New Player Flag... off?

[Rasler_Heios]

First and foremost, you are a newbie. If this Lv 35 monk job is your first then you are a newbie. There are many players out there in this game each with their own definition of what is and what is not. For the game to accommodate all definitions will be chaotic. So we just follow how the game defines it and not how you define it. So if for you believe a newbie or a noob is someone who knows nothing about the game and refuses to learn, that's on you. You can't force that to everybody else trying to play by the rules and the terms.

True that the party gets informed if there is a new player. Not all players though retain mechanics and might have to be aware if it it is the same dungeon popping up in duty roulette. You also don't need to lecture the rest of the population about what tanking, DPSing and healing is. We know.

Finally, not all servers are the same, there are servers where newbie players are taken care of instead of discriminating them. It's not the same scenario everywhere. If that is your experience, then I am sorry to hear but removing the sprout icon isn't the solution for that.

The rest of the players went through with it until they were able to get rid of it according to the game's terms. If we can do it so should you. You shouldn't be an exemption. At the end of the day, I only see someone who is just lazy to turn off an icon.

[Jeeqbit]

It may not always encourage people to be helpful but it definitely encourages them to be considerate of the fact you may not know mechanics. There are a lot of reasons that people are not usually rude in this game and that is one of them.

[InvictusBMF]

Okay, but according to the Lodestone, your highest level job is 35. That means you haven't even finished ARR yet and have not made it to the more difficult content yet. I understand that it apparently bothers you, but I still consider myself a newbie and I almost have a 2nd class to 80. It takes time. Don't rush it and just enjoy the content. When you lose that sprout you're expected to have a basic understanding of what to do in fights. Do you know what a tank should do for almost every boss? Should a WHM cast regen or medica? How do you know if Esuna will remove a status?

[Titania40]

As I said, one doesn't have to be at the level cap and running the hardest content to no longer be a newbie. If I haven't ran a given dungeon before, I mention so when I join a team running it. Often a 'regular' dungeon's specific mechanics are easy to figure out on the fly. Assuming of course that it has a specific mechanic other then "BBEG is a big sack of HP". Other times, might need someone to explain them. If it's got a reputation for being hard, I do research on what mechanics I might have to watch out for before running that dungeon as well. But that doesn't mean I'm a newbie still, just that I haven't ran that specific piece of content before. In FFXI I stopped being a 'newbie' in a couple months since I'd had a LOT of experience in various MMOs. By the time I was level 40 with my first class, I was familiar enough with the game to no longer be a newbie. I'd at least played every base class enough to know how it works and what to expect from them. Granted, by the time I'd gotten monk to 40, I'd also leveled Red Mage to 30, White Mage to 20, Black Mage to 20, Warrior (I think) to 20, and had started working on leveling Dancer. Did I know all the mechanics of every dungeon, or where to find every resource? No, but I knew the base mechanics, how to play my character, and how to look up info I need using the various resources.

Here in FFXIV I stopped really being a 'newbie' by the time I reached level 18 as a pugilist. Granted, by that point I'd actually put in well over a hundred hours in the game due to also leveling every crafting and gathering job alongside Monk. If I make a rookie mistake in a dungeon, it's not because I'm a new player. It's because I just haven't done that particular dungeon before, and thus might have missed an important mechanic or critical tell for where an enemy aoe is going to hit. Things which I can, and do, learn on the fly. First time I did the first Primal fight, I got hit by most of the aoe because I didn't recognize the tells of 2/3 of his attacks. 2nd time I did it, I recognized the tells and avoided most of the aoe. If I don't figure a mechanic out immediately, I ask.

Or are you going to claim that when the next expansion hits everyone should be classified as a "new player" just because there are dungeons they haven't ran yet? Hell, this past weekend i spent at least 20 hours alone crafting and gathering resources.

In FFXI it also has a 'new player' flag. But it can be disabled at any time, so once you have a handle on the game's systems and mechanics you no longer get branded with that stigma. It baffles me that FFXIV doesn't let you permanently disable it until you've completed the main storyline for all but the newest expansion. What, will they move that goal post again with Endwalker's release, so you have to complete Shadowbringers as well in order to remove the "new player" flag? If that's the case, why not just call it what it really is, a 'campaign completion' flag.

