Originally Posted by
Seriha
People aren't really helpful to strangers because there's largely been a lack of incentive to do so. Exceptions are involved if you by chance need the same thing, but that's pretty much a case of mutual back scratching.
Back in the day, you'd see few willing to go back and redo CoP missions. The cost of medicines, EXP loss on failure, and the often long trudges through remote locations weren't exactly conducive to risk-taking. So, this basically devolved into people accepting cookie-cutter set ups for PUGs and if you weren't one of the in jobs, tough luck. Fortunately, the cap increase and lifting of restrictions helped to alleviate this issue, but even before that you could see SE maybe took the hint that a lack of reward wasn't helping things, so you got the meager EXP payment for helpers. Definitely a case of far too little, though.
Fast forward to today and while you might have some issues getting boss or caturae clears for Abyssea, it's not nearly as unrelenting. Finding assistance for more mundane activities like magian trials can be a chore, though. In the past on Alla I made a request thread asking for a system of "Kupo Points" where, if helping someone on a trial you're not on yourself, you're given credit to invest on your own needs. For kills, this could mean every 5 you get for someone could become a credit for 1 kill on another trial. 30 could possibly be an Empyrean seal or weapon item like Mikey's Nugget. 50 could be an AF+2 item while 100/125/150 could go toward the respective Empyrean weapon tier items.
Personally, I've never been a fan of throwing gil at a problem. "Helpers" can ask unreasonable prices, and odds are if you're having a rough time doing one thing, making good cash fast isn't really on your plate, either. I can't recall what the census called the average gil gain for a player was, but I don't think it was terribly high. 500k per person, if not willing to split, isn't reasonable for something as an example.
Meanwhile, making friends isn't as easy as it sounds, either. A lot of "end game" shells close themselves off, and the shrinking of required bodies for things hasn't really encouraged recruitment for new blood while even in-shell people break off into little cliques. While PUGs still get things done, you're often at the mercy of finding others who need the same thing at the same time you're playing who happen to be in the same zone you're shouting for help with.
Actually, I guess that leads into the game needing a global chat channel so people looking for help can find it more easily. It'll just need a broadcast timer to keep spam to a minimum and possible GM supervision to keep flame wars down and the channel serving its purpose.