August 2016 Version Update

In a perfect world, the latter but we don't really have that. I have the same mentality as you. Back in XIV I had a FC centered around just making players better. Improving their rotations, teaching them hard fights and such. My hope was the people in the FC would learn and then teach others and it would be a ripple effect. I did everything I could with the time I had. My game became about that FC. We would have teaching parties 1/2s a week and when I was on I would offer help (Given I wasn't raiding). What happened was something far different. At first people showed up and I was teaching them but then as they kept failing they kept getting more and more frustrated. Eventually they would get the clear and they honestly had a clear understanding of the fight but they just never did anything with it. It felt like my teaching parties were just clear parties and after the clear everyone went back to not doing the end game content nor did they try to improve themselves. It was then that I realized that my perfect world may have not been possible. Over a few months the FC I had worked hard on just became a clear FC with very few members actually farming the learned fights afterwards and almost none teaching other members in the FC. Easily one of the most disheartening things I have done.

Coming back to this game has been quite the experience for me as I was and still am the one learning. I love it when people help teach me and take me to events and I absorb as much information as I can. I actually want gear just to be useful and just to help people and not really obtain the gear as a "trophy". I just understand that not all people are like me which is why I would suggest buying clears if they are unable to get the gear any other way.

That's what I'm looking for here .. how many care to help strangers over lining their pockets

I'm not complaining. Just pointing out the fact that not everyone is going to merc, and not everyone has the time or knowledge to get good enough to jump into a Escha/Ru Aun party for two hours and be acceptable. This is why Ambuscade gear is so good for those players, it bridges the gap. It gives them gear which is good enough for the next step. Instead of paying someone to get the gear from the content .. so they can do the content .. they do Ambuscade, get all the +1 gear, then form a party and get the equipment the real way.

Like I said already, if someone wants to pay a merc for their services, all the power to them. I have never told anyone not to merc something for someone. It's not a matter of ego either, it's how I play games. I don't pay someone to play Sonic The Hedgehog to the end so I can see the end sequence without doing it myself. I've always been someone who plays a game and wants to achieve it as the game wants you to achieve it. That's not ego, it's how I have fun. I would be bored as hell watching some guys who are clearly ahead of me doing all the work I should be doing.

As for Corsairs who only roll .. wow, lucky them! I have been that Corsair as well, where I just stand there, do some rolls and watch the DDs do all the work. It's boring as hell. It's kind of achieving because you are .. kinda playing the job and being useful, but it's not going to feel anywhere near as good when you're finished. I only play Corsair in those parties because they don't want anything else. It is very boring after the initial rolls.

It's one thing to have your way when playing this game, it's another to belittling people that chooses different path.

Come to us bro - we will love you long time. Stranger or not.

Now you see how it feels. You belittle the way I play the game, so I belittle those who merc when they really don't need too .. or because they want gil and don't care to help someone for free. It works both ways. I highly discourage mercs and highly encourage helping others, while you continue being a merc so you can line your pockets and keep information to yourself for the benefit of your linkshell buddies. I'll play it my way, you play it your way. It's not going to stop me having an opinion and voicing it.

I have never, ever paid anyone to get anything for me because it's like buying gil from a RMT.

I fail to see how paying a merc to get you a piece of R/EX gear is any different that farming gil to buy a super expensive +1.

Are people who buy a Chirich Ring +1 RMT-like because they didn't earn that ring by leveling their Goldsmithing and crafting it themselves? I just wanna know where the line is on what non-RMT activities are just too RMT-like.

Crafting something is an achievement. Paying someone to craft it for you is not. I suppose farming the gil is work. Getting the materials together is a little bit as well. Again, buying something off AH isn't much of an achievement, because anyone can spend days farming gil. Anyone can be given an account by someone who is retiring with hundreds of millions on it.

I've seen it many times. In recent times information is much harder to come by. When I started my Vagary LS I had to come here and ask around on my server for information because no one was sharing it on the wikis. I've seen many mercs who purposely didn't share so they have the monopoly. Those who clear something first .. then don't tell everyone how to beat it .. they are terrible. I get why they do but it doesn't mean I like it. When I see the term 'merc', it reminds me of those no-life money grabbers. There used to be many mercs on Hades and Cerberus, before most were kicked off for abusing Salvage and other exploits. Most mercs are selfish players, whereas some mercs are just providing a service which I understand.

The cost of an item is proportionate the amount of work it takes to get said item. It is safe to assume that earning the money to get the item is an achievement. It takes time and effort and produces a result.

Those who spent the time and effort to discover a strat don't have the responsibility to give out strat you know. If they do good for them, doesn't mean others deserve the free info without putting time into it.

I could spend weeks getting HQ abjuration sets for my jobs. But at the end of it, it wouldn't feel like I achieved anything. All I did was farm gil, which is nothing more than an annoying grind. When something requires little more than throwing gil at it to get the result .. it's a reward but I wouldn't dance around and be incredibly happy because I spent months farming Dynamis and Salvage.

If I farmed up enough gil to get 5/5 amalric +1 AND I managed to actually find it for sale, I'd be pretty proud.

In other words, they are selfish and won't share because they want all the gil to themselves. Thanks for clarifying.

What's this, communitism? No one has the responsibility to share money, gil, info or whatever that they earned unless they are your parents.

It's something nice to do but it's not responsibility.

People nowadays are so demanding that if others don't hand stuff to them they are evil.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/49307/merc-groups-the-great-debate/

Please move this discussion out of this thread and over here. Some people are interested in reading patch notes/discussion without this conversation.