Don't tell me what to do!

[ManweSulimo]

I won't even get into how your statement is wrong because the point is pretty much completely moot.

Let's review the conversation:

you have no right to tell anyone how to play.

Unfortunately you do by the first amendment.

Hopefully that answers your question as to why it was brought up. Maybe that person isn't in the US so it might not apply to them personally but it certainly applies to a large percentage of the people that play this game and most likely an even larger percentage of the people reading this forum.

You don't need to get into how the statement is wrong because it isn't. And the point isn't moot. Anybody has every right to tell anyone how to play a game. Does that make it a good thing? No. Does that make it welcome to the other person or anyone else in the party? Not necessarily. Might it have a positive impact? Not likely but possibly. I would think it would be a huge waste of the Japanese government's money to prosecute anyone for telling someone else how to play a game.

However my friend, we are all three on the same side in the end anyways. Just because someone has a right to say whatever they want doesn't mean they should. I agree with you that nobody should tell anyone how to play. And I personally use your exact procedure in dealing with the issue

[Kazumac]

Helping someone out with advice is usually good but as others have said, some will always interpret it poorly no matter how positive you phrase it. With random groups I just think... Can we live with them playing like that? If yes then I don't say anything as it isn't worth the effort.

To the OP's question of someone being a jerk... Vote kick ASAP. I don't have time to deal with those types. You don't need to argue with them, explain to them that they are a jerk, start a flame war, etc. just remove them.

[Xhominid]

If someone is being a jerk to me or people in my party, I'll usually get vocal on them. There are nice ways to get your point across, use them.

If they continue to act like asshats, I try and votekick them and if that doesn't happen, I'll leave because it's not worth it being with asses like them to begin with.

I pay $15 a month for this game and I still enjoy the storyline even after running through it multiple times, I DO NOT regret it, but seeing people like them kills my enjoyment bif time.

[Starlord]

It really all depends on the situation and by that I mean:

1) The content in question that they are doing with me
2) Attitude in which the person in question is giving

If the content is easy enough that any type of gameplay would be fine. I will not say a word ( I normally don't say much anyways lol)
If the content is hard enough that warrants a degree of skill that the class needs changing, I may speak up ( again I don't normally speak much)
If the content is really hard ( like Coil) complete focus of said Job is required. Because if one doesn't focus on their job in this content it makes the rest of the party suffer. ( Highly likely to say something at this point).

Most of the time though as long as they are "somewhat" playing their job correctly, I won't say a thing as long as we don't wipe 10 times because of it.

[FranSeara]

Not trying to be rude here (American as well) but there is no place for the American Constitution in an international forum. Some people myself included can view this as short sighted and rude for even mentioning. My apologies if I seem abrupt in the shortness of this post.

NP, I wasnt saying this myself (Japansee) I was replying to another posted comment on this page. "A little Tongue in Cheek on my part"

[Donarudo]

NP, I wasnt saying this myself (Japansee) I was replying to another posted comment on this page. "A little Tongue in Cheek on my part"

Thank you for the reply back, and np. Take care.

[Coldheart]

In my humble opinion, for "suboptimal play" you can offer some advices (and please be polite when doing this), but the player doesn't have to agree.

If a player is playing wrong and causing troubles to the party, I tell him (or her) the problem and I give some advice ("please attack the nail or the party will be wiped"). But constant harrassment it's not acceptable.

And there is a big difference between "playing suboptimal" and "playing wrong".

You play suboptimal when you don't use your skills in best possible way. For example: as Thaumaturge stay unnecessarily in Umbral Ice stance. A dungeon may get harder or slower, but is still doable without major hindrances.

You play wrong when you don't use your primary skills at all or very rarely or ignore a key boss mechanic . For example: a Thaumaturge that never use Fire or a DPS that never attack the Infernal Nail during Ifrit trial. A dungeon will get harder and slower, and maybe cause one or more wipes.

[Sapphic]

If a player is playing wrong and causing troubles to the party, I tell him (or her) the problem and I give some advice ("please attack the nail or the party will be wiped"). But constant harrassment it's not acceptable.

Problem is there are too many cases where the player either ignores any advice and "still doesn't attack the nail" (using that as an example of ignoring mechanics that will probably wipe the party) either because they don't care or they select a language they don't understand for a first time run thus explanations fall on deaf ears.

[Chiramu]

In the game you usually cannot help other people how to play unless they are in the FC or on your friends list imo. It is just really awkward to start writing in party chat to another player who is basically a stranger to you and start giving them "advice". There are too many times where people think that they are awesome at games and will not take advice because they believe that they are awesome at games.

The best bet imo, is to give them a small, subtle hint and if they do not take it then you give up on trying to help them with a rotation on dps or tanking/healing better. People do not listen if they do not want to listen. Give it a subtle and polite try; if it works great, if it doesn't... well you tried.

The title of the OP though is a very ignorant response to constructive criticism however and I believe it should be changed to reflect the mood of the thread. Something like, "Helping strangers in DF with their role, is it okay?" or something like that. "Don't tell me what to do!" is ignorant and the worst response a person can have for constructive criticism, it suggests that you are perfect and there is nothing you can do to make yourself even more perfect.

[Yukariko]

what always enters my my mind, and one of you guys can explain, is how do you know?
sure it's pretty easy to tell if dps is generically slow by how many times a boss's mechanics loop or if you're hitting an enrage timer, but how do you know which dps is at fault and at which point in their rotation they are going wrong?

I personally don;t have a keen eye and I'm concentrating on what I'm doing rather than watching what other people are doing.

is it just watching the debuffs/buffs that appear in the party window? I generally keep my mouth shut but often just wanna bark "how about you worry about your own rotation that worrying about theirs" when i see this happening

that said, if you are going to give advice always explain why something should be done different. generally will go down a lot better.