Thoughts About Mentor Program

[Walde]

The mentor system has been flawed from the get-go. The icon next to your name is being used as a status symbol and most mentors are more interested in ultra-fast clears on the roulette so they can get achievements, rewards (glamour pieces, titles and mount). It's not rare to encounter impatient and rude mentors even on the mentor roulette.

Becoming a mentor is just another automated mechanic which unlocks more stuff for your character. Attaining or keeping the status doesn't require you to do anything and while rewarding people who are willing to go the extra mile to help fellow players is a noble idea, the way the rewards have been implemented doesn't reward helpfulness, but grinding and fast clear rates.

Becoming a mentor shouldn't be tied to some achievements, but rather to being eager to help inexperienced players. Having grind-y and unique rewards do not fit the program. Misbehaving mentors should be punished harder, as they should act as an example to newer players.

[Talraen]

I can somewhat get behind this, but I'm not sure removing mentor rewards will help much. I remember in FFXI mentors were few and far between, and generally mocked just for being mentors. I wouldn't want to see that happen here. But stuff like the mount is indeed far too grindy, and encourages bad behavior. It also encourages people who have no interest in mentoring to nonetheless be a mentor.

I feel like mentor roulette is problematic in several ways. If I want to queue for mentor roulette, I have to be on my main (nothing else is i230), and I'm going to get an insignificant bonus. I feel like it would be much more helpful if I could queue on a class I was leveling with, where I was likely to be able to help relatively new players. And I'd much rather get an experience bonus than a few scripture and lore. My point being that the only compelling reason to even do the mentor roulette is to try to do 1,000 of them very quickly.

[Lan_Mantear]

I don't agree with punishing players. Beyond the achievement requirements, no mentor agreed to help their fellow players, nor are they obligated to be a paragon of virtue that other players should aspire to. It is just another achievement with an new roullete that helps to alleviate Duty Finder queues.

The real issue is that the player community wants to make it more than what it is. If you want a real mentoring system. You should probably get rid of the rewards and build a system the requires actual time and effort by would be mentors.

[RubyScarlett]

Beyond the achievement requirements, no mentor agreed to help their fellow players, nor are they obligated to be a paragon of virtue that other players should aspire to..

Actually, that's exactly what they agreed to do when they became a mentor. Literally you need to confirm in a box the requirements and expectations of being a mentor.

As a mentor you are expected to actively perform the following:

• Provide gameplay advice for new adventurers and other players.

• Be an exemplar for player etiquette.

• Invite new adventurers to the Novice Network and answer their queries in the chat channel.

[Lan_Mantear]

Actually, that's exactly what they agreed to do when they became a mentor. Literally you need to confirm in a box the requirements and expectations of being a mentor.

As a mentor you are expected to actively perform the following:

• Provide gameplay advice for new adventurers and other players.

• Be an exemplar for player etiquette.

• Invite new adventurers to the Novice Network and answer their queries in the chat channel.

I read it more thoroughly. I was wrong, there is an agreement confirmation box when you become a mentor.



However, it's based on the 'Honor' system. Many people cross their fingers while clicking on yes.

[CherryCola]

While I agree some of the rewards for mentor roulette help undermine why it is there in the first place (and some are rude), it's a two way street in behavior. People like to oft point out how mentors misbehave, but what people do not realize is that mentors can run into equally as impatient and rude players - just for trying to be helpful. There are times people berate you for giving advice or if someone is legitimately new, others will become impatient with you for offering advice to him/her. Other times people can just be passive aggressive just because you queued for mentor and can't turn off the crown. I still to this day remember queuing for Aery on my main, and one player was just incredibly nasty until the last boss for a reason beyond me (even the tank was puzzled). It wasn't until the last boss he mentioned me being a mentor and what I did wrong. I didn't even know I had the crown on at that time.

Since then I leave it off and don't give advice unless they personally ask for it or I see the party is having ample difficulty clearing the content we are in. To that, other mentors probably do the same as me to avoid backlash. Sometimes, it's not that mentors do not want to help, but the help is not wanted/appreciated.

[Yeol]

I agree that people are doing it for the title and achievements, not for the purpose it was made for. Mentors have a bad reputation already among some players.

If you remove the achievement then what is the mentor reward? Not implementing that everything in game must have a reward.
But then not many players will be interested in becoming one.

I'd say make the achievements depend on the number of commendation you get as a mentor not the number of times you use the mentor roulette.
This will make people do their role as mentor properly in order to get commendations rather than seed run everything.

[bounddreamer]

This is a problem with individual mentors, not mentors as a collective.

When someone is rude to you, harasses you, griefs you, or otherwise negatively impacts your game play experience, you have a right to file a report against them and GMs can review the instance log and take action.

It's the entire community's responsibility to police abuse, not only the job of GMs, who can't be everywhere.

Would it help if SE made some changes to the mentor system and entry requirements? Absolutely. Do they remove mentor status from people who abuse it? Yes.

All we hear about on the forum is people complaining about mentor abuse, yet we never see people sharing stories about the mentors who are living up to the term. I've seen plenty of them.

Commendations aren't necessarily a suitable reward. I've already got the max commendation rewards, personally. A lot of people who are mentors are probably past or near it. I'd agree with removing achievement rewards (and changing the icon from a crown) and just give mentors some other kind of rewards. Extra mhachi matter, or bonus scripture, whatever.

[Maero]

Mentor program i could be wrong but most use it for their own advantage rather then helping new players.
I am sure there are some helpful people but moreso it is me me me sort of thing

[Squigley]

As it is, the mentor crown seems to be attracting the wrong kind of people. I've seen more horribad and outright rude mentors than helpful/skilled/nice ones. There have been reports of mentors trying to votekick sprouts for not running dungeons fast enough. All because of the rewards.

IMHO there shouldn't have been any rewards for mentors to begin with. That would have meant far less mentors, of course, but those with the crown would have probably been at least somewhat better than the ones we have now. The crown itself is a kind of bling bling item too, a watering can might have been better.

I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done to "fix" the current situation. Maybe take away the crown (+rewards?) from the player if he/she gets reported often enough? Maybe have a separate commendation system for mentors with both up and down votes? That would probably be abused, though.