Novice Network is in dire need to change

[Katryn]

I'm sure that the mentor system was designed with the best of intentions, but I feel it has a few flaws.

1. The crown is not a logical "help" symbol--in western society, crowns tend to represent those who are served, not those who are servants. Therefore, it has become tainted because people who wanted it as a power / elitist symbol got it with no intent of helping anyone. A watering can, question mark or happy face might be more appropriate.

2. The skill areas are too broad. i.e. you have to be a tank, healer and dps. Can I do it? Sure. Would I be giving totally shit tank / dps advice since they'd likely get leveled through pvp (if I wasn't honest and did not recommend that detailed questions be asked to someone with that background) since they're not my role of choice? Yes. But I am a solid healer and damn good at the gathering jobs. See a pattern here?

3. You don't need to have beaten Titan extreme to be willing to go to starting cities, show players where things are, run low level dungeons with new dps so they can get in faster (as heals here) etc. The fact that the mentor roulette is one giant blob of stuff that you have to have done all of, rather than something that works in tiers so more people can get help, is a genuine shame. I don't give two craps about the mount--but I would be delighted to get paired with people who need help on the vast areas of the game I am comfortable with, and the current mentor system is unwilling to address that.

4. Instead of things that glorify the mentor, the 'rewards' for the system should be things that can be used to help us improve how well we can help newbies. Imagine if there were ways to do stuff like instantly create raisins or aetheryte tickets or repair kits or certain levels of gear, etc., that would help people up to (just a guess?) level 25 / 30? Imagine if the mentor rewards included things like mentor specific designed versions of the 'teleport to newbie' ability and a two seater mount that had some sort of protection ability for the passenger so we could help them see new areas / get new atherytes? (admittedly that last idea might be too op and make newbies a lil lazy, lol)... or maybe the mount is meant to help people find the sight seeing spots and aether points so it has an 'echo' ability so the person driving the mount can see them even if they've cleared those themselves?

5. The mentor system should potentially work in tiers so that people can become mentors for the things they are comfortable / capable of helping with, rather than the mistaken idea that every mentor in ffxiv knows everything about every piece of content in the game.

[TensaiSogetsu]

snip

I've seen MANY sprouts that are just as bad. "You don't pay my sub" bad. SE will never monitor NN, they are better off getting rid of the system entirely.

[Serilda]

Please don't get rid of the NN universally just because some servers suck. It's a great place on others. Maybe suspend it on servers where there's too much abuse reported?

[LineageRazor]

As a Gilgamesh Mentor myself, the OP is definitely exaggerating. Yes, there is a lot of free chat in the Novice Network, but whenever someone DOES ask for game advice, they get answers, usually immediately, and often by ten or more mentors all at once. The Novice Network is still fulfilling its purpose: assisting novices and returners with questions they have about the game.

Some folks, though, seem to feel that the Network should be dead silent unless helping out novices, and even though I rarely participate in the random discussions myself, I'm not sure that I agree. The unrestricted chatter provides a social environment that many novices (particularly those who have not yet found a Free Company to call home) find very inviting. I've lost track of the number of times that a novice has been on the verge of tears because their time as a novice was coming to an end and they were being forced to leave the Network.

There is, on occasion, discord in the channel, whether it be about politics, optimal DPS rotations or (ironically) whether free chat should be allowed in the Novice Network, but it rarely lasts.

It's sad but true that Gilgamesh's Novice Network has been running thin on novices lately, due to the shutdown of new characters, and that does mean that there's been fewer and fewer occasions to assist newbies. Still, the network on Gilgamesh is not bad, by my reckoning.

[Baingoleth]

I left the novice network and I am a new player. I got sick of watching 'mentors' insulting new players and generally making disparaging comments about the player base. It wasn't all of the mentors that were acting this way but it happened often enough that I wanted nothing more to do with the chat room. It troubles me that new players might be chased away from FFXIV because people who are supposedly representing the best of the player base can only type hateful things into their chat.

[Penthea]

Make the mentor tag only visible if you're a sprout. That should take away a lot of the "I want everyone to think I'm pro!" attitude towards it.

[Okamimaru]

[QUOTE=LunaFaye;4328498]remove the mentor crown/roulette's and rewards that came with it.
[d/QUOTE]

you can take my crown, my title, and my reward but I love the roulette... maybe just call it ultimate roulette... it's the only roulette that can actually be a challenge

[Sylvina]

I Recently became a mentor and am striving to be the best mentor I can and to help new players, but I have not yet seen this phenomenon you speak of in Novice Network, I know it would upset me if I saw it.

[Ametrine]

Lamia's NN was a little iffy. If you asked any question, you would get quick, good answers, but the whole thing felt more like a overly bloated FC chat, so you'd see personality clashes here and there, and often it felt more like the server chat than a help network with multiple fast moving conversations that could drown out legitimate newbie questions.

[Burado]

Im on Adamantoise and the NN is very friendly, i havent even see or heard some insults to other players in my 200h of play.