Commendations are just so broken

[Ramesses]

Commendations are really only there so you can feel good about yourself, outside of the really gaudy rewards for the achievements they are worthless.

I absolutely disagree with you... vehemently.

First lets start with the rewards... the Magitek. I assume you've been playing long enough to remember how excited everyone was just before 2.0 and it was announced we were getting Magitek mounts. The excitement on the forums was palatable and if SE had wanted to charge $20, €20 or £20 for that mount, half the player base would have clamored to queue up and pay, myself included.

Instead, we got them in the MSQ and a gilded gold one for amassing (500?) commendations. The whole premise of the commendation system was to help surge a sense of camaraderie amoung players. Acknowledgement is a key trait of that and yes, it's always up to the individual whether or not to commend but the achievements are subtle ways to encourage players to spend them.

Next is your reasoning that it's "only there make people feel good about oneself".

If you reckon commendations are only available to make people attain self gratification then I'll have to strongly disagree with you on that as well. A few people make the false assumption that its all about who could crank out the highest DPS that gets the commendation... others think they'll only give it to the healer who performs DPS. For me, just off the top of my head, my criteria come in so many different forms... and I wholeheartedly give it because I want the other person to feel good; that I genuinely appreciate their sportsmanship, their generosity, their skill, their patience, their innate ability to be a true WoL.

Here are just a very few examples of why I gave a commendation:

• The tank who shamelessly admits that he's still learning the job and it's his first time tanking the dungeon... then goes on to deliver some excellent tanking. I know he's telling the truth because towards the end, I see the map achievement pop for him.
• That healer X who had the humble courtesy to say "Please excuse me , can you please wait a moment? My baby just woke up, please bear with me, brb!!!". Then she quickly returns and does an emote "X gives a grateful bow and hands everyone a cookie"
• Or the healer who straight up apologizes for focusing too much on healing only her girlfriend in the party and adequately adjusts to make sure she's also focusing the tank.
• The Ninja who makes some mistakes and humbly accepts some word of advice from the team... and because I play the job and have a keen practiced eye for the rotations, I actually see the incredible improvement by the end of the DF.
• The player in that newly released 24-man raid who carefully explains the strategy in the alliance chat... and he happens to be in my party.
• Including that rare player also in my party that just knows how to crack the wittiest jokes and keep spirits high... plus the healer, also in my party, who is always willing to go out of her way to raise the other healers in the alliance (which is an example of the many instances when one would want to give more than one commendation).

These, amoung several, several, several other examples, are the players who get my commendations.