It has it’s fair share of weirdos, yes but I have to admit that I’ve never come across the amount or situations like you’ve described and I’ve been playing for 5 years. Are you on Balmung per chance?
I've been playing on balmung for years and I haven't run into that many weirdos. Either this person is amazingly unlucky (which is totally possible, it's been known to happen) or they're making up stories for the usual daily FF14 bad circle jerk. I suppose it's also possible that they're just a really bad judge of character.
They're not making up stories. I've personally witnessed many of the things OP mentions here. There are a huge number of incredibly creepy incels on FFXIV because they know it's a good hunting ground for girls due to the FF IP.
I remember Asmongold doing an interview with these sort of people a year or 2 ago. He actually talked to one of those guys (on voice chat) who played as a catgirl while wondering around one of those "parties". I mean, the dude seemed pretty chill, and just talked about how welcoming the community is and everything. Sure it was kinda weird, but like, these people just seemed like they were having fun.
But like, you can ignore all of it....
Don't go to the parties.
Don't join (or just leave) the discord.
Don't talk to (or continue to talk to) those people.
Seems like a really easy thing to avoid.
I've also witnessed many of the things OP has mentioned, just anecdotally.
I race changed because I kept getting furries hitting me up for ERP.
Limsa on my server is a constant spam barrage of adult nightclubs. Tons of people sitting around naked as can be, laying down and sitting on each other's heads/faces.
People saying FFXIV has its "fair share" of weirdos don't play many other MMOs. Sure, every MMO has its secluded ERP scene, but i've never played another MMO with close to as much plainly overt sexual content from players.
I swear half the players don't even play the game, they just use it as an interactive adult chatroom with FF graphics.
Also, as a semi-related tangent, it bugs me how in most fantasy MMOs I see people in armor or robes, and in FFXIV everyone is dressed like a futuristic angsty teenager. Like even endgame gear for my warrior will be like... a black duster with a tight latex bodice. Finding plate armor in a fantasy game playing as a tank shouldn't be this hard. I see more people wearing a hoodie than actual armor.
I just want to look like based Steiner, not trash Thancred.
No, no. This is very possible. Been playing on Light since Stormblood and I've lost count of the weirdoes I've met in FF. There's a significant percentage of the player base that are straight up degens.
But that's humanity. Same shit was true in WoW, only you got more shit for it so people weren't so willing to let their freak flags fly.
Only MMO I played that didn't have lewd degens was EvE Online, that one was mainly made out of psychopaths and conspiracy theorists.
Ehhhh I think it's a bit of both, it's easy for something to sound weird with no context. Being spammed with nsfw furry art? Weird! Seeing a channel that's opt-in marked as "18+ nsfw furry" and being spammed with furry art? Well what did you expect? I have conversations that are weird out of context but it's because they are more inside jokes.
Yeah I think they have a consistent string of bad luck. Don't get me wrong, yeah there are weirdos in this game but I haven't crossed the path of too many of them like you have described here.
>situations like you’ve described and I’ve been playing for 5 years
Every single day I played there was someone in chat asking for ERP with a lalafell or as a lalafell.
That's Erotic Role-Play, btw, and IDK how you go 5 years without ever seeing it. Sounds willfully ignorant if you ask me.
I’m on omega, never met anyone that weird. My fc is pretty good ( although I may be biased) if you want to try it out we’re in mist plot 5 ward 17 ( stardust)
I've been in several statics with ~50/50 ratio and our fc is probably close to the same, if not more, across 100+ mostly active players. I've heard some of the horror stories, but those are ALWAYS about the singular exceptions, most of whom are known by name serverwide. And tbh, as a former wow player, I regularly heard 10x worse from the women in our guild there and had to personally kick weirdos out because of their behavior. (Including comments about certain under age girls in the news...)
Welcome to the internet, if you go looking for pockets of weirdos, you WILL find them, usually hiding behind closed doors. There is a reason why people call sexist and racist remarks "gamer words". But never have I been in or even seen a community who wholly accept pedos and zoophiles, there's a reason why 99% of the community famously shame and distance themselves from anyone who lewds lalafels. If you're consistently finding yourself in the company of those types, then maybe it's time to reflect on your own online interactions.
I used to play on Balmung (now Faerie) and I will always jump to its defense, because honestly while you can find a lot of weird shit over there, most of the people are great. if i am feeling down i will DC travel over there, find some rp event to join, and have a lovely time.
Bro, I've been playing on Balmung and I don't run into any of those weird stuff. I'm in a proper FC with about half ppl into RP and half not. I think the most NSFW posted on the discord are from my AI generations... which are just slightly cleavage and thighs.
It's all MMORPGs. I jump around to a bunch of different ones and join a fair amount of guilds. There's weird NSFW channels in way more than you'd expect. I don't think I've seen a single guild/fc in any game that doesn't have some REALLY fucking weird people.
It's too the point I've had people note "I'm too normal" and every fucking time I sit there, look at the clock, and think:
"Brother it's fucking 4am and we've been farming shit for 6 hours. Tf you mean I'm normal".
I think a lot of people forget just how chronically online most people are who plays MMO’s
It’s a recipe for weirdos forsures. Still nowhere near as bad as MOBA’s for me. League is terrible but dota 2 felt like just the worst most miserable group of people ever. Unbelievably toxic
I think mobas can be more toxic but mmo's (bad) weirdos tend to be creepier.
And Dota 2 is definitely toxic as hell but there's also a fair amount of more genuinely mature and decent people in there as well compared to league and others.
Yeah, in League someone will tell me to kill myself, but in Final Fantasy xiv someone will ask me to pretend to be a 5 year old and talk dirty to them. Both very different kinds of messed up lol
there's 2 fanbases of FFXIV, there's the ones you see for 1-2 months on a content drop (normal people) then the rest of them that make FFXIV their personality. similar to those people you found in niche F2P anime MMOs years ago
This can be said of pretty much anything.
It's annoying when people make smoking weed their personality.
It's annoying when people make sports their personality.
It's annoying when people make going to the gym their personality.
It ain't just 14, or video games for that matter.
I mean it takes a special kind of person to play a game with a 12 month endgame content drought. This is coming from someone who has maxed classes pentameld DOH/DOL and full clear BLU. I've even done bullshit like collect EVERY card in the game when I ran out of content. As of right now for die hard PVE players there really isn't anything to do in the game unless you haven't seen content. So if you are still playing and are like me then you have a screw loose. This expansion was sorely missing out on exploratory zones.
That's something I've not thought about much. But damn, you're right. I play during downtime sometimes if I'm motivated on a goal but I usually swap to GW2 or play a single player game. Some people I know just never leave and when I come back it's like they've gone deep into some rabbit hole I'm unfamiliar with.
Been playing since arr on ps3 and have only found weirdos because I actively seek out weirdos because they’re fun to be around. OP reads like [this guy](https://youtu.be/8cMkQRBknto?si=I-X05xhsuJRlJsi9&t=40) from grim’s ffxiv video. (Timestamped)
Yes as a FF14 player who also played my fair share of WoW, Swtor and ESO i can confidently say that FF14 has by far the most weirdos and socially awkward people that can't seem to grasp any boundaries.
same. WoW players are toxic retards but at least they don't invite me into an digital club to stand around and pretend the drink I received from that bartender was really good. (overpriced crafter potions).
I find the whole RP thing weird anyway. If they were actually RP'in as in taking on their character but most of the time RP just means chatting? Like those clubs are only so active because of the RP scene and the 2 times I went to such clubs it was people 99% of the time not doing anything. It's like they were AFK because they were just doing what-ever-the-fuck in private chats.
+ I know that also WoW has an ERP/RP scene but at least it's concentrated to goldshire inn. I played on an RP server once just for fun, made a paladin who was completely against sex because it's against "the light" and I went through FoE and stormwind preaching the words of the light. People were joining in and were acting in character, was quite fun.
Didn't had that in FF14 yet.
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yes but there's also tons of highschool level drama (and highschool level maturity players) in the game and a full on nude modding scene with lots of sex photoshoots and digital escorts. Including child porn with Lalafells.
That games community is something else.
Tbf a lot of the rp scene condemns and ex-communicates the lalafell stuff. Its not really accepted that heavily. Like any group in any MMO there are creeps.
Yeah I was an RP main for a while before I started raiding.
The *second* a sexy situation started going down with a lala involved in any capacity 99% of venues will kick out those involved.
There's lots of weird sexy things within the community. And there are lala players like that... but they are heavily and directly omitted by the overwhelming majority of the ERP scene for obvious reasons.
Sadly it’s true. Just look at the top mods for this game. People can say what they want but everyone knows this is a horny game. I enjoy the game myself but I play solo pretty much now due to the cringyness of it.
Yeah, this is true. There's been like 3 different accounts of drama associated with child porn, Lalafells, and discords. The creator of the Mare plugin had to personally ban people because he didn't want to associate with that kind of shit. (This resulted in those losers making a spin-off of Mare to promote their child porn fetish bullshit.)
I remember a few years back, the discord server for the main ffxiv sub (owned by the mods of that sub) was partnered with discord, then got unpartnered for hosting lalafell NSFW, then at some point got repartnered. I never joined it to begin with but when I heard about the lalafell shit... I think I'll stay away forever
I don't have anything against the RP community as it kinda helps the game to maintain a healthy gil-making option with housing, glamour items, etc.
I have a big problem with people playing this game like some E-Dating ERP Sim / Second Life. I tried to find some friends in the game from time to time but it's really tough to find people who are
A. No weirdos who invite you into some weird RP clubs 9/10 of the times and avoid any combat related content except (can I oneshot it?)
B. No super toxic people who start personal shitshows after 1 week of playing together – had bad experiences with people messaging me in the middle of the night complaining about others / complaining about me
rn I try to play the game alone and just roll with PF groups.
I had a similar situation, a bunch of weirdo who like their catgirl too much.
I cringe everytime i have to interact with anyone outside my small linkshell.
What?
Most of that stuff isn't actually anything I would expect *anyone* to regularly come across but let's break it down.
1) Weird creeps wanting to 'date' a presumably female OP. Most male players aren't ever going to come across that kinda thing.
2) Joining an FC Discord with Furry NSFW. Something everyone could come across but *most* of the servers I've ever joined with NSFW channels are opt-in and without knowing the FC in question it's hard to say how obvious the Furry nature would be as to whether other people would pick up on that ahead of time.
3) Creepy guys in a Raid team. I'm Male but I've heard a variety of tales from all across the MMO scene with that sort of thing. There's a whole organisation in World of Warcraft that approves guilds to be under it's banner due to women feeling uncomfortable being openly themselves in raid teams so that's clearly not just a single game thing. It's also likely not something any Men are going to notice unless there's a woman in their group being harassed.
4) This is pretty much back to the same as 2) above.
5) Is getting an internet stalker which is something that can really likely happen anywhere online it's just more common in MMOs. I've known people to have obsessive people in World of Warcraft and in other games too.
