Final Fantasy XIV and a Culture of Enabling

[Caurcas]

Using this 'strong and weak' language you are using...

You're basically being outright elitist and newb-shaming at this point, even if indirectly. I can't help but understand now why your Novice Network doesn't seem to welcome you (given your frequent complaints insinuating such); people like these end up being ostracised / disliked in my server's Novice Network too. (It is, after all, a Novice Network; it's the least appropriate place for one to shame novices for being novices)

I'm not that great, amongst my peers I am pretty average. Furthermore, I've met alot of sprouts that take time to learn their job and even outplay "mentors". It brings me joy. Being weak in 14 is a choice. It doesn't take long to be adequate and average at any job. As for my prospal, if you pair weak with weak then the weak are probably going to get fed up and put in a little time to get out of that situation. Social parasitism isn't okay.

[Penthea]

As for my prospal, if you pair weak with weak then the weak are probably going to get fed up and put in a little time to get out of that situation. Social parasitism isn't okay.

Or many players would leave the game because constantly ending up with weaker players stunts their own growth due to being unable to progress or observe better players, and/or thinking they're better than they actually are because the bar is set so incredibly low and therefore would not put in the work you would hope for.

Social parasitism isn't okay.

And segregation is the answer to this? Not features in the game to help players go on a better path of self improvement? Your solution is to banish the peasants to the lower class DF?

[Vinupra-Rosa]

I'm not that great, amongst my peers I am pretty average. Furthermore, I've met alot of sprouts that take time to learn their job and even outplay "mentors". It brings me joy. Being weak in 14 is a choice. It doesn't take long to be adequate and average at any job. As for my prospal, if you pair weak with weak then the weak are probably going to get fed up and put in a little time to get out of that situation. Social parasitism isn't okay.

You forget that,

1. Sprouts can be mentors (I'm a sprout in 14 out of my 17 characters) and despite being sprouts can play at the same skill level that they have on their mentor characters.

2. Mentors are people too and can be downright horrible at certain things and good at others. A mentor might even know full well the theory, or have good general knowledge, but not be an optimal player and that's alright. They don't need to be optimal Ub3R-Sk1llZ players and should not be expected to be such. Just decently knowledgeable and competent (my specialties, for example, lie in locales, red mage, and relatively obscure uisettings)

3. Pair weak with weak and you'll end up with more people being unhappy with the system and potentially ragequit, as well as internalisation/entrenchment of potentially harmful habits in the various 'skill strata' that would come to exist simply because the upper crust won't be able to share/show their methods to those 'below them'.

4. People aren't going to be 'experts' at something that quickly and practical application is needed - - you will see less people trying out different jobs for fear of their 'worse performance' on a job they're less familiar with causing them to 'drop in rank' and get paired with 'the rabble' instead of 'the elite'.

5. Being weak is a /state of being/ that everyone starts with by default and can only really leave with time and effort and expediated (or initiated) by the presence of a helping hand from others. It's not a 'choice'; refusing to become stronger in the presence of a helping hand surely is, but not being weak by itself. If you deny that 'helping hand' you are denying the 'weak' one of the best ways out of their condition.

6. Others getting better is not something you can force; it comes with time and perspective. Time is a big variable; not everyone thinks the same way, learns the same way, or at the same rate.


You say you're 'not that great' but here you are blatantly novice-shaming like any good old elitist. Chill. And for the umpteenth time, just go queue in as a premade if you hate the 'rabble' that much.

[LaylaTsarra]

I'm not that great, amongst my peers I am pretty average. Furthermore, I've met alot of sprouts that take time to learn their job and even outplay "mentors". It brings me joy. Being weak in 14 is a choice. It doesn't take long to be adequate and average at any job. As for my prospal, if you pair weak with weak then the weak are probably going to get fed up and put in a little time to get out of that situation. Social parasitism isn't okay.

