Help-a-strangerFollow

{Help}{can I have it}

How many times do we see this, or some variant of it shouted over and over in Jeuno?

How many times have you spent days shouting for help, only to be ignored or told to stop shouting?

How good was it when someone finally answered youur call for help, and you FINALLY got your AF, coffer key, promy-mission, rank, whatever....?

How good did it feel when you helped a random stranger, not for a reward, but just to be helpful?

Most people are fairly busy, between levelling, crafting, questing, missions, sky hunts, dynamis, HNM battles, etc, there's a lot to be done in this game, and a lot of time involved getting everything you want done.

But...

odds are that every player of high(er) level has needed help in the past to get where they are and what they have.

and now, these /shouting strangers need your help.

Are we all too busy to help? Never a free moment, every gaming second filled with plans and progress? Possible, I guess, but unlikely.

I'm not suggesting that people drop everything to answer every /shout they hear, I am suggesting something a little more reasonable.

Help-a-stranger day.

Not an organized "On xxx day, everybody will help random people", but a more casual idea.

Look at your playing schedule, and see what your plans are, then pick 1 or 2 days a month when you have no big plans of you own, and set that (or those) day aside as help-a-stranger. even just an hour or two out of the playing day once or twice a month can really make someones day.

the idea of Help-a-stranger, is not to do it for a reward, but out of kindness. The only payment I've ever requested (and I've refused trades of gil or items) is the the player I help offer help freely in the future when they are able..I have no idea if anybody has, but I can hope.

Ideas, comments?
Good idea, or am I being too idealistic?

i help ppl all the time. for example. few months back fatguylilcoat needed shell bug for his pld af. i bought one off the AH and gave it him. he said he didnt need it any more but i said it was ok in case he lost.

at one point i shouted if anyone needed a 75 blm for anything. never got a tell for help lol.

I spend more time answering shouts in jueno and helping people then i do anything else. Of course i have been doing that as long as i can remeber. I hate sitting around waiting for something to happen, and I like killing things.

But please people, limit your shouting, and you will get more help. once a minute is plenty.

Wasp is teh l33t ls.

Ayaz instead of coming on here and posting, maybe go on and help someone?

I goto the dunes every once in awhile and shout if anyone needs sub job items.

And just 2 days ago I took a guy to norg so he could finish the sam quest.

I think this is a great idea and it would be nice if everyone would do it.

I help my LS newbies/low levelers with everything they ask. Despite the fact that most of you think Im a huge doushbag or what have you, I take time and do solo genkai items, coffer keys, LB's, star spinels, helped them skill up sometimes. Etc. I'm 90% of the time at their disposal.

Don't be a hater, and try not to take everything personal because I like to talk alot of junk, but thats only because bandwagons suck, and majority of everyone on here jumps on them fast.

So now I sell gil i heard. You have to HAVE gil to SELL gil.

So {Peace} {Outpost}

i can think of AT LEAST 10 seperate occassions where i was helped by some higher lvl person. it would be nice to give some of that back. id have more time to do that if i wasnt stuck at work all god damn day..... send me money so i can quit my job and help noobers all day. I DEMAND IT!!!11

I think I'm a fairly helpful person. No, I'm not one of those guys who sits in Jeuno and watches for shouts, just to ***** myself out at every persons leisure and need.

Have I helped the odd random guy out? Yep.
Do I do it every damn day to every damn shout? F*ck no.

And the rant begins.

As much as I've been helped by other people, I have helped others considerably more. I'm a monk, and as most of us know, that means a few damn things. Mission 5-1 and LB1 Paper, and Eldieme coffer keys, monks freaking wanted. Well god damnit if I don't know every damn thing about both of those. I've done 5-1 no less than 20 times, and I could say pretty close to 30 without being too far off. LB1 paper? No clue, there's been times I've been down into the necropolis just for paper, been down there for some coffer keys and killed the odd lich who decided to aggro and then drops paper. It's been a whole freaking lot. Then of course how many coffer keys and those whm Tavnazia bells. Wow.

Of course I've also helped others with other things, Beadeux coffers, davoi coffers, Castle O, Castle whatever-Baileys, Cnest, Garliage, I've been all around this place killing things.

