Since you are adventuring in a world populated with characters controlled by actual people, it’s necessary to be polite. If you expect others to treat you with kindness and patience, you need to take the steps to show them the same. But what exactly is etiquette in Final Fantasy Online?
It’s not as confusing as you may think. Here’s a list of five things that bother other (possibly more advanced) players.
1. EXAMINING. Although it may seem harmless, many players, especially Japanese adventurers, consider “Zorbud examines you” to be quite rude. This may seem as a bit of a surprise, but it makes sense. When you examine someone, you create a line in their text box that they have no control over. If you examine multiple times, this can spam their screens. Also, players that roleplay or take the game more seriously than you consider “examine” and “stare” to be one and the same. It’s not polite to stare, so it’s not polite to examine. It’s absolutely a no-no to examine, for this reason, random players (especially anonymous ones) who happen to be running by. Checking to make sure party members are equipped well is one thing, but if you could find the same information by searching the player, by all means, try to do so instead. If you absolutely must ID a player you don’t know, ask for permission.
2. BAD GRAMMAR. This isn’t such a big deal to some people, but it’s a personal pet peeve of mine and so I’ll complain about it. It makes you seem much more intelligent and competent if you take the time to spell, type, and speak carefully. Say you get two tells from a party:
Ugblak>> h3y, join us in valkrun for xp we have whm
Dongard>> Hello! Mind joining us in the Valkurm Peninsula? We have a WHM.
I don’t know about you, but I’d accept the offer from the fictional Dongard. If you want to be taken seriously, speak seriously. By all means, if a Bogy suddenly pops in front of you, feel free to spout out “OMGBOGY!!!11” as fast as possible. You get the idea.
3. PARTY DANCING. Here’s one thing that’s just not cool to do. You get an invite from someone. You accept it. You see the party is now comprised of four Warriors and two Thieves, and you’re not sure you want to waste your time with a group that’s bound to fail. Don’t leave. By accepting the party invitation, you should be signing a sort of unofficial agreement with the members of the party you’re joining not to ditch them when things start going poorly. The same thing applies when three mages die to a bad pull. Don’t leave them. Hang around and give help. You’d like the same treatment for yourself.
4. LOUSY TEMPERS. A good player is a kind player. As I’ve kind of alluded to before, the difference between a polite player and an impolite player is only sometimes obvious when things go wrong. For this reason, if someone suddenly pulls a horde of Goblin Smithies into your camp, accidentally disconnects mid-battle, leaves for a 25 minute “bathroom” break, etc. – remain patient and kind. It’s one thing to kindly ask a player to leave your party, send them a frustrated tell in explanation, or something similar. But to begin cussing, spamming, swearing, or harassing players in any way is just out of the question. Come on. You don’t need to do that.
5.
