[Opinion] The Current State of the Novice Network

[SenorPatty]

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

But see, at least you respond (and thank you for double checking the answers). I had the privilege of getting responses that completely ignore what I asked or just straight up deflected to another unrelated issue. That was my NN experience for a month.

Then I finished lvl 50 msq and was promptly booted from NN, much to my relief

[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.

[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).

[Jim_Berry]

I totally forgot about Novice Network since I was kicked from it from reasons that I can't really confirm (I only heard rumors as to WHY I was kicked). After a while, I had completely forgot about it.

[Yasuhiro]

I just had to read the word pink and I already knew who it was.
I don't think Balmung ever gets any new players and with the reputation that server gets I don't think many people want to transfer over there.

Not a mentor yet or plan to be so can't comment on Tonberrie's NN but friends do mention a few notorious people.
The JP players on their sub forum say it's working as intended.

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).

There's a person on my server who did exactly that with their boyfriend just for the crown. Ifrit is only level 24(?) and melts extremely fast in current gear at level 60. Takes like 20 seconds to down him.

[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.

[MomomiMomi]

I totally forgot about Novice Network since I was kicked from it from reasons that I can't really confirm (I only heard rumors as to WHY I was kicked). After a while, I had completely forgot about it.

You sure you just didn't turn it back on after auto-join was disabled?

Being kicked from it isn't permanent.

[Theodric]

It's a real shame. The player in question blurred out in the screenshot - who I won't mention due to rules against naming and shaming - has repeatedly driven new players out of the Novice Network because they insist on treating it like their own personal chat channel.

Some chatter is fine, don't get me wrong - but some people lack a filter and get angry the moment somebody asks them to quieten down a little or focus on more useful conversations/answers to queries.

[TheGrimace]

The top question novices ask on Excalibur is "how do I leave this?"

There are many novices that continue to positively interact with the network. They are definitely the minority. Many novices have been invited through drive-by invitations and did not feel that the network suitably helped them. There are also tons and tons of bots that are added by inactive mentors.

More rules for the Network would help, and giving novices to option to refuse entry would be much appreciated. People should be able to reasonably voice their opinions, but being outright obnoxious should be an offense that mentors (and potentially novices) should be able to probate.

[NuclearCherries]

Thankfully, I have never met anyone like this in a novice network or in other such chats, but I feel like someone acting like this in the novice network can not be good for the community. Such antics within the novice network would scare away novices who are seeking advice, making them leave the chat, and possibly even the game. The novice network could benefit by having some rules that could deter happenings like this.