Delete the Mentor system or rework it.

[Jin-]

Toxic casuals once again stirring the pot. Maybe the problem is you as an individual if 90% of others are bad people?

[Eien713]

snip

Just wanted to clarify that the person in the screenshot is a mentor, as indicated by the crown next to their hidden name. [NOVICE] just means that the chat channel is the Novice Network.

[Jojoya]

I have not been able to consistently join the Novice Network since Endwalker's launch. I'm assuming people are still actively answering questions there—because I do see some people chiming in on the occasions I do manage to join—but I sure as heck don't know for sure because I can't join the dang thing in the first place like 75% of the time.

Probably because sprouts who want to retain access after they they are no longer sprouts get encouraged to go the tradecraft mentor route. We end up with a lot of mentors who are only in there because they want the closest thing to a global chat channel and not because they want to help. A lot of them don't even know what they're doing. They got their collectable requirements completed by finding macros online. I'm really surprised that SE hasn't upped the tradecraft mentor status to include completion of Expert recipes instead of collectables.

As some will point out, a player's need for help doesn't always stop just because they've played 200 hours and started Endwalker MSQ. They still want to be part of NN and so do what they need to in order to keep access.

I have never made bad experiences with mentors. I have no clue why the people are so against the mentor system. :/

Just because you haven't had any doesn't mean others haven't.

I can't speak for everyone. Personally, I'm not so much against the concept of a mentor system as I am against a mentor system with no standards being enforced and no oversight on who is made mentor. Anyone can grind out the needed comms/dungeons or collectables to get mentor status. None of those things are difficult nor does doing them prove constructive knowledge of the game and a willingness to share that information with others in a polite and helpful fashion. It's made a joke out of the mentor system and left too many players with far more negative experiences with mentors than positive.

Please tell me this person is trolling. I refuse to believe someone (mentor or not) is saying this seriously (especially the part about focusing 1 target at a time).

Not everyone is into a min/max optimization game style. I absolutely can see a mentor saying those things.

What others needs to understand is that what was said was opinion, not objective fact.

[Wolwosh]

Do we need a post about this every week?
Why are people still on the novice network anyway?
Its well known for being a cesspool, most of the decent mentors know not to be in there..

[Shiazirah]

Just wanted to clarify that the person in the screenshot is a mentor, as indicated by the crown next to their hidden name. [NOVICE] just means that the chat channel is the Novice Network.

Okay, my mistake with the novice saying this. Okay, looks like i have to edit my comment then. But to clarify, the rest what i wrote still stands, its mathematics...

[Larirawiel]

Just because you haven't had any doesn't mean others haven't.

I can't speak for everyone. Personally, I'm not so much against the concept of a mentor system as I am against a mentor system with no standards being enforced and no oversight on who is made mentor. Anyone can grind out the needed comms/dungeons or collectables to get mentor status. None of those things are difficult nor does doing them prove constructive knowledge of the game and a willingness to share that information with others in a polite and helpful fashion. It's made a joke out of the mentor system and left too many players with far more negative experiences with mentors than positive.
.

There hundreds of mentors per server. So there is a good chance, that you will meet a bad apple even if the percentage of bad apples in the mentor crowd is not very high. As long as the situation with bad mentors does not become rampant, i see no game breaking problems at all. And removing the mentor system because of it is like to crack a nut with a sledgehammer.



Cheers

[Jybril]

I have never made bad experiences with mentors. I have no clue why the people are so against the mentor system. :/




Cheers

Balmung's Novice Network is pretty pleasant.
Also, people really need to stop acting like every single Mentor is terrible.
Not all Sprouts are not the cute, tiny defenseless newbies that are kind and seek guidance.
There are jerks out there, too. I mean anyone can be lmao. The attack on Mentors is just annoying.

Dunno, like I said for me, it's not bad. You get a troll here and there but we just kick 'em.
If people are saying some high super percentage are bad then it might be 'you' problem.

Again, that's my experience on it. I like Novice Network, Sprouts and Mentors in my server YMMV I guess.

[Jazmyn]

As someone who has heavily participated in the system for years, I'd love to see it just removed altogether. I've sat in many Novice Networks for many hours, and most of the games Novice Networks are just dominated by cliques of attention starved weirdos who end up alienating a lot of newer players by talking about bizarre or gross topics. I've even seen weird cases of Mentors making aggressively sexual comments towards people who definitely aren't cool with it. There isn't enough of a barrier of entry, so you end up with a bunch of weirdos with no social skills or understanding of personal boundaries; "How do I leave the Novice Network" is such a common question that it's basically a running joke.

So much this I refuse to join the NN because of some of the mentors, If you object and ask them to take it to discord they do the kick thing. worse some of the mentors protect this kind of behavior by telling you to blacklist mentors, wth am I having to blacklist a mentor instead of them policing themselves.

[LeonKeyh]

Probably because sprouts who want to retain access after they they are no longer sprouts get encouraged to go the tradecraft mentor route. We end up with a lot of mentors who are only in there because they want the closest thing to a global chat channel and not because they want to help. A lot of them don't even know what they're doing. They got their collectable requirements completed by finding macros online. I'm really surprised that SE hasn't upped the tradecraft mentor status to include completion of Expert recipes instead of collectables.

Agree on all points here. I'm a tradecraft mentor and mainly use it because NN is the closest thing to a chat channel. That being said, I stopped leveling using macros so I do actually know quite a bit about crafting/gathering and I do answer questions that come up. But, while the NN is full most of the time, there's really only 5-8 Mentors that answer questions. Typically, NN is a bunch of people talking about a subject then a sprout/flower asks a question and everyone goes silent or ignores it.



As for the OP, the mentor system is "fine." It doesn't need to be removed. It's not worth it to rework it at all. The main issue with the mentor system ultimately has very little to do with the system and everything to do with the general "post modern" player who refuses to take any sort of feedback as anything except an attack.

Mentors just happen to be a vertical of the player base, they're typically an accurate representation of what the player base is like with a little bit of a boost in confidence when compared to people. This means that people who think they're good actually think they're gods, and people who aren't good think that they are.

[Thorio]

Right now it serves no purpose, 90% of mentors you meet are stuck up individuals that will strike out at you for no reason because their ego has gone to their heads.

Sounds like projection to me.