Originally Posted by
Cthulhu 2020
This whole "There's only fake kindness" stuff is absolute rubbish, lmao. Had nothing but good experiences. The only bad apples I saw were WoW bootlickers coming into the first dungeon and immediately start shit talking the game to the group.
Been an overwhelmingly positive experience for the last 7 years for me from the entire community. So if the community is so bad, why does nearly everyone who plays the game for more than 2 hours say the same thing I do? How does the game win accolades and awards for the overwhelmingly positive community? I haven't encountered any of this supposed passive aggressive culture.
Well, except for the people who come from another game, play the game up to level 18, go "This game sucks, the community is garbage, don't understand how anyone could like this game." then run back to their other game.
I've asked people who said the community is passive aggressive to give me an example. They never do. It's just one of those things that people addicted to other MMOs tell each other and pass around to each other to reaffirm their dislike of FFXIV among each other. This supposed "passive aggressive culture". I will say, if you come into this game and start dumping on it, or dumping on the people in it, you're not going to get a direct confrontational response most of the time. You're just going to get reported. If you think that's "passive aggressive culture", NO, that's just you being an asshole and people not wanting to deal with you.
I won't deny that bad things can and do happen, but it's your basic interpersonal drama shit. The community, as a whole entity across the forums, reddit, twitter, etc. are all incredibly welcoming. I log into FFXIV, talk to my FC, talk to my friends, the novice network is talking about random shit, my linkshells are abuzz with RP and general chatter.
I imagine this whole "passive aggressive culture" myth stems from the lie that assholes tell each other. "Everyone is an asshole, some of us are just honest about it." It's a case of classic projection. They can't see themselves as being able to vent the negative energy in their lives at anything other than other people, so they cannot see other people doing anything but the same as them. However when they see all of these people being nice, they tell themselves "Oh they can't be genuinely nice, they're trying to get something out of it" or "Oh they're not genuinely nice, they're talking about you behind your back".
Reality is, a lot of us CAN and DO vent the negative energy in our lives in non toxic ways. That's what toxicity is, venting your own negative energy at other people. Some of us have very low levels of negativity just because we exercise a lot, get a lot of endorphins, have loving and supportive families, etc. What remaining energy is vented off through meditation and other non toxic methods.
There are some genuinely nice people, and just because you don't see them being toxic, doesn't mean they're being toxic behind your back. You met a person who was? Congratulations. Your anecdote does not data make.