What Does Being Veteran Player Means Nowdays?

I'm sure many of you see everyday shouts that required veteran players , play style . For quite some time i been pondering in the meaning of this nowadays, what does it truly means?.
Does it means that you are super elite and have great gear for your jobs?, or is it that you have too much time in your hands to do log in for 14 hrs a day and accomplished what some people cant in a tight schedule. FFXI is recently celebrating their 11th anniversary and with this being said, at least in my personal experience i haven't seen many new players come into the game , sometimes i read in the forums of very old friends and well known players returning to the game, but rarely do i see new people getting into the game, and when you do 80% of the time is the account of and existing player that got sick of shouting for something and decided to make a WHM account to dual box.
I would like to know peoples opinions in this matter , as im concerned Veteran has become nothing more than a rank in crafting and that's about it. because in reality how long do you have to play to become good at your job?. some people excel in large events while others are better suited for small scale missions and events, but that is nothing more than play stile .
i know that ffxi community has been famous for quite some for being either nice and friendly or complete elitists *** no offense intended in this comment by the way. I'm just wondering were do we draw the line to define players as veterans and such . because even after you have all the best gear available to your job, how are you supposed to judge?. A whm job is to cure , rng to shoot ***and dd's well to hit stuff with a thunder stick. But after 11 years of beating stuff with the same thunder stick how much longer do we need before we can acknowledge that other people are good at their jobs , or compliment them or even advise them. Since it seems that is either be categorized as elite or GTFO. Very sorry for the wall of text now let the killing begin . I'll lay back and get my shield ready for the opinions to come .
Sincerely ~ Nadie

Personally, when I think of the word "veteran", I think of someone who has done the instance/event/whatever before, and know the ins and outs. I don't really consider "old" players vets (unless they fit that criteria above) because some old players haven't done certain things (whether out of choice or force) and some people would take a newer player, who isn't as decked out, but knows what they're doing in a certain situation, than someone who's been playing for years, but too damn stubborn to conform, regardless of gear.

I've only been here a year, so I probably still don't count in many eyes. I don't care for elitists as well, but I keep reminding myself that there are less elitist than non-elitists, so it's okay.

Time played shouldn't be how we judge a player ability to play , sadly it seems that's is has a become a trend to do that. If started to play to play around when abyssea came out , some people will said you aby burn your jobs and such, but then again who hasnt? lol is not like we can head and find a exp pty in a lv 30 job anyway . Funny part about all this is that most of the people saying it most of them never did any real endgame pre aby, or even took the time to finish expansions and such. Hopefully with this new expansion that will change keeping my fingers crossed for that. But so far why i seen leaves much to be desired....

I'm with Ivy. I've always assumed Veteran player (in regards to say shouts) is someone that's done the event before, to the point where they know what they're doing.

In general conversation, I assume it's someone that's been playing/has played for a long time. I consider myself a veteran of sorts after doing 9 years, with about 18 months worth of breaks in between - but I've not done a lot of events, so I'd still consider myself new in that regard.

I agree with the posts so far.

Veteran is someone who knows either the job or the event well.

It is not directly related to time played (Within reason)

The easiest example I can think of is <Veteran> SCH for NNI, should know their role (Following healing + haste if no BRD/SMN for Garuda) and be able to put party regen 5 on within what... 10 seconds at most?

But really it comes down to communication and experience.

I been playing since 2003, pc since 2007 , done most things in the game by now. Even though i dont consider myself to be an elite player even after doing endgame for many years daily. But remember just to mention old events that sky sea took me a while to get the hang of it . the difference was that i guess people used to take the time to actually explain what was going on, and what was best way to accomplished even in shouts pick groups for nyzul ect. Couple of days as browse the forums after a fishing session i saw a shout for delve and was wth let me go and get plasma. i knew on the of the people in the party so was this should be fun. Things that went wrong lol, leader had to be one of the rudest ppl i seen in a long time he bash the brd for not putting enough songs i guess 3 or 4 whatever empy gives, best part was that brd didn't have an empy . then accused the whm to not curing fast enough. i done delve more than a few times by no means im an expert at it but really how fast do you have to cure somebody? i mean if you cure goes off thats it you can make it go any faster just cuse you tell OMGZFF im dying here ...
i just wish some people actually took the time to be less rude and remember how far we come in this game

Basically, someone who can be trusted to play smart when things go bad, rather than running around like a headless chicken or freezing like a deer in the headlights. Anyone can gear decently and play their job (cure, smash things, sing, etc.) - it's people who take decisive action in a pinch that make all the difference.

