Mentor Requirements

[Keramory]

The biggest flaw with this thread is the assumption that playing this game more will equate to people having better personalities. That simply isn't the case. You hit 80. You played a bunch of dungeons/trails to get the coms you did (hell you could cut the com requirement into a 4th of what it is). You know how to play. You have all the requirements of knowing how to help.

Nothing about adding more to any of this will make someone a better, more relatable person. If anything suggesting to increase it probably adds more to the toxic elitism attitudes that are creating most of the issues in the first place.

I'm trying to watch how often I compare FFXIV to FFXI but the FFXI mentor system had almost zero requirements and worked well. Heck people would bend over backwards to help out without it. You can't get mentors to spend 2 seconds to type an answer on FFXIV, but mentors in FFXI would spend 2 hours helping you farm something, easily. And that example isn't me being selective on rare examples, both are regular occurrences on their corresponding games. Your issue here is community based, not requirement based.

[Genbe197]

How does grinding more collectibles make you better at giving advice? Likewise for dungeons and commendations. 1000vs2000 is no difference, you don't suddenly get better after doing the same dungones 10000 more times. This just makes being a mentor annoying.

[MiriRynendaith]

The biggest flaw with this thread is the assumption that playing this game more will equate to people having better personalities. That simply isn't the case. You hit 80. You played a bunch of dungeons/trails to get the coms you did (hell you could cut the com requirement into a 4th of what it is). You know how to play. You have all the requirements of knowing how to help.

Nothing about adding more to any of this will make someone a better, more relatable person. If anything suggesting to increase it probably adds more to the toxic elitism attitudes that are creating most of the issues in the first place.

I'm trying to watch how often I compare FFXIV to FFXI but the FFXI mentor system had almost zero requirements and worked well. Heck people would bend over backwards to help out without it. You can't get mentors to spend 2 seconds to type an answer on FFXIV, but mentors in FFXI would spend 2 hours helping you farm something, easily. And that example isn't me being selective on rare examples, both are regular occurrences on their corresponding games. Your issue here is community based, not requirement based.

No in which you are correct, this is why I wanted to hear from other people on their aspects and I respect and agree with alot that has been said. Upping the requirements doesn't make sense more everyone's voices are addressed. However, I am more inclined to the idea of a flagging system in which was stated earlier to get the mentors that do not help at all removed. The whole get voted from the server community to show you actually help as well is something that makes viable sense. This is why I posted this and listening to the voices really help give a better insight. I want to thank all of the positive feedback.

The FFXI community for mentors was a great thing and I just wish we could try to get that over on XIV somehow.

[Keramory]

No in which you are correct, this is why I wanted to hear from other people on their aspects and I respect and agree with alot that has been said. Upping the requirements doesn't make sense more everyone's voices are addressed. However, I am more inclined to the idea of a flagging system in which was stated earlier to get the mentors that do not help at all removed. The whole get voted from the server community to show you actually help as well is something that makes viable sense. This is why I posted this and listening to the voices really help give a better insight. I want to thank all of the positive feedback.

The FFXI community for mentors was a great thing and I just wish we could try to get that over on XIV somehow.

The thing about the mentor system in FFXI was that there really wasn't a system in place. You simply toggled it as a mentor w.e you wanted and if someone messaged you, they messaged you. That was it. The only thing I'd suggest is to remove that and the group chat entirely, as many echoed already. You can have a list of mentors non-instanced to /tell message who want to be messaged and keep it to that.

That way you don't need anything else. No need to remove people. There isn't prestige in having it. Only people who are subjecting themselves to advice are going to be messaged. There isn't a "stage" like a group chat for people to sit there and be jerks for "lulz" from others.

I think the biggest thing Yoshi's team made a mistake in believing rewarding players with mentoring will incentivize people into doing it. FFXI created much stronger bonds through shared suffering lol. Pretty dark when you think about it but that was really the big difference between the two.

[GeminiReed]

The only way I'd personally make requirements of mentor roulette is to make it required to clear the current expansion's Extreme content.

