Looks Like the PS4 Made a Difference (2 Million+ Registered)Follow

I simply don't think that's true.



I don't agree with this either. Community isn't always about argument but it can be about discussion. You can enjoy something and want to talk about it without wanting to ceaselessly criticise it. Zam shouldn't take its members for granted but this forum has been going successfully for years and seems to have a very loyal membership. There should be space for opposing opinion but not general douchebaggery which is what a lot of the more negative posts seem to be.

I also think that it's actually nice to go to a forum and see other people posting positive comments when that is your experience of the game. All too often it's assumed that the only thing worth posting is negativity. It gets old.

Edited, Apr 22nd 2014 7:52am by eldelphia

You also can't be a constant negative drain on the community and expect anyone to care about what you have to say. It's a two-way street. Critiquing the game is completely fine and expected, and offering up suggestions or ideas that you think would make it better is great and a positive way to contribute to the community. Constantly ******** or posting almost nothing but negativity is just bothersome and troll-like, and a big reason why a lot of people on this forum see one of your posts and just go "lol preludes" and move on.

I'm still here because, unlike on the OF, there are still enough people here who use their brains before posting.

...

And I can post from my phone.

There's an extremely good reason why the OF only allows people to upvote. There's nothing better than getting shot down without any arguments to back up that vote. No matter how "informed" the person voting down must think of him or herself and how "justified" the downvote is in his/her mind. The only thing people are better at than deceiving other people is deceiving themselves.

Alla is just so ***-backwards with its voting system that it's no wonder if their traffic is going down. Either way you're completely correct in your assessment Susanoh.

Edit: Just want to point out that this isn't entirely direct at you personally, but the type of mindset in this block that I quoted. You may not be the type of rate down the types of posts I'm talking about, and if you're not, then it may not apply to you at all.

This line of thinking is most likely the precise reason why actual discussion is often discouraged on this board. I don't know the exact posts that you personally choose to rate down, but I've plainly seen completely harmless posts with valid points sub defaulted and "hidden" from users scrolling down the page unless they choose to manually unhide them. I've seen it happen since the first days I've been browsing this forum, but just to expand on the most recent example that I brought up earlier, here is a post from the atma farming thread that is currently rated "good."



Then a reply, which was sub defaulted.



No discussion from there on on the subject at all, until I later brought it back up and pointed out that the information in the sub defaulted post is entirely correct, and my post pointing that out was brought down to default. Another rate down or two and my post would/will be hidden as well, to anyone who doesn't manually expand sub defaulted posts, which would leave the opinion that apparently people liked more uncontested to those people. Now, again, I don't know whether you personally would rate down a post like that, but the mindset of "I don't have time to post a reply so I'll just rate it down, if enough users agree it'll just disappear" seems to be common from what I have seen on these forums.

The type of user moderation that this board has could, in a completely hypothetical situation, be a good thing if it were used responsibly. Rating down senseless attacks on users, rating down spammers who post things like "I bought my kitchen at this online web site and it was great!" would definitely clear some unnecessary clutter, but when I can at times find sub defaulted posts that make as much if not more sense than the post it's replying to because it doesn't fall in line with popular group think at the time, it becomes clear how useful the system works within the community.

Then if the subject of karma gets brought up, rather than posting about how posts are rated up and down all the time on a whim and to just try to ignore it, those who are already members come out saying that it's used to silence immature posters, d-bags, etc. How much more unwelcoming could that possibly be to a new user? If a new user comes here and reads that type of thing, and they post something that isn't quite in line with either what others' opinions are at the time or just something that for whatever reason, justifiable or not, grates on another users' nerves and they get defaulted/sub defaulted (which, and I may be wrong so someone can correct me if I am, but I believe new users are even easier to sub default/silence than established ones) and they actually take that to heart rather than just blowing it off as some might, it doesn't exactly make this appear to be a very welcoming community. Even if they do just blow it off, they may still likely just take their opinions somewhere else where the options when faced with an unpopular opinion are to either ignore it and let the opinion stand for what it is, or create a thoughtful counter point to explain why the user is incorrect or at least provide an alternative and let people decide to themselves.

Edited, Apr 22nd 2014 9:58pm by Susanoh

I think it's pretty clear when someone is being a D-bag as opposed to just voicing an unpopular opinion. However, I agree that people often misuse the karma system when it comes to rating things they don't agree with. This happens from both "sides" of issues, too.

If I were a regular user, I'd only rate people down for breaches of etiquette such as bullying, trolling, twisting people's words, etc. I personally don't think it's right when people hit the rate down button simply because they disagree with something. That's what keyboard buttons are for.

Edited, Apr 22nd 2014 8:05pm by Thayos

Oh, I have some personal karma stalkers. I'm not too worried, apparently it'd take several thousand arrows in either direction to significantly budge my karma (10,000 for me to hit guru!) so if it makes someone feel better to rate me down, they are welcome to do so.

Plus, even I say things that are totally derptastic and/or flat out wrong sometimes, and I deserve to be rated down and corrected in those cases.

Because someone disputed the logic that a certain percentage of people who register new accounts will convert into paid subscribers.

But yes, 2 million plus!!!

It is funny how many articles I've seen online with the headline "FFXIV attracts 2 million players!"

Oh just shut up, for the love of god. Go troll somewhere else.

It just hit me:
This is you:

http://eldelphia.wordpress.com/

I used to read that blog all the time.. MY favorite since I was pretty much a career WHM ...

If you're referring to me, I didn't dispute that at all. In fact, I said it's a given that some of the new registrations would be new players and that might translate to new subscriptions.

All I was trying to point out here is that 500k new registrations doesn't mean 500k unique users trying FFXIV for the first time. Some of these registered users are updating from standard to collector's edition. Some of them already have a subscription, they're just registering a different platform.

Just like a percentage of people who register being prospective new subs, there is a percentage of them who already sub and are simply registering to be able to play on multiple platforms. That's it.

And a 3rd party forum is going to be a minority within the minority of forum-goers. And that's actually a good thing. The official forums are a hot mess simply because it is too popular.

I would say the testing/imminent release of the Chinese version of FF14 points to success more so than this figure..which some have problems with due to accuracy.

I'm not a business major but it seems to me like expansion into other markets is a good thing and indicates success? Usually, I wouldn't think a company would expand if they were having problems in areas where they initially launched their business.