[Opinion] The Current State of the Novice Network

[Serilda]

A requirement of say those 1000 dungeons need to be 400 expert level dungeons would be sufficient enough. At least then they might've learned something hopefully in those 400 dungeons.

It's not like the expert dungeons are actually hard, or like being able to raid (if you raised the requirement further) teaches people basic social skills.

This is a Balmung problem, I'm afraid. The only silver lining is that with the server being so overcrowded, there probably aren't that many real novices for it to scare off - at least those who aren't deliberately aiming for the Balmung community. Here's a typical day in the Yojimbo novice network translated into English for comparison.

<Sprout 1> Thanks for the party!
<Mentor 1> Hey Sprout, did you mean to type that to your party?
<Sprout 1> Yes! How do I do that?
<Mentor 2> Just use the bubble next to the chat area to change channels
<Mentor 1> Yep or type /p
<Sprout 1> Great! Thanks
<Sprout 2> I always get it wrong too
<Sprout 3> Thanks for the party!
*repeat*

Seriously though I think the best fix is to add an opt-in global chat channel for all of the drama queens to hang out in for casual chat. That will make the NN less appealing, since they apparently need a greater audience than a LS can provide and are just using the NN for that.

[Natashio]

There needs to be a stricter requirement to be a mentor, period. Any brain dead person can grind Ifrit normal 1000 times which a lot of these people do.
A requirement of say those 1000 dungeons need to be 400 expert level dungeons would be sufficient enough. At least then they might've learned something hopefully in those 400 dungeons.

The number of mentors who are horrible at this game I've encountered exceed the 100 count and just add to the stereotype and stigma of the status.

They can increase the gates all they want. That's not going to fix players' social ineptitude.

[VanilleFang]

Ifrit normal 1000 times which a lot of these people do

Who has time to do that? I've been playing on and off for a while now and I'm still barely over 700 dungeons (I'm at 990 comms though o_O).

[MihaelB]

Who has time to do that? I've been playing on and off for a while now and I'm still barely over 700 dungeons (I'm at 990 comms though o_O).

A lot of the people who did the Nexus stage pretty much grinded Ifrit/Satasha/Brayflox and other stupid fights repeatedly. The easiest route is commonly favored in the large majority of the community despite how stupid it sounds on paper. Grinding 20k-30k lore on the i240 anima relic step would've taken over 100 ARF/Hard runs assuming you do more than the daily roulette.

Point is: People do have time.

[SenorPatty]

My short time in NN has taught me that if I want a quick answer to an ingame question, I'm better off googling it.

[Frowny]

My short time in NN has taught me that if I want a quick answer to an ingame question, I'm better off googling it.

To be perfectly honest, 9/10 times when I'm asked something I google it to make sure I'm not misleading someone >.>

[Grimmel]

I know exactly who the OP is referring to and a number of times they have been an extremely difficult person to deal with here on the forums and on Balmung. Not only that but they trash the RP community while claiming to be a lore appropriate RP'er while being named after a character from the children's show My Little Pony.

They are also known to be a narcissistic person. This very same person shouted in Eastern La Noscea to encourage people to kill the bombs during this year's Summer Event. They also encourage other trollish and jerk-headed moves to further get a kick out of it. They are the type of people to get their things done then purposefully try to prevent others from getting the same thing done.

I honestly think what they do is repulsive and should be warranted for an investigation into their own actions because they are at the top of everything that is wrong with the Novice Network.

[alimdia]

I'm just gonna say, for those commenting when they

a) were in the NN before they disabled auto join and made it opt-in, which the majority of people who comment in this kind of threads happen to be
b) were in the NN for a few minutes/hours, saw something bad and automatically assumed that's how it is the whole time

Try to get better informed before commenting, the current situation of the NN in all servers is not the same as what it was before they made it opt-in.

Also I thought by now we all would agree that Balmung is a special case in almost every single topic and anything that happens there rarely applies to other servers. Balmung will always be the only server that almost never gets sprouts unless they decide to pay for transfer, Balmung will always be the only server where even houses and even all apartments are bought up in minutes, Balmung will always be the only server where people complain that they find other players ERPing in their houses.

I'm not saying all novice networks are perfect, but the system is working well in most servers that aren't Balmung or Hyperion.

[Deepified]

I agree with OP on this one, maybe not keep the network strictly on Q&A and discussion, but answering Sprout questions should definitely be the main focus. I'm not personally on Balmung, but I've got a few friends who have been for the longest time (I'm on EU data centers) and they also have concerns regarding the Novice Network, particularly regarding some Mentors' off-topic dominance within them. I've been hearing about people politely asking off-topic posts to stop only to be told to "deal with it," and a lot of questions just being glossed over within the network since people either don't pay attention to it or simply quit it, due solely to spam.

Basically:
It's okay to have some off-topic conversations, but as soon as a legitimate question pops up, it should all stop until that question is dealt with. The network shouldn't be used in a way that spams anyone's chatbox. If someone requests that someone takes it easier with their posts, it should be heard.

[RubyScarlett]

Just reading the screenshot, I knew it would be Balmung....