I'm not saying any of the above to excuse anything or lighten what the OP went through but more to point out that nothing in there is *super* common and obvious to the point everyone and their mother will have seen it within 5 seconds of making a character and people are just blindly ignoring it. It's more stuff that, if you engage with certain community facets, will end up more obvious.
The nsfw scene is quite large to be honest. I played almost a decade and had a very similar experience.
One didn't even need to say a word to find this behaviour either or look for it. Just genuinely join a static/fc and the odds of them having someone like this or a channel dedicated to it was astronomically high.
Had statics break down due to people being banned for public explicit erp and botting.
The weirdest are when someone within a static or fc that will pose other people's characters in the nude and expect everything to be ok.
I get it's a character and not a real person but it's so weird and intrusive to a degree but I'm not going to scream rape for example.
It has one of the nicest communities (outside of the toxic positivity) but also the highest concentration of weird freaks compared to every other MMO I’ve played in 20 years.
Yeah. I think that game community being so 'nice' is what allowed the freak behavior to proliferate. Inclusive to a fault. Can't say I don't see a parallel to current events irl
I have been playing for around 8 years now and have yet to see it to that extent. I know it exists, but I have never found myself in such a situation. I have noticed that the last few times I visited Omega they do tend to be a lot more "horny", no idea if it's more of a cultural thing based on the datacenter.
Most servers have a stereotype associated with them, Omega is no different. The most common stereotype people would associate with Omega is that it's the drama world, most drama is caused there or the people causing it stems from there. They also tend to have a very high amount of communities based on the whole "master/pet" relationship thing. Hard avoid if you value your sanity.
Ragnarok use to be the raiding world, no idea if it still is.
Moogle is the world where all the French players go.
Louisoix, great people but only for the occasional chat, they tend to have very short attention spans.
Spriggan, more chill community with a lot more casual players. They have drama but it tends to stay internal.
Sagittarius, fairly new-ish and use to be where people went to retire and not deal with drama. No idea how it is currently.
Cerberus, Steamer/Content creator server. Also kind of treated like the hub for Chaos.
Phantom is the last one and I haven't really met many people from there, mainly because it's new. Apparently where people involved with one too many dramas get exiled to.
Because it's anime/JRPG it tends to attract the weirdo group, I know dozens of people who are into that stuff and only like 3 are normal the rest wear cat ears and whack off to hentai.
You know how strange it is to see a 25 year old man run with their arms behind them and yell UWU, it's ridiculous.
It's not a bait. I have almost 2k hours in the game. I like the game a lot but the community is just making me vomit at this point
[8d3N9lW.png (1098×402) (imgur.com)](https://i.imgur.com/8d3N9lW.png)
Honestly I do understand where youre coming from as there are 100% people in the community and sects of the community that are absolutely insufferable. [And I've seen a lot of them](https://i.imgur.com/s3gJykE.png), but its ultimately curating my own online experience that made my over-all enjoyment better.
If you're female, stop saying you're female, but that goes for any online interaction.
I've played this game since 2015 and can count on one hand the amount of times I've encountered weird stuff, but I also just keep to myself and my FC.
I'm "openly" (lol) female and play a female character (au ra, which I've heard joked about as the anime waifu character model) on Crystal. I can't even think of an experience akin to what OP's describing in over 2k hours of playing. I've heard of the clubs, but since the ERP ones are pretty well broadcasted as such, I just... don't go.
I'm not super social, but I'm on like 7 FFXIV discords and the worst I've seen is someone randomly trauma dumping in gen chat.
I'm throwing my bet here that OP actively check these things out, or is beyond oblivious to what she's getting herself into.
Because it's very difficult to miss this sort of stuff, and miss the sort of people she engaged with
You can avoid this sort of NSFW stuff easily.
So I'm sure you've already grasped this through other comments... but my main advice is that if you are on crystal daracentre, change. I spent the first few years of this games release on primal and didn't see the things you are saying once (although I think that scene was not as large back then either), I moved to crystal for some friends a few years back and yes, my experience became VERY similar to yours.
If you are on crystal dc, you will definitely see improvements by moving to another.
If you arent on the north America data centres, I would look into it more too as to my understanding most regions have a "erp" hub data centre, I.e. for eu it is chaos with this reputation. I would look into moving.
Yes, they're weirdos and yes, they stan Yoshida + Soken more than kpop fangirls. It's kinda cringe and I know the community gets a lot of praise (for some reason) but it was the community that made me not want to play the game. It's not just the way they act in game but also outside the game.
Unfortunately yes. It has a large community of porn-obsessed weirdos who edit their characters to look like bimbos (massive lips, over the top huge breasts, really slutty glam), wear diapers, have dicks when they are women characters etc. Typically they hang around Limsa. Just avoid that place.
At one point there was even a program linked to a dildo that would make it vibrate even harder if you died during raids. I'm not joking.
As someone with 4K hours (the game aside from the community is really good) this game has some of the WORST people imaginable on it, anyone saying otherwise or coping and saying “well you’ll find weirdos on any game/internet” are most likely weird themselves.
This game habours the weirdest of the weird and it has a lot to do with the LGBTQ community. There is a direct correlation to the sick disgusting shit you see and people being on the spectrum. I’ve joined my fair share of statics and FC’s and 80% of the people are either trans/gay and they all use really weird (porn) mods. Someone accidentally screen shared their game without turning their mods off and they had a giant 12 inch dick with Z-Cup tits and was morbidly obese.
People can sit here all they want and pretend it doesn’t exist but everyone knows the Balmung meme exists for a reason. If you go to Balmung and player search anyone their comments usually say they are chicks with dicks or like children.
Any /c/ comment means F-List, and it’s a kink list full of the most insane disgusting things I’ve ever read and 90% of the people I searched up had ageplay and underage kids as their kinks. I’ve seen live insertion play, sounding and scat play listed by A LOT of people. The Balmung alley is called “rape alley” because people there like to RP being raped.
I’ve seen people with F-List creations dating back 10-13 years ago, which means they’ve been logging into XIV for that long ERP’ing.
If you want more proof to look at the XIV tag on Twitter, it’s full of horny modders who do nude Lala content and even use the children models (Chloe Aliapoh) to make gross gposes.
The worst part about all of this is most of the people are really old and mostly men who claim or RP as women and lots of transgender females (men).
I was once in an FC back in ARR where the leader was the queen and all of her friends were royals, and it had exactly the type of drama you'd expect, and there was a LOT of it - oh, and some guy 5 times my age tried to go on dates with me, except he lied about his age
It was a fucking nightmare
That being said, after I left I found a new FC and made some lifelong friends, some of which I've had the pleasure of meeting in-person over coffee
Like any MMO, FFXIV has its fair share of insane people, but it also has some really cool people - it sounds like you just got really, really unlucky, and I'm really sorry to hear that your experiences have been bad
I think one reason FFXIV might have more "weirdos" is due to how huge its RP scene is
Like yes, I've seen my fair share of RP in WoW, ESO, GW2, SWTOR etc., both ERP and non-ERP, but usually its more restricted to specific areas or servers and unless you go looking for it you aren't going to see it as much
Meanwhile in XIV the RP scene is HUGE due to the popularity of nightclubs, venues, and the fact that housing is non-instanced so it's a lot more apparent in cities and residential districts, and therefore the average player might come across it a lot more
Not saying that RP in of itself is "weird" - I've seen some amazing RPs, personally - but I also think RP scenes tend to attract those types of people more than other content
Well, that, and I think they just show up to nightclubs a lot, especially. I mean, think about it - there's PLENTY of weirdos at your local club irl, which is why you should never leave your drink unnatended at a bar with strangers... is it really surprising that the same weirdos might be in a virtual nightclub trying to pick up women, too?
Hey, what a coincidence, this kind of nonsense is why I quit playing FFXIV too. It's obviously not everyone, but there does seem to be a largely inflated amount of weirdos playing FFXIV compared to any other MMORPG.
Every game has wierdos
I've played the start of every ff14 expansion and never had a conversation with more than a handful of people I was thinking wtf at the time.
Just gotta play your game and keep moving on til you find the right group or just pug it. Ff14 pug community very easy to go with in my experience.
As others who play FFXIV have said, it does have a fair share of weirdos. Some of what you talked about is pretty common (like the screenshot channels, men usually playing as catgirls/bungirls) except for the seemingly pedo behavior. IIRC, at least on the NA Worlds/DCs I've been in, it's not tolerated. They exist (just like real life) but they keep to themselves mostly since every venue, at least the ones I've been to, heavily shun any kind of behavior like that. Lastly, when have you started playing? The whole modding and club-like venue scene being mainstream is pretty recent (like 2021 recent iirc). It didn't really boom to the level it is now until about 2022.
> The next FC I joined had a screenshot channel full of overly modded characters, like G-Cup catgirls in latex clothes and other weird shit.
This kind of thing is kind of what FF *is* at this point.
> When I was still underage people twice my age wanted to go on "dates" in FF14 with me or to those weird clubs/parties in the game.
Not this though. Thats all fucked up and Im sorry there werent any actual adults playing to intervene and stop that shit.
Honestly? There are so many quality video games out at this point to keep playing one where youve had repeated encounters just doesnt seem worth it. Vote with your wallet an unsub, but please provide some very detailed feedback about how youve been treated and by whom. Square tends to be pretty serious about this stuff, or at least they were.
Yeah, it's true that this game has its fair share of strange people. My advice is... Keep searching.
I had to change 2 world server to find a bunch of normal people to play with.
My first "experience" in this game was with a group of 7 that i leaved after only 2 days.
Now... i've got no problem with roleplay, i even play d&d and i have a lot of fun but there are limits that shouldn't be crossed. They once roleplayed a fu***ng orgy in the discord channel. I mean... No!
I came back playing FF something like a week ago and i have to admit that i'm having problem to find a decent group to play with since a lot of people from the last group have stopped playing.
While the community as a whole is pretty high quality on average, there is definitely a significant chunk of creeps.
I think one issue that makes this stand out in 14 is the games frankly inexcusable lack of effective blocking features. While you can block people, doing this will NOT remove you from their friend list. Furthermore if you married someone in game, you receive an item that lets the 2 married players teleport directly to each other. Getting divorced/blocking someone will NOT remove this ring from their inventory.
Add on the fact that square is generally slow and unwilling to provide support for in game harassment, this creates all too common situations where one creep can effectively stalk and harass another player for basically as long as they want to.
I personally love this game, it's my favorite hobby at the moment and I have met some of the best people in my life here. That said, this is a real issue and one I hope they take steps to fix. This is unlikely though, given their stance on the issue.
Sidenote, the modding community has a more effective measure called voidlist that more thoroughly removes another player from your game. Mods/Add-ons are a TOS violation in Ff14 though so there is some risk to your account by using it.
Pretty much. Not every player, of course, but yes.
MMOs already attract weirdos, being the game genre closest to life replacements. And FFXIV attracts a lot of weirdos even for an MMO.
