unruly-ffxiv-pvp

FFXIV's Crystalline Conflict seems to be fomenting some cheeky behaviour.

Alarm bells are beginning to ring as Final Fantasy XIV players are getting cocky, prompting our beloved Yoshi-P to give everyone a stern talking to. Thankfully, it mostly seems to be tongue-in-cheek behavior. For now, at least…

The unruly behavior seems to have coincided with the new FFXIV PvP mode, Crystalline Conflict. This 5v5 bout sees players attempting to move a giant blue crystal into the goal of the opposing team, all whilst PvPing each other to keep control. It is, of course, harmless fun.

FFXIV is famous at this point for its almost sickly sweet community spirit, with a mentor system that facilitates healthy, helpful relationships between strangers on the internet. A code that no other online space can seem to crack. But one thing that FFXIV isn't known for is PvP. And funnily enough, a correlation seems to be forming.

The Crystalline Conflict has started to nurture an undercurrent of impoliteness as competitors have begun to engage in smack talk during and after each game. Some favorites include using Quick Chat phrases such as "Nice Job!" and "Good Match!" in decidedly sarcastic contexts. Though a highlight for us is the use of fireworks over a downed opponent.

Obviously, these are mostly lighthearted jabs making full use of the emotes available to humorous effect. But there will always be outliers who take it too far, and Naoki Yoshida lists these questionable responses in a direct address to the players. Notably, "Using Tell or other methods to directly harass/criticize a player outside of a duty after a match has ended" and "Slandering other players through means outside of the game, such as social media."

While Yoshida also groups these two in with the aforementioned emotes and Quick Chat responses as 'prohibited behavior', seeking someone out post-match to directly criticize (especially via social media) is particularly objectionable. And worthy of the temporary or permanent bans that Yoshi-P warns us of in his address.

But for now, we hope that this stern telling off will go some way to reigning in the bad behavior. Though we hope the odd bit of hilarious mischief can still be overlooked.