Mentors and Novice Network

[Vickii]

You had a bad experience with spoiler, thats bad. I told you to report the person.

But NN is a world chat and if that bothers you so much, you CAN leave.

Sprouts do get help there all the time. The System is not broken just because you say it, thats the point.

NN is not a world chat. It’s a small network for helping new players to the game. If it was a world chat it wouldn’t be so limited.

And I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a bad system. Sorry you disagree but my point is not invalid because you personally like the chat.

[Mhaeric]

You do know that argument is just as meaningless as your claim that their point is invalid because you personally don't like the chat.

[Vickii]

You do know that argument is just as meaningless as your claim that their point is invalid because you personally don't like the chat.

But it’s not though. I’ve pointed out that the chat is full of spam. That they kick people who disrupt their cliquey chat but won’t kick their friends who spoil the game for others. These are facts. NN today has literally been mentors talking about bad players and ‘casuals’ for the most part. Not the best welcome to the game. These are facts.

He just likes the chat and says I can leave if I don’t like it. That doesn’t fix any of the problems above. Sure I can leave but it’s still a terrible system for helping new players.

[Mhaeric]

But it’s not though. I’ve pointed out that the chat is full of spam. That they kick people who disrupt their cliquey chat but won’t kick their friends who spoil the game for others. These are facts. NN today has literally been mentors talking about bad players and ‘casuals’ for the most part. Not the best welcome to the game. These are facts.

He just likes the chat and says I can leave if I don’t like it. That doesn’t fix any of the problems above. Sure I can leave but it’s still a terrible system for helping new players.

You're saying that it needs to be fixed. It doesn't just because you think it does. Your personal anecdote and belief that the chat should not be used outside of answering direct questions is invalid.

[Kamatsu]

One thing I will say is - don't claim all NN's are bad/terrible just because you've had a bad experience on 1 server's NN. Yes there are some server's who are known for having terrible NN's, but there also server's who are known for having a generally good/decent NN.

Adamantoise's NN is generally fairly decent. People ask questions and get helpful/useful answer's virtually all the time. Yes it is used as a chat channel for ppl on it, yet when I've been on I've nearly always seen them stop chatting once a question is asked... they answer it, then go back to chatting when nothing else asked. Is it perfect? Nope.

Unfortunately there are a few bad apples who seem determined to troll and spoil the game for new players who join the NN - such as doing what was done to the OP by spoiling what happens in Shadowbringers. Or they get argumentative and rude about the help offered by other mentor's, or the reason's other mentor's are there. These ppl do get kicked from the NN when they start doing this nonsense... but sadly they can just keep coming back after the 3-hour timeout expires.

But is the few bad apples really a reason to ditch the whole system? *shrugs* IMO nope, but to fix things SE would need to actually spend some time dealing with reports of shitty NN behaviour and taking action... and ensuring known trolls/pest's are unable to re-join the NN on any character on their account. Will this ever happen? Doubtful.

[SummonerSenah]

I've been in the Balmung NN for a bit now and my experiences line up more with Kamatsu and Mhaeric than with OP. There is a lot of social chatting, but when sprouts, returners, or even other mentors ask questions or for help, they get it. I've seen people join dungeon runs, help someone craft something, go to a location and post a <pos> in the chat to help out the sprouts, and much more.

There has been some disruptive players, but most of them were actually sprouts. We kicked one multiple times for cussing in chat and calling other players idiots. I ended up just blacklisting that player.

[Seddrinth]

Today I was in the novice network and one of the lovely regular posters there decided to tell us all about the end of Shadowbringers. Which kinda puts a dampener on the whole rest of the game for me.

The mentors in the network said not to spoil but the guy was not kicked. When a novice complained they were kicked for spoiling the mood.

I think this is a really broken system. Mentors are people who played the game a lot. They are not qualified chat moderators, they are not inherently good people, they are not even inherently good at the game.

Most of the NN chat on my realm is mentors talking about things like Nier raids etc. I like the idea of a network for new players but it’s like a second free company for these guys.

Anyway this is just a rant really. You put level one sprouts in a chat with no obvious way of getting out of it, while you have level 80s in that chat telling them how the game ends and kicking them if they don’t respect their right to do so. Maybe this should be revisited, it’s not a positive feature imo.

My experience with NN and mentors in general is that a lof of them are not good players. Based on my experiences alone, I believe many mentors are just trying to get the mount and not really there to genuinely help new players. I think if you check out the balance discord you will get better advice than NN, and if you are in an fc there are usually a few knowledgeable players that are willing to help you out.