So when Emerald, for example, dropped - you'd be locked out of the roulette 'till you clear it.

How is current end-game content relevant to sprouts? How is my optimized end-game rotation relevant to somebody just trying to make it through pre-ShB content who don't have the level gated skills to accomplish it nor have the required Skill/Spell speed to hit the thresholds that make certain rotations work? How is my ability to tackle difficult content related to my teaching aptitude? Or even explain certain MMO nuances that new folks may be struggling with?

The problem with Mentor status is that some people are using it to flex and that's not what the system is for.

[Wasselin]

I am working on becoming a mentor right now because sometimes I like to help people by answering their questions. Even as a returner I would help. I don't often know the answers myself but will google it for people. Plus when I was a returner it was fun having the Novice Network to talk to and ask questions to.

I never experienced any toxicity in the Novice Network-- it's probably the most positive chat experience I've ever had in an MMO in what's basically a general chat channel. Since most of my friends from when I played before were gone, having the Novice Network to talk to and see chat was a way to feel welcomed back to the game. If you don't like the group chat you can just leave, I'm not sure why it would need to be removed.

I don't think it needs to be more restrictive. In fact making it less restrictive might make it less of a status symbol and then only people who want to help others would sign up.

[Awha]

I think if people accepted the fact that generally NN is just a general chat, and mentors are no different from normal players things would go a lot smoother.

[Lanadra]

The biggest flaw with this thread is the assumption that playing this game more will equate to people having better personalities. That simply isn't the case. You hit 80. You played a bunch of dungeons/trails to get the coms you did (hell you could cut the com requirement into a 4th of what it is). You know how to play. You have all the requirements of knowing how to help.

Nothing about adding more to any of this will make someone a better, more relatable person. If anything suggesting to increase it probably adds more to the toxic elitism attitudes that are creating most of the issues in the first place.

I'm trying to watch how often I compare FFXIV to FFXI but the FFXI mentor system had almost zero requirements and worked well. Heck people would bend over backwards to help out without it. You can't get mentors to spend 2 seconds to type an answer on FFXIV, but mentors in FFXI would spend 2 hours helping you farm something, easily. And that example isn't me being selective on rare examples, both are regular occurrences on their corresponding games. Your issue here is community based, not requirement based.

I agree entirely. All the issues that seem to circle the mentor system in FFXIV are community/personality issues. Dickheads will be dickheads whether they have a crown or not. There's no higher ceiling that's going to resolve such.

I am working on becoming a mentor right now because sometimes I like to help people by answering their questions. Even as a returner I would help. I don't often know the answers myself but will google it for people. Plus when I was a returner it was fun having the Novice Network to talk to and ask questions to.

I never experienced any toxicity in the Novice Network-- it's probably the most positive chat experience I've ever had in an MMO in what's basically a general chat channel. Since most of my friends from when I played before were gone, having the Novice Network to talk to and see chat was a way to feel welcomed back to the game. If you don't like the group chat you can just leave, I'm not sure why it would need to be removed.

I don't think it needs to be more restrictive. In fact making it less restrictive might make it less of a status symbol and then only people who want to help others would sign up.

And that I'd say is the right attitude to have. I'd also be inclined to say you don't need a crown to do what you're already doing, but I can see the use of it as a 'look here I can help you!' badge.. probably what it was originally intended to be.

I'd also say the general experience one might have with the mentor/novice network system would very much depend on not only world but datacenter as well. I've seen people in this thread speak of toxic cesspools, and seen people (like you) describe novice network as a helpful and welcoming place.

[Dogempire]

Increasing the requirements to become a mentor wouldn't really do anything to fix it, just make it even more of a status symbol than it needs to be.

[Arkevorkhat]

Mentors aren't experts and honestly we should just remove the crown and replace it with something less status charged. They're just supposed to be people willing to help if asked.

I'm a strong believer that the Mentor crown should be replaced with a watering can, since that would A) be consistent with the existing plant-based imagery for sprouts and flowers, B) not place mentors on such a pedestal, and C) imply that a mentor's job is to help new players.