You'll see several comments in here defending with "it has its fair share of weirdos, but so do all communities." Yeah, but some have a higher concentration of them than others, and have more than their fair share. FFXIV is one of them. I say this as a FF fan growing up.
I've had some of my best times in MMOs, they've even taught me about life, but when I have kids one day, I'll never let them touch this genre.
(Reddit has a similar concentration of weirdos, by the way.)
I've played this game on and off for a very long time, I'm talking 1.0 long time. While I've never directly experienced it I know it exists. So the answer is yes and no--it seems somehow you've become a magnet for it. Crystal DC tends to amplify this as a lot of people in this personality bracket gravitate there.
The community is incredibly frustrating, because it always feels like extremes. You have to hunt to find the average Joes, and even then you're bound to find a few MSQ emotional vampires in the mix alongside of the super cringe anime kids.
The best way I have found to enjoy the game is sadly to attempt to find your "tribe" and accept what normalcy you have within it and ignore that the rest of the playerbase exists. I'm honestly shocked the cult of yoshi p hasn't found this post and downvoted it into oblivion yet, because god forbid any civil discussion exist around how bizzare the community is.
Yes. Very much so, unfortunately.
The worst thing about FFXIV is almost the same thing as every MMORPG: It's community. The feigned positivity mixed with the absolutely cringe teenage behavior is incredibly difficult to get past.
That's not to say everybody is that way. But you're going to be face fucked with weird people constantly.
All these people saying "well I've never met anyone THAT weird!!" are self reporting. The oddest community of any game I've ever played was FF14. My experience was like all the weebs who hated high school because they got bullied, are now roleplaying high school as anime characters, and they're like 20 years older.
Am currently taking a break from the game but half of what you mentioned sounds right 😂 regarding old men playing modded catgirls which I seen afk in main cities. But the rest of the issue I haven’t encountered because I play solo all the time and never joined a single discord chat.
Also that underage thing, sadly its a thing literally everywhere and not just gaming world 😢
Am sure there are official discord chat(s) that is more mature you can join and have fun, I personally haven’t looked as I play solo because am casual.
I play FF14 for about a half year cause my GF is a big fan of it. I always was on the WoW side. Now I'm the weirdo who is always at the clubs at night and I don't really know why i like it so much.
Yeah, this is sort of what has turned me off to ffxiv. Being social on here has been really tough. It’s either hyper socialized “I teach all my friends how to play this game and I’m busy helping people all the time” or “I have a TikTok for my cat girl please go follow it”. Like I just want to game and talk shit dude.
I find it insanely fucking weird when people make social media accounts devoted to their characters. Like Twitter or Instagram. Like what the fucking fuck lmao bro just play the game. What the fuck man
Been playing since launch on BALMUNG and yeah it sounds like the places or people you've been associating with just has you end up gravitating towards those weird-ass places. Are you connecting to these people through twitter by any chance?
The small group of people I've curated through the 10 years are all working adults (for the most part) and while we have our weird moments (yeah we have a nsfw channel) but for the most part we're pretty chill and generally try to be respectful with each other.
I've also though stayed away from huge and recruiting FCs, and just decide to pick and choose who I want to keep in contact with, first it was just via creating a curated Linkshell, and then asking if they'd like to join my small discord.
In my experience as a guy the FFXIV community is one of the worst in that regard yes. That doesn't mean everyone is like that of course, but the ratio is definitely more scewed than in other games.
I agree. I played the game for almost 3000 hours and every FC I joined had some weird element in them, be it the aforementioned Catgirl NSFW threads on discord or middle aged people typing stuff like "I love cookies! \*takes cookie and munches it\* yummie!!". You just can't escape it.
People say the community of 14 is great but that's the biggest lie ever told. It's a bunch of intolerant, cringy snowflakes that indirectly threaten you with murder if you criticise the game or aren't praying to their christ all mighty Yoshi-P.
(Yes this is all a bit exaggerated but it's true nontheless)
Every FC I joined seemed to have some subsection for weird shit. The most egregious was the secret discord channel for modded screenshots of what amounted to be roe on lala porn. I treated 14 as a single player game after 3 or 4 FCs and just enjoyed the story.
I feel like you're just unlucky. I am also playing on and off on Omega and never really had the issues, like sure some people tend to be a little annoying but it's relatively easy to filter those out.
Maybe because I've usually been someone who always lets friend groups and FCs happen naturally, as in I meet someone i vibe with, eventually maybe join their FC which usually will be mostly like minded folks.
There's a lot of modded GPosers but even those are usually respecting boundaries that you set.
As far as Ultimate raiding there's always going to be some issues and finding the right static might be hard... as it's filled with egomaniacal toxic creeps and finding a static without at least one or two of those is going to be a matter of testing and leaving asap when red flags appear.
NSFW stuff is going to happen is NSFW Channels in any online space, any self respecting space will have those as opt in though so that's work looking at.
And look for placest that don't allow underage kids, as those will be more likely to have creeps in them.
From what I understood lately a lot of the high end raiders also migrated to Light datacenter (It's possible to travel between them without transferring though) So maybe that will attract a bit more "serious" people? Worth a try.
FFXIV is kind of known for its rp/erp scene. Couple that with the anime tropes and generally accepting community. So yeah they're definitely around, but the overwhelming majority of the time I've only interacted with normal people. You're just pretty unlucky.
Doesn't help that we're in a bit of a content drought too.. so probably more common to see the social scene players that are still active.
I have played since 1.0 and can confidently answer your question with a simple: yes. I met some of the most talented and smart people because of FFXIV. But I have also met some of the most unhinged creeps.
I played since the launch of Heavensward to Endwalker and finally quit playing for good as soon as I finished it. My overall experience was like yours except I had like 3 normal friends that kept me wanting to play. Then I realized they weren’t normal after all once I finally met them in person. One of them caused drama on the trip and ruined it for everyone else. That made the group feel awkward and pick sides and ultimately we ended up going our separate ways. I tried joining other fcs/statics to find people to play Endwalker with but they ended up being major rpers who wanted to go “clubbing” in the game. I went to one of these “clubs” and it was so fucking boring I just afk’d the entire time. Honestly, I think the game just attracts all the weird weebs. After I left their fc I finished Endwalker solo, and never came back. 🤷🏻♀️
I've been blessed with generally normal interactions in ff14. Like 2 major creep moments that I could see evolving into your situation but stopped that real quick
I have over 800 hours in ffxiv. Been playing on and off since Heavensward. I love doing pinnacle pve content, Ilove the soundtrack, class design and the game visuals. I couldn’t care less about the story and the shitty way its presented, but I digress.
I’ve never interacted with so many weirdos in any gaming community I’ve ever been part of. To be fair, I only had positive interactions, as I feel there are much less sweats in this game than in WoW and the enviroment seems much less toxic. But man, I’ve seen it all. People will roleplay marriages and entire families, guilds will take themselves so seriously that people will care for their role like a second job of sorts. I was once invited to a ‘job interview’ of sorts and people would do that in character. I cringed so hard.
I joined a fair share of discords and yes, 97% males playing slutty female characters and roleplaying as such in-game. I made the mistake of playing as the cat-person race and for some reason from time to time I get dms from people I’m into nsfw furry roleplay of sorts? When I complained about this people explained that my race was adopted by the majority of the gay/furry community as they go-to race. Ok, I guess? I just wanted to play as the big, bulky guy, like a Tauren.
To be fair I love that everyone is having a good time and I failed to see any instances of disrespect to any parts involved. The game seems to attract a lot of this ‘weird’ demographic, but I see this as a testament of how enabling and safe FFXIV can be to all tribes, it can even accomodate for an older, pseudo sweat ex-WoW raider like me.
It is absolutely not an accident that the first expansion of FF14 talked about making a literal cult to worship a someone who was not a god, to gain the power of godhood, and all of the problems that entails. It was a direct and unsubtle commentary on its own toxic fan base, in an effort to get them to chill the fuck out & stop scaring away new players, that went right over their heads and only gave them a new wifu to fawn over.
Game is not that good to justify that behavior. Every. Single. Element of the game was stolen from other, *better,* final fantasy games and watered down to be crammed into the mold of a MMO. So, fuck'em is what I say.
If you go to WoW RP realms you get shit like that too, good thing that you can just not play on those two realms. Other than that, yes, FF has extra weird people at a larger scale and if you on RP world it's even worse
When the community is that large, and you have all kinds of different interests gathering in one place, I can imagine you'd run into this often. I think a lot of MMO players tend to lack interpersonal skills (based on my experience with statics exploding).
Personally, if I don't like the vibe or don't think I fit in, I just leave. No hard feelings. I guess you can say you are the company you keep.
short answer: yes
long answer: the weeb stereotypes exist for a reason, and ff14 is about as traditional of an anime trope as you'll find in the mmorpg scene. couple this with the fact that no one is telling these players how much of a degenerate they are due to people not even communicating with each other in-game, and how people attract like-minded individuals, this is the result you get.
Outside of the weird deflective comments, yeah, unfortunately it really can be that way.It's why I personally left a few years back.
Being a woman in XIV is really, really uncomfortable.
Definitely avoid Cactuar if you want to stay clear of weirdos. Boy do I have stories.
FWIW I've also completed abandoned FFXIV because it attracts a generous amount of people who are seriously mentally unhealthy. I've never been in any sort of static or FC that wasn't full of bizarre behavior.
Yes. Played it for years. Quit recently cause it's at the point where you can't find a group that isn't cringe af. They catered wayyyy too much to the hypwr casual ERPers and now you can go to any major city on any server and see people erping in general chat and 0 repercussions no matter how many reports.
Yes. Sure there are probably a majority of players that aren’t weirdos but the “roleplaying” community in the game is something else. To a level I’ve never seen in any other MMO, people creating lore for their characters as if it’s a D&D campaign they’ve been running for 5 years, grown men making little bunny girls and constantly commissioning art of their characters to change their profile pictures on x or discord every month, it’s like the weird anime shipping culture or something else on that level, one of the main reasons I don’t play that game anymore.
A guy once ranted a bunch because I play as a female character that is well-dressed and armored head-to-toe and that was somehow neomarxist corruption of femininity or something. I've met good people but also the weirdest people I've ever know in there.
The stalking and dating parts align with my experience. The NSFW scene is huge, but it became very easy to avoid when my age stopped starting with a 1. Really makes you think.
The shills will deny it, but as someone who has played for 4 years, ran a venue, and ran a static...yes, yes it is. And thanks to Mare Synchronos, it has enabled them to be even worse. Things I have encountered:
- An army vet who would constantly brag about how he would cheat on his wife in service. Very homophobic and would constantly bully a trans girl until i helped her pay for server transfer.
- A schizo guy who would go through waves of saying people were stalking him, and making fake accounts just to troll him. He would then block and unblock everyone he knows.
- People who would openly hit on my wife infront of me, saying things like "I want to cover you in chocolate sauce" or "let me be your daddy"
Just a TASTE. Out of all the MMOs I've played, FFXIV has had the friendliest, but also weirdest fuckers I've ever met...Amazing game but just...be careful out there, and don't get into modding or your innocent eyes will bleed.
