The "Go Solo It" fever

[Shinjikoto]

To the comment about people being lazy because the mission they are asking for help on is generally considered easy, this is a social game. It could be laziness that leads people to ask for help, but it could also be the desire to socialize while playing. Many people don't want to play an MMO alone. The fact that an event might be easy doesn't make wanting help with it necessarily a negative quality all the time.
Also, I agree about how annoying some can be, we've all helped people that were total jerks about it. It can be as little as someone asking for a raise and not thanking you for it, or Teleporting someone and they just drop party and run away, its very disrespectful and makes you weary of helping other people for a while. But these are the minority of cases in my experience. Most people are very nice.
As for the "Most other countries hate Americans" comment. I've heard this since the day I started playing this game, and not once has an Asian or European player ever been anything but nice to me. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just amazed by how often I hear this complaint and yet after all these years i continue to get help time and time again from them. Not only do I get help, But I get bombarded with an array of smiley faces and weird cutesy pig things making them seem extremely friendly. Just this month alone A DNC from France helped me get whm head seals, and a monk from Japan completed my entire Surya +1 staff quest by killing pixies for me in abyssea. I went over there to get a few kills, saw her there killing some pixies, said "Staff Trial Teamup?" in autotranslate and she didn't stop until I told her I was finished. It could be that everyone just naturally loves me but I doubt it. It could be that my server has the nicest foreign population (I say foreign from an American Perspective of course), and I guess I'll find out after the merger happens. But, I think some American players, as a product of having to constantly hear that other countries dont like them, deal with other countries with the prejudice that everybody hates America, and look for as many ways to prove it as possible while denying evidence to the contrary. Self fulfilling prophecy maybe.

[Miera]

I've seen a few people get laughed at because they were shouting for help with Getting the Tenzen fights done or fighting Promothia. The go solo it thing pissed me off.

Oh and if its impossible to solo something you'd also get told to go make friends and then fight it.

What kind of crap is that?

Shinjikoto : I've been told that all my years of playing different Online games, I've came across some pretty nice players that were from different countries all over the world and you'll eventually find someone who is like that but I haven't just yet.

Just because a person shouts for a all Japanese party and ask {English} {No thanks.} means they are stuck up and want to alienate the English speakers. Maybe they feel more comfortable to play with people they can understand because using the auto translate function sucks so much and no one likes to be left out of the loop.

[Glamdring]

I really do like the bulletin board idea. Many times the real reason player X is lagging is because they only have so much time. It would need to be categorized with timers to erase the message though or it would quickly become unmanageable. Maybe I plan to kill raskovnik for my Ferine Mantle; I can take him solo, but the only thing I need is the mantle. If I want to post so other players will come to get other drops/win/atma and maybe help with !! procs there should be a better means than /shouting in port jeuno. Seriously, I have the /shout chat filter turned on so I can avoid all the spam as it is, I don't expect anyone else to not have it on.

[Chocobits]

Often times when I am bored, I will respond to a random shout I see in a city. Then, I amaze the person I'm with by soloing it. Even level capped missions like 2-3 Dragon and 5-1 Skeleton fight (God I wish these weren't uncapping) I would tag along and solo it for the person, then tell them that with experience they'd be able to solo it for themselves.

Too often though.. someone will Flist me after helping them, and then begins the parasitic relationship where I am expected to be there at the person's beck and call when they or a friend of theirs needs a mission done.

Helping out too much makes you a doormat. Asking for help too much makes you a leech.

I really don't think it's a copout to suggest a person "level into" soloability. It takes 2-3 days on a relaxed schedule to get a job from 1-90, assuming you have someone lined up to help with genkais (although I solod my Genkais). Then another day to skillup and get gear etc.

Wanting something "right away" without being willing to work for it is selfish.

Wanting to have spells/gear at the level to use them pre 70 is antiquated. You spend such little time at those levels that it's retarded to focus on them. If you want to make a traditional party for a certain level range, there's nothing at all wrong with that. I feel nostalgic sometimes and organize non burn level sync parties once in awhile. It feels good to grind the wheel once in awhile.

