Common Courtesy

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CAUTION!

This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide. Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

Final Fantasy XI Online has a lot of courteous people, which is most gratifying. However, there are guide lines of etiquette that should be common knowledge. These should be followed to keep everyone happy.

Contents 1 Courtesy in Parties 2 Common Courtesy 3 Courtesy for Large Events 4 Addendum for Respect

Courtesy in Parties

• Subjob Etiquette: Train your subjob to the appropriate level. Having an underleveled (gimped) subjob informs the party that you're inexperienced or unwilling to play your best.

• Language Use: Unless the whole party is doing so, keep language appropriate. No one wants to hear the F-word ten times every sentence you type.

• Equipment: Gear is obviously not as important as skill, but it's also courteous to your party to come with at least moderately good equipment. Go with what feels right for you. This includes appropriate foods and medicines, such as Echo Drops when fighting mobs that cast Silence.

• Opinionated "Know It Alls": What you may think is the best equipment for a job, or level, is your opinion. There is never one piece that someone must have before they can level. Each person playing the game is paying their dues, and learns by experience, so let them play how they deem appropriate. Your opinion on another player could be as simple as telling a WAR they can't level to 59 without a Haubergeon; that is an opinion and, as such, should not be given unless asked for. This does not apply to spells. (See below)

• Back Seat Players: While it is important to know how to play your job, it is also important to remember that a job can be played in many ways and not everyone wants to play the exact same way. For example, while people usually expect a thief to use a Bow, a thief without archery skill can also rely on flee to pull. Complaining that the Thief doesn't have a Bow isn't going to change that fact. It is usually acceptable to make a friendly suggestion, but beyond that, this kind of behavior tends to result in lower experience for everyone as people get distracted, stresses people out, makes the game less enjoyable, and ultimately cause your party to either kick you or disband.

• Spell Casters: Focus on having up-to-date spells for your level. Some spells are less important, but try to keep up-to-date as best as you can. "I'm too poor" isn't a really good excuse. For instance, while it's generally a safe bet that it's unnecessary for a White Mage to have Protect if they have Protectra, a WHM without Erase at 32 is going to piss people off, as will a Red Mage without Refresh at 41. If it's a safe bet that you will ding in a party, it's generally recommended to have the next level spells on you before you go out.

• Knowledge Of Your Class: Playing White Mage after being power-leveled to level 60, then not knowing how to Cure, is a sure fire way to get your party killed. Know your role. This applies to Tanks and Pullers as well.

• Invite to Join Party: Please do not turn your party flag on if you are not ready to join and proceed to camp in a timely manner. Expecting your party to wait an extended amount of time while you tighten up loose ends is unacceptable. If you are not ready to depart for camp, please don't waste others' time and keep your flag down until you are prepared. This goes double for people putting their flag up and going AFK. Why people even do that makes no sense, but please...stop.

• Quitters Suck!: Don't go AFK (Away from Keyboard) without informing your party. If you do need to go afk, make sure you find a safe place to /heal first, and if you don't need to /heal, put a party member on /follow before you leave. (NOTE: /follow can be risky. If they change gear, you'll continue autorunning, possibily into a wall, or get killed by a mob.)

• Disbanding With Style: A good rule of thumb is to give 20-30 minutes notice prior to leaving. If you need to leave immediately, tell them so, rather than faking a disconnect; it causes a long delay wondering if a DC is coming back or not. However; make sure that your party wants to continue when you leave. It's impolite to your replacement when they arrive and the party disbands shortly thereafter.

• Concerning Replacements: Don't leave a party without at a few minutes' warning and preferably with an attempt at finding a replacement. Some party leaders may not want you to find a replacement, but it's always polite to ask rather than just assume.

• Inviting Like Rock Star: Always ask in /tell and wait for a positive response before you send an invite. "Blind invites" are rude and aren't usually tolerated. Please include the following information (use auto-translate if possible):

1. The level the party will sync to.
2. The goal of the party
3. The area of the camp.

(example 1: /tell XXXXXX Level 55 {Experience Party} {Do you need it?}{Wajaom Woodlands}<G-5>)

(example 2: /tell XXXXXX {Hello!} -(I wait for a response first.)- /tell XXXXXX {Level Sync}55{Party}{Do you need it?} -(Wait for a response again)- /tell XXXXXX {Gather together.}{Auto-translated Location}<pos>).

• Please Set your Home Point (intelligently): Don't have your Home Point in Whitegate when you're partying in Valkurm unless you have means to get back to your camp in a reasonable amount of time. This especially goes out to the tanks and healers - the most likely to die.

• <Call> Command Torment: Call Commands 1-3 in particular, are very annoying. Use softer calls like <call14> and <call20> to alert the party of current status, for example: {No more MP!}.

• Spam... It Is Not Desirable: Please Don't SPAM. It's unprofessional, discourteous, unkind and is generally silly and unwanted. Spam also includes text in your provoke and cure macros. People expect you to put text into your pull macro, though you should avoid using it more than once per mob.

