Mentor System: Suggestion

[DrWho2010]

everyone says mentoring should be more of a job but this is a game. you play games to get away from jobs lol.

and there's no way to filter out false negatives.

honestly there should be no rewards other than tomestones for doing mentor roulette.

[Kaurhz]

everyone says mentoring should be more of a job but this is a game. you play games to get away from jobs lol.

and there's no way to filter out false negatives.

honestly there should be no rewards other than tomestones for doing mentor roulette.

People don't expect nor say it should be a job, that is people trying to paint a false narrative out of the real complaints that are being made. People just want mentors to be held more accountable for their actions; that does not insinuate nor imply making a job out of it. People shouldn't have a crown, nor should they deserve said crown if they use it as a tool for sophomania, or megalomania. At least I, alongside quite a lot of posts I have previously seen. If you don't want to proactively help people, that's fine, and nor should you be obligated to help at every passing opportunity, but if you're just going to use it as a tool to delude yourself into a false sense of superiority whilst simultaneously degrading those around you then that's a different matter entirely; hence accountable.

Considering the pool of instances/encounters that are included within Mentor roulette this is a bad idea. People will always take the most efficient route, and doing mentor roulette is anything but that when you can get anything from a Guildhest, to Praetorium, to Extreme Primals. Nobody is going to do that for some tomestones, at least the general populace or mentors won't. So you need something to incentivize it further, be it a mount, minion, or titles. So yes, it should have additional rewards. What mentors shouldn't have however is a crown.

[Wolwosh]

Its a bit like the housing system. They've released it all wrong and now its hard to fix.

[Vahlnir]

From the beginning it should not have had a roulette or rewards at all. It should have been a system built for helping people and nothing more. I don't think the concept of Mentors should be removed, but I do feel that it needs to be designed around what it's supposed to stand for and not what it currently is. Also, get rid of the crown and replace it with something much less visually appealing. Some players have big enough egos already.

[KoiFishu]

Can you give specific examples of things mentors frequently say that you find harassing?


Coming from the other side, I can tell you that I've been met with hostility from sprouts, sometimes even directed to self-copulate, when I say things like:

• "(Iron Will/Defiance/Grit/Royal Guard) (Please use it.)"
• "Fire III is great for switching from ice to fire, but after casting it once, you should spam Fire I. Fire III does 33% more damage but takes 40% longer to cast, so it's a damage loss."
• "Please use area attacks instead of single targeting."
• "(Wait, please.) (Please listen.) This is an extreme trial, which has means it has mechanics that absolutely cannot be ignored, so let's talk about how to handle them."

so I have doubts that the issue is as one-sided as threads on the forums often allege.

I don't doubt that there are some mentors out there who do say mean things in duty--I've seen some of those too. But I also see sprouts retaliate to simple and necessary feedback instead of taking the feedback.

----

Nah I totally agree. There are some sprouts who do act like that. But I've had instances in lower duties too where mentors would be passive and say things like "we would get through this quicker if only the DPSs knew how to play this game","don't bother playing if you can't do well,","you're unfit to play the content, stay away" etc. I'm not saying specifically this is geared towards me. I've gotten used to behavior from mentors and I would just report for harassment when the flaming gets too out of hand, but it's disheartening to see this happen quite often to new players or somewhat new players. These sort of things I often see. I'm not saying my suggestion would do anything-- I mean everyone else can probably think of something better, but again, I do feel like there's nothing to lose IF a mentor acts differently. I guess the end all say all is, that there are mentors out there who are doing the exact opposite of what you'd expect them to do and there's not much they lose from it when it does happen.

I think like the others said though, removing the mentor system completely and making open chat with moderation would be a nice step forward. Again, to clarify, I have nothing against mentors. I have met some extremely nice and helpful mentors who would go above and beyond to help me and my friends. But I am just saying that it's hard to ignore the ones who stand out to harass players.

[Jeeqbit]

mentors would be passive and say things like "we would get through this quicker if only the DPSs knew how to play this game","don't bother playing if you can't do well,","you're unfit to play the content, stay away" etc.

I think that's more common on EU data centers. I see it regularly there, but haven't really seen it on NA data centers for years.

[Bsrking5]

Sounds like the new players gave "attitude" and mentors gave it right back. Not saying either is right but welcome to the internet. And then come running to forums complaining that they can't be worse type of player without it getting thrown right back them.

[Bsrking5]

Its a bit like the housing system. They've released it all wrong and now its hard to fix.

Its not, they choose not too. There are simple and easy ways to fix the most glaring and repeated issues posted on the forums. Its that they don't want to fix old stuff and rather make new stuff. The msq roulette should teach you that. Those have been broken forever and they only changed it because its core progression to the game.

[Jojoya]

If a mentor makes derogatory/inappropriate comments toward you, report it. Part of the mentor program includes being "an exemplar of player etiquette". SE has taken mentor status away from some who repeatedly behaved far outside acceptable standards.

Unfortunately, they will not act if you're reporting comments directed at another player despite how unpleasant that can make the situation for everyone present. The other player will need to make the report.

If there are negative commendations, perhaps only sprouts should be able to give them. Sprouts are who they are a making a first impression to and teaching the game to, and it's them who should be able to say a bad impression was left.

If non-sprouts could give negative commendations, they might abuse it for reasons that have nothing to do with politeness.

Better not to have them at all. Not every sprout is a new player and some will have already made up their minds about mentors. Some would be happy to spread negative commendations just because they made a new character and were given that ability.

What I'd rather see is SE better define the commendation system since it has an impact on who becomes a mentor. "Player commendation is a system whereby you can commend a party member who left a positive impression on you in the course of duty" is too broad for something that's used to determine who can become a mentor. There should be a separate type of commendation for "I think this player would make a good mentor" versus a commendation used for "this player told some good jokes to make me laugh" or "this player had a cute glamour" or "this player was nice".

[Reinha]

A negative comm system isn't needed. Report + blacklist does the same thing. If the mentor is really misbehaving they will lose their mentor rank.