Obsessing about being perfect at any pre 75 level is just dumb. The only reason to strive for perfection at a certain level is for soloing anyway. Being perfect at a low level in an exp party situation does nothing but unbalance hate and actually inhibits xp/hr. The only people that should seek perfection are soloing jobs like BLM, BLU, PUP, NIN, THF and BST whose solo survivability depends heavily on their repoire of situational gear.


So here is the irony: The only people that should need help with any non-endgame events are the ones that will use the rewards/benefits of those quests/missions/NMs for soloing later. In which case, in for a penny, in for a pound. Go solo it.

[Shinjikoto]

Often times when I am bored, I will respond to a random shout I see in a city. Then, I amaze the person I'm with by soloing it. Even level capped missions like 2-3 Dragon and 5-1 Skeleton fight (God I wish these weren't uncapping) I would tag along and solo it for the person, then tell them that with experience they'd be able to solo it for themselves.

Too often though.. someone will Flist me after helping them, and then begins the parasitic relationship where I am expected to be there at the person's beck and call when they or a friend of theirs needs a mission done.

Helping out too much makes you a doormat. Asking for help too much makes you a leech.
.

I agree that if someone is expecting anyone to be at their beck and call then they need a reality check and should learn to be self sufficient in order to continue playing a game like this. That sounds extremely rude and annoying. But this, at least on my server, is definitely a rare condition. Either that or the person that is being asked help of is far too agreeable at the beginning and everyone ends up wrongly believing that they enjoy helping 24/7.
As far as people's motivations for wanting help, I don't think its fair to assume why people want help then label it right or wrong, or call it obsessive and dumb. That's unnecessary. Its a game. People want to play the way they want to play. They may want to take their time and enjoy everything the game has to offer, they may want to rush through and just do endgame stuff, they may just enjoy running around killing stuff with other people as a form of socialization. Any way that a person chooses to play is fine because it doesn't matter to anyone else, its a personal choice, and if someone enjoys company when playing an MMO and wants some help along the way, I can't find anything wrong with asking for it if they are being respectful when going about it. If they aren't, screw em.

[Siros]

I've seen a few people get laughed at because they were shouting for help with Getting the Tenzen fights done or fighting Promothia. The go solo it thing pissed me off.

Oh and if its impossible to solo something you'd also get told to go make friends and then fight it.

What kind of crap is that?

Shinjikoto : I've been told that all my years of playing different Online games, I've came across some pretty nice players that were from different countries all over the world and you'll eventually find someone who is like that but I haven't just yet.

Just because a person shouts for a all Japanese party and ask {English} {No thanks.} means they are stuck up and want to alienate the English speakers. Maybe they feel more comfortable to play with people they can understand because using the auto translate function sucks so much and no one likes to be left out of the loop.

Yea,ta explain alittle more on the JP only part.Its not them being racist against u,it actually is a language barrier aspect.I live in Japan,been here 4 years so far and from what i know,they are required ta learn english in school.So yes they know how ta speak it,but reading an writing are alot tougher.Its like me learning Japanese,i can speak it perfectly,but u ask me ta spell something out an i will definitely mess it up horribly.Plus the auto-trans really is limited.Though some actually are very racist(not just against Americans),Most are very polite,friendly an respectable people.So dont jump ta conclusions if u get that answer from them,its just easier if everyone in the group can communicate smoothly.

[Siros]

And just ta add ta that.U might be shocked ta find out most JP players like talking ta english speakers because it helps them practice the english they have learned.Try talking ta some an u might make a few friends^^

[Cupofnoodles]

I believe in karma on this game and i'll help someone out when needed. For instance I wanted VE hairpin, I went BST/THF (charm pull ftw) and got it the first five minutes I was out there (using PH to pop it). I killed it and got my hairpin. As I'm killing it this RDM starts yelling at me I been hunting it for 3 day and blah blah blah. I thought no problem I'll help out. I killed that thing about 5 more times with no drop for the rdm, but I helped her out. I as bored and figured I'll help because I would have like some help from a person that knows what they are doing when I was first started. Any comments?

