Player commendations with meaning?

[BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY]

i agree. the system is quite stupid. only good for gil and the achievement reward. they should at the very least remove it from the challenge log. besides... players shouldn't need encouragement to either behave properly or play to their class/jobs fullest extent.

[Niwashi]

If in addition to that, I also had to pick an option, I wouldn't really mind. However, sometimes the other players that deserve commendations leave very quickly. That one extra question could reduce people's ability to give the MVP the commendation he or she deserves because said person might have left already.

This is what I'd be concerned with. I usually pick someone during the run, but then end up having to quickly decide who the second-best is at the end because the person I wanted to commend is already gone. The longer it takes, the more often the person commended will simply be whoever is left rather than the player who deserved it.

And choosing a reason would make it take longer, especially if the reasons can't be pidgeonholed into the alternatives given. What if they were both helpful in explanations and played their class well? Now you not only have to pick the player, but which reason is most significant.

I guess you missed the part in which I said the first option would be "I just want to do this before people leave" as to filter out those people and render their commendations meaningless as they should be.

The problem is that you're regarding those as less meaningful. The absolute very best player in the data cluster getting commeded for creating the very best run you've ever seen still has to be commended before they leave. If you want to give them a commendation at all, you're going to select that "need to do it fast" reason, because that's still just as true even when it isn't the reason. (In fact, it's more true when it isn't the reason. When you care about who you commend because someone really deserves it, that's when it's most important to hit that commend button fast.)