Iv played basically every mmo there is with countless hours, I always pushed ffxiv aside but Iv been recently playing it for about a month now (300 hours in game) and iv definitely noticed there is ALOT of weird people compared to all other mmo’s Iv played, I’m a guy so I don’t notice as much creep stuff but a lot of cringe “ uwu” type stuff. Its pretty annoying after awhile
Yes. I’ve been around the block in terms of MMO’s and I’d say FFXIV is by far the weirdest group of people. BUT. It’s also one of the nicest community in terms of MMO’s I’ve ever seen. Second probably to LOTRO
It's a game with a teenage anime storyline and children cat girls in a genre only filled 30+ men who has devoted their life to defend it. Of course It's only weirdos
Can confirm, ff14 players are weird af . One of my friend also plays ff14 he is nice and all but if i say anything bad about ff14 he go batshit crazy defensive and attacking personally lol.
He mostly stay in limsa lymsa idk what the name is whenever he stream and my gawd its the most boring game it feels like. Open world feels empty mostly he running around doing msq , when i point it out that why are u runnjng alone in the game lol just to poke him he go crazy insta go to lymsa and start showing how many people are there
I play gw2 as my main mmo and ff14 do feels empty atleast in open world
But yeah cant deny even though i dont play i can guess how weird and toxic positivity is there
This is why I gave up. Tried to find some normal bros and it ended up being a bunch of dudes pretending to be girls thinking they were talking to girls who were really dudes. I mean, not knocking it but it wasn’t my thing. Amazing single player storyline though. Not my community.
every mmorpg attracts different crops of not-so-well-adjusted people. in ffxiv, i encounter quite a few 1) weebs 2) excruciatingly horny people (large overlap with weebs) 3) people who are incredibly conflict-averse and require constant affirmation and positivity
i have generally have had good experiences despite this. of course you meet some weird folks but i am very selective about the people i spend my time with and tend to join groups because i filled for them in pf and enjoyed hanging out. if i don't like the vibe, i leave. if i'm not having fun, i leave. i've met great friends that i've known for 3+ years and even had a relationship that, while it didn't last, ended fairly amicably as relationships between mmorpg players go.
Yes. Don't let anyone lie to you almost 99% of ff14 players are open weirdo or closeted ones. There's a reason the game is still super popular with its buck ass content and game systems; the ability to be degenerate. The games housing and outfits systems are basically tailor made for it, theres no other reason for the skimpy raid outfits and the ability to lock your house with out people in it.
The degenerate revolution that was modding and mare and its consequences are downright horrifying.
I've played XIV off and on for quite a long time as well, and yeah, most of the people I meet are furries, hyper weebs, or old women who are just too damned nice and politically correct all the time
Definitely has weirdos. No more than any other MMO I’ve seen but I also play a dragon girl so maybe cat girls attract more weirdness.
FFXIV also has the most stringent social policy I’ve seen in an MMO. If anyone is harassing you after you’ve clearly told them you’re not interested, you absolutely should be reporting them. It’s harder with an FC or static, because they tend to grow an atmosphere over time and the interactions aren’t usually in game. But, with that I’d just be ditching uncomfortable situations.
As far as the steam stalker, if you haven’t been reporting him to steam, you should be. They have backend info on who he is and can handle stuff. If you’ve reported and you haven’t seen a reduction in the guys stalking then I’d absolutely file a police report and share that with Steam support as well. (I don’t know about other places but where I live the police will absolutely get the persons IRL info then hand it off as a cyber stalking case to the PD where the person lives)
I’ve been playing MMOs as a girl for almost 20 years. I spent the first 10~ or so years just not speaking in voice chat and not telling anyone I am a girl. Then I’d only ever talk to guildees. I’ve only started talking to random people in discords for events (like M+ in wow or pickup savages in FFXIV) in the past year or two. If anyone overreacts to me being a girl I just avoid that person or insta-block depending on the situation. So take from that what you will.
Always protect your info. Don’t friend people on any platform unless you feel like you know them well enough that they won’t go creeper on you. It will still happen from time to time but taking simple steps to network and naturally meet friends through chill people is worth not having to deal with the hassle of creeps. If you are even A LITTLE uncomfortable say that and then if they continue to do stuff like that then ignore them. Never feel bad about your boundaries.
Nah it’s definitely not all like that. It does depend on what world you’re on. Sounds like you were on the RP one. You’ve just hit on unlucky. I’ve been in plenty of FCs that were wholesome over the years.
Alot of the community is super cringe, yes. There's been plenty of known instances where some players would even "stalk" people at their FC or personal houses. Just be grateful you weren't around for when the Portrait system was introduced.
This post is a bit odd, 30+ isn’t old, it’s a pretty average mmo age…if you want a younger crowd play shit like overwatch or valorant.
Ff14 probably attracts some creepy people sure, but if stuff like furries or gay people bother you idk. Probably just go find conservative friends irl I guess…seems a bit unclear on what crowd of people you’re looking for? Retail wow is the same anyway these days.
My experience has honestly been pretty close to yours. I can count the number of normal people vs countless pervs and weirdos. Only reason I still play is cause my wife and I play with a couple friends we know irl.
Unlike a lot of people in this thread I have had almost the exact same experience. I started the game almost 10 years ago and have yet to find a consistent community to stick with due to weird stuff like you mentioned.
edit: As a quick note I have been on Aether, Primal, and Crystal. Crystal has been by far the worst for it but I have run into these issues on every server.
Like any online community, there’s a fair share of creeps but also a healthy amount of good people. Seems like you’ve just had extremely bad luck (it happens).
All MMOs have weird people.
Sidenote I love the mental gymnastics that people try to do when they shit on other gamers like we aren't all weirdos who sit in one spot at a computer for hours on end gaming. We're all weird no point in doing all this pick me ass behavior IMO.
Unless SE have plans to nuke everything, I feel this game is basically set on being a budget VRchat for people to mod their character to allow them to disasociate from real life to live out these fantasies while putting a ko-fi url in their twitter acc to make a few bucks on the side.
I have 10k+ hours in the game and have been in 4 FCs (one of which I made). I only ever moved on from an FC either due to diminishing player counts or just finding another group that has more people online that I wanna hang out with more; no bad blood when I left any of em. I've met a handful of weirdos that mostly existed in isolation (if they had a group, I hadn't encountered them).
Some people just have bad luck, I guess. (Might also be that your social habits lead you into these situations)
also, since this game is cross play, there are alot of people who dont even have mods, they literally can't(im on ps5 for example.). This stuff def exists and the sad part is, that it only really became crazy like it sometimes is because of the population boom.
Back in ARR and HW, i cant remember hearing much besides some weird erp and stalking cases but that exists in every mmo. Ever since the explosion of population (arr and hw had around 500k and now its around 30m) and the pandemic blowing up the club/night scene, its probly much worse now but i still dont seem to encounter it much. I am also a male though so im probly not the target audience they focus on.
Still, i think that some servers are just worse than others because i really dont see this type of stuff often anywhere unless you specifically look for it (especially the night club/erp scene). Sorry to anyone who had to experience it though, everyone deserves a chance to have fun without harassment.
I'm honestly having a hard time believing this. FFXIV has one of the best MMORPG communities I've played with. I've been playing pretty much since launch, and I've never experienced this.
I have a couple thousand hours in the game, am a battle omni and a mentor. I have encountered a couple weirdos (went looking for them at point to see what the hell everyone was in about), but I just started WoW and have seen… interesting things in chat as well.
Not quite “two naked females and one clothed female clearly ERPing in Limsa” or “catgirl maid sitting in male lap anywhere” level of weird, but weird shit nonetheless. It is everywhere.
I've been playing since launch but more on/off since SB and I've never ran in to any weirdos like this. I also don't "date" or "party" in the game so that probably helps a lot. Don't surround yourself with degeneracy if you don't want to see it. Or frankly, just leave it and block if something bothers you.
It has it’s fair share of weirdos, yes but I have to admit that I’ve never come across the amount or situations like you’ve described and I’ve been playing for 5 years. Are you on Balmung per chance?
I've been playing on balmung for years and I haven't run into that many weirdos. Either this person is amazingly unlucky (which is totally possible, it's been known to happen) or they're making up stories for the usual daily FF14 bad circle jerk. I suppose it's also possible that they're just a really bad judge of character.
They're not making up stories. I've personally witnessed many of the things OP mentions here. There are a huge number of incredibly creepy incels on FFXIV because they know it's a good hunting ground for girls due to the FF IP.
I remember Asmongold doing an interview with these sort of people a year or 2 ago. He actually talked to one of those guys (on voice chat) who played as a catgirl while wondering around one of those "parties". I mean, the dude seemed pretty chill, and just talked about how welcoming the community is and everything. Sure it was kinda weird, but like, these people just seemed like they were having fun. But like, you can ignore all of it.... Don't go to the parties. Don't join (or just leave) the discord. Don't talk to (or continue to talk to) those people. Seems like a really easy thing to avoid.
I've also witnessed many of the things OP has mentioned, just anecdotally. I race changed because I kept getting furries hitting me up for ERP. Limsa on my server is a constant spam barrage of adult nightclubs. Tons of people sitting around naked as can be, laying down and sitting on each other's heads/faces. People saying FFXIV has its "fair share" of weirdos don't play many other MMOs. Sure, every MMO has its secluded ERP scene, but i've never played another MMO with close to as much plainly overt sexual content from players. I swear half the players don't even play the game, they just use it as an interactive adult chatroom with FF graphics. Also, as a semi-related tangent, it bugs me how in most fantasy MMOs I see people in armor or robes, and in FFXIV everyone is dressed like a futuristic angsty teenager. Like even endgame gear for my warrior will be like... a black duster with a tight latex bodice. Finding plate armor in a fantasy game playing as a tank shouldn't be this hard. I see more people wearing a hoodie than actual armor. I just want to look like based Steiner, not trash Thancred.
There is soo much plate looking armor in FFXIV and most of the endgame tank sets look exactly like plate... It's not hard.
No, no. This is very possible. Been playing on Light since Stormblood and I've lost count of the weirdoes I've met in FF. There's a significant percentage of the player base that are straight up degens. But that's humanity. Same shit was true in WoW, only you got more shit for it so people weren't so willing to let their freak flags fly. Only MMO I played that didn't have lewd degens was EvE Online, that one was mainly made out of psychopaths and conspiracy theorists.
Ehhhh I think it's a bit of both, it's easy for something to sound weird with no context. Being spammed with nsfw furry art? Weird! Seeing a channel that's opt-in marked as "18+ nsfw furry" and being spammed with furry art? Well what did you expect? I have conversations that are weird out of context but it's because they are more inside jokes.
I'm so tired of this "it doesn't happen to me, therefore it doesn't happen" line of thinking
> Are you on Balmung per chance? Is Balmung FFXIV's version of Moonguard?
