.
Positive experience for newcomers – at least in comparison
In general, you can trust the tales about the friendliness of FFXIV players online. When you dive into the MMORPG and do group content for the first time, the chances are good that the fights will be briefly explained to you in the dungeons upon request without much fuss.
After wipes, there are no insults even at higher levels and only very rare rage quits. In most cases, someone will quickly ask what the problem is, and you just try again.
In the newcomer chat, the questions of new players are answered constructively (even if not always entirely correctly), and no one has to justify themselves or hear that they are a noob. Occasionally, experienced players join newcomers and help them master the content.
From my own experience, I can say that in the 900 days of playtime in FFXIV, I cannot remember ever being insulted in the FFXIV chat. The worst were passive-aggressive comments or jibes, and I can count such cases on one hand.
Even in self-experiments, where I played a completely fresh character on a test account, almost all groups were perfectly fine. For example, when I, as a new healer, asked not to aggro too many enemies, this was usually adhered to (though sometimes with grumbling).
Group content runs in a much more civil manner than in games like Lost Ark or League of Legends, which are notorious for their insults and rampant toxicity in chat.
Gameplay promotes better atmosphere
The absence of constant tirades in FFXIV is not because the MMORPG simply attracts very nice people. The developers contribute their part and reinforce this openness towards new players with appropriate gameplay mechanics:
- In dungeons, there are EXP and token bonuses when a player is in the group who is experiencing the content for the first time.
- Players who performed especially well can be voted MVP at the end of the dungeon (provided they don’t leave early). If you accumulate a certain number of such recommendations, you receive mounts and titles as rewards.
- The mentorship system allows experienced players to answer questions from newcomers in the designated chat and help them.
- Through the special random content mentor roulette, you can also receive cool rewards.
Furthermore, FFXIV is designed such that the risk and penalty for failure in 95% of the content are not very high. After dying in a raid, you can easily be revived and continue. The “punishment” is a temporary debuff to your stats.
You don’t lose valuable resources that you had to farm beforehand, but only some time. Even food and potions used for epic raids can be purchased for a small sum at the market board. Hardly anyone will shed a tear over the loss.
On the other hand, however, there is also the ruthless chat moderation. Harassment and insults are punished with temporary bans, which can become permanent for repeated offenses.
If you believe stories from the community, SE even occasionally goes overboard and punishes people in the heat of the moment, such as those who have just made jokes among friends. I personally have not experienced this yet.
People are people
Now it sounds like absolute harmony prevails in FFXIV and players spend all day petting puppies together. This is, of course, nonsense.
Even though the community likes to take pride in its friendliness and helpfulness, it is ultimately just made up of people – and people can be very unpleasant.
In cases of shitstorms, FFXIV players behave not much differently than the rest of the gaming community.
- Here too, people are attacked if they do not represent the opinions popular within the community (for example, that the story of FFXIV is the absolute revelation).
- Unpopular personalities are often chased out of the game, as experienced by WoW streamer Asmongold.
- There are also attacks on the developers, prompting the head of the MMORPG, Naoki Yoshida, to ask players to watch their tone when giving feedback.
- Players of other MMORPGs are often mocked and looked down upon.
- “Learn to play” and “You don’t pay my sub” are also thrown at each other in FFXIV.
- FFXIV players defend their MMORPG to the death.
So basically, the game has everything you would find in other gaming communities.
Most of the time, confrontations do not take place directly in the game, which is a consequence of the strict banning policy, but happen “behind the scenes” on social media and in Discords.
While I almost never see direct disputes with complete strangers in the chat, I repeatedly witness how conflicts arise behind the scenes in private chats outside of FFXIV. Sometimes on a weekly basis.
This happens, by the way, in both the casual part of the community, which is generally considered more relaxed, and among raiders. The two sides are equally matched.
Always take with a grain of salt
The praises that are often read about the friendliness and kindness of the FFXIV community should therefore always be approached with caution.
It is true that new players in the MMORPG will have a much more pleasant experience without harsh insults and bashing. FFXIV players also often host fantastic community events and projects, such as the 1,000 Voices Song for composer Soken or the ArtBash art party.
However, if you play the game for an extended period, you will inevitably come to know the negative aspects of the FFXIV community as well. And don’t let anyone tell you that it’s “the bad WoW players” who have “migrated over the past year.” The aforementioned problems have always existed.
It is important not to let the positive statements about the FFXIV community overly influence you, only to wake up to a harsh reality. In the end, as in any other case, it ultimately depends on which people you encounter while playing.
What have been your experiences with the FFXIV community? Have you ever experienced toxicity, or has everything been fine so far? Share your responses in the comments.
