Eiryl was being halfway sarcastic but because too many players crave attention, capping mentor mastery rank Will morph into the new endgame. It starts out as jokes then PUGs don't want scrubs, so they need something tangible to use as vetting. Doesn't matter if it's a meaningless number. You all will attribute meaning to it soon enough. This is going to be fun to watch.
People wonder why "elitism" in pugs happen on FFXI?
The best players don't join pugs at all, they do everything with their shell. So it's not elitism, it's fear.
FFXI has and always has had a very blatant problem, your reputation is still very important. This is why so few make groups. People are afraid of getting a bad rep. If you make the group, you own the success and failure of that group.
When you make a PUG group on FFXI, you have to know everything about that fight, you have to tell everyone what to do, you have to get any replacements if anyone has to go. If this group you make fails, and people leave you will find it far harder to get people to join any pug you ever make again after that. You get a reputation as making "bad" groups and this can destroy your ability to make a group again. There are people that have been forced to change name after making too many bad groups. So of course people ask for things that they think will make it less likely the group will fail.
95% of FFXI players will never make a group, they will sit there all day and wait for a /yell and complain nobody is making groups because it sucks so bad