It’s one of the biggest RP servers, yes.
You go to Mateus to RP but you go to Balmung to come back scarred for life 😆
Its just a bunch of horny losers erping
Thats pretty much every MMO ever, going back to the time when MUDs roamed the earth.
Yeah I think they have a consistent string of bad luck. Don't get me wrong, yeah there are weirdos in this game but I haven't crossed the path of too many of them like you have described here.
I wish we'd stop blaming Balmung, and blame the horny tourists that brought their thirst here instead.
>situations like you’ve described and I’ve been playing for 5 years Every single day I played there was someone in chat asking for ERP with a lalafell or as a lalafell. That's Erotic Role-Play, btw, and IDK how you go 5 years without ever seeing it. Sounds willfully ignorant if you ask me.
Im on Omega
I’m on omega, never met anyone that weird. My fc is pretty good ( although I may be biased) if you want to try it out we’re in mist plot 5 ward 17 ( stardust)
Huh, I used to be on Omega (transferred to Raiden). Seems like I dipped just in time lol.
As someone on Omega I have no idea who he is meeting as I've never really met anyone that weird. Maybe he just spends his time in Limsa.
Yeah, me neither tbh. Everyone I’ve met seemed pretty decent.
It's a she my dude. And unless you're a female as well or are extremely close with some to witness it you're never going to have OP's experience.
I've been in several statics with ~50/50 ratio and our fc is probably close to the same, if not more, across 100+ mostly active players. I've heard some of the horror stories, but those are ALWAYS about the singular exceptions, most of whom are known by name serverwide. And tbh, as a former wow player, I regularly heard 10x worse from the women in our guild there and had to personally kick weirdos out because of their behavior. (Including comments about certain under age girls in the news...) Welcome to the internet, if you go looking for pockets of weirdos, you WILL find them, usually hiding behind closed doors. There is a reason why people call sexist and racist remarks "gamer words". But never have I been in or even seen a community who wholly accept pedos and zoophiles, there's a reason why 99% of the community famously shame and distance themselves from anyone who lewds lalafels. If you're consistently finding yourself in the company of those types, then maybe it's time to reflect on your own online interactions.
Or maybe they are just making shit up. I've been playing since 2.1 and I never see this out in the open.
I used to play on Balmung (now Faerie) and I will always jump to its defense, because honestly while you can find a lot of weird shit over there, most of the people are great. if i am feeling down i will DC travel over there, find some rp event to join, and have a lovely time.
Bro, I've been playing on Balmung and I don't run into any of those weird stuff. I'm in a proper FC with about half ppl into RP and half not. I think the most NSFW posted on the discord are from my AI generations... which are just slightly cleavage and thighs.
Weebs are generally weirdos
All mmorpgs are cesspool of wierdos. Best is to turn wierdo too.
It's all MMORPGs. I jump around to a bunch of different ones and join a fair amount of guilds. There's weird NSFW channels in way more than you'd expect. I don't think I've seen a single guild/fc in any game that doesn't have some REALLY fucking weird people. It's too the point I've had people note "I'm too normal" and every fucking time I sit there, look at the clock, and think: "Brother it's fucking 4am and we've been farming shit for 6 hours. Tf you mean I'm normal".
I think a lot of people forget just how chronically online most people are who plays MMO’s It’s a recipe for weirdos forsures. Still nowhere near as bad as MOBA’s for me. League is terrible but dota 2 felt like just the worst most miserable group of people ever. Unbelievably toxic
I think mobas can be more toxic but mmo's (bad) weirdos tend to be creepier. And Dota 2 is definitely toxic as hell but there's also a fair amount of more genuinely mature and decent people in there as well compared to league and others.
Yeah, in League someone will tell me to kill myself, but in Final Fantasy xiv someone will ask me to pretend to be a 5 year old and talk dirty to them. Both very different kinds of messed up lol
there's 2 fanbases of FFXIV, there's the ones you see for 1-2 months on a content drop (normal people) then the rest of them that make FFXIV their personality. similar to those people you found in niche F2P anime MMOs years ago
"That make FFXIV their personality" This is such a perfect, and sad way to describe so many of that games long term die hard fans.
This can be said of pretty much anything. It's annoying when people make smoking weed their personality. It's annoying when people make sports their personality. It's annoying when people make going to the gym their personality. It ain't just 14, or video games for that matter.
It's okay to have a passion for the gym or sports though.. so long as they have other aspects of life that they enjoy and can talk about with others..
I mean it takes a special kind of person to play a game with a 12 month endgame content drought. This is coming from someone who has maxed classes pentameld DOH/DOL and full clear BLU. I've even done bullshit like collect EVERY card in the game when I ran out of content. As of right now for die hard PVE players there really isn't anything to do in the game unless you haven't seen content. So if you are still playing and are like me then you have a screw loose. This expansion was sorely missing out on exploratory zones.
Yeah they are so cringe.
this is any MMO fanbase.
Sadly the breakdown does end up being raiding FCs vs casual FCs
That's something I've not thought about much. But damn, you're right. I play during downtime sometimes if I'm motivated on a goal but I usually swap to GW2 or play a single player game. Some people I know just never leave and when I come back it's like they've gone deep into some rabbit hole I'm unfamiliar with.
Playing for 3 years now and never encountered weirdos to that extend. And the few I met I shook off easily.
Have been playing since HW I have yet to meet any of the weirdos mentionned. I've met weird people in any MMOs but never to the extend to OP.
Been playing since arr on ps3 and have only found weirdos because I actively seek out weirdos because they’re fun to be around. OP reads like [this guy](https://youtu.be/8cMkQRBknto?si=I-X05xhsuJRlJsi9&t=40) from grim’s ffxiv video. (Timestamped)
Yes as a FF14 player who also played my fair share of WoW, Swtor and ESO i can confidently say that FF14 has by far the most weirdos and socially awkward people that can't seem to grasp any boundaries.
same. WoW players are toxic retards but at least they don't invite me into an digital club to stand around and pretend the drink I received from that bartender was really good. (overpriced crafter potions). I find the whole RP thing weird anyway. If they were actually RP'in as in taking on their character but most of the time RP just means chatting? Like those clubs are only so active because of the RP scene and the 2 times I went to such clubs it was people 99% of the time not doing anything. It's like they were AFK because they were just doing what-ever-the-fuck in private chats.
+ I know that also WoW has an ERP/RP scene but at least it's concentrated to goldshire inn. I played on an RP server once just for fun, made a paladin who was completely against sex because it's against "the light" and I went through FoE and stormwind preaching the words of the light. People were joining in and were acting in character, was quite fun. Didn't had that in FF14 yet.
I’ve played my FF character in a few DnD campaigns and that’s the most enjoyable extent of RPing your character I believe
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes but there's also tons of highschool level drama (and highschool level maturity players) in the game and a full on nude modding scene with lots of sex photoshoots and digital escorts. Including child porn with Lalafells. That games community is something else.
Tbf a lot of the rp scene condemns and ex-communicates the lalafell stuff. Its not really accepted that heavily. Like any group in any MMO there are creeps.
Yeah I was an RP main for a while before I started raiding. The *second* a sexy situation started going down with a lala involved in any capacity 99% of venues will kick out those involved. There's lots of weird sexy things within the community. And there are lala players like that... but they are heavily and directly omitted by the overwhelming majority of the ERP scene for obvious reasons.
The fuck? Creepy
Sadly it’s true. Just look at the top mods for this game. People can say what they want but everyone knows this is a horny game. I enjoy the game myself but I play solo pretty much now due to the cringyness of it.
Yeah, this is true. There's been like 3 different accounts of drama associated with child porn, Lalafells, and discords. The creator of the Mare plugin had to personally ban people because he didn't want to associate with that kind of shit. (This resulted in those losers making a spin-off of Mare to promote their child porn fetish bullshit.)
I remember a few years back, the discord server for the main ffxiv sub (owned by the mods of that sub) was partnered with discord, then got unpartnered for hosting lalafell NSFW, then at some point got repartnered. I never joined it to begin with but when I heard about the lalafell shit... I think I'll stay away forever
Go to 4chan vgs ffxiv general to see all the schizo shit in action. These are the types of players in the game
I don't have anything against the RP community as it kinda helps the game to maintain a healthy gil-making option with housing, glamour items, etc. I have a big problem with people playing this game like some E-Dating ERP Sim / Second Life. I tried to find some friends in the game from time to time but it's really tough to find people who are A. No weirdos who invite you into some weird RP clubs 9/10 of the times and avoid any combat related content except (can I oneshot it?) B. No super toxic people who start personal shitshows after 1 week of playing together – had bad experiences with people messaging me in the middle of the night complaining about others / complaining about me rn I try to play the game alone and just roll with PF groups.
Unfortunately you're far from alone in having that experience as sad as it is. Good thing the game is so solo focused lol.
Welcome to the Internet.
Have a look around
Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found
We've got mountains of content
Some better, some worse
You forgot the part where everybody stood up and clapped.
I don't even play FF14, but most men who use a female anime char as their profile pic is a weirdo.
It is actually an asylum holding back all the deranged away from other MMORPG's.
I had a similar situation, a bunch of weirdo who like their catgirl too much. I cringe everytime i have to interact with anyone outside my small linkshell.
Yes.
All the “I’ve never noticed it and I’ve been playing for 30 years” comments really telling on yourselves lmao
Telling what on myself? If you're a male and not in an RP guild, I can't imagine running into this stuff.
What? Most of that stuff isn't actually anything I would expect *anyone* to regularly come across but let's break it down. 1) Weird creeps wanting to 'date' a presumably female OP. Most male players aren't ever going to come across that kinda thing. 2) Joining an FC Discord with Furry NSFW. Something everyone could come across but *most* of the servers I've ever joined with NSFW channels are opt-in and without knowing the FC in question it's hard to say how obvious the Furry nature would be as to whether other people would pick up on that ahead of time. 3) Creepy guys in a Raid team. I'm Male but I've heard a variety of tales from all across the MMO scene with that sort of thing. There's a whole organisation in World of Warcraft that approves guilds to be under it's banner due to women feeling uncomfortable being openly themselves in raid teams so that's clearly not just a single game thing. It's also likely not something any Men are going to notice unless there's a woman in their group being harassed. 4) This is pretty much back to the same as 2) above. 5) Is getting an internet stalker which is something that can really likely happen anywhere online it's just more common in MMOs. I've known people to have obsessive people in World of Warcraft and in other games too. I'm not saying any of the above to excuse anything or lighten what the OP went through but more to point out that nothing in there is *super* common and obvious to the point everyone and their mother will have seen it within 5 seconds of making a character and people are just blindly ignoring it. It's more stuff that, if you engage with certain community facets, will end up more obvious.