[Rasler_Heios]

Unfortunately, no everybody plays the game by going through the expansions. You can skip right through the latest expansion. So the expansion argument you have doesn't really carry count.

Again, it's not how you define it. What matters is how the game defines it. if you no longer consider yourself a newbie after level 18 it doesn't mean everybody else has to be. You are repeating arguments that everybody else sees already as pointless. Stop being a troll.

[TaleraRistain]

In FFXI it also has a 'new player' flag. But it can be disabled at any time, so once you have a handle on the game's systems and mechanics you no longer get branded with that stigma.

This is where you get things wrong. It's not a stigma. We're very fond and protective of our sprouts in this game. We try to preserve their positive experience. We try to be helpful and understanding of mistakes. An occasional bad apple may try to be mean or hard on sprouts, but they will often get a whole lot of hate coming their way for it.

I'm also going to agree with Liam_Harper. I've been playing MMOs for over 20 years. But I was still a sprout and still had things to learn back when I started this particular game in 2014, just like in any of the various MMOs I've played over those years. If you go in thinking you know everything, you will soon discover that you really know nothing.

[MilkieTea]

This is where you get things wrong. It's not a stigma. We're very fond and protective of our sprouts in this game. We try to preserve their positive experience. We try to be helpful and understanding of mistakes. An occasional bad apple may try to be mean or hard on sprouts, but they will often get a whole lot of hate coming their way for it.

I'm also going to agree with Liam_Harper. I've been playing MMOs for over 20 years. But I was still a sprout and still had things to learn back when I started this particular game in 2014, just like in any of the various MMOs I've played over those years. If you go in thinking you know everything, you will soon discover that you really know nothing.

I'm very upset that I don't have my sprout icon anymore. ;-;.

I've only been playing since november, and this character in december. i'm still very much new! But now there's a huge expectation that i'll know things that I don't ahah.

[Liam_Harper]

My experience is that a "new player" flag that's visible to everyone all the time is actually detrimental. It doesn't encourage people to be helpful. Instead it merely makes it easier for them to discriminate against new players.

This isn't WoW, most of the time the New Player status just encourages help here.

I'll give you some advice though, any player who blindly disregards help and assumes they know the game because of experience from other MMO's or because "it's easy", will not become a great player. You're making assumptions on almost everything. I'm sure you're in a hurry to be one of the big kids, but you're not. You're a new player. You have a lot to learn later on. Settle down, enjoy the journey and stop caring about the icon over your characters head, because no one else does.

[Titania40]

This is a very odd thing to be upset about not gonna lie. Not gonna assume a thing about you but hope you're not one of those people that get mad just because someone gives you advice about your job when they see you doing something wrong.

Getting advice, no that doesn't make me mad. I will ask for info if I need it. Getting booted from groups for the crime of 'being a noob' without the team even seeing if I know what I'm doing? That is something that's happened in MANY mmos, especially if they have a flag that tells everyone at a glance you're new. It's happened in FFXI, it happened last time I had subscribed to FFXIV (in 2019 I think). Hell, my first attempt at running Sastasha back then I got booted for the offense of actually watching a cut-scene. WoW is one of the few MMOs I haven't gotten booted from teams for being a 'noob'. Instead it was for daring to try running a dungeon in 1st expansion when the expansion had just released without being decked out in gear from the base game's raids. Please ignore the fact that random loot drops from trash mobs were superior to that raid gear. Also ignore the fact that I don't tend to raid specifically because I don't like the "only this one specific build and tactic is allowed, play like a robot or not at all" mentality of hardcore raiders.

Hell, yesterday I got vote kicked from a Copperbell Mine run after the first couple groups of enemies by a group with 3 people that didn't have that sprout icon above their head and next to their name. The stated reason was because I wasn't using any aoe attacks. Er, Pugilist/Monk doesn't get an aoe attack until the level 25 class quest. Copperbell Mine syncs you down to 20 if you're too high of level, thus greying out any ability gained after level 20. Going through the ability lists, Bard and Dancer are the only physical DPS classes that get an aoe before level 25/26. And some classes like dragoon. don't look to get any aoe at all. Or if they do, it's not until the 40's. BTW, one of the group was a lancer, not a dragoon. This implies he was leveling a class that was new to him, and hadn't reached level 30 as Lancer yet. Which leads me to believe not using AOE wasn't the real reason I got booted, but rather I was booted for being 'new'.