[Cupofnoodles]

shameless bump cause i wanna here what ppl think about my theory on helping ppl

[Krashport]

Okay first and foremost, this is *not* a thread to complain or troll or anything, so if you disagree with my ideas simply say so and why, without raging on me for whatever reason. This is just a topic I did discuss with friends in game lately and felt like sharing my opinion to others.
On second place, please do not use this thread to troll or complain either, I don't like that kind of stuff as it would make the thread not constructive in anyway.
And lastly, forgive my possible grammar errors, English is not my first language.

Okay so with FFXI population decreasing SE has done great things to assist the new players in achieving goals that would once require far greater numbers and longer time (like CoP, exping, and soon dynamis) and I really appreciated all of this, but I still do notice something's wrong.

Often I have to watch poor newbies getting their requests of help bashed by higher level players who will tell them to get their things done on their own, with the now abused answer "go solo it".

A fair example was this BLU newcomer who, at lv40, asked for help to go through promies so he could reach Tavnazia and try learn Refueling and other blu spells in a few levels, these were the answers he got.
"you can solo promy now lol"
"but I'm only 40"
"then grind to 60 and then go solo it"
"I would like to get Refueling before 60 if possible"
"then grind another job to 60 and then go solo it"
Am I the only one that thinks this sounds a bit wrong? And this is just one example.

Even as a high level player I have experienced this kind of treatment, in particular with VNMs. Many times I'd ask for help only to be replied with
"grind nin to 90 and go solo it"
Well, even if I had 90 nin, it is not always possible to job change. some trials require killing VNMs while equipping the choosen weapon, and what if my trial weapon doesn't allow me to go as a job that can solo the VNM?

I've noticed this as well, The only reason why these players do this is: "I'm assuming"

Me.) I Would gladly help any member new, old or elitist. Odin /Poke me! ^^b

1.) Cause they joined the game under RL friends and those friends PL'ed them all the way up, Had them leech w/in Abyssea, Those RL friends thought they we're doing good, But the lack of having their friend that their PL'in, Having let them leech not teaching them the right tools they need to play the game as to make new friends along the way.

2.) Joining a new MMO after leaving one can that a toll on a person, <Stop for a min and think back when you 1st logged in> You didn't know anything about this MMO as to what you heard or read about outside the game, Being new some players can come off abit hard, I've done it.. "Hard as to want everything right away"

3.) All members play at a totally different pace, Some think that FFXI is just Leveling to cap and get the best gear. Me I personally think its more then just that, Lack of a better word. "I do it all"?

4.) Some members don't realize that this MMO is Global which can in time be the BIG issue, not able to explain yourself clearly, That person your telling would do that "goodbye byebye good..bye byebye.... bye"

5.) Sad to say, There are "Some" members out there that don't play well w/ others, and just like to keep to themselves. Also there are Linkshells that only work w/in and just out for themselves. "This will fall into "Some" elitist Members"

Now this is not a thread to cuss out people who won't help out. We all pay RL money for this game and spend our real time and would like to do it while having fun, without having to costantly work for other's benefit, but the main meaning of MMORPG implies cooperation (massive multiplayer part in particular) and I feel this part of the game is being forgotten lately.

So to finally get to the point, I would like SE to find a way to incentivate people in repeating some things for a new gain, so that others can get assistance and at the same time the helpers can be rewarded with more than the simple satisfaction of helping someone in need (since sadly seems to be no longer enough for most).

SE did something like that by adding exp rewards to CoP mission BCs for those that would repeat them a long time ago. But maybe something more could be done.

An idea could be a substantial gil reward from defeating a VNM or mission BC or anything else, but I feel that would end up abused by potential RMTs.

Post any suggestion to help here, and again please no raging, I come in peace^^;

I approve this message! ^