New Player Flag... off?

[Titania40]

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. DPS and healing aren't that complicated, usually. It doesn't take long for an experienced player to come to grips with a given game's systems in those regards. Tanking is more complicated and requires more skill to do well, usually. DPS is a matter of knowing what your attack rotations are for single target or aoe, positioning (in some games), and recognizing how to prioritize targets. Healing is all about triage and understanding how your heals/buffs work. Neither of these are going to require a serious investment of time and energy to do well at. The biggest issue would be not being familiar with a given dungeon or raid's unique mechanics. But even then it's often not that difficult to figure them out on the fly. And if it is a a tricky mechanic, explaining it to the party is generally a good thing to do before charging in.

This particular game even helpfully informs everyone in the group if it's the first time someone has ran the dungeon/raid. When you see that message, you immediately should realize at least one person will want to watch the cut-scenes and is unfamiliar with any special mechanics. You don't need a visible indicator next to someone's name to figure that out. I might not be level 80 yet (think my main class is 33 right now. *checks* Wait, level 34 monk now. Forgot about that since I'd just spent 8 hours mining iron ore and lightning shards. And I might not have ran every dungeon yet. But that doesn't make me a newbie. I'm well aware of how to play my class. And every time I get a new ability I examine it, work out how to fit it into my rotation, and figure out how to best make use of it.

Side note: I've always hated the term 'noob' and how it often gets applied to all new players. A noob, in my opinion (and experience) is someone who knows nothing about the game and refuses to learn. They could have played 12 hours a day every day for years, completed every quest/dungeon/raid countless times, and still be a noob. A newb is just that, a new player. They know nothing about the game yet, and know it. When they stop being a newb can vary. Sometimes it's days, weeks, months, or even years. But they are willing to learn, and so stop being a 'newb' at some point. My point is that no flag with an arbitrary 'you must complete this quest' criteria to remove can actually tell you if someone is a newbie, skilled player who just hasn't completed story for the base game and first expansion yet, or a bad player. All three are going to have that 'sprout' flag. And if you play casually (or have severe altitus/need to level every single class on every single race) then you might not get around to plowing through the main story up through a specific expansion even if you're a 10 year vet.

[Rinhi]

Tanking is more complicated and requires more skill to do well, usually. DPS is a matter of knowing what your attack rotations are for single target or aoe, positioning (in some games), and recognizing how to prioritize targets.

I'll just quickly chime in and say that tanking is by far the easiest role to do in most content and that sprouts usually do not get discriminated against

[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.