Alot of people I see throwing the term 'Veteran' around use it to describe players who were around and active in end game before Abyssea, it doesn't really mean anything except that you can compare how different and rare some things used to be and can appreciate them for that, it was a different mindset...kinda. There are also some game mechanics that have been forgotten after Abyssea, unless you are certain jobs who can solo one, or do one by accident, most people never do SCs anymore, let alone Magic Bursts. I've met people who don't even know what a magic burst was.

While I mostly agree with the idea put forward so far - a vet is a player who knows the event in question properly, it's ins and outs - I would add a few criteria to the qualification.

A veteran will know an event, but will also have the skill (and by extension, gear) to respond to any and all situations that may crop up in said event - i.e. ability to tank or kite if needed, ability to join a stun rotation if on DRK, etc. It's one thing knowing how an event SHOULD go, but another entirely to understand the break points and what to do if something goes wrong. Also for many events, lesser quality groups will often barely scrape a win with deaths galore (a good example is ig-alima) whereas a veteran group imo will kill it smoothly almost every time.

A cross-event criteria I would absolutely add for someone to be a veteran would be to have gearsets for everything. They don't need to be the highest grade or anything like that, but to actually gear for everything your job does. An example being, one key reason a whm cures are slower than they could be is that said whm doesn't use a pre-cast set to speed the actual cast, instead they start the cast in their full cure potency set, resulting in slower casts. Other examples are nin utsusemi cast sets, drk dread spikes and fast cast sets, -dmg sets on essentially any job that might take hits (everything) and such.

Point to make, I'm not defending the rudeness of the leader. That he didn't think to ask if the brd had emp harp before the run suggests that hes either incompetent or simply lazy, so thats his failure.

This basically. Anyone can do Abyssea, its people who can play their role correctly. A DD who can guessimate their level of hate, a whm who can cast cure IV instead of V, a corsair who can pull off a quick light shot when a spell needs to be stunned and no one else has done it.

Were have you people been all this time i think the people posting must be a dying breed. polite answers , smart comments , i think i have to double check. i must have posted in wrong forums this is prolly not ffxi ... /jk jk . But truly is rare to see smart comments and opinions these days so im surprised even though im always reading this forums or bg , finding comments that actually deserve praise is rare

What these "elites" don't seem to understand is that everyone started from somewhere. There is a such thing as constructive criticism, and destructive. The lead telling the brd (who doesn't have an empy instrument) that he's not doing a good job, or telling the whm that he's not curing fast enough (you can stack on as much fast cast gear as you want, but doesn't change the fact that there still is a cooldown) is not constructive. In fact, if they are as sensitive as I am, I probably would just quit playing the job because I was told that I'm not "good enough".

I'm open to suggestions if I've never done something before. In the case of plasm farming--I've done it once (literally once; I don't have any other job other than sch that can go, and that's one of the few jobs that fill up fast), and I learned that I could benefit from a better healing set because despite having capped healing skill on SCH, my heals aren't strong. Granted, they never will be unless I level up whm (taking donations for LOTS of booze when I do so), but as a support healer, I felt inadequate. And no one even had to tell me that--imagine if someone did and in a rude way.

As for playing the game pre-abby--my husband said this to me:

"I miss the old days before aby and book burns, and I feel bad for you because you won't ever experience that."

To be honest, I agree with him--I heard about the stories, and if someone made a party like that now, I wouldn't mind experiencing it. But sadly, they don't happen. And that does make me feel bad.

I'm sure most people who would consider themselves veteran players, are people that have been playing since vanilla FFXI. Camping HNM Kings, and all other 75 cap content. The game has changed a lot since those day.

But... is being a "veteran" player really all that great? That means you've played this video game for what? 7, 8, 9 years? When does it end? When the servers go down? When you keel over from old age?

We can make excuses all we want, but maybe it might be time to sit down and think. What is it IRL that keeps you playing this game for so long?

Veteran could mean time played, background on your accomplishments and experience in old end game, but mostly the common knowledge of the game as to what Mobs are weak what elements and dmg types, knowing your job as well as others, songs, rolls, abilities etc. what not to do (example: Stand behind Provenance watcher and spike flail) or being KO'd w/o RR and having no other source of Raise during a event. Always having your meds incase of any situation.
All these simple things that should be common knowledge of a player if you call yourself a veteran.

Most people consider themselves veterans just because they have REM and can do high dmg. But any idiot can smash things and say I'm good. The difference lies in the general knowledge and experience of what to expect and what to do w/o actually thinking about what to do, almost like 2nd nature to react in tight situations w/o hesitation.
Also people who think and know what to do before doing it and knowing the outcome of there actions rather than just doing something w/o thinking, then saying oh ***i shouldn't of done that. (Memory of situations & Paying attention to everyone actions including the enemy's is key)

Veteran players don't have to be the top Player in parse, its about knowing the simple common Sense ingame that most don't even no since a lot of it is small petty stuff but can be crucial info to understand.