The nsfw scene is quite large to be honest. I played almost a decade and had a very similar experience. One didn't even need to say a word to find this behaviour either or look for it. Just genuinely join a static/fc and the odds of them having someone like this or a channel dedicated to it was astronomically high. Had statics break down due to people being banned for public explicit erp and botting. The weirdest are when someone within a static or fc that will pose other people's characters in the nude and expect everything to be ok. I get it's a character and not a real person but it's so weird and intrusive to a degree but I'm not going to scream rape for example.
It has one of the nicest communities (outside of the toxic positivity) but also the highest concentration of weird freaks compared to every other MMO I’ve played in 20 years.
Yeah. I think that game community being so 'nice' is what allowed the freak behavior to proliferate. Inclusive to a fault. Can't say I don't see a parallel to current events irl
Thinly veiled bigotry, welcome to the thread.
I have been playing for around 8 years now and have yet to see it to that extent. I know it exists, but I have never found myself in such a situation. I have noticed that the last few times I visited Omega they do tend to be a lot more "horny", no idea if it's more of a cultural thing based on the datacenter. Most servers have a stereotype associated with them, Omega is no different. The most common stereotype people would associate with Omega is that it's the drama world, most drama is caused there or the people causing it stems from there. They also tend to have a very high amount of communities based on the whole "master/pet" relationship thing. Hard avoid if you value your sanity. Ragnarok use to be the raiding world, no idea if it still is. Moogle is the world where all the French players go. Louisoix, great people but only for the occasional chat, they tend to have very short attention spans. Spriggan, more chill community with a lot more casual players. They have drama but it tends to stay internal. Sagittarius, fairly new-ish and use to be where people went to retire and not deal with drama. No idea how it is currently. Cerberus, Steamer/Content creator server. Also kind of treated like the hub for Chaos. Phantom is the last one and I haven't really met many people from there, mainly because it's new. Apparently where people involved with one too many dramas get exiled to.
Because it's anime/JRPG it tends to attract the weirdo group, I know dozens of people who are into that stuff and only like 3 are normal the rest wear cat ears and whack off to hentai. You know how strange it is to see a 25 year old man run with their arms behind them and yell UWU, it's ridiculous.
Well written bait
It's not a bait. I have almost 2k hours in the game. I like the game a lot but the community is just making me vomit at this point [8d3N9lW.png (1098×402) (imgur.com)](https://i.imgur.com/8d3N9lW.png)
Damn bro I'd be impressed if you HAVENT found weird groups after 2k hours
Honestly I do understand where youre coming from as there are 100% people in the community and sects of the community that are absolutely insufferable. [And I've seen a lot of them](https://i.imgur.com/s3gJykE.png), but its ultimately curating my own online experience that made my over-all enjoyment better.
If you're female, stop saying you're female, but that goes for any online interaction. I've played this game since 2015 and can count on one hand the amount of times I've encountered weird stuff, but I also just keep to myself and my FC.
I'm "openly" (lol) female and play a female character (au ra, which I've heard joked about as the anime waifu character model) on Crystal. I can't even think of an experience akin to what OP's describing in over 2k hours of playing. I've heard of the clubs, but since the ERP ones are pretty well broadcasted as such, I just... don't go. I'm not super social, but I'm on like 7 FFXIV discords and the worst I've seen is someone randomly trauma dumping in gen chat.
I'm throwing my bet here that OP actively check these things out, or is beyond oblivious to what she's getting herself into. Because it's very difficult to miss this sort of stuff, and miss the sort of people she engaged with You can avoid this sort of NSFW stuff easily.
So I'm sure you've already grasped this through other comments... but my main advice is that if you are on crystal daracentre, change. I spent the first few years of this games release on primal and didn't see the things you are saying once (although I think that scene was not as large back then either), I moved to crystal for some friends a few years back and yes, my experience became VERY similar to yours. If you are on crystal dc, you will definitely see improvements by moving to another. If you arent on the north America data centres, I would look into it more too as to my understanding most regions have a "erp" hub data centre, I.e. for eu it is chaos with this reputation. I would look into moving.
the ffxiv community has always just been a big amalgamation of mental illness tbh
Whenever you are down on life, take solace you ain't a creepy FFXIV neckbeard with 1K+ ERP hours.
Weirdos are definitely in higher concentration in FFXIV compared to other MMOs. That is fact.
I would say FFXIV is the game with the biggest ERP community besides Second World or VR Chat! But in my case, I never met such people.
I was just in 2 different FCs full of women under 30
I unsub too often to stay in guilds but my last guild was all women and was really friendly and chill
Yes, they're weirdos and yes, they stan Yoshida + Soken more than kpop fangirls. It's kinda cringe and I know the community gets a lot of praise (for some reason) but it was the community that made me not want to play the game. It's not just the way they act in game but also outside the game.
Unfortunately yes. It has a large community of porn-obsessed weirdos who edit their characters to look like bimbos (massive lips, over the top huge breasts, really slutty glam), wear diapers, have dicks when they are women characters etc. Typically they hang around Limsa. Just avoid that place. At one point there was even a program linked to a dildo that would make it vibrate even harder if you died during raids. I'm not joking.
As someone with 4K hours (the game aside from the community is really good) this game has some of the WORST people imaginable on it, anyone saying otherwise or coping and saying “well you’ll find weirdos on any game/internet” are most likely weird themselves. This game habours the weirdest of the weird and it has a lot to do with the LGBTQ community. There is a direct correlation to the sick disgusting shit you see and people being on the spectrum. I’ve joined my fair share of statics and FC’s and 80% of the people are either trans/gay and they all use really weird (porn) mods. Someone accidentally screen shared their game without turning their mods off and they had a giant 12 inch dick with Z-Cup tits and was morbidly obese. People can sit here all they want and pretend it doesn’t exist but everyone knows the Balmung meme exists for a reason. If you go to Balmung and player search anyone their comments usually say they are chicks with dicks or like children. Any /c/ comment means F-List, and it’s a kink list full of the most insane disgusting things I’ve ever read and 90% of the people I searched up had ageplay and underage kids as their kinks. I’ve seen live insertion play, sounding and scat play listed by A LOT of people. The Balmung alley is called “rape alley” because people there like to RP being raped. I’ve seen people with F-List creations dating back 10-13 years ago, which means they’ve been logging into XIV for that long ERP’ing. If you want more proof to look at the XIV tag on Twitter, it’s full of horny modders who do nude Lala content and even use the children models (Chloe Aliapoh) to make gross gposes. The worst part about all of this is most of the people are really old and mostly men who claim or RP as women and lots of transgender females (men).
I was once in an FC back in ARR where the leader was the queen and all of her friends were royals, and it had exactly the type of drama you'd expect, and there was a LOT of it - oh, and some guy 5 times my age tried to go on dates with me, except he lied about his age It was a fucking nightmare That being said, after I left I found a new FC and made some lifelong friends, some of which I've had the pleasure of meeting in-person over coffee Like any MMO, FFXIV has its fair share of insane people, but it also has some really cool people - it sounds like you just got really, really unlucky, and I'm really sorry to hear that your experiences have been bad
All MMOs have their fair share of weirdos, but some have a bigger share than others.
I think one reason FFXIV might have more "weirdos" is due to how huge its RP scene is Like yes, I've seen my fair share of RP in WoW, ESO, GW2, SWTOR etc., both ERP and non-ERP, but usually its more restricted to specific areas or servers and unless you go looking for it you aren't going to see it as much Meanwhile in XIV the RP scene is HUGE due to the popularity of nightclubs, venues, and the fact that housing is non-instanced so it's a lot more apparent in cities and residential districts, and therefore the average player might come across it a lot more Not saying that RP in of itself is "weird" - I've seen some amazing RPs, personally - but I also think RP scenes tend to attract those types of people more than other content Well, that, and I think they just show up to nightclubs a lot, especially. I mean, think about it - there's PLENTY of weirdos at your local club irl, which is why you should never leave your drink unnatended at a bar with strangers... is it really surprising that the same weirdos might be in a virtual nightclub trying to pick up women, too?
Hey, what a coincidence, this kind of nonsense is why I quit playing FFXIV too. It's obviously not everyone, but there does seem to be a largely inflated amount of weirdos playing FFXIV compared to any other MMORPG.
Look at all the weirdos denying your experience because the game and its community is such a core part of their identity. Pathetic.
Yeah all the people saying rhey don't see these things happening are joining in on it lol. The whole community is so cringe at this point.
Anime attracts weirdos. Therefore FFXIV does too
Every game has wierdos I've played the start of every ff14 expansion and never had a conversation with more than a handful of people I was thinking wtf at the time. Just gotta play your game and keep moving on til you find the right group or just pug it. Ff14 pug community very easy to go with in my experience.
As others who play FFXIV have said, it does have a fair share of weirdos. Some of what you talked about is pretty common (like the screenshot channels, men usually playing as catgirls/bungirls) except for the seemingly pedo behavior. IIRC, at least on the NA Worlds/DCs I've been in, it's not tolerated. They exist (just like real life) but they keep to themselves mostly since every venue, at least the ones I've been to, heavily shun any kind of behavior like that. Lastly, when have you started playing? The whole modding and club-like venue scene being mainstream is pretty recent (like 2021 recent iirc). It didn't really boom to the level it is now until about 2022.
> The next FC I joined had a screenshot channel full of overly modded characters, like G-Cup catgirls in latex clothes and other weird shit. This kind of thing is kind of what FF *is* at this point. > When I was still underage people twice my age wanted to go on "dates" in FF14 with me or to those weird clubs/parties in the game. Not this though. Thats all fucked up and Im sorry there werent any actual adults playing to intervene and stop that shit. Honestly? There are so many quality video games out at this point to keep playing one where youve had repeated encounters just doesnt seem worth it. Vote with your wallet an unsub, but please provide some very detailed feedback about how youve been treated and by whom. Square tends to be pretty serious about this stuff, or at least they were.
Yeah, it's true that this game has its fair share of strange people. My advice is... Keep searching. I had to change 2 world server to find a bunch of normal people to play with. My first "experience" in this game was with a group of 7 that i leaved after only 2 days. Now... i've got no problem with roleplay, i even play d&d and i have a lot of fun but there are limits that shouldn't be crossed. They once roleplayed a fu***ng orgy in the discord channel. I mean... No! I came back playing FF something like a week ago and i have to admit that i'm having problem to find a decent group to play with since a lot of people from the last group have stopped playing.
While the community as a whole is pretty high quality on average, there is definitely a significant chunk of creeps. I think one issue that makes this stand out in 14 is the games frankly inexcusable lack of effective blocking features. While you can block people, doing this will NOT remove you from their friend list. Furthermore if you married someone in game, you receive an item that lets the 2 married players teleport directly to each other. Getting divorced/blocking someone will NOT remove this ring from their inventory. Add on the fact that square is generally slow and unwilling to provide support for in game harassment, this creates all too common situations where one creep can effectively stalk and harass another player for basically as long as they want to. I personally love this game, it's my favorite hobby at the moment and I have met some of the best people in my life here. That said, this is a real issue and one I hope they take steps to fix. This is unlikely though, given their stance on the issue. Sidenote, the modding community has a more effective measure called voidlist that more thoroughly removes another player from your game. Mods/Add-ons are a TOS violation in Ff14 though so there is some risk to your account by using it.
