There needs to be harsher punishment for mentors breaking the rules

[Zojha]

There are no "rules" to being a mentor.

Which...probably is part of the issue.

The idea: Make it easier for senior players willing to help newbies to connect with them and set a positive example for the mutual benefit.
The reality: "Look at muh crown I'm the king lel".

I still don't get why SE put rewards and achievements behind the mentor system...they really shouldn't have. It could have been so easy - people who feel like mentoring at the moment get the status, join the network and roulette and do their mentoring thing, people who don't simply drop the status, drop from the network and do their thing. But no... >_>

[FoxyAreku]

No. Something people need to learn...mentors are normal players and are not meant to be held to a higher standard than everyone else.

Say it with me now.

Mentors are normal players and are not meant to be held to a higher standard than everyone else.

Now, if you want punishments for ALL players for rule breaking, that's fine.

Which...probably is part of the issue.

The idea: Make it easier for senior players willing to help newbies to connect with them and set a positive example for the mutual benefit.
The reality: "Look at muh crown I'm the king lel".

I still don't get why SE put rewards and achievements behind the mentor system...they really shouldn't have. It could have been so easy - people who feel like mentoring at the moment get the status, join the network and roulette and do their mentoring thing, people who don't simply drop the status, drop from the network and do their thing. But no... >_>

It wouldn't matter. People were abusing being a mentor before there even were rewards. "Mentor" just makes certain people feel like they are better than they are.

(And no, the most time-inefficient roulette ever made is not a reward.)

[LineageRazor]

The Mentor system is not inherently bad. There are bad eggs among the mentors, but they are not even REMOTELY the majority. Remember where you are right now: the forums. This is the place where we get all the complaints, whining, and concentrated BAD that occurs in the games. This is where you'll find people ranting about encountering bad mentor after bad mentor, long losing streaks while crafting, players pulling Hunt marks "early", and so on and so forth. People don't come to the forums to chat about what a normal day they've had, or even what a good day they've had. Don't take the Mentor horror stories written here as being representative of the system as a whole.

My experience with the mentor system in the game is that it is OVERWHELMINGLY a good thing. In the Novice Network, while there's plenty of random chatter (and yes, the occasional ugly argument/debate), when newbies ask questions Mentors jump all over each other to answer them. Time and again, sprouts express sorrow when the time comes for them to leave the Network.

People in this game are no more or less anti-social than they are in real life, and it was not a mistake to provide players with an option to mark themselves as being ready and willing to assist others in need. Providing a reward like Astrope probably WAS a mistake, at least in some ways, but I can understand why they did it - the genuine mentors weren't filling enough duties, and so they took another route to get people running Mentor Roulette. (I would have preferred a new non-Mentor-related Roulette to be added for that purpose, but what is is what is).

As for the claim that Mentors are normal people and should not be held to a higher standard, this is KIND of true. They are normal people, certainly, but by wearing the crown they are declaring themselves ready to help others, answer questions to the best of their ability, and so on and so forth. When you go into an instance and find a mentor there, there's no reason to expect them to start taking charge and spouting tutorials that no one needs to know - but there IS reason to expect them to treat party members with respect and dignity, and to give advice when asked. A mentor should not be expected to be perfect, but they SHOULD be expected to be cooperative and helpful.

[Xou]

Much as Lineage has said, by and large all the Mentors I've run into are decent coves who'll ask if folks want advice on bosses and ask if they can offer advice on classes they know well. I could go into some long diatribe on how we all accepted to be of a better standard when we took the crown, read the wall of text or no, but that's mostly moot.

While it can be annoying to get stuck in someone's farm... at least it means that the 'bad' mentors aren't in the actual dungeons like Satasha where sprouts new to the game need folk who'll be patient and friendly, where they aren't shouting at new players and driving them off of one of the best MMOs I've played.

Some are in it purely for the titles and Astropes and while they get vilified by some... what harm are they doing exactly? Provided they're decent to the newbies in runs and are willing to offer advice then they're doing what is expected of them as a Mentor, nothing wrong with them having the crown.

[Lucke]

You know what they should have done?

Don't add a reward in the Mentor roulette.

Simple as that. You remove the reward, and then people who do the mentor roulette is mostly there to, you know, mentor.

While I don't disagree, you're removing the carrot on the stick. While you would attract Mentors who truly do care about helping people...those people are heavily outnumbered. For every altruistic player there are probably 1000+ selfish people.

Let's be honest here, if they removed the tomes reward for roulettes, would you still do it? Roulettes are there to help newbs/people who have trouble finding groups (sorta like the mentor roulette). The tomes are the carrot on the stick. Most people don't give 2 pieces of chocobo poo about helping people, they just want the tomes/carrot on the stick.

[FoxyAreku]

While I don't disagree, you're removing the carrot on the stick. While you would attract Mentors who truly do care about helping people...those people are heavily outnumbered. For every altruistic player there are probably 1000+ selfish people.

Let's be honest here, if they removed the tomes reward for roulettes, would you still do it? Roulettes are there to help newbs/people who have trouble finding groups (sorta like the mentor roulette). The tomes are the carrot on the stick. Most people don't give 2 pieces of chocobo poo about helping people, they just want the tomes/carrot on the stick.

It also wouldn't change anything because 30 esoterics/10 lore barely even counts as a reward.

Really the only way that would even remotely be worth it is if you got a guildhest every time.

[KarstenS]

Let's be honest here, if they removed the tomes reward for roulettes, would you still do it?

We will never know the answer, as long SE doesn't try it.

Remove the tomes and the mount and look what happen.

[Vnolan]

What about removing short/all guildhests from counting toward the achievements?

The people who have and will (now that this topic has brought more attention to it) spam easy duties will of course just move on to something else, but what would that be? Ifrit? Cape Westwind? As simple as Ifrit may be, there are at least some form of mechanics going on and at least some people would benefit. CW would be harder to spam, but it would make queue times better for new players.

[Cakekizyy]

How about stop trying to punish people for playing witin the rules.