Suggestion: Revoke Mentorship Status

[Crossu]

So the being a Mentor is seen as a meme because of the "Burger King glamour crown" and it's pretty much true outside SOME mentors and the Novice Network. There are a lot of complains of Mentors just outright not doing their job (help new players learn the game and make their experience better). I don't think that a Mentor should be a hardcore -or even midcore- endgame raider but to have some undestanding of the basics of the games: Everyone should be using their skills.

The problem is there's no real danger of losing the Mentor status outside NN bans. So if someone runs into a bad or lazy mentor in a Duty they basically have to just suffer through the dungeon. Even worse if it's a premade where you can't even kick them.

I suggest a system not so severe like a report but like a complain system for these kinds of mentors (the reverse of commendation), once they reach a certain ammount of complain their mentorship status is revoked until they get more commendations, or something like that.

What do you think? Do you have another suggestion?

Feel free to share your experiences as well.

[Seraphor]

You're putting too much weight on the mentor system.
It's not a job, you don't get tested to get the status.
It's simply an indication that you have experience, and that it does, because in order to get it you need to have completed so much content and acquired so many commendations.

[Nabril]

Mentors are not on your payroll. The only thing a mentor agrees to do is guide people on basic game functions. It's not a mentor's job to know every dungeon or every raid or every single aspect of this game. That's not what mentors are for. A mentor is not going to stop the party in the middle of a dungeon and teach you how to play. Mentors don't have time for that.

[Vyrerus]

Lol, so basically you want the playerbase to eventually grief all mentors out of their mentor status. That's a nice lark.

Beyond the absurd amount of griefing that would occur, this wouldn't be a good idea because then newbies who know nothing would essentially have control over who's going to guide them. I mean, the Novice Network is already pretty bad, so it can't get much worse, but actually putting some sort of power in the hands of people who don't even understand one job, let alone three roles and such is just not a good model.

The only real thing we could implement is either a higher bar for entry for mentors, or a periodic quota for mentorship renewal. Like, you have to run a mentor roulette to duty completion once a week or something.

[Crossu]

Like, you have to run a mentor roulette to duty completion once a week or something.

That's a really nice suggestion.

[Kaurhz]

Don't oversell the amount of competence a mentor should be required to have, it's an indication that you're vastly experienced in a variety of the content the game has to offer, not whether you're competent, or incompetent in your class. That shouldn't really be an expectancy of a mentor. Mentors should be expected to give basic gameplay advice to newer players (e.g. How to get a Chocobo, where best to grind, or gain EXP), and really just on the whole be a benchmark for player etiquette. Which arguably a lot of people, even the more technical/advanced players in overall job combat fall way below the expectancy of, which is arguably the bigger, and more overarching issue with the mentor system since the majority of players see it as a vanity fest.

I would propose just outright removing the crown, attach [Mentor tag] to their name within the novice network, and then hold them more accountable for overall etiquette in the community, rather than their general competence.

Again, the issue is just overall etiquette, rather than competence. There comes a certain point where players need to be, and need not be guided, or instructed in general play. Another alternative is SE could just make a better in-game help/tip system that actually covers basics, and recurring mechanics in the game like stack markers.

[MsQi]

The only thing a mentor agrees to do is guide people on basic game functions.

Many don't do that.

Mentors don't have time for that.

Why not? They have something more important to do that other people don't?

[KageTokage]

I do feel like they need to do something to address the fact that maybe 80-90% of the mentors in Novice Network on any given server only wanted the crown and never actually help anybody and/or contribute to discussion.

Making the chat opt-in only would be a start.

[LogicHatesMe]

It would be preferable to have 1 mentor per newbie, make an actual 'master' and 'apprentice' system where you can find a mentor to teach you, and if they agree, you're linked somehow? I dunno, the current system seems like mentor is just a short way of saying 'person that's been playing awhile and should know a bit.' Most don't take the role seriously, or see it as any kind of 'job' (and I mean it works the other way too.. some newbies just refuse to listen or learn, and just want to be carried through content) and to be fair, if you really are keen to learn, join an FC or google everything you need. I like the idea of 'mentors' from an in game fictional standpoint, but it doesn't really work as intended in reality.

[Saefinn]

I think the biggest mistake of the mentor system was trying an incentive to it and putting it behind a wall, because people then treat it as an achievement and parade the crown like it's a title.

It should just be a thing you get maybe for completing basic content and it's a think to flag to new players that this person is available to help or ask questions to. I get they probably thought an incentive would be good to get people to want to help more.

I've seen mentors who're really unhelpful with really poor attitudes. And people who'd make great mentors but aren't eligible.

I agree the system is not fit for purpose but I not so sure that what you propose is the right way to fixing it.

Perhaps instead of punishing the bad behaviour, reward the good behaviour. Mentor commendations can be give out to people in content who found you helpful that can be nominated but with no incentive to give them like there is with player Comms (because people will just treat it as a means to an end). And there's perks or rewards at certain milestones, to give people an incentive to help.

A thought, but not considered what drawbacks there might be