What is Novice Network chat REALLY for?

[Vidu]

WHAT brand new sprout is going to be able to take on Ixion, or some hunt in anything passed ARR...Like isn't that what linkshells are for?

Because there arent only brand-new sprouts. There are also level 70 sprouts - dont think of sprouts as only the people entering Sastasha just now. Thanks to jump potions and the like a sprout can legit be level 63.

I'd also see it as some sort of advertisment: Showing the sprouts "Hey, there is more cool content ahead of you!" potentially leading to questions and explantions about the giant-fate-mobs in general (Odin and Behemoth could be kinda relevant for example) and the hunts in general. Thats at least how I would do it... besides the whole breathing some life into the channel thing - one of the more important points to the NN in my book.

[AkashiXI]

^ Also don’t forget there are returning players in the NN too, which can be any level (I think).

[Jijifli]

Again, that's fair, I just wanted to know where the line was for inappropriate things. I don't really like the idea of a brand new player joining and seeing the phrase "[player] owns a necro vore futa discord" (a direct quote from earlier) and thinking that's what the channel is supposed to be like.

Not actually reading the whole thread so maybe it's already been said, but Square basically said that NN is given the same treatment as say/shout. If you can talk about it in those channels, it's fine in NN, if not, then it's not.

Basically if they aren't swear happy or harassing it's considered okay.

[MoroMurasaki]

I'm in the NN on two servers.

On Zalera my main is a mentor and, by and large, the conversation isn't bad at all. There are a fair amount of sprouts/returners and fairly regularly someone will ask for help with something. I just helped someone through the Vault on there. There are some mentors that are more active in that chat and sometimes the conversation strays but our new players apparently feel comfortable enough to interject with questions and requests. I think it's working.

Then there is Cactuar. Oh, Cactuar.

My alt there is in the NN because she's new. That place is kinda trash sometimes. The mentors who are active there make it feel like a big FC you've joined where the major clique has already formed. Their conversations are often about random, inane things and include a ton of inside (and inappropriate) jokes. There are a few sprouts/returners who are kinda active there but I've gotten the impression a few of them are alts for mentors. One conversation in particular annoyed me.

The notification that someone had been kicked from chat caught my attention. I read the log a bit and apparently 3 mentors were arguing about healing priorities. One said that when a player has died repeatedly to silly things raising them becomes unimportant where as two others argued that raising should always be the number one priority.

My dilemma was that I knew there were like 80+ sprouts in this chat when I had logged in a short while ago. If any of them were reading this exchange they were going to be misinformed. I am of the opinion that there are people who eventually aren't worth my mp/casts to raise them. I decide as a sprout myself they'll hopefully be less likely to kick me for disagreeing.

The argument continues between me and one of the kicking mentors until my Susano queue pops. This mentor is arguing that every player is worth raising all the time which, to me, just seems like something an inexperienced healer would think.

So yeah, even when conversation is revolving around relavent gaming topics sometimes it's just mentors spreading misinformation and kicking any who oppose them.

NN could be useful but I think the first step to that is removing the mentor kicking powers.

[OMega_ARcane]

Because there arent only brand-new sprouts. There are also level 70 sprouts - dont think of sprouts as only the people entering Sastasha just now. Thanks to jump potions and the like a sprout can legit be level 63.

I'd also see it as some sort of advertisment: Showing the sprouts "Hey, there is more cool content ahead of you!" potentially leading to questions and explantions about the giant-fate-mobs in general (Odin and Behemoth could be kinda relevant for example) and the hunts in general. Thats at least how I would do it... besides the whole breathing some life into the channel thing - one of the more important points to the NN in my book.

Ah-HAAA I totally forgot about those things...all these hours upon hours of slowly crawling to the top, forgot people can now just buy a ticket to later things as well. Hard to remember that when I don't use the stuff, thanks for the reminder

[OMega_ARcane]

^ Also don’t forget there are returning players in the NN too, which can be any level (I think).

Yeah I know of the returner status, my thing was the leafs.

[Metalwrath]

To be fair glamor is an important part of gameplay that affects all new and old players XD.

[Squintina]

I'm not in NN anymore as I lost my sprout when I reached the criteria (and I'm not a mentor yet), so this is what I learned about NN as a sprout:

It's:
- for talking about whatever
- answering people's questions when they ask (the good mentors at least, and actually a lot of the sprouts as well)
- however if the non-question chatter is really active, sometimes those questions that do pop up are forgotten
- arguing because one mentor offered advice other people (usually correctly) think is bad advice, or a bad topic
- and people wanting to kick other people who actually do want to help out if it doesn't mean that individual person's criteria of what is "valuable"
for example: people kicking off those advertising an FC or LS or a hunt, even if it's not being spammed (I'd get it if it was spam because no one likes spam), even if some sprouts will stand up for those people and say that it actually helped them - yet somehow those same people might let people argue (not discuss, argue) over which FF game is the best in that chat and not say a word, because that's totally helping people.

Oh and the biggest rule about NN is that everyone has their own rules and SE doesn't care as long as you're meeting its basic TOS.

In other words, it's a limited version of what other games call a global chat, as in other games' global chat you also see tons of chatter, arguing, and new people asking questions and they usually do get an answer unless the casual chatter is just too intense. Same thing really, just with a chat limit.

I'm not even sure if I ever want to become a mentor because it's such chaos (though I suppose I could become a mentor who just never has NN turned on and helps out people in DF/PF/FC instead)

[Rymm]

Our NN is full of chitchat and friendly banter, over a wide variety of in-game and IRL topics, between both Mentors and Sprouts. I can't remember ever seeing a Sprout left hanging after asking a questions and at high-pop times it's almost a race as to which Mentor can help them first. In my experience we have a really nice atmosphere and if any really contentious topics come up, people are usually mature enough to walk away before it gets out of hand. Occasionally if someone thinks things are getting out of hand they'll give a gentle reminder to keep things PG or not to reveal spoilers and I don't think I've ever seen it escalate from there. The most heated argument I've seen take place is whether Anticipation or Low Blow is more useless for a tank, lol.

That being said, NNs are pretty much self-regulating and as such, they vary wildly from world to world. I've never even heard of a GM stepping in to moderate it, the most I've ever heard is someone getting banned/temp banned but that is for a specific case of harassment and not necessarily because they were "abusing" NN. The best advice I've seen in this thread and I totally agree with:

be the change you desire. Be consistent, be active, make friends and create a community.

[Vstarstruck]

It really dependents on context><
the "patting themselves on the back" stuff could just refer to they answer questions when it pops up.
"futas are hot" or any generic reference I do not see a reason to kick them.

However if they are going in details and cursing a lot? then it should be fair to kick them.