• Don't Make The Taru's Cry! aka Don't Camp Others Territory!: If the area you are working supports multiple parties, wonderful. Most areas don't. Kindly do not poach another teams territory.

• If You Are Pulling: After a break, make sure you ask in /party chat {Everyone}{Ready?}, and get an affirmative from everyone, before you pull. Missing one DD for the first minute of a fight might not be a big deal, but make sure you get permission from the party leader to pull in those situations. Just because you want max EXP/HOUR doesn't mean your party wants to risk wiping for it.

• Puller Macros: Please write two Macros for your pulling. This allows the party to see your announcement, before you attempt to shoot and avoids unnecessary repetition in the chat log. Example:

• Macro 1 - /p {Fishing}<t>{Everyone}{Ready}{Full Attack!}<call10> (or some variant)
• Macro 2 - /ra <t>

• Treat Newbish Pullers Nicely: If you end up in a party without a clear puller such as a THF or RNG, then more uncommon jobs like WAR or SAM should be prepared to pull. Forcing a RDM or the NIN tank to pull because a damage dealer doesn't want to give up their ammo stat boosts isn't... Groovy.

• Please Be Patient with the people who are inexperienced pullers. A SAM that's pulled three times in their lives is never going to be as efficient as a THF that's been doing it since day one, and this is the risk you take when building a party without a clear puller. If you may expect an uncommon job to pull, inform them in your invite, verify if they are ok with it.

• If you've asked an 'uninitiated' to pull, be clear in your instructions to them. Simply saying "OMG, go pull WAR!!!" isn't a lot of help to someone that never does it. Tell them what mobs you want, what they should "Check As," and what to avoid. Don't assume they already know...pulling is an art form, and it takes time to learn how to do it well.

• Not all Job Abilities need to be announced: Boost being a perfect example, certain job abilities are going to be used often and your party, as a whole, does not need to see them. In most cases, things like Utsusemi: Ichi, or Cure, or Box Step do not need to be announced. Also, be reasonable when you announce something; Nobody needs to see a line and a half of "Garuda, I summon you to come forth and fight with the power of the Northern Wind!!!!!!!!!!" every time you summon.

• Be The Non-Insane Party Member: If the Tank or Spell-Casters ask you not use a spell or job ability, because the party can not effectively handle the enmity spike; Please Respect This Request. If you don't have a party experienced in handling large amounts of enmity; using spells like Ancient Magic will wipe the party. This goes for any DD...we have clear tanks in most parties for a reason. If you are /NIN or can take a punch or two it's usually no big deal, but if you are constantly sucking up MP, you need to slow it down. It's ok to face away from the mob for a moment and let hate settle back down. If you're going to drop a huge bomb on a mob, be as sure as you can that you are going to kill it. Using Sidewinder-Barrage-Sidewinder and leaving a mob at 30% is gonna piss off the whole party as your face get's kicked in and everyone goes in to panic survival mode. Once or twice is excusable...every other mob is not. Hate management is everyone's job...

• Party Members Are As Flawed As You: There is no reason to yell and curse at someone when they do something wrong. Remember that it is just a game and that everyone is learning. Yelling will cause most members to leave the party.

• Healer, Heal Thyself!: Nothing is more annoying then having an extended downtime as the main Healer restores MP, while the tank stands there for 5 minutes with 100/800 hp left. Healing after battle saves the healer MP so the downtimes are further apart. Having a main healer does not absolve you from doing this; you won't lose TP if you have Signet/Sigil active. NOTE: If you didn't apply Signet before you went out to party, that isn't the party's problem.

• Ailments And Their Hierarchical Order Of Removal: In any exp party, a healer makes judgment calls on the efficient use of their MP; things like: Paralyze, Poison, and Curse obviously take priority. However, the Tank's needs trump everyone else's. Your Evasion Down or Attack Down will have to wait until they are taken care of. If you are a DD, don't expect the WHM to Erase your less important ailments, they will wear in time.

• Fields of Valor: By now, most people are familiar with FoV, and how awesome it can be. That being said, if you are joining an established party and are interested in getting the extra experience and tabs, ask ahead of time whether or not your party is going to be fighting mobs according to a particular regime in a Field Manual. If it's not inconvenient, or if the entire party is participating, then it's rarely a big deal, but stopping the party halfway through so you can trek across the zone for 20 minutes to get a new regime is pretty obnoxious. A lot of lower level parties tend to make it a point to plan camps around the distance to the nearest book, but above all things be flexible. The bonus experience from FoV isn't usually a make or break situation...and neither is the Refresh/Regen...people got by for many years without it.

Common Courtesy

• Avoid spamming anything, whether it's in /say, /shout, /tell, /emote, or /random; it's all very annoying.
  • Avoid spamming an advertisement for teleporting when there are other mages in the area performing similar tele-taxi services; this is uncalled for. In high-traffic areas, many Spell-Casters also wish to tele-taxi. Your spamming will often cause them to start advertising free tele's just to get you to stop. The trick to preventing such spam is to wait in a high-traffic area and respond to another player requesting a tele-taxi service before your competing mages get a chance to make the same response. This can be done entirely in /tell and will not bother other players.

