On the subject of FCoB farms and greed parties.

Warning, long post(s) ahead. Putting the tl;dr at the top:

tl;dr: Why are Need > Greed FCoB parties the norm on Phoenix, as opposed to Greed parties? Why the dislike/hatred for this style of farming?

Full Version:

I don't really understand Phoenix's populace and their dislike or avoidance of greed parties, and I come to you humble folks to ask for help in understanding why.

To set some context here, I'm a dual-server player. I somewhat alternate my gaming time between Phoenix and Gilgamesh - a luxury afforded to me at this point in my life for personal reasons. In Phoenix, all I see are N>G farm parties. Greed parties do appear rarely, and sometimes people flame at the idea of them. Today I saw a particularly harsh example:

http://i.imgur.com/oBpIXCm.png
(Censored the colorful language)

Conversely, here's the Gilgamesh PF at around 11:25am PST (5 minutes ago as of this writing, and way outside of prime time):

http://i.imgur.com/QUUL4oF.png

(Continued)

All the current Gilgamesh FCoB parties are greed parties. So why the massive cultural difference? Maybe I got a bit too ahead of myself, let's start again with a definition:

Greed Party - Two possible definitions

1) A party in which all members call a few items (1 to 2 usually) that they want, and these are kept in a list. After each clear, the list is posted in chat, and only people who called items roll on them. Need rolls are expressly forbidden, unless it's the item you called and you aren't rolling against someone else. Often rules are set so a maximum number of people are allowed to call an item before it's locked (i.e. "Max 2 per item")

2) A party in which you do not need roll (only greed rolls allowed), and no items are called.

Generally when you hear or see "greed party" in PF, it's definition #1. So what's the purpose of a greed party? Well, it's to have people join your party who are extremely geared and competent on their jobs in the turn, to facilitate quick and easy clears of the content, while being able to roll on loot for their less-geared, less experienced alt jobs.

The reason these sorts of parties are so favored on Gilgamesh is because Need > Greed parties tend to attract people playing an unfamiliar or undergeared job, likely one they haven't cleared the turn yet with, in order to be able to need roll on the loot they want. I think you can see why a party filled with these kinds of people has a high chance of failing and wasting everyone's time.

So why are N>G parties king on Phoenix? My best guess is because the majority of the PF population haven't finished gearing out their main job yet, so they don't want to give up main job loot to people's alts. However, surely people realize that being in this situation means more clears, which 1) gives you great practice at being in a skilled party with veterans at a turn, and 2) means loot is raining on the party, which increases the chance you at least get to roll on the item you want.

People of Phoenix, can you shed some light on this for me?

It's simple, people don't like competition. In greed parties there's a good chance 5 other people are after the same piece of loot you are. If you're the only Ninja in a normal party looking for a pair of daggers you're guaranteed to get them.
But with that said, the amount of greed parties has been on the rise as of late, you usually find some on the PF. It's relatively new concept on the server as there weren't any as far as I can recall before FCoB lockout was removed.

Probably depends on the point of view when I geared blm I only needed a piece from each turn so join a party on pld and call my piece. When I went to gear my Nin I needed all the pieces still. So if I were to join a call one greed party I might end up with other people not on nin claiming gear I needed. Depends on where you are gear wise and how comfortable you are actually playing your other classes. Sometimes you benefit sometimes you don't.

I'm all for the concept of greed parties. I really am. But ultimately, i don't think our party finder in general for end game has a high enough skill cap. Even those who have one kill, little experience on other classes, or straight out paid for a clear of t13 will join these greed parties. So it comes back to square one of "not skilled enough group members".

I like the idea and I've tried it by joining them but it will mostly result in either people ninja'ing the loot with needing or greeding.
Also the amount of horrible people on this server is just silly, I even got kicked and blacklisted for helping out and talking with reason.
Its a hit or miss really.

I've joined a few greed parties today to confirm my thoughts on them. Of 4 greed parties over 3 hours, we had 1 kill.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Divine_Intervention

I've joined a few greed parties today to confirm my thoughts on them. Of 4 greed parties over 3 hours, we had 1 kill.

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Joined PF on Phoenix lad.