FFXIV: ARR Suggestions for Good Party Etiquette

[Lyniaer]

As much as this game frustrates me sometimes, it's not always something Yoshi can fix. Sometimes it's the players.

Now, you may feel like saying: "All Mighty Skitty-Kitty! If these players are as bad as you're about to say, what makes you think they're even on the forums?! Or reading this?!"
Well, dear reader, that is where you come in. It's up to you to uphold some of these suggestions and in return, a better game experience for all!
Let's begin, shall we?

1. Greed Party, but leader 'locks' the item he needs.
- This sets a fairly poor tone for your party. It's hypocritical and rude. I understand how frustrating it is to farm for Weapon X or Item Y; we all do. Now, I'm sure you have your reasons and those reasons may seem perfectly valid to you; but you're simply using other players to service your own needs without any regards for their own.
WWRD? - I won't join a party with a 'locked' item. I may even go so far as to let a person know why a decent player was turned off of their group and depending on how my mood is that morning; blacklisting* them.
*(Skittles does not endorse blacklisting people without giving them an opportunity to retort. She considers it an abuse of the black list system.)

2. First Try Rage Quitters
- Sometimes things just go wrong. RNG can crop up on a group in some very interesting ways, especially on some content that isn't %100 replicable. Some players are actually very good, but can still eat a Weight of the Land or a fall off the damn Leviathan boat from time-to-time. I know this morning I was doing a Brayflox as a Scholar and caught every single attack from the Gliders (you know how they choose a random person to attack) all at once. I died. Subsequently so did the rest of the party. The tank was actually quite furious about this and their rage was absolutely frothing.


3. Carry Parties
- Carry parties are a big thing on my server. They enabled a certain free company on our server to acquire a large house FIRST!!!!1

This puts players who have not completely grasped the complexities of their job or the acquired skills that the older content teaches in with those that are on Farm Status. They assume "Hey, I have a win! I'm qualified for this!" and cause all kinds of problems, hurt feelings, rage and just general japery. Granted, everyone deserves the chance to play the game in it's entirety but if you're not ready, you're not ready. Why cause yourself more grief? Besides, if you don't have the patience to learn a piece of content, how is it you have the patience to farm the outrageous sum of money required to get a carry? (Some carries were as much as 1.5million on my server.) You all know what that leads to.

4. Strategy Awareness
- There are many ways to complete content. Some are far more effective than others and many people use these more effective strategies. The most controversial example of this is "Enrage Method" of Coil Turn 2. It may 'seem' easier to you, but it's just another strategy in the mix of many other strategies. As a career Paladin; solo-tanking Turn 5, to me, is easier. However, that doesn't make me an elitist and it doesn't make it more difficult on the rest of the party; so why am I wrong for liking and encouraging that strategy? Why am I wrong if, say, I never solo-tanked it before and am quite leery of doing so?
I recall a recent heated argument I had with someone because they had been taught in Titan EX to switch at certain intervals and not just at the 3 stacks. I had no idea what their plan was going in - I guess they just assumed that was how everyone did it - but the strategy I had learned and employed when the content was fresh and new that lead to my victories was very wrong to this person and he called in to question my skill, ethnicity, mother's marital status, the possibility I was carried several times, etc..


5. Commend Good Players...ALWAYS.
- Always commend good players when using roulette or soloing duty finder. Even if the party was awful; you WON didn't you? Commend somebody!

Following some of these simple suggestions and encouraging them to others can go a long way in making the game so much more inviting. Let's just play and leave the hostilities for sports.

Manly sports!

MANLIER!

That's better.

[Zumi]

You should switch at two stacks on titan ex not 3.

[Kiroh]

As much as this game frustrates me sometimes, it's not always something Yoshi can fix. Sometimes it's the players.

Now, you may feel like saying: "All Mighty Skitty-Kitty! If these players are as bad as you're about to say, what makes you think they're even on the forums?! Or reading this?!"
Well, dear reader, that is where you come in. It's up to you to uphold some of these suggestions and in return, a better game experience for all!
Let's begin, shall we?

1. Greed Party, but leader 'locks' the item he needs.
- This sets a fairly poor tone for your party. It's hypocritical and rude. I understand how frustrating it is to farm for Weapon X or Item Y; we all do. Now, I'm sure you have your reasons and those reasons may seem perfectly valid to you; but you're simply using other players to service your own needs without any regards for their own.
WWRD? - I won't join a party with a 'locked' item. I may even go so far as to let a person know why a decent player was turned off of their group and depending on how my mood is that morning; blacklisting* them.
*(Skittles does not endorse blacklisting people without giving them an opportunity to retort. She considers it an abuse of the black list system.)

Or you could just...you know...not join the group if you don't like the loot rules.

