1606: A Little Pleasantness Goes a Long Way

I partied up with, I think, the absolute worst party I have ever played with in Final Fantasy XIV earlier — skills-wise, I mean; there wasn’t much in the way of ego on display, thankfully — but despite this, it was actually pretty fun.

I was running Haukke Manor’s normal mode as part of the daily “Low-Level Roulette” system, whereby you’re randomly thrown into one of the pre-level 50 dungeons with three random strangers and, depending on whether you’re still earning experience points or at endgame, earn big bonuses that are of benefit to you regardless of what level you actually are. There’s also an “Adventurer in Need” bonus for classes there are a shortage of at any given time — given that there’s about 4,500 gil on offer for jumping in to the requested class, it’s worth doing if you have the classes available.

Anyway, jump in as a healer (the Adventurer in Need) I did, and Haukke Manor began. It quickly became apparent that the tank, a level 28 Gladiator who hadn’t yet upgraded to the advanced job Paladin, hadn’t been there before, as there were enemies that he didn’t know to watch out for. He was also being very cautious, taking great care to mark enemies with thoroughness — an admirable enough trait, but he didn’t need to be quite so thorough — and taking his time working his way through.

I snuck a peek at his gear and some of his equipment was a little low-level for the dungeon we were challenging — a fact further emphasised by the fact that I, the healer in the party (typically the “weakest” player in terms of attack and defense power) had more hit points than him. Still, we pressed on, and as the healer I made sure he didn’t die as much as I possibly could.

I noticed after a little while that he didn’t appear to be using the skill Shield Lob, a useful trick in the Gladiator/Paladin’s arsenal and the typical way most battles begin. The Gladiator/Paladin flings their shield at an enemy, which attracts their attention onto the Gladiator/Paladin, and starts the fight off right, with the enemy in question attacking the tank. This is then, usually, followed up by a couple of Flashes, which attract the attention of nearby enemies. Once this is done, the enemies’ attention is usually pretty firmly on the tank, which then allows everyone else to go hog wild killing them.

Our tank in this group wasn’t using Shield Lob because he didn’t have it. He was level 28; you get Shield Lob at level 15 by completing the appropriate Gladiator class quest at that point, meaning he hadn’t done that. To be fair to him, the first time I tried tanking in a dungeon I forgot to pick up Shield Lob first, but that was a little different in that I was still level 15 at the time. Tanky boy here was nearly double that level, and still didn’t have it. Whoops.

When you spot something like this happening in an MMO, you’re always faced with a choice. Do you press on and hope the rest of the group is strong enough to make up for the weak link’s shortcomings? Or do you quietly slip away, leaving them to fend for themselves? Being an altogether decent sort of person, I chose to stick around and offer the struggling tank some helpful, non-aggressive advice. (One of my partymates was less understanding, his only utterances throughout the whole dungeon being “lol”, “omfg” and “wtf”. Great communication there, chap.) As a result, we eventually — very carefully — managed to make it through the entire dungeon intact. I was genuinely pleased to see the tank make it through in one piece and pick up some good new equipment along the way, and I hope he felt the same way.

I can’t entirely blame the “lol omfg wtf” guy for his attitude, because it’s easy to get into that mindset when you’ve been playing for a while. It’s easy to assume that everyone is as skilled at the game as you are, and that everyone has the same knowledge of the game’s mechanics and systems as you are. This is what leads to feelings of anxiety about living up to people’s expectations — feelings that even people like me, who have been playing for hundreds of hours by now, still feel regularly.

The reality is, in fact, somewhat different. People make mistakes. Some people don’t know the game well. Some people might not even really know what “tanking” actually is, thinking the “dude with sword and shield” character class is more of a hack-and-slash affair rather than the important defensive role they play. Some people might not know that you have to do your class quests every 5 levels to get all your abilities — though to be fair, the game is pretty explicit about this at the outset.

In a game like Final Fantasy XIV, it’s everyone’s responsibility to help make the game a pleasant, friendly place for everyone to enjoy. It’s everyone’s responsibility to help out those who are struggling, or who don’t understand. It’s easy to laugh and point fingers at “noobs” or “bads”, but it’s much more beneficial in the long run to help educate them so they know how to play the game better.

After all, what’s better: people leaving the game in droves because of elitist attitudes, or the gradual growth of the available base of players who understand the game mechanics and are able to take on its toughest challenges? It’s not a stumper, really, is it?