Delete the Mentor system or rework it.

[Mitsuka_Souji]

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.

Either start banning Mentors that abuse the title/crown or just get rid of the system all together since its so outdated and abused.

Mentor is a switchable player status, intended to be used when the player wants to help others in something, so what you are saying doesn't make any sense - you are going against players who just want to help others at this point.

More than that, if you didn't know, when one gets mentor status, he is prompted with message that inappropriate mentor behavior shall be penalized.

And as conclusion, if one wants to help others, developers fully encourage it and design means to label yourself as someone who wants to do it, so if there is something wrong going on, it's up to players and not this particular feature of the game.

[Novae]

Mentor hate is the best way to farm upvotes and likes on social medias.
Well, after scions in casual attire, of course.

ZzzZZzzz so boring.

[angienessyo]

As a mentor, I remain silent unless someone asks for help. I don't go out of my way to teach someone; let them learn on their own at first, and if questions arise, then I will be there. I know of a LOT of mentors that have this mentality, actually.

I'm the same way. There were too many instances of sprouts getting very upset if I tried to explain mechanics ahead of time because it was spoiling the experience. So I at least wait until some wipes happen or if people have questions. That way I'm not spoiling any surprises and people will have context for any mechanics if they need me to explain. The only exception is if I know there's a mechanic that's likely to kill the whole party and think a new player would want a heads up(ie Tidal Wave).

[DixieBellOCE]

If the system were the problem it would not work anywhere, but it does in JPN servers. So probably, just probably, the problem is the NA community rather than the system itself

Also, if you find a toxic player (mentor or not) you can always submit a report, easier than asking for an entire system to be removed

Tonberry had a great NN for years, then there were a select group of players that actively started kicking anyone who spoke Japanese from the NN, in an attempt to make it an English chatroom.
One of the players is now on OCE servers and is still as toxic as ever. hes been reported for years and nothing gets done.

[Jeeqbit]

I'm the same way. There were too many instances of sprouts getting very upset if I tried to explain mechanics ahead of time because it was spoiling the experience. So I at least wait until some wipes happen or if people have questions. That way I'm not spoiling any surprises and people will have context for any mechanics if they need me to explain.

This is a point that a lot of people don't understand. I never had anyone get upset at me explaining the mechanics, because I know that some people will want to do the content blind. If they want to know the mechanics they will usually either look at an MTQ video or ask at the beginning. Rarely, it becomes necessary to explain the mechanics because we are wiping multiple times. If I think they didn't understand a mechanic, sometimes I explain it after we defeated the boss because then they are not blind anymore.

[Deceptus]

And just what are you basing this on, because myself and many others have had plenty of experiences to the contrary?

Because you and others become emotionally invested in it and you're more likely to remember negative situations vs the vast majority of neutral or good ones.

It's well established and backed by numerous studies. Look it up.

For example:

The brain stores highly emotional memories longer than neutral memories. Negative memories are remembered longer because those memories are corresponded with high stress situations. From an evolutionary standpoint, it is important to remember a highly stressful situation in order to avoid it if it arises in the future.

https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/wh...st-longer.html

[Scaramouche]

Mentor is a switchable player status, intended to be used when the player wants to help others in something, so what you are saying doesn't make any sense - you are going against players who just want to help others at this point.

More than that, if you didn't know, when one gets mentor status, he is prompted with message that inappropriate mentor behavior shall be penalized.

And as conclusion, if one wants to help others, developers fully encourage it and design means to label yourself as someone who wants to do it, so if there is something wrong going on, it's up to players and not this particular feature of the game.

When the game put rewards like a mount where the only way to get it is mentor roulette is bad design.

When the game allows someone who did ifrit 1000 times, got 1500 commendations because they were healers/had cute glamour and paid for Job boosts to get the exact same statue to a player who has done every dungeons in the game at current level, several times, leveled up and mastering each role and has always been helpful, its bad design.

[Scaramouche]

Because you and others become emotionally invested in it and you're more likely to remember negative situations vs the vast majority of neutral or good ones.

It's well established and backed by numerous studies. Look it up.

For example:



https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/wh...st-longer.html

Most interaction aren't goods, they are neutral.

I remember the two mentors in that dungeon with kuribo or something (Andapor maybe?) and they were amazing and really helpful but its the only thing I can remember about mentor because none of them actually leave any impressions.

[Packetdancer]

I always see this accusation and literally no one ever provides proof of it. Just once, I'd love to see someone show a mentor that has outright said, "I'm just here for the crown, screw ya'll newbs"

Honestly, while usually I'm the one likely to point out that many studies have shown humans are really bad at judging percentage/frequency in a way that actually matches objective reality, I can genuinely say that I'm fairly sure the percentage is at least higher than 0%. Because I have definitely encountered jerks of mentors. Not often, but enough to prove they exist and are not MMO cryptids.

I mean, I don't think it's all mentors by any means. It's not even a majority! Heck, it might be less than 5%! (I mean, it probably is less than 5%, potentially by a lot.)

But the ones who are like that -- who snap at sprouts or basically use "I'm a mentor" to try to boss them around -- tend to be very loud and difficult to ignore when they do show up. (And as noted, I have indeed seen them before, albeit not so often.) And even if they are a relatively small number, their loud and in-your-face nature tends to mean they are what gets noticed, what gets remembered, and thus what gets associated with the crown.

Still, you're not wrong either; a lot of the bad perception of mentors is an echo chamber. Three sprouts have a jerk of a mentor in a dungeon and mention it to some friends. One of those friends has had a bad mentor experience, and mentions they've also seen a jerk of a mentor. And over time it balloons into this thing where when new folks show up in game, they get more or less inducted into the court of "mentors all suck", even when it's potentially a very small portion of mentors who do, and their reason for believing mentors all suck is "I've been told by veteran players that mentors all suck."

And in an example of positive bias reinforcement, that means they're likely to see a jerk mentor as proving that opinion true, while seeing examples of excellent mentors as "the exception". (And neutral examples just get mentally filtered out, because they aren't memorable.)

And absolutely none of this changes that the crown has a terrible reputation, deserved or otherwise. Which means the ones who don't want to be associated with that reputation don't wear the crown. Which reduces the number of counter-examples in the wild that no, mentors aren't all jerks... and the cycle continues.

[LaylaTsarra]

i run a lot of content and the issue of mentor never arises. No one even talks about it. Where are people seeing this behavior? Is this a Novice Network thing cause I don't belong to that. Personally I've never renewed my mentor status.