Mentor program, wherefore art thou?

[Aarik]

I may be called old-school, but I firmly believe that the mentor program from FFXI needs to be re-implemented. Half of my friend list no longer has a character (need to organize that soon) because of the caustic atmosphere in regards to new players; in particular their questions. There is no sense of support on this game right now, or at least very little. If a new person asks a question, they get either get rudely rebuffed/mocked, or they get the famous "Watch/read a guide." Maybe I am one of a very few, but I would love to mentor new players; it builds a sense of camaraderie/friendship without committing the new player to a FC/LS. Granted, if such a system was implemented there would need to be ways to make sure mentors do not abuse their status, but it was a wonderful system in FFXI, and I think it will make FFXIV ARR more personable.

Questions/comments/suggestions?

[Leira_Raine]

I like the suggestion, but I dislike the fact that we would have a need for it. I just try to mentor new players whenever I can, but I just figured it was common hospitality. Then again, I don't involve myself in regular DF (without one friend at the very least). I just wish we didn't need it and that people just help the newbies out with either actions or words of wisdom.

That being said, I would totally sign up for the mentor program.

[Aarik]

I can definitely understand your viewpoint Leira, and I wish we didn't have a need for it, but the actions of others are telling. Maybe it's just my server, but common hospitality isn't common here. I'm hoping that the mentor system shows people that there ARE players that will help simply for the sake of helping

[Alistaire]

LOL forgot all about that... the big M by peoples' names was almost inevitably a sign they didn't have a clue about anything. Good riddance to that and any kind of mentor program people can sign up for without any qualifications whatsoever.

[Awrini]

LOL forgot all about that... the big M by peoples' names was almost inevitably a sign they didn't have a clue about anything. Good riddance to that and any kind of mentor program people can sign up for without any qualifications whatsoever.

Oh so you mean the blind leading the blind.

[Alistaire]

Oh so you mean the blind leading the blind.

Also the blind trying to lead people that actually knew what they were doing.

Well, if they implemented that it'd at least renew the concept of having an easy way to distinguish players to not associate with.

[Aarik]

Good riddance to that and any kind of mentor program people can sign up for without any qualifications whatsoever.

Granted, if such a system was implemented there would need to be ways to make sure mentors do not abuse their status, but it was a wonderful system in FFXI, and I think it will make FFXIV ARR more personable.

As I said, there would need to be restrictions; it wouldn't be something anyone can join with no requirements whatsoever. Doing so would be begging players to abuse the system.

[ShinkuTachi]

I would totally be in favor of something like this.

quote

HI TALIA!

but yeah, I definitely feel like something like this could work. However, I think their would need to be some prerequisites, and maybe some randomly generated, 20 question, multiple choice quiz regarding more advanced things in the game (and they have to score 90% or higher to pass). Also make it so the quiz can only be attempted every six months.

If someone wants to be a mentor, and doesn't have the patience for a quick 20 question quiz; they definitely are not cut out for the job and they should not be allowed to be one.

[Aarik]

Oooh, that's a good idea. And having it so that during the quiz, tabbing out of FFXIV ARR is considered forfeiting said quiz. This way we prevent people from just using wiki while taking the quiz. This may be a pipe dream, but I'm hoping someone from SE reads this thread; this needs to be done.

[sarehptar]

Can't speak to FFXI since I never played it, but maybe they could instate mentoring with some base requirements to make sure it's slightly less the blind leading the blind?

In any case, FFXIV was my first MMO, and I picked both main class (Conjurer) and my server on a whim without realizing that I should look for servers with larger numbers of newer players and probably pick a less important role first... My first time in Sastasha was me and three level 50 players (lord knows what they were doing there). The first "advice" I ever got from another player was "Speed up and heal better." Seriously? I would have loved to have a higher leveled player give advice on skill usage or even just remind me that being new doesn't make you cursed or something...

I think it's a nice thought, at the very least, even if it might come with its own share of difficulties.