why so mean?

[Machetazzo]

I guess the answer to the question why people are mean in any kind of situation, environment, etc. is the same and was greatly put in an old (great one by the way!) movie.
" -Why are you so polite?
- for the same reason you aren't: it's the way I was brought up."

Just don't bother with people who have bad attitude. You will have to suffer few minutes with them (even less if you kick them), while they have to spend the whole life with themselves!

Regards,
M

[Sadana]

Encountering someone's nasty attitude early in the game really affects the rest of your time in game (personal experience.) Lots of folks upstream have offered good suggestions. I will add a few things:

As a new person, be patient when asking for help. To you, it may appear High Level Person isn't being to quick to answer but you may be the 4th person in ten minutes to ask for help.

When in a dungeon, take a quick moment to say something like "I'm new to this boss, can I get a quick strat please?" It will help immensely to go with FC/LS friends who know in advance that you are new to the dungeon. Everyone will be more chill about it.

It is VERY important that you learn your skills. Read up on your rotations on the class sub-forums here on the OF.

If you need help with gear, ask for advice rather than asking for the items themselves. It can take crafters a while to make a set of gear if they generously offer. Never ask when it will be ready. =_=

Pay it forward. If people help you out, in turn, go and help others.

Good luck!

[Raeanya]

...When in a dungeon, take a quick moment to say something like "I'm new to this boss, can I get a quick strat please?" It will help immensely to go with FC/LS friends who know in advance that you are new to the dungeon. Everyone will be more chill about it.
...

^^

Even reading a guide online can casue issues if there are multiple ways to clear a boss. There are many examples, but one that comes to mind right away is Tam Tara HM. Some people like to pull the wedding party away from the group, and have the boss's target run to them. Other people like to just stack everyone together right on top of the boss and not move. It is always best practice at any level to take 2 minutes to go over the prefered strat before going in to avoid confusion.

[Ashkendor]

Encountering someone's nasty attitude early in the game really affects the rest of your time in game (personal experience.)

Yes. Yes it does. I was afraid of Duty Finder for MONTHS because of some abusive players encountered early on. The only thing that kept me even playing this game was the fact that I had some RL friends playing with me.

I always try to offer advice on everything. Today I was in a Lost City run with 3 players new to the instance. The tank was in Gallant gear, so he was pretty squishy but we took the pulls slow and it was no problem. We wiped once at the first boss, the second boss was a little slow, and we had three wipes at Diabolos. All three players were receptive to advice; one of them was helping me mark doors (I am just not very fast at it and the party had low dps so we needed three sets) and everyone was learning from each misstep and improving on the next attempt.

[abcat]

Being a returning "new player" myself I have yet to run into rude people, but I expect it sooner or later. No matter what game I have ever played, you always end up with those "types" that make your blood boil. Not really much we can do about it other than ignore or report. I think the general problem is folks are just in too much of a hurry and seem to be very selfish and they will take it out on you. Instead of helping another player or understanding they are new, the new player is hampering their progress.

[BatHead]

I've only been at this game a few days, and so far, I've only run into nice folks. I was in a fight with some random monster, and in the middle of it, some passerby decide to help me out by casting some kind of Stoneskin spell on me, and another guy in Ul'dah just up and gave me some body armor that was better than what my PC was wearing.
Nice.
I suppose at some point I will run into a jerk or two, it seems inevitable as it has happened before in my somewhat limited experience with MMOs. I'll deal with it like I did the others - ignore or report (depending on how bad they were.)