• Don't put tons of words in your Macros, just get the point across.

• If you have Cure or Buffs of any sort, spread the love around, it will only benefit you.

• If you have Raise you are everyones best friend. If you're not in a hurry, don't run past a KO'd player, "Raise" them and you're a HERO.

• Be The Good Samaritan: Even if you can't Raise, if you've a moment, give a little shout, such as "/sh (Raise)<pos><t>(Please)(Can I have it?)(Thank you)".

• 'Please' and 'Thank you' are always appropriate, Groovy, Splendid, Downright Personable, Glorious, Kind, Benevolent, and so forth. Please say "Please" and also "Thank You..." Thank You!

• If you're selling things in your Bazaar, please don't block the Auction House windows or the entrances to Mog Houses or other high traffic areas (This includes the entrance to Rolanberry Fields or Batallia Downs). Remember, other people need to get to these areas, too.

• Likewise, if you're crafting items, it's a good idea to move over to one side of the shop so that others can purchase their components, too. One good idea is to move up against a wall or even go outside and find an out-of-the-way spot near the shop, but not blocking the entrance, so that others can enter and exit without tripping over your character. Once you've made your purchases, it's only polite to make room so others can make their purchases.

• If a Harvesting Point is being worked by another player, don't harvest their claim. If they are facing it, pass by and wait for the next one to spawn.

• If a Player is working a Mining Point, again: don't mine their claim.

• When farming, select an area that doesn't interfere with EXP parties. Don't be greedy and chain all the mobs, there are other people farming the same area.

• When fighting a mob for Experience Points, be courteous. Don't steal another players prey, THIS IS A BIG NO NO. Stealing a player's prey ruins their gaming experience. (And it makes them cry inside, this is bad.. bad indeed.)

• Don't annoy the humble fisherman. They have alot of things to watch for; the last thing they need is to have to tell you they aren't a fishbot.

• If you are leading an event and are not experienced with said event: make sure you do your homework before inviting other people to join. This means having the right items/key items/jobs/skills and making sure all other quest/mission/event prerequisites are met. It's unprofessional when the Event Leader doesn't have a required item, or doesn't know what they are doing.
  • Additionally, when joining an event, bring Silent Oils and Prism Powders when needed, rather than relying on the mages to Sneak/Invis everyone. Relying on the Spell-Casters slows down the event, and can cause problems such as magic aggro. Also, remember when meeting together, it's always best to be early than late.
  • If you are going to be late or not able to attend, please let the appropriate people know in advance so accommodations can be made. Be a man of your word... "If you say you are going to be there, be there (unless you can't, then... be cool and notify them).

• Pay attention to the party log. Chatting away in /tells or /linkshell then throwing a fit when things go bad is rude AND(!) it will get you added to multitudinous blist. If you're in Dynamis, an EXP party, Garrison, or anything outside of solo play, pay attention to what others are saying, asking and doing. Simply saying, "I'm not entirely sure... can you explain the rationale?" can help a party a lot more than silently being confused.

Courtesy for Large Events

• If you are organizing an event which requires a lot of people, be very honest and clear about what is expected out of all participants.
  • Be sure everyone understands they may be replaced if they are late.
  • If the event involves popping an NM the order of popping should be random in order to be fair. If pop order is not completely random, all participants should be informed beforehand so they can gauge whether they really want to join the group.
  • Be sure that pure volunteers are properly appreciated and rewarded if appropriate. For example, when popping Hakutaku rare scroll drops should be free lot for volunteers only.
• If you are receiving an award from an event, try to bring a friend who does not need the reward purely to help. Everyone wants their item, but this may be impossible to achieve in a reasonable amount of time when 12/15 people need it.
• Do not leave an event after you have obtained your item unless you absolutely have to or have warned the organizers beforehand when you will need to leave.
• Be prepared to accept a Raise or Raise II. There may not be enough time for everyone to receive Raise III.

There is a lot of courtesy in Final Fantasy XI Online, and that's what separates us from most other MMORPG's. There are probably a lot more measures of courtesy out there that aren't listed in these general guidelines. Don't hesitate to add anything you see missing.

Addendum for Respect

• Please be respectful to your fellow gamers, they are here to have fun. Have Fun! Please don't bring your personal burdens "in game."

• When someone goes out of their way to help you complete a task that you could not otherwise solo through, at the very least offer them a monetary reward for their time. If you do not have the ends to pay someone to assist you, then by all means learn and employ two very important things that will get you farther than all the gil in Vana'diel: Courtesy and Respect!

• In this game especially, Karma is a strict element. (What goes around comes around) Do not do anything to another player that you wouldn't want done to yourself. People will remember you; this can affect the rest of your FFXI career possibly stopping you from ever getting to end game content or just enjoying the game in general.