The mentor system needs to be reevaulated.

[Selova]

I'm making this post for a dear friend of mine who has had such a incredibly bad experience dealing with mentors, which honestly is heartbreaking. I'm going to kind of paraphrase her experience as a new player to the game seeing as how she's only been playing for 2 months.Her entire experience with this game as a new player has been a absolute disaster and quite frankly I'm disgusted with how the current Mentor system is setup, especially with the apparent lack of discipline towards mentors who are not doing their job.

She has felt completely intimidated by the mentor's she has encountered, felt like she wasn't wanted because she wasn't level 70, had mentors walk all over her for asking questions as a new player, been completely rude with their responses and even several that just flat out ignored her.


There was even a case of a mentor taking advantage of her being new to the game and had convinced her to cancel her first account to make a second account so that said mentor could get a mount from the RaF system and then completely abandoned her after, lying to her about helping her out seeing as how she is new to the game.


This community Is supposed to have a good reputation when it comes to the overall experience for new players and I obviously know it's capable since there are experiences from others that are heartwarming to hear about. But this is not one of them.


She has the biggest heart out of anyone I've ever seen and always goes out of her way to help and assist others. It's sickening how there are mentors out there that lack any sense of common decency towards fellow players and even more despicable that this is her experience as a new player to this game.


It's not like this is a new thing, I've seen it brought up multiple times and I'm completely astounded that i see nothing being done about it. You need to reevaluate your Mentor system SE and need to tighten the reigns when it comes to disciplinary action towards Mentor's who treat new players terribly.


Please do something about this, What my friend experienced should have never happened. It's absolutely heartbreaking to hear about her experience as a new player to this game.

[Vivi_Bushido]

I feel sorry for what happened to your friend. That's really unfortunate and no new player should ever be treated that way. However in regards to your post, this isn't a mentors are bad problem. This is a case of just rotten people in general. Players don't need a mentor crown to do the awful things those people you described did. Anyone is capable of doing it and stripping them of their crown isn't going to make them stop. It's not like people are suddenly rude because they have the status. They're simply more noticeable because the crown makes them stand out more. Unfortunately, changing the mentor system isn't going to stop people from being manipulative, rude, and act like a jerk overall. All you can do is report them for their behavior and let the GMs take over from there. With that said, I do agree the system needs re-evaluated. However I can't really think of anything that would make it any better than it currently is without still being abused in some way.

I do hope your friend is okay and I really am sorry to hear what happened to them and wish them the best. That is not a great way to start off a game like this and I hope it hasn't ruined their motivation to keep playing.

[Selova]

snip

I completely understand what you are getting at, but this is from the perspective of a player that is 100% new to the game. It left a extremely bad taste in her mouth, I am merely expressing her thoughts for her since she cannot post on the forums yet. Yes, rude people will always be rude and even a golden crown isn't going to stop that, but the system is flawed and their should be harsher repercussions towards mentors who act this way towards new players.

[Kukajoo]

I agree the mentor system isn't working as intended at all. I believe a simple solution to this is to add a mentor exclusive rating system, when players are in a dungeon with a mentor they may (much like a commendation) upvote or downvote a mentor and perhaps attach a message on why they thought the mentor was either good or bad. Highly rated mentors crown icon may become perhaps shinier or prettier looking while bad mentors crowns rust and rot. If a mentor reaches a certain threshold of downvoting they lose the status altogether and are temporarily suspended from the program. Perhaps with a system like this we may see some improvements.

[Selova]

I agree the mentor system isn't working as intended at all. I believe a simple solution to this is to add a mentor exclusive rating system, when players are in a dungeon with a mentor they may (much like a commendation) upvote or downvote a mentor and perhaps attach a message on why they thought the mentor was either good or bad. Highly rated mentors crown icon may become perhaps shinier or prettier looking while bad mentors crowns rust and rot. If a mentor reaches a certain threshold of downvoting they lose the status altogether and are temporarily suspended from the program. Perhaps with a system like this we may see some improvements.

I really like this idea and after speaking with her, so does she.

[Miste]

I agree the mentor system isn't working as intended at all. I believe a simple solution to this is to add a mentor exclusive rating system, when players are in a dungeon with a mentor they may (much like a commendation) upvote or downvote a mentor and perhaps attach a message on why they thought the mentor was either good or bad. Highly rated mentors crown icon may become perhaps shinier or prettier looking while bad mentors crowns rust and rot. If a mentor reaches a certain threshold of downvoting they lose the status altogether and are temporarily suspended from the program. Perhaps with a system like this we may see some improvements.

You're okay with giving the power to remove mentor from other players to random people on the internet? Yeah that sounds like a great idea...did you read OP and what that person did to a random newbie? That is how some people online act. They troll, they are jerks, whatever you can think of...thing is mentor status doesn't mean anything...they would still be trolls even without it.

Giving normal players the ability, even cumulatively, to take away something that another player has earned is a terrible idea because there are likely going to be people who get their status removed unjustly.

So it will probably go like this...

That mentor tried to help me, must be elitist. Downvote.
I don't like that mentor's glamour. Downvote.
I died so that mentor healer sucks. Downvote.

I see a problem.

[Kukajoo]

-snips-

I understand your point but the community isn't THAT deep in the gutter. There's bound to be people who would abuse the system but the good still outnumber the bad. If a mentor is truly doing their best to aid others then the amount of positive support they receive would still vastly outnumber any downvote abuse of the mechanic. While the idea could probably be tweaked yet i think it has potential, at the very least it would be better than what we have now, which would be mentors that are largely neither helpful or abusive who just have the crown for the sake of looks.

[Miste]

There's bound to be people who would abuse the system but the good still outnumber the bad.

I feel like you are being a bit too naive. I've come across a lot of rude players in this game....or people who just don't take anything seriously which means they wouldn't take the vote seriously either which could in turn cause another player a penalty to something they earned and possibly enjoy using due to someone else just goofing off, trolling, or simply even pressing the wrong button by accident.

All you have to do is see the OP's story about the RAF incident to know you shouldn't give normal players that kind of power because jerks are out there and maybe in more numbers than you think.

[Vaer]

Q. Players have the general impression, "mentors = walking landmines (bad players)", but do you have any plans on fixing this issue?
YP: I am a mentor myself, but i've never considered mentors to be landmines. A mentor isn't the definition of a "great player", so i feel like players are expecting too much from them.

Both sides (Mentor and non mentors) take this system a little too seriously IMO.

A voting system that has downvoting can be abused. There is a reason most social networks don't have dislike, and even this forum doesn't either. This is the internet, people downvote because you have different opinions or just other random stuff that has nothing to do with whatever the system is supposed to be for.

[Kukajoo]

-snip-

And i could easily argue you're being too jaded. There are bad apples in every game, i've met my fair share of trolls and pricks but i've met far more helpful and kind players. Of any online sort of game i've played and still play FFXIV's community continues to be the most upstanding. Your experience is what you make it, if you meet a rotten player, block them, report them, don't interact with them, just carry on finish your dungeon and you'll most likely never see them again. And vice versa if you want to see the better side of the community you make it, you be the better person, help leafs, keep positive. It's unfortunate OP'S friend was innocent enough to have what happened to her happen and i truly wish she learned from that experience and that her experiences carrying on will be better ones.
Now if we just sit on our hands and do nothing about the mentor situation because "Harumph, you cant trust no one to to the right thing, everyone's a rotter" then well, nothing will improve. My idea is in the end just my opinion and a thought. It's very unlikely it or any form of it will see implementation, but it does not make me naive to trust in my personal experience with FFXIV and its community.