Mentors and Novice Network

[SenorPatty]

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.

This is the kind of response that lends credence to the belief that NN is what the mentors want it to be, not what it should be. With no overseeing leash and with a material reward attached to the system, mentors are free to do as they please. Sure, you can report the person responsible for the fracas, maybe even two. But what are you gonna do about a group who hasn't committed any infractions but will nonetheless band together to kick people they don't like? Nothing, especially if they decide to slather their kick with a report of their own, claiming you're the disruptive one?

The system works in japan because the mentorship is something they take as a collective with some degree of respect for themselves and the sprouts they interact with. Here in NA/EU, the bad apples do enough damage to see this whole thing either scrapped or reworked with mods checking in once in a while to see how it goes.

[Laphael]

NN is not a world chat. It has a purpose and context. Don’t misuse it.

First of all, i don´t like the chitchat in NN, as i said i´m mostly silent.

My claim that its a world chat is not my made up opinion. There was big drama few years ago on cerb, when a group of players tried to enforce the NN to be only for Questions and Help which ended with a few temporary bans because GMs said "the Novice Network is for all kind of conversation as long as it doesn´t violate the TOS".

[Wyakin]

This is the issue, it shouldn’t be for general chit chat or a world chat. It should be for assisting and teaching novices. We may actually have some players who know what they’re doing if it’s used for an actual purpose rather than zero rules

[Seddrinth]

It's not that I care bro

The Mentor system requires some fixing, but whenever I see complaints from it I think people have no idea how to fix it. What requirements do you make to be a mentor? Triple Legend? parsers 99? to people who have more knowledge of the game with exams? Top 100 The Feast?

None of these requirements certify that you are a better or a worse player or that you know more or less about the game, the current system can be fixed a little but there will always be mentors who have no idea about the game, no matter the system.

Those achievements definitely mean something. If you are a triple legend, you've cleared the toughest content in the game. Of course there are some low skilled players who have cleared ultimates but just being able to do the toughest mechanics this game has to offer correctly for 17 minutes is beyond what many players can do, let's be honest. As far as 99 parsers, we need some context. Did they farm it? Do they die to mechanics a lot? Are they consistently 99? There are some missing information but being able to parse a 99 means at least you know how to play your class correctly, for the most part. Strategy and party comp matters, but if you are always grey then you need to look at your rotations or cd maangement or something, cuz that is not normal. I'm certainly going to take advise more to heart from a triple legend than some grey savage parser.

[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.