Vote Kick abuse really needs to end.

[DragonSlayer45]

I am aware there are maybe half-a-billion topics on this subject on the forums almost each and every day, but after seeing this finally happen for myself, this is a obviously a recurring trend that needs to end.

I was doing Main Scenario roulette and got Praetorium yesterday. There was someone who was obviously new, and probably wanted to enjoy the cutscenes for their first time around. They were the only new person, and the rest consisted of vets who just wanted to speedrun the hell out of the place.

From the very moment we started, this person was met with scorn over watching the cutscenes and enjoying the game/dungeon to their leisure. I, as the tank, wanted to wait for this person and not lock them out of every fight in the dungeon but was promptly ignored and the other tank just started the fights anyway.

Towards the end though, I figured the rest had enough and voted to kick this person out of the dungeon while they were in a cutscene, reasoning being (s)he was AFK. I voted No, and hoped other people who weren't harassing him/her (or otherwise, just standing silent) would vote no as well. But against my better judgment for this game's community, they were kicked from the dungeon. All for enjoying the game at their own pace, they got punished.

I have to ask, why does this happen? What do some people hope to gain from this? We are all paying for the same game. Just because you are higher geared than them does not give you control over how people run their dungeons in the Duty Finder, unless they agree to it.

Since I expect to have some people defending this nature of behavior, I'm just going to get it out of the way and respond to a few common defensive responses to this:

I don't have the time for this. Skip them, watch them in the inn. - If you don't have the time to wait an extra 5-10 minutes, I don't think you should be running this in this first place if you have something urgent to do.

Make your own group for story runs - I could say the same for you and your speedruns. If you wanted a speedrun for Praetorium... for whatever reason, you could use the Party Finder/DIY service to make your own group. If you don't want the risk of being paired up with newbies who could potentially somehow prove as an "interruption" to your run, just don't run the Main Scenario roulette.

Also, just throwing this out there, but you can do two, three, maybe even four Brayflox runs (just first two bosses) in the time it takes to do one Praetorium for better mythology.

Anyway, I've said my piece. I've seen a few topics on this on these forums that, for the most part, share the same tale. I don't care if I get "This again" responses, I just want Square Enix to take into consideration that the vote kick system is being abused more than for its attending use, and something needs to be done about it. I don't even know how it can be fixed, just please know that this is a problem and you just can't ignore it any longer.

To the person who got kicked, if you even read these forums, I apologize for the actions of the group yesterday. It was highly uncalled for, and if you were on my server, I would run it with you again. I just hope the people who kicked you receive the proper punishment.

Edit: Adding verification that the player in question was not AFKing.

I can pretty much say, without a doubt, they were not AFKing in the cutscene. We waited inside the ring before entering the duty for about a minute. Before the first boss, the other Tank started it almost immediately about entry, and the player in question came rushing out of the cutscene to join up. This happened at every point in the entire dungeon from until they were kicked. They only waited (albeit grudgingly) one time throughout the entire run, and we were waiting for less than a minute. And none of the cutscenes in Prae stretch the five minute mark as far as I know. If we were waiting for more than five minutes, then yeah, that signals a red flag that something is up.

They didn't say anything throughout the entire run, nor did they mention they were new. Since they earned that "Mapping the Realm" achievement and their gear wasn't the best even for a new endgame player, it was pretty much obvious at that point that it was their first time. The point where they were kicked was before the second battle with Ultima, and the cutscene preceding that is fairly long anyway.

[Issac]

I agree with your sentiments. I was fearful of votekick being implemented. It just gives the toxic community more ammunition to become more toxic.

[NailBach]

yeah, i have first hand experience on this and after reaching the dungeons around lvl 30, i really started to skip cutscenes and watch them in the inn afterwards.

The best thing though was in Praetorium too, when there was one endgame tank started to throw a fit after we ( a group of four new ies) wiped at the first boss. I actually told us that if we are in a dungeon for the first time, we should actually watch a youtube vid on how to clear it and learn the boss patterns.


There's the opposite too though. A few times ( i started to write " first timer here") people actually took their time, took us through the dungeon slowly and explained the boss encounters before, giving out helpful tips and strategies.

[Nekodar]

I agree with your sentiments. I was fearful of votekick being implemented. It just gives the toxic community more ammunition to become more toxic.

It is a necessity though...
I for one don't want to go back to runs where someone decides to just go afk and hope the rest clears it for free reward.

[Lilysparkle]

Totally agree with you. All of their arguments have no merit whatsoever when you realise that by default cutscenes play automatically - it is intentional game design. They are arguing as if, cutscenes *don't* play automatically and this person has toggled them on. If that was the case, then they *might* have weight to their argument. As it stands, I feel that if you want to control or re-define how you interact and progress through a dungeon in any way that deviates from the default intended design, use Party Finder!

Ppl don't make Party Finder groups that say "Watching through all Cutscenes", because this is already the game default design.

I'm sorry this happened to you and I am sure it made you lose a little faith in humanity. I've had a similar thing happen in Aurum Vale, where I really wanted to finish the dungeon and have a chance at the various loot (including the final chest). My group vote-abandoned after the first room, and despite me clicking "No", it still went through and I was back outside feeling kind of "What just happened.." (and yes I know about first room clearing, but I had chosen to do a DF of just Aurum Vale)

[Zagam]

I am aware there are maybe half-a-billion topics on this subject on the forums almost each and every day, but after seeing this finally happen for myself, this is a obviously a recurring trend that needs to end.

So you are aware but because it happened to YOU it needs a whole new topic that will get overlooked and buried?
If the people around here actually used forums properly things that you don't like might actually get changed.
400 threads on the same thing get looked over.
1 thread with thousands of replies doesn't.

[TrickedOutHoro]

Good post OP. That's really disgusting.

[DragonSlayer45]

So you are aware but because it happened to YOU it needs a whole new topic that will get overlooked and buried?
If the people around here actually used forums properly things that you don't like might actually get changed.
400 threads on the same thing get looked over.
1 thread with thousands of replies doesn't.

I'm not here to make my own "special snowflake" topic just for the sake of making it. I'm here to raise awareness on an issue in a game I enjoy. The same thing can happen if I resurrect an old topic. I just say my piece and the topic fades into obscurity once again. If this wasn't so big an issue, there wouldn't be so many topics on it, wouldn't it?

You say this topic will just get overlooked and buried? Well, maybe it will. But at least I can say I tried to get a response.

[Macka]

So you are aware but because it happened to YOU it needs a whole new topic that will get overlooked and buried?
If the people around here actually used forums properly things that you don't like might actually get changed.
400 threads on the same thing get looked over.
1 thread with thousands of replies doesn't.

Sad you really believe this. In actual reality they both would get looked over and eventually buried.

[Macka]

Sad you really believe this. In actual reality they both would get looked over and eventually buried.

On topic just do what I do report them let the gm do their investigation and discipline responsible party.