Mentors

[Miriel]

How many of you guys are Mentors in the game?

I signed up to be a Mentor as soon as I met the qualifications and unlike a lot (and I mean A LOT) of mentors in-game, I actually take time to help out newbies. I remember one time, I was running around Windy on a mule and decided to test out how many mentors were willing to do some actual mentoring. So I asked a newbie question like, "Where can I buy spells?" to a dozen or so mentors and only 2 people even bothered to respond back to me. And one guy told me, "AH" and didn't elaborate any further.

Why bother putting up the Mentor status, if you're not gonna help people out? Is it just to get the nifty icon?

I enjoy helping out newbies, and I don't see the point in the whole Mentoring system, if mentors aren't going to take some time to reach out to the newbies and maybe teach them how to do things right before they get to the dunes having silly ideas like subbing WHM for WAR.

So yeah. How many of you guys put up your mentor status and actually spend time helping out the newbies?

[DMKA]

I am a newbie.

[Miriel]

If you were on my server, I would shower you with gifts.

[escobert]

Wow, this sounds like a great idea in a game. I'm starting to want to play XI again.

[Yeargdribble]

Generally when I see someone with a mentor flag up they turn out to be the noobest of teh noobs. Most are the ind that get to 30 and get the M by their name as some sort of status symbol. At level 30 you know almost less than jack about the game. I had horrible misconceptions about stuff. Can you believe that when I was in my 30s on WHM and my wife started playing I steered her away from RDM? I told her they don't get a lot of invites because they have low WHM and BLM spells and none of the true strength of either. I had no clue about the game at 30.

[Markus. D]

Mentors on Phoenix were horrible.

I asked for help and they called me a "/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gifen n00b, go get some levels".

[Ouch!]

I've never even heard of the mentor system in action. I thought about becoming one until I realized how absolutely useless it is. It's a good idea, but not enough participate in it to make it worthwhile.

Even though I'm not a mentor, I answer a newbie's question if they ask me. It's polite. I try to give newbies good advice when I see them out in the field. In the past, it wasn't uncommon for me to buy a warrior his first great axe because he was using a sword--that was my biggest pet peeve for a long time.

One of the biggest reasons why I think the mentory system fails is, as was already mentioned, that the level requirement is only 30. There are a bunch of people at level 30 who are complete and total newbs. The highest job I've leveled is level 40 (I'm lazy, so sue me) and I ran into newbs consistantly through every level. Level 30 players still don't know much about the game unless they've really done their homework.

[Miriel]

Another thing is that I don't think the Mentor system is properly advertised. For a long time, I didn't even know what the little "M" icon even stood for. So as a newbie, I had no idea that these were the people I could go to for answers. Plus, a lot of mentors wait for newbies to come to them (which doesn't happen too often) instead of reaching out to newbies.

Whenever I see "?" players running around (and who aren't obvious mules) I send them a /tell and ask if they're new to the game and help them out if they need it. Half the time they're complete n00bs who are frustrating to work with, and the other half are really neat people who could grow to become great players with a little bit of help. It's worth it to help newbies out when 3 months down the line, you get a /tell from a level 50 BLM who has just finished their first Genkei and wanted to thank you for helping them out with some spare gil and advise at the start of their adventure.

[DMKA]

How do you know if someone is a mentor? I should ask them things.

[lordblazer]

Mentors on Pandy are ok I guess but then again its been months since I've played. lol I actually did some Mentoring when they asked. But I mostly did escorting stuff like getting a newly lvl 20 newb to Jeuno.I never hanged out in the newb cities though I was always in some wilderness zone.

[zell1990]

Heh, i'm only a level 12 at the moment, but when players were asking things in Windy and no one was answering them, i just thought it polite and whatnot to help them. I remeber that people did the same thing for me, so i had to pass it on to others. heh, also a very nice player on Asura called Gynan (who happened to be a mentor) escorted me from Windy to the Dunes.. I'll never forget that and one day i plan on doing the same thing for somone else.

[Roogle]

I always noticed that the real mentors were the ones who were like level 30 in a few jobs and had nothing else that much higher. At the end of it, there really weren't any mentors that were my level at all!

[Misfit]

I help Miriel out all the time.

I mean... >_>

I have mentor status, but I don't usually put it on. But if somebody asks for an escort or something or help with a quest/mission, and I'm able to help, I always do. :3 Unless your name starts with "E" then I make excuses. ^_^