I'm not saying I paid my dues, I'm saying that I'm far enough into the green that I don't exactly have to jump at every persons request. If they see me just standing there in Jeuno, checking around the AH, chatting with my friends, and think I'm just some prick who doesn't want to help, well whoopity-freaking-doo.

I used to have a "help as many people as you can, because sooner or later you'll need their help" policy. It's a broke *** policy. Because the majority of people who you help forget their side of the deal the moment that coffer key drops into their little grubby hands.

And for the major reason I don't like helping people. Because they are idiots. When I needed help with something, I knew every minute detail of the task at hand. I knew where exactly to go, what the hell we needed to fight, what kind of setup we needed (party, alliance, pld tank, nin tank, whatever). I knew what aggroed along the way, what linked, I knew it. Because I did my damn research.
Then I tried my best to make it convienent for those helping me. I brought my own damn oils and powders, I brought my food. That way we could just get there, no aggro, no links, just a quick easy jog to the ??? or whatever it was. I didn't bum food off some high level, I didn't have to stop every five f*cking seconds because I was running out of sneak. I took care of myself. They were there to kill the damn NM I needed killed, not to fight the entire monster population along the way.

And I'll be damned if even one of these idiots shouting in Jeuno has that same ******* consideration for me. They don't buy oils and powders because "they are too expensive" or didn't bring food "because they forget". Well ***** you noob, they aint any cheaper for my, and if you had half a brain you wouldn't forget every damn thing.

And just because I'm a level 75 job, doesn't mean I know every damn thing in this game. I'm a monk, not a redmage, why the hell should I know every step of your AF3. Type in a freaking web address, and that information is only a few simple clicks away. Do your own god damn research.

So "Help-a-stranger" day? I'll help the smart ones, and help them as I please. Because only the ones with brains are worth helping. Noobs need to be kept from getting their AF, completing their LB's, because the last thing we need is getting these morons into the "high levels" via handouts. We have enough morons making everybody look bad, we don't need more.

It's like ******* welfare. I'm giving my time, my effort, and often my gil (food, powder, oil) to some ****** who doesn't deserve it. All they need need to do is get their head out of their asses for 10 minutes, and look it up. How simple is that?

I love helping people. I'm not in Jeuno often, though, so I usually find newbies to help. I've been through the beginning stuff so often it's programmed into me ("This is how you use the Action House..." "It's the J-7 tower, but everyone always goes to the wrong tower the first time..." "Take that crystal and these ingredients and go into inventory...")

I think it's a lot of fun to help people sometimes. I don't know some parts of the game very well, though (such as getting to Rank 5, I'm completely lost in some of those areas) so I don't volunteer for those because I'd only be getting in the way.

Wow poki just...wow.

There was someone shouting in Jeuno on Saturday that needed help for a Eld. Necropolis coffer. According to the shout, they already had a key and a lvl 75 friend. All he needed was help from a mage--probably to get a teleport I had assumed.

One person in Lower Jeuno shouted that all they needed were oils and powders, not a mage (since he already had the key).

He shouted back "I need them for sneak and invis to avoid aggro"

Trying to be helpful, I sent him a tell saying that he and his friend should go to the NW Battalia Downs entrance through Teleport-Vahzl. Most people don't check that spawn because of its distance, so the coffer is often there.

Instead of thanking me for my advice, his replies "how is that supposed to help me avoid aggro?"

Sooooooo being the smartass I am when people want things handed to them, I replied "Well, 80% of the time it's up there because no one ever checks that area. I'd say that saves you 80% aggro."

"That doesn't help for sneak and inivis."

"Then buy oils, those mobs don't aggro to sight."

That was the last I heard from him :/

It's about priorities and time management.

Aside from time spent doing other things, seeking, and whatnot, let's say that what you need in your day-to-day exp party, food, oil/powder/transportation takes one day to obtain, via farming, HELM, crafting etc. Or maybe for every 1 hour in pt = 1 hour of Farming.

Just like being a little kid, if you want to go play outside, you need to do your homework and clean your room.

People are just lazy. And again, the majority of players are just looking for handouts. Why should I go buy a 20k stack of oils when I can get some helpful mage to sneak me?

Why should I go buy a 1k teleport when I can get somebody to do it for free?

FFXI is a very time intensive game. It takes several hours to accomplish something. If you can't allocate that time needed, maybe your gaming would be better invested someplace else. I hear WoW is much better for the more casual, one hour a day gamer.