What's with all the hate toward mentors?

[Seig345]

Personally, I have only seen the "hate" here, not in game. People aren't as likely to go out of their way to post on the forums every time a mentor they encountered actually lived up to their crown rather than brought shame upon it.

[Atoli]

^That.
I can find no basis whatsoever that suggests it is actually "a lot of mentors" (like others in this thread said) that are doing horribly.
It's always "this one mentor did something bad, omg the mentor system is horrible and should only include those 10 people that have purple numbers on FF****",
completely ignoring the hundreds of times the mentors in their other duties were just normally doing their job or even going out of their way to help.
Because why would you go to the forums to say "today I had 3 nice mentors in my Dun Scaith run, today a mentor explained to me how the mechanics of Sophia work, today...etc."?

It's a mixture of unfair expectations (many people think mentors are some kind of uber players that should be better than the average player, but they don't know that mentoring is SPECIFICALLY linked to the newbie system, and a mentor needs to be good enough to help a newbie and answer newbie questions, NOT give an endgame static advice on how to be even better, or be able to single-handedly carry a lvl 60 party through content - because that is. not. their. job).

And yeah sure, there is the occasional bad egg, but that's ALSO something most people don't realize - they can report bad mentor behaviour and the mentor will get their mentor status removed (or, if the behaviour goes against the general ToS, will get a ban for going against the rules that are in place for ALL players).

[Malzian]

...completely ignoring the hundreds of times the mentors in their other duties were just normally doing their job or even going out of their way to help.
Because why would you go to the forums to say "today I had 3 nice mentors in my Dun Scaith run, today a mentor explained to me how the mechanics of Sophia work, today...etc."?

Ayup, because it's human nature to focus on and remember the bad things while forgetting the good. It's why the vast majority of news stories are about what's gone wrong in the world as opposed to what's gone right. If everything is as it should be then no one has cause to comment, it's only when things go wrong do people speak up and because of that the only things you hear are about the bad mentors doing the bad things.

Edit: On a side note to this, I've been working on a website dedicated to helping mentors and new players connect easily along with providing a forum for role and job/class guides. I'm hoping it will be a place for this kind of positive feedback and discussion to become the prominent form of discussion... but it's still a work in progress. ^.^;;



Building a community of mentors to help sproutlings across all worlds! Please feel free to visit the website and help grow a mentoring community that we all can be proud of! https://malzianxiv.wixsite.com/xiv-mage

The sum of all hunt arguments over early pullers: http://goo.gl/IFT9IE

1.0 was terrible. It died because it was terrible. It should stay dead... BECAUSE IT WAS TERRIBLE.

[bass9020]

But its ok to forget about all the new players or the players who arent mentors that attack most of the veteran players. If we even slightly try to help or help them adjust there playstyles, we are met with hate most of the time!

So I understand why sometimes mentors dont want to act like a real mentor, but im just a crafting/gathering mentor so I dont have to deal with this type of issue.

[Malzian]

But its ok to forget about all the new players or the players who arent mentors that attack most of the veteran players. If we even slightly try to help or help them adjust there playstyles, we are met with hate most of the time!

As a former teacher I advise the following idiom: "You cannot teach those that are unwilling to learn."

[Zojha]

Ayup, because it's human nature to focus on and remember the bad things while forgetting the good.

At least until nostalgia sets in and you end up rationalizing the bad things away to remember the good.

Memory bias is a funny thing, really.

[Malzian]

At least until nostalgia sets in and you end up rationalizing the bad things away to remember the good.

Memory bias is a funny thing, really.

Yeah, hence the 1.0 bit I added to my signature the other day.... >.>

[bounddreamer]

Most of the mentor hate I've seen has been on the forum. I've never had a problem with other players calling me out simply for being a mentor. However, I've done my best to be an exemplary mentor (by generally acceptable standards) so that probably helps.

I, like a lot of mentors, had to leave my server's Novice Network because it was spammy doom from people who wanted to use it as a chat channel.

I've only seen bad behavior from one or two mentors, one of which I reported for bad behavior/abusive language.

I've actually seen more examples of GOOD mentors in game than bad ones. I play a lot. I do a mentor roulette every day, sometimes more than one. Helping parties clear synced extreme primals is very satisfying. Some of the best runs have been with other mentors who joined in progress, offered tips, knew all the strats, and were patient with the sprouts and returners.

[ManuelBravo]

While this may sound a bit harsh there are a lot of good mentors that are misunderstood. Yes there are some that really don't help but most I think get the bad rep for being honest and blunt about what is going on. Some people may not agree, lets face it some of this new generation is the Cup Cake generation. If your not sure what that is here is a simple over view. Some players are spoiled and want everything handed to them. I've had a few runs were trough tooth and nail players refuse to communicate and go afk on their own, they complain of over pulls. Note this is not as in groups but as in one group that links. I am a very patient person and even in raids were people rage quit I ask other members of my FC, LS's, to help for new people. Seriously players need to start putting some effort. While society wants to give everyone a trophy for participating, at least I'm glad games stay honest and fair. Party gets a wipe? guess what that means you lost. Completed duty? congratulations you won. People need to stop blaming Mentors for their short comings. If your one of those ASK FOR ADVICE. It's ok Mentors are willing to help just please for the love of the twelve put some effort into it.

[Miste]

completely ignoring the hundreds of times the mentors in their other duties were just normally doing their job or even going out of their way to help.

I've actually seen more examples of GOOD mentors in game than bad ones. I play a lot. I do a mentor roulette every day

Yeah I agree, honestly on Primal DC most mentors I see are either neutral because the run is going smooth and nothing needs to be said or they are helpful with whatever they can offer.

I also do the same when I do mentor roulette. Sometimes I get content I don't remember how to do unfortunately but I try my best to remember things to help others with or try to explain what I think I remember. Some EX Primals are hard since I totally don't remember them step by step or the best way to do them based on the role that is new or having issues with the content, but I still try my best and of course do the best on the role I am in there on to assist.

Everyone has different expectations on what a mentor should be doing so you only sometimes actually meet someone's personal expectations.

Like I remember posting a story in Tales of DF thread about a tank that wouldn't stop running and let me type anything to them in Dzmael Darkhold. They weren't standing in the crystal and they were using Sword Oath and not Shield Oath so I was tanking all the mobs as WHM.

I tried until first boss to get them to stop and listen for a minute but they just kept going and I was doing the healing role and tanking role both. So I ended up leaving the group. Some people actually think I shouldn't have left because I was a mentor and I understand we all have different opinions, but honestly I would think a line would be drawn at a mentor being responsible to tank on a healer role. Healers may have the toolkit to main heal and side dps but we don't have the toolkit to tank. So I only had two options either I vote kick the tank or I leave myself and since I don't like kicking people I choose to leave on my own.

So personally I think some people's expectations are just set too high. When you set your expectations that high you are always going to be disappointed and then there comes the hate. It's a video game first of all so it is a hobby for entertainment; you can't expect miracles from a volunteer player help guide. Mentor or normal player we all have limits and we all have the right to leave content when we wish due to IRL problems or because we can't teach those who don't want to be taught. There is only so much a mentor can do and I think some players just do not realize that.

Some mentors do not exemplify the simple base of what a mentor should be and I understand that but in my experience it has been the minority of them. There seems to be way more decent or good ones than bad.

I've gotten hate as a mentor from players who do not want to be helped. I offer advice but then get swore at for example and insulted over it no matter how nicely I offer it. It happens way too often too :/

From players who like the assistance though I've got nothing but nice comments and commendations for assisting them so it helps knowing I was able to help them even with the players who insult me for trying to help being so prevalent :x