Not going to happen. Report back when you see it in the patch notes but don't hold your breath. Your song has been sung on this forum for ages and they aren't listening. Make a pf if you want to choose your party.

[LianaThorne]

I'm not that great, amongst my peers I am pretty average. Furthermore, I've met alot of sprouts that take time to learn their job and even outplay "mentors". It brings me joy. Being weak in 14 is a choice. It doesn't take long to be adequate and average at any job. As for my prospal, if you pair weak with weak then the weak are probably going to get fed up and put in a little time to get out of that situation. Social parasitism isn't okay.

You're aware people have lives outside of a video game right?

Like, I am one who has endless time to game basically due to my life circumstances but you also can't expect someone who works full time, has a family and other life responsibilities to have the same time to dedicate to getting better that someone like me would. It's not weakness and I wouldn't necessarily call it a choice either if you only have a couple hours a week to game in general lol.

[Nayout]

Your ideal expectation of what others should do before entering a dungeon won't help you once you're already inside the dungeon.

The OP asked what can be done about it, and hoping that others would do what you want them to do without you (and other people) having to encourage them to do so is unrealistic.

And that's the reason why every day I always have to kick people from dutys

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

The frustration are relatable. But other than that, I don’t see it changing nor do I have any high hopes for it.

Go in with premades/friends of similar minds, leave when things go south, or lower your expectations.

Pick your poison, basically.

[strawberrycake]

The frustration are relatable. But other than that, I don’t see it changing nor do I have any high hopes for it.

Go in with premades/friends of similar minds, leave when things go south, or lower your expectations.

Pick your poison, basically.

This basically my current approach

[SturmChurro]

They still want to do multiple an expansion, the schedule for 3 was just a bad idea from the start with the work load. Making 3 ultimates, plus the redevelopment of 3 ultimates when the team for battle content is literally just 4 guys and their interns is p bad. SO there was no hill, more so a "We literally don;t have the time and people for this" kinda deal. And from what was said the second ultimate was almost done, but they would rather wait and polish it over dropping half baked content.

Edit: if anyone reads the interviews for how Eden normal and savage was made, the battle content team was well manned for storm blood, and gutted for unknown reasons(FF16) for shadowbringers So its easy to assume they might get most of the original team back for endwalker.

Keep in mind Covid and FF16 has drastically changed how they planned to handle this expansion. So losing 2 ultimates this expansion was a sad reality, on top of the bad scheduling from the beginning on their end.

Edit 2: They also cut a lot of casual content this expansion as well, Hildabrand, Deepdungeons, Multiple Dungeons per patch, Being able to contribute to the Firmament with battle jobs and not just gather jobs and crafting jobs. So both sides have taken loses this expansion as a whole. I would wager casuals took more then the hardcore players, We only lost one piece of content with the other 3 ultimates still being highly replayable.

I think it's pretty obvious that SE prefers to do casual oriented content. Even if both hardcore and casual are suffering, casual - or more accessible - content will win out every time. That's not even to talk about their lack of focus on PvP!

Or many players would leave the game because constantly ending up with weaker players stunts their own growth due to being unable to progress or observe better players, and/or thinking they're better than they actually are because the bar is set so incredibly low and therefore would not put in the work you would hope for.

Yeah, this is more likely than them looking to improve. If there is one thing the ff14 playerbase has shown, it's an aversion to actually improving.

[Puremallace]

530 does exist but the point I made was that when players have worked through the second tier raid fights in 5.2 and 5.3. To earn all that shiny i500 gear. Then as soon as the third tier dropped with 5.4. All that 500 gear was replaced with 510 crafted gear before they've even entered the new raid tier. Thus rendering that 500 gear already obsolete..

See you are forgetting on key thing about FF14 that mostly applies to the high end raiding community but because ilvl is scaled in some content some gear sets are not actually outdated ever and are used for specific encounters.

It is a niche community that min/maxes gear like this but it does exist. I get your point though.