Oh, they can be. SCH is very effective healing in fracture farms. Check out the SCH guide for some ideas! My Cure IV cures for 1k on average and goes off fast, and I'm not the best geared SCH in the world, that's for sure. You just need the right combo of cure potency + weather bonus gear when your cure goes off, and you'll be a superstar in no time!

I second the clarification between constructive and destructive criticism.

And from an oldschool player....I DONT miss the old parties one little bit. Grinding out 10k an hour and thinking it great? No, never again.

The old endgame was amazing though, beautifully balanced with just enough challenges for the hardcore peeps but also plenty of easier content for the less dedicated.

To be honest, the leader spoken of who didn't ask the BRD about their instrument had no reason to say anything, it was his mistake by not asking. On the flipside of this are those who in VW who'd say they have a relic then show up without one. One example is an Ig-Alima run I went on, a DRK joined, saying he had a relic scythe, and showed up DRK/WHM wearing that scythe Ig-Alima drops, then celebrated after we struggle to win and he got Hoarfrost. After the first pop he ran to change his sub...and came back DRK/RDM. I don't think the guy was intentionally lying, I just don't think he understood DRK or what a Relic is.

Most of the time if a BRD and WHM being told they're bad, then it has nothing to do with gears.

Also if you're being told "Not good enough", why'd you quit? I'd just try harder if someone told me I'm not good enough, or at least work on it until it's good enough again, instead of quitting.

One downside to sch imo is the skill and focus required. If played well I would often take a sch healer over a whm, but you tend to find more adequate whms than you do healer-schs..

And yet, as one of those longer-term players myself, I still consider most players from that time a waste of space. Its not how long you've been playing, but how much you've learnt that makes a veteran IMO.

Other games aren't as fun as FFXI. It's not like I never try other games!

I feel the same, but some people respond differently. It's like in sports, some people you can bully into becoming stronger or faster, but with others you have to use positivity or they break down.

Yeah, I guess. But those WHMs are often hurting for MP, then people die, while the SCH can happily sublimation away for unlimited MP, AOE Regen V/Phalanx, perpetuance Haste, etc etc. Sorry, I love SCH so much, makes me sad to hear a fellow SCH say they're gonna grit their teeth and level WHM instead!

I'm going to be harsh, but that drk just sounds like a retard. With a game like ffxi and the sheer number of relics floating about, there is no excuse to have played the game for more than a week (if that) and not know what a 'relic' is.

I second this maybe is just cuse im nostalgic since so many great friends don't play anymore and finding a decent ls is harder & harder, or just cuse in the state that i see the game is like things are being addressed fixed as we go along with not so much emphasis in balance and im not talking so much about r/e/m i don't this post to turn into an all out 200 pages thread like the one running around here lol

Oh believe me I'm a sch myself and as I said, a GOOD sch i'd often take over a whm depending on the situation, but there are too few of them compared to whms.

At the very least though, it isn't hard to bounce strategems to bump cure potency or aoe a regen/phalanx and make live 100x easier on the main healer.

I assume he bought his account, as I'm pretty sure the character was Japanese. People seem to have a VW blacklist, and most of the ones blacklisted are either complete ***, the aformentioned DRK, or people that didn't put forth any effort, like one BRD we had play one song on first pop, then AFK for the remaining 5.

That sort of person is an instant kick in my books...doesn't deserve the slot when there are plenty of people willing to actually put forward the effort.

Personally I don't use the word veteran players often, and I almost never use it on myself.....although I did use the word "pro" on other players mostly to encourage them to do better performance on their jobs.

I've been playing same jobs for almost 4 years with little to no break, and I still made noob mistakes all the time, or find rooms for improvement. The fact that there's always new content and new possible way to play the job made playing a job new learning experience all the time after all these years. If I see myself do 30000 dmg this time, I'd ask myself is it possible to do 40000 dmg next time? If I died I'd ask myself is it possible not to die? If I finish this event in 60 min I'd ask myself is it possible to finish the same event in 40 min next time? And how can I change my play style to achieve this goal?

I don't see a point to care whether a player has the "veteran player" title or not. For me it doesn't help your job performance nor efficiency, sometimes it even hinders it......if I think my job performance is "good enough" or "veteran", I'd stop thinking about how to do better performance on this job.

This. "Veteran" is in autotranslate while "Someone that has done this event many times before and knows exactly what their role is" is not in autotranslate.