Quote Originally Posted by Spiroglyph View Post
Imo ideally a mentor system should help forge a healthy bond between -A- mentor and -A- mentee, rather than shoving everyone together in a chat
There are a few drawbacks to a system like that.

The first is that mentors don't live in the game any more than anybody else. They're not available 24/7, and if a new player were assigned to just one of them, then there's no mentor system at all during the times that player isn't online. The more flexible system we have now lets new players get advice and help from whichever mentors are on and available at the time they need that advice/help.

Anther issue is that no one mentor is going to be equally able to answer every question. Sure, pretty much any of them could answer basic stuff like where to unlock chocobo companions, but if someone doesn't understand how a skill works or where to use it, mentors who actually play that class or job might be able to give a better answer. So maybe the one best able to give crafting advice isn't the one best able to give advice on using Astrologian cards or whatever. The Novice Network puts sprouts in touch with numerous mentors with a wide range of expertise, increasing the chance that one of them will be able to help them.

Then there's the fact that, with multiple people there, it's possible to identify when bad information is being given out. If one mentor answers a question with outdated info that changed in the last patch, or is otherwise simply wrong (or just incomplete), then others can chime in and point out the more up-to-date or complete answer. A one-on-one system wouldn't allow for that to happen so a lot of new players would be getting bad information and advice.

The Novice Network is also important in putting new players in touch with other new players. That's sometimes a better place to get advice and usually a better place to get players to run content together than the mentors are.



The problems with our current mentor system and the Novice Network come about by lack of accountability, not because there's more than one person available for a new player to get advice from.