2. First Try Rage Quitters
- Sometimes things just go wrong. RNG can crop up on a group in some very interesting ways, especially on some content that isn't %100 replicable. Some players are actually very good, but can still eat a Weight of the Land or a fall off the damn Leviathan boat from time-to-time. I know this morning I was doing a Brayflox as a Scholar and caught every single attack from the Gliders (you know how they choose a random person to attack) all at once. I died. Subsequently so did the rest of the party. The tank was actually quite furious about this and their rage was absolutely frothing.

Sometimes people just want a smooth run, especially when they join "win" groups or "clear" groups, that may be their expectation. People also don't always have 3 hours to wait for you to stop making mistakes you know you shouldn't be. If it is an honest mistake, a lot of the time it helps to simply offer an apology and aknowledge it. Letting the group know it's not a mistake you usually make can go a long way towards easing someone's anxienty about spending a lion's share of their day wiping and repairing their gear.

3. Carry Parties
- Carry parties are a big thing on my server. They enabled a certain free company on our server to acquire a large house FIRST!!!!1

This puts players who have not completely grasped the complexities of their job or the acquired skills that the older content teaches in with those that are on Farm Status. They assume "Hey, I have a win! I'm qualified for this!" and cause all kinds of problems, hurt feelings, rage and just general japery. Granted, everyone deserves the chance to play the game in it's entirety but if you're not ready, you're not ready. Why cause yourself more grief? Besides, if you don't have the patience to learn a piece of content, how is it you have the patience to farm the outrageous sum of money required to get a carry? (Some carries were as much as 1.5million on my server.) You all know what that leads to.

There's a very simple fix to this called "running with your own groups". If you don't want to group with people who get carried, don't group with random people you don't know. Ask your friends, or company members, or shellmates if they want to run with you, and if you do PF, make rules specifically stating the expectations you have about experience/skill with the encounter.

Also, what's wrong with being the first to have a large house exactly? Why are you upset at how other people choose to play the game? I never understood all the anger directed at competitive players. I'm not one myself, but I also don't care if that's the way someone else enjoys playing.

4. Strategy Awareness
- There are many ways to complete content. Some are far more effective than others and many people use these more effective strategies. The most controversial example of this is "Enrage Method" of Coil Turn 2. It may 'seem' easier to you, but it's just another strategy in the mix of many other strategies. As a career Paladin; solo-tanking Turn 5, to me, is easier. However, that doesn't make me an elitist and it doesn't make it more difficult on the rest of the party; so why am I wrong for liking and encouraging that strategy? Why am I wrong if, say, I never solo-tanked it before and am quite leery of doing so?
I recall a recent heated argument I had with someone because they had been taught in Titan EX to switch at certain intervals and not just at the 3 stacks. I had no idea what their plan was going in - I guess they just assumed that was how everyone did it - but the strategy I had learned and employed when the content was fresh and new that lead to my victories was very wrong to this person and he called in to question my skill, ethnicity, mother's marital status, the possibility I was carried several times, etc..

Or you could talk before you rush in...

Really, take 5 seconds to ask "what strategy are we using for this fight?". If you are unfamiliar with that strategy, ask for an explanation, or a link to an explanatory video or guide.

5. Commend Good Players...ALWAYS.
- Always commend good players when using roulette or soloing duty finder. Even if the party was awful; you WON didn't you? Commend somebody!

Commend good players, yes! Always commend players who are helpful or strike you as particularly skilled or useful to the group. If the party is awful, no. You have no obligation to commend people, and commendations should really only be given when they're earned. Charity is not the purpose of commendations, it's supposed to be a reward, an acknowledgement of a player's good attitude and skill at their role. If everyone else in the group is stone silent (or worse, raging the whole time) and the living embodiment of suck, then don't give anyone a commendation, they don't deserve it.

I understand that the community in this game can be frustrating, especially when people have different expectations from the start, but many of these ills can be easily solved by just a simple question or a brief explanation. It may be one of the symptoms of a world increasingly dependant on social interaction through the internet, where you can just ignore people you don't like, but conflict resolution through communication is an essential life skill, even in a game.

[muwa]

This puts players who have not completely grasped the complexities of their job or the acquired skills that the older content teaches in with those that are on Farm Status.

Titan teaches not standing in bad stuff, the same thing every boss before did. He only punishes it more.

Always commend good players when using roulette or soloing duty finder. Even if the party was awful; you WON didn't you? Commend somebody!

If you can't even say hello or goodbye, i sure won't commend you even if you are the best at what you do.

[Wobble]

I agree with the greed>need and having an item locked! to me that's not really a true greed party and unfair to others that may want the item and I don't join those groups myself I also notice they don't fill up very quick.

[Moqi]

All it takes is communication, a little patience, and a reminder that you're playing with real people. If you're prone to raging go take a walk outside, otherwise just be nice and don't be afraid to speak up. It'll solve most problems.

[Nebelheim]

Right I agree