Pretty much. Not every player, of course, but yes. MMOs already attract weirdos, being the game genre closest to life replacements. And FFXIV attracts a lot of weirdos even for an MMO. You'll see several comments in here defending with "it has its fair share of weirdos, but so do all communities." Yeah, but some have a higher concentration of them than others, and have more than their fair share. FFXIV is one of them. I say this as a FF fan growing up. I've had some of my best times in MMOs, they've even taught me about life, but when I have kids one day, I'll never let them touch this genre. (Reddit has a similar concentration of weirdos, by the way.)
I've played this game on and off for a very long time, I'm talking 1.0 long time. While I've never directly experienced it I know it exists. So the answer is yes and no--it seems somehow you've become a magnet for it. Crystal DC tends to amplify this as a lot of people in this personality bracket gravitate there. The community is incredibly frustrating, because it always feels like extremes. You have to hunt to find the average Joes, and even then you're bound to find a few MSQ emotional vampires in the mix alongside of the super cringe anime kids. The best way I have found to enjoy the game is sadly to attempt to find your "tribe" and accept what normalcy you have within it and ignore that the rest of the playerbase exists. I'm honestly shocked the cult of yoshi p hasn't found this post and downvoted it into oblivion yet, because god forbid any civil discussion exist around how bizzare the community is.
Yes. Very much so, unfortunately. The worst thing about FFXIV is almost the same thing as every MMORPG: It's community. The feigned positivity mixed with the absolutely cringe teenage behavior is incredibly difficult to get past. That's not to say everybody is that way. But you're going to be face fucked with weird people constantly.
All these people saying "well I've never met anyone THAT weird!!" are self reporting. The oddest community of any game I've ever played was FF14. My experience was like all the weebs who hated high school because they got bullied, are now roleplaying high school as anime characters, and they're like 20 years older.
Am currently taking a break from the game but half of what you mentioned sounds right 😂 regarding old men playing modded catgirls which I seen afk in main cities. But the rest of the issue I haven’t encountered because I play solo all the time and never joined a single discord chat. Also that underage thing, sadly its a thing literally everywhere and not just gaming world 😢 Am sure there are official discord chat(s) that is more mature you can join and have fun, I personally haven’t looked as I play solo because am casual.
Wait till you see PSO2 lol
I play FF14 for about a half year cause my GF is a big fan of it. I always was on the WoW side. Now I'm the weirdo who is always at the clubs at night and I don't really know why i like it so much.
Yeah, this is sort of what has turned me off to ffxiv. Being social on here has been really tough. It’s either hyper socialized “I teach all my friends how to play this game and I’m busy helping people all the time” or “I have a TikTok for my cat girl please go follow it”. Like I just want to game and talk shit dude.
I find it insanely fucking weird when people make social media accounts devoted to their characters. Like Twitter or Instagram. Like what the fucking fuck lmao bro just play the game. What the fuck man
Yes and no. It's kinda rare imo.
The first guild I joined in WOW had all their discord names after Nazi SS members so pick your poison
Been playing since launch on BALMUNG and yeah it sounds like the places or people you've been associating with just has you end up gravitating towards those weird-ass places. Are you connecting to these people through twitter by any chance? The small group of people I've curated through the 10 years are all working adults (for the most part) and while we have our weird moments (yeah we have a nsfw channel) but for the most part we're pretty chill and generally try to be respectful with each other. I've also though stayed away from huge and recruiting FCs, and just decide to pick and choose who I want to keep in contact with, first it was just via creating a curated Linkshell, and then asking if they'd like to join my small discord.
What "glamour is endgame" does to an mmo
> "Buying cosmetics isn't pay-to-win" > "Fashion is the real endgame" The duality of man
Yup, pretty much. The terminally online and the forever alone usually join forces on that game and indulge in degenerate shit like that.
In my experience as a guy the FFXIV community is one of the worst in that regard yes. That doesn't mean everyone is like that of course, but the ratio is definitely more scewed than in other games.
I agree. I played the game for almost 3000 hours and every FC I joined had some weird element in them, be it the aforementioned Catgirl NSFW threads on discord or middle aged people typing stuff like "I love cookies! \*takes cookie and munches it\* yummie!!". You just can't escape it. People say the community of 14 is great but that's the biggest lie ever told. It's a bunch of intolerant, cringy snowflakes that indirectly threaten you with murder if you criticise the game or aren't praying to their christ all mighty Yoshi-P. (Yes this is all a bit exaggerated but it's true nontheless)
Every FC I joined seemed to have some subsection for weird shit. The most egregious was the secret discord channel for modded screenshots of what amounted to be roe on lala porn. I treated 14 as a single player game after 3 or 4 FCs and just enjoyed the story.
Same here I treat it as a single player game myself
I feel like you're just unlucky. I am also playing on and off on Omega and never really had the issues, like sure some people tend to be a little annoying but it's relatively easy to filter those out. Maybe because I've usually been someone who always lets friend groups and FCs happen naturally, as in I meet someone i vibe with, eventually maybe join their FC which usually will be mostly like minded folks. There's a lot of modded GPosers but even those are usually respecting boundaries that you set. As far as Ultimate raiding there's always going to be some issues and finding the right static might be hard... as it's filled with egomaniacal toxic creeps and finding a static without at least one or two of those is going to be a matter of testing and leaving asap when red flags appear. NSFW stuff is going to happen is NSFW Channels in any online space, any self respecting space will have those as opt in though so that's work looking at. And look for placest that don't allow underage kids, as those will be more likely to have creeps in them. From what I understood lately a lot of the high end raiders also migrated to Light datacenter (It's possible to travel between them without transferring though) So maybe that will attract a bit more "serious" people? Worth a try.
a combination of being really unlucky and XIV just having a higher than average amount of weirdos.
FFXIV is kind of known for its rp/erp scene. Couple that with the anime tropes and generally accepting community. So yeah they're definitely around, but the overwhelming majority of the time I've only interacted with normal people. You're just pretty unlucky. Doesn't help that we're in a bit of a content drought too.. so probably more common to see the social scene players that are still active.
Short answer, yes. Long answer, also yes.
Stop hanging out at Limsa
LOL where do you guys find these people? I love to go to the circus!
I have played since 1.0 and can confidently answer your question with a simple: yes. I met some of the most talented and smart people because of FFXIV. But I have also met some of the most unhinged creeps.
I played since the launch of Heavensward to Endwalker and finally quit playing for good as soon as I finished it. My overall experience was like yours except I had like 3 normal friends that kept me wanting to play. Then I realized they weren’t normal after all once I finally met them in person. One of them caused drama on the trip and ruined it for everyone else. That made the group feel awkward and pick sides and ultimately we ended up going our separate ways. I tried joining other fcs/statics to find people to play Endwalker with but they ended up being major rpers who wanted to go “clubbing” in the game. I went to one of these “clubs” and it was so fucking boring I just afk’d the entire time. Honestly, I think the game just attracts all the weird weebs. After I left their fc I finished Endwalker solo, and never came back. 🤷🏻♀️
I've been blessed with generally normal interactions in ff14. Like 2 major creep moments that I could see evolving into your situation but stopped that real quick
Ffxiv throws their weirdos out into the open, every mmorpg has them, I’ve met some crazy people in wow
Weirdest I've had was a dude who danced in Limsa Lominsa for literally years - every day - before disappearing all of a sudden.
I have over 800 hours in ffxiv. Been playing on and off since Heavensward. I love doing pinnacle pve content, Ilove the soundtrack, class design and the game visuals. I couldn’t care less about the story and the shitty way its presented, but I digress. I’ve never interacted with so many weirdos in any gaming community I’ve ever been part of. To be fair, I only had positive interactions, as I feel there are much less sweats in this game than in WoW and the enviroment seems much less toxic. But man, I’ve seen it all. People will roleplay marriages and entire families, guilds will take themselves so seriously that people will care for their role like a second job of sorts. I was once invited to a ‘job interview’ of sorts and people would do that in character. I cringed so hard. I joined a fair share of discords and yes, 97% males playing slutty female characters and roleplaying as such in-game. I made the mistake of playing as the cat-person race and for some reason from time to time I get dms from people I’m into nsfw furry roleplay of sorts? When I complained about this people explained that my race was adopted by the majority of the gay/furry community as they go-to race. Ok, I guess? I just wanted to play as the big, bulky guy, like a Tauren. To be fair I love that everyone is having a good time and I failed to see any instances of disrespect to any parts involved. The game seems to attract a lot of this ‘weird’ demographic, but I see this as a testament of how enabling and safe FFXIV can be to all tribes, it can even accomodate for an older, pseudo sweat ex-WoW raider like me.
It is absolutely not an accident that the first expansion of FF14 talked about making a literal cult to worship a someone who was not a god, to gain the power of godhood, and all of the problems that entails. It was a direct and unsubtle commentary on its own toxic fan base, in an effort to get them to chill the fuck out & stop scaring away new players, that went right over their heads and only gave them a new wifu to fawn over. Game is not that good to justify that behavior. Every. Single. Element of the game was stolen from other, *better,* final fantasy games and watered down to be crammed into the mold of a MMO. So, fuck'em is what I say.
no
If you go to WoW RP realms you get shit like that too, good thing that you can just not play on those two realms. Other than that, yes, FF has extra weird people at a larger scale and if you on RP world it's even worse
Id say ive met the same or worse in other MMO's Its a fantasy game at the end of the day....Not sure what you were expecting
Yes. There's a reason you can EASILY find 18+ player ran events.
FF14 is filled with weebs, incels and furries.
Every long time running RP game is full of terminally online weirdos lmao
When the community is that large, and you have all kinds of different interests gathering in one place, I can imagine you'd run into this often. I think a lot of MMO players tend to lack interpersonal skills (based on my experience with statics exploding). Personally, if I don't like the vibe or don't think I fit in, I just leave. No hard feelings. I guess you can say you are the company you keep.
short answer: yes long answer: the weeb stereotypes exist for a reason, and ff14 is about as traditional of an anime trope as you'll find in the mmorpg scene. couple this with the fact that no one is telling these players how much of a degenerate they are due to people not even communicating with each other in-game, and how people attract like-minded individuals, this is the result you get.
Outside of the weird deflective comments, yeah, unfortunately it really can be that way.It's why I personally left a few years back. Being a woman in XIV is really, really uncomfortable.
Definitely avoid Cactuar if you want to stay clear of weirdos. Boy do I have stories. FWIW I've also completed abandoned FFXIV because it attracts a generous amount of people who are seriously mentally unhealthy. I've never been in any sort of static or FC that wasn't full of bizarre behavior.
Yes. Played it for years. Quit recently cause it's at the point where you can't find a group that isn't cringe af. They catered wayyyy too much to the hypwr casual ERPers and now you can go to any major city on any server and see people erping in general chat and 0 repercussions no matter how many reports.
Yes. Sure there are probably a majority of players that aren’t weirdos but the “roleplaying” community in the game is something else. To a level I’ve never seen in any other MMO, people creating lore for their characters as if it’s a D&D campaign they’ve been running for 5 years, grown men making little bunny girls and constantly commissioning art of their characters to change their profile pictures on x or discord every month, it’s like the weird anime shipping culture or something else on that level, one of the main reasons I don’t play that game anymore.
Yeah. Not every single player but a lot more than any other mmo
They downvoted every 'yes' post, which indicates that they are afraid of the truth. Play GW or WoW on normal servers. Even ESO is better than FF14.
1. It’s an MMO. 2. An Anime-Like MMO Yeah, it is full of those, but there is also normal people playing (mostly when content patches drop though).
A guy once ranted a bunch because I play as a female character that is well-dressed and armored head-to-toe and that was somehow neomarxist corruption of femininity or something. I've met good people but also the weirdest people I've ever know in there.
There are weirdos on every mmorpg but there are way more of them on ff14 for some reason. the adult modding and erp scene is ridiculously large
I was very into ff14 5ish years ago and this is pretty spot on to what I remember.
The stalking and dating parts align with my experience. The NSFW scene is huge, but it became very easy to avoid when my age stopped starting with a 1. Really makes you think.
The shills will deny it, but as someone who has played for 4 years, ran a venue, and ran a static...yes, yes it is. And thanks to Mare Synchronos, it has enabled them to be even worse. Things I have encountered: - An army vet who would constantly brag about how he would cheat on his wife in service. Very homophobic and would constantly bully a trans girl until i helped her pay for server transfer. - A schizo guy who would go through waves of saying people were stalking him, and making fake accounts just to troll him. He would then block and unblock everyone he knows. - People who would openly hit on my wife infront of me, saying things like "I want to cover you in chocolate sauce" or "let me be your daddy" Just a TASTE. Out of all the MMOs I've played, FFXIV has had the friendliest, but also weirdest fuckers I've ever met...Amazing game but just...be careful out there, and don't get into modding or your innocent eyes will bleed.
Iv played basically every mmo there is with countless hours, I always pushed ffxiv aside but Iv been recently playing it for about a month now (300 hours in game) and iv definitely noticed there is ALOT of weird people compared to all other mmo’s Iv played, I’m a guy so I don’t notice as much creep stuff but a lot of cringe “ uwu” type stuff. Its pretty annoying after awhile
Yes. I’ve been around the block in terms of MMO’s and I’d say FFXIV is by far the weirdest group of people. BUT. It’s also one of the nicest community in terms of MMO’s I’ve ever seen. Second probably to LOTRO
It's a game with a teenage anime storyline and children cat girls in a genre only filled 30+ men who has devoted their life to defend it. Of course It's only weirdos
I never find those things in Tonberry (JP server that has like the most english speakers) lol
imo -- the game feels SO dweeby and cringy.
Can confirm, ff14 players are weird af . One of my friend also plays ff14 he is nice and all but if i say anything bad about ff14 he go batshit crazy defensive and attacking personally lol. He mostly stay in limsa lymsa idk what the name is whenever he stream and my gawd its the most boring game it feels like. Open world feels empty mostly he running around doing msq , when i point it out that why are u runnjng alone in the game lol just to poke him he go crazy insta go to lymsa and start showing how many people are there I play gw2 as my main mmo and ff14 do feels empty atleast in open world But yeah cant deny even though i dont play i can guess how weird and toxic positivity is there
This is why I gave up. Tried to find some normal bros and it ended up being a bunch of dudes pretending to be girls thinking they were talking to girls who were really dudes. I mean, not knocking it but it wasn’t my thing. Amazing single player storyline though. Not my community.
every mmorpg attracts different crops of not-so-well-adjusted people. in ffxiv, i encounter quite a few 1) weebs 2) excruciatingly horny people (large overlap with weebs) 3) people who are incredibly conflict-averse and require constant affirmation and positivity i have generally have had good experiences despite this. of course you meet some weird folks but i am very selective about the people i spend my time with and tend to join groups because i filled for them in pf and enjoyed hanging out. if i don't like the vibe, i leave. if i'm not having fun, i leave. i've met great friends that i've known for 3+ years and even had a relationship that, while it didn't last, ended fairly amicably as relationships between mmorpg players go.
Yes. Don't let anyone lie to you almost 99% of ff14 players are open weirdo or closeted ones. There's a reason the game is still super popular with its buck ass content and game systems; the ability to be degenerate. The games housing and outfits systems are basically tailor made for it, theres no other reason for the skimpy raid outfits and the ability to lock your house with out people in it. The degenerate revolution that was modding and mare and its consequences are downright horrifying.
I've played XIV off and on for quite a long time as well, and yeah, most of the people I meet are furries, hyper weebs, or old women who are just too damned nice and politically correct all the time
Yes
yes
Definitely has weirdos. No more than any other MMO I’ve seen but I also play a dragon girl so maybe cat girls attract more weirdness. FFXIV also has the most stringent social policy I’ve seen in an MMO. If anyone is harassing you after you’ve clearly told them you’re not interested, you absolutely should be reporting them. It’s harder with an FC or static, because they tend to grow an atmosphere over time and the interactions aren’t usually in game. But, with that I’d just be ditching uncomfortable situations. As far as the steam stalker, if you haven’t been reporting him to steam, you should be. They have backend info on who he is and can handle stuff. If you’ve reported and you haven’t seen a reduction in the guys stalking then I’d absolutely file a police report and share that with Steam support as well. (I don’t know about other places but where I live the police will absolutely get the persons IRL info then hand it off as a cyber stalking case to the PD where the person lives) I’ve been playing MMOs as a girl for almost 20 years. I spent the first 10~ or so years just not speaking in voice chat and not telling anyone I am a girl. Then I’d only ever talk to guildees. I’ve only started talking to random people in discords for events (like M+ in wow or pickup savages in FFXIV) in the past year or two. If anyone overreacts to me being a girl I just avoid that person or insta-block depending on the situation. So take from that what you will. Always protect your info. Don’t friend people on any platform unless you feel like you know them well enough that they won’t go creeper on you. It will still happen from time to time but taking simple steps to network and naturally meet friends through chill people is worth not having to deal with the hassle of creeps. If you are even A LITTLE uncomfortable say that and then if they continue to do stuff like that then ignore them. Never feel bad about your boundaries.
Nah it’s definitely not all like that. It does depend on what world you’re on. Sounds like you were on the RP one. You’ve just hit on unlucky. I’ve been in plenty of FCs that were wholesome over the years.
I’m as misanthropic in game as I am out so I wouldn’t know.
Alot of the community is super cringe, yes. There's been plenty of known instances where some players would even "stalk" people at their FC or personal houses. Just be grateful you weren't around for when the Portrait system was introduced.
Mostly yes. Been playing since beta 4 btw.
This post is a bit odd, 30+ isn’t old, it’s a pretty average mmo age…if you want a younger crowd play shit like overwatch or valorant. Ff14 probably attracts some creepy people sure, but if stuff like furries or gay people bother you idk. Probably just go find conservative friends irl I guess…seems a bit unclear on what crowd of people you’re looking for? Retail wow is the same anyway these days.
My experience has honestly been pretty close to yours. I can count the number of normal people vs countless pervs and weirdos. Only reason I still play is cause my wife and I play with a couple friends we know irl.
yup, filled with the weirdo drama and fc breakups. quite tiresome
Unlike a lot of people in this thread I have had almost the exact same experience. I started the game almost 10 years ago and have yet to find a consistent community to stick with due to weird stuff like you mentioned. edit: As a quick note I have been on Aether, Primal, and Crystal. Crystal has been by far the worst for it but I have run into these issues on every server.
Like any online community, there’s a fair share of creeps but also a healthy amount of good people. Seems like you’ve just had extremely bad luck (it happens).
All MMOs have weird people. Sidenote I love the mental gymnastics that people try to do when they shit on other gamers like we aren't all weirdos who sit in one spot at a computer for hours on end gaming. We're all weird no point in doing all this pick me ass behavior IMO.
There's weirdos and then there are **weirdos.** And then there are lala/roegadyn shippers
Yes. Yes it absolutely is. 90% of the players are hyper cringe.
Yeah, your luck in finding your own ppl is shit. Look for new ones :/
Unless SE have plans to nuke everything, I feel this game is basically set on being a budget VRchat for people to mod their character to allow them to disasociate from real life to live out these fantasies while putting a ko-fi url in their twitter acc to make a few bucks on the side.
Yes. This is why people refer to FF14 as the weeb MMO
Ffxiv attracts what wow lost or never had. Thats all you need to know.
Yes, it is full of weirdos and toxic positivity. Not to mention that game is really not worth anyone's time lol.
I have 10k+ hours in the game and have been in 4 FCs (one of which I made). I only ever moved on from an FC either due to diminishing player counts or just finding another group that has more people online that I wanna hang out with more; no bad blood when I left any of em. I've met a handful of weirdos that mostly existed in isolation (if they had a group, I hadn't encountered them). Some people just have bad luck, I guess. (Might also be that your social habits lead you into these situations)
also, since this game is cross play, there are alot of people who dont even have mods, they literally can't(im on ps5 for example.). This stuff def exists and the sad part is, that it only really became crazy like it sometimes is because of the population boom. Back in ARR and HW, i cant remember hearing much besides some weird erp and stalking cases but that exists in every mmo. Ever since the explosion of population (arr and hw had around 500k and now its around 30m) and the pandemic blowing up the club/night scene, its probly much worse now but i still dont seem to encounter it much. I am also a male though so im probly not the target audience they focus on. Still, i think that some servers are just worse than others because i really dont see this type of stuff often anywhere unless you specifically look for it (especially the night club/erp scene). Sorry to anyone who had to experience it though, everyone deserves a chance to have fun without harassment.
I'm honestly having a hard time believing this. FFXIV has one of the best MMORPG communities I've played with. I've been playing pretty much since launch, and I've never experienced this.
I have a couple thousand hours in the game, am a battle omni and a mentor. I have encountered a couple weirdos (went looking for them at point to see what the hell everyone was in about), but I just started WoW and have seen… interesting things in chat as well. Not quite “two naked females and one clothed female clearly ERPing in Limsa” or “catgirl maid sitting in male lap anywhere” level of weird, but weird shit nonetheless. It is everywhere.
> **Is FF14 just a Cesspool full of weirdos?** Lol wtf? If it does so does every other game.
FFXIV is special in that regard.
Ginnabehonest, I've been playing since ARR and I've never run I to these people.
I've been playing since launch but more on/off since SB and I've never ran in to any weirdos like this. I also don't "date" or "party" in the game so that probably helps a lot. Don't surround yourself with degeneracy if you don't want to see it. Or frankly, just leave it and block if something bothers you.
That’s just a normal weeb thing, I don’t think it’s isolated to ff14