Hello everyone!
My name is Jord and I've been around this forum for a long time. Back in the good old days, people would come with a question, get a few different perspectives, and that would be that.
The good old days are gone. Now it seems that every question elicits an arguement. Rather than two disputing camps, there seems to be a continuum of beliefs that vary along the axis of "effort," which looks something like this:
Lazy Folks ------ Optimum Players ------ Elitists
Low Effort -------------------------------------------- High Effort
The Lazy Folks are the ones who put out minimal effort and scorn anyone who tries to tell them that they are not good enough. They will say that they are "good enough" and belittle anyone who takes the game seriously enough to tell them that they should optimize themselves.
The Optimists (not in reference to optimisim as seeing the glass half full, but rather folks who aim to optimize their play to the best reasonable extent) are the somber folks who sit in the middle, are always up to date on their gear, but don't have a peacock charm and dual Hawker's Knife's +1.
The Elitists are the ones who sit on their high horse and put down anyone who DOESN'T have the proverbial Peacock Charm. They tell people that anything less than +1 makes you somehow inferior and they try to use the "you're not the best" to put everyone else in their place. NOTE (edit) - not every high-end player falls under this negative category. It is the attitude that defines this category, not the playstyle.
Let me explain something - you DO NOT come to a party equipped to be a Hero. I have partied w/ RNGs (just as an example) who DO have Elite gear (peacock charm, Hawker's +1's, etc.) and all they do is point out their damage. I hate to even tell them that everyone except the damage dealers have their damage filtered because we simply don't care. We appreciate that they are doing their job, but we are busy doing ours. On the flipside, those who choose to come to parties with underleveled sub-jobs and food do so thinking that they are only affecting their own performance so it doesn't matter.
One of the reasons that JPs are so good at this game is because their motivation is different. Japan is the home of a very interdependent culture (as opposed to the west, which is generally an independent culture). They show up with leveled subjobs and food NOT to be UB3R, but to be a good contributor to a group.
You know what? I'm sick of it.
Dear Lazy Folks:
You are wrong. FFXI is a social game, where grouping is required to progress. When you group with five other people, those five people are partially depending on you to do your job optimally so that they are making the most out of their time.
If you decide that your 10-level-old gear is "alright," you are wasting their time. If you decide that food is "too expensive" you are wasting their time. If you think that SMN would be fun to sub for your WAR, you are wasting their time. If you don't know your role in a party, or thing that you being a unique spirit can do something that your job doesn't do you are wasting their time. If you are doing your job 70% as well as you could, you are wasting their time.
Want to flame me and say you are "good enough" ?? Go ahead. I don't care. I'm sick of it. If you want to play a game halfassed, play a solo game so you won't be wasting other people's time.
You say it's not that bad? Well, imagine this party:
Let's say that none of them have food, and they are all a few levels behind on their equipment. This party take everything they have to kill a VT-IT, have to rest to full every fight, and would do TERRIBLY.
Now, if you are a player of this caliber, and you join a reasonably good party, you are not contributing 1/6th of that party. You are contributing far less, and you are pulling the party's overall effectiveness down. You are a LEECH, causing the party difficulty (whether they realize it or not) and costing everyone experience points over time.
These lazy people tend to be the most prevailant karma campers. Why? Because they take personal offense to people putting down their lazy playstyle. I'm sure I'm going to get Karma-bombed for saying this, but I don't care. I'm tired of lazy, half-assed players trying to tell everyone that we try too hard.
Dear Elitists:
Half of you are liars. I have only caught one person on Garuda who preeched "having x +1, y +1 and z uber rare item are essential to do ___ job effectively" and didn't have ANY of the items.
Liars aside, telling people that they need 500k +1 items and multi-million gil HNM drops is stupid. There are many players of this game who are VERY GOOD AT THEIR JOBS without the aforementioned Elite items. Those items are as expensive as they are because they are in very short supply. SE designed it this way knowing that there are 12-hour-a-day players who will be after these items, but the average well-equipped player can do without them.
If you want to go after these items, go for it! But don't think that gives you some sort of authority to sit up on your throne and tell everyone else that you are better because you have that extra 2-3 AGI / DEX / Accuracy / Rng. Acc. / Etc.
PS. If you have taken the time to get the absolute best gear, but you don't flaunt it or try to imply that those without the gear are inferior/useless, you don't fall in this category. It is not the top-notch players who this post is aimed at - it is the ones with the egotistic attitudes.
Dear Everyone Else:
Ignore the rants and useless comments from the lazy folks and the elitists.
If you meet the following general criteria:
You are doing great! Just ignore the other two camps...
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Jord.
Edited, Wed Oct 27 20:17:06 2004 by kingjord
