Mentor System: Suggestion

[Wolwosh]

I wish they would change it don't get me wrong ^^"

[Jojoya]

If a mentor makes derogatory/inappropriate comments toward you, report it. Part of the mentor program includes being "an exemplar of player etiquette". SE has taken mentor status away from some who repeatedly behaved far outside acceptable standards.

Unfortunately, they will not act if you're reporting comments directed at another player despite how unpleasant that can make the situation for everyone present. The other player will need to make the report.

If there are negative commendations, perhaps only sprouts should be able to give them. Sprouts are who they are a making a first impression to and teaching the game to, and it's them who should be able to say a bad impression was left.

If non-sprouts could give negative commendations, they might abuse it for reasons that have nothing to do with politeness.

Better not to have them at all. Not every sprout is a new player and some will have already made up their minds about mentors. Some would be happy to spread negative commendations just because they made a new character and were given that ability.

What I'd rather see is SE better define the commendation system since it has an impact on who becomes a mentor. "Player commendation is a system whereby you can commend a party member who left a positive impression on you in the course of duty" is too broad for something that's used to determine who can become a mentor. There should be a separate type of commendation for "I think this player would make a good mentor" versus a commendation used for "this player told some good jokes to make me laugh" or "this player had a cute glamour" or "this player was nice".

[Reinha]

A negative comm system isn't needed. Report + blacklist does the same thing. If the mentor is really misbehaving they will lose their mentor rank.

[WoW]

PROBLEM:
As a somewhat new player, I understand that there are a lot of helpful players out there who are willing to help. But I can't seem to help but notice recently that a good majority of the players that has had the mentor unlock choose to harass new or somewhat new players than help them.

I've seen this happen so frequently even in early dungeons where new players have been harassed for not not knowing certain things and mentors would make comments that, (to me and my friends), seem degrading and disheartening.

I'm not experienced at all, I enjoy the game for the content it provides and the story. I absolutely love the game. I won't say I am the most experienced, however, I feel as if seeing these type of players more frequently will deter new players and/or encourage this type of unhealthy behavior.

SUGGESTION:
As a suggestion, I feel that the mentors should still be accountable for actions even after attaining the rank. For example, it IS possible to give 'negative commendation' or give a deduction vote because the mentor is harassing others or not acting as a mentor should. When they reach a certain amount of negative commendation, I think they should temporarily lose their mentor rank UNTIL they regain the amount of commendation required.

It is a small thing to change, but it will discourage rude behavior, and encourage more friendly behavior. I would hate to see new players be deterred from the game and dungeons because individuals believe that they have gained the 'right' to do so with their experience.

Just think of the mentor crown as a sign of bad players. You should only take advice from legends.

[LianaThorne]

Its not, they choose not too. There are simple and easy ways to fix the most glaring and repeated issues posted on the forums. Its that they don't want to fix old stuff and rather make new stuff. The msq roulette should teach you that. Those have been broken forever and they only changed it because its core progression to the game.

The issue is, they're not going to fix anything unless enough people band together and massively affect their profits. It's not that they're choosing not to just to be villains, they just don't think enough people care for them to put forth the resources and time. Cut into their profits though, that's when they'll start to notice the issues and think that it's a big enough deal for people. That's the surefire way to get change going in games like this, I can even reference several others that have had change pushed through because a good chunk of their community boycotted their in game store until they got their way. It's just company mindset and it's the same across any industry.

[Ralph2449]

Sadly some become mentors for prestige or to force their tryhards beliefs on others, I agree that mentors should be held to a higher standard else they should lose their status so that negative commendation is a pretty good idea, if they accumulate too many clearly they are not fit for the role of "mentor"

[Infindox]

I think your idea of a negative recommendation would have to have a failsafe involved, otherwise it would be far too easy for it to be misused.

[Catwho]

I think your idea of a negative recommendation would have to have a failsafe involved, otherwise it would be far too easy for it to be misused.

Once per weekly reset, perhaps? So if you do hand one out to a mentor that wasn't super helpful, but not actually rude, you're now not able to hand one out later to someone who IS rude.

Only available from sprouts, and only from sprout to mentor, whether the crown is on or not. (Note: There are a LOT of mentors like me who hang out NN but turned the crown off because it just invites people to be rude to you first. I don't need a crown to shout instructions in an alliance raid, after all!) Only available in a Duty situation (even though it would be nice to have it as an option from NN, that'd open it up to abuse from alts.)

After a critical mass of negative commendations over a period of time, say ten from different sprouts within a week, someone's mentor crown gets temporarily yeeted off until they earn another +100 regular commendations back. If ten different player characters felt you were the rudest person they were likely to encounter that ENTIRE WEEK.... well, time to take off the burger king crown and think about what you've done.

The negative comm could still be applied to a hidden mentor (no visible crown) if it's available as a right click comment on the name of the player in the UI.

[Vickii]

PROBLEM:
As a somewhat new player, I understand that there are a lot of helpful players out there who are willing to help. But I can't seem to help but notice recently that a good majority of the players that has had the mentor unlock choose to harass new or somewhat new players than help them.

I've seen this happen so frequently even in early dungeons where new players have been harassed for not not knowing certain things and mentors would make comments that, (to me and my friends), seem degrading and disheartening.

I'm not experienced at all, I enjoy the game for the content it provides and the story. I absolutely love the game. I won't say I am the most experienced, however, I feel as if seeing these type of players more frequently will deter new players and/or encourage this type of unhealthy behavior.

SUGGESTION:
As a suggestion, I feel that the mentors should still be accountable for actions even after attaining the rank. For example, it IS possible to give 'negative commendation' or give a deduction vote because the mentor is harassing others or not acting as a mentor should. When they reach a certain amount of negative commendation, I think they should temporarily lose their mentor rank UNTIL they regain the amount of commendation required.

It is a small thing to change, but it will discourage rude behavior, and encourage more friendly behavior. I would hate to see new players be deterred from the game and dungeons because individuals believe that they have gained the 'right' to do so with their experience.

I don’t think negative commendations are a good idea. But if a mentor is found to have broken rules, gets a warning for conduct or whatever then they should lose the crown in my opinion.

My experience isn’t that mentors harrass or troll in game so much as elitist attitudes and drama in novice network.

Most of the battle mentors are just people who played the game a lot, many an unhealthy level, and the crown is just another min/Max thing for them. A lot of them are openly rude about new players and nothing is ever done about it. Mentor of mentor title people are the worst for this.

And most of the trade mentors literally just levelled one land and hand to keep access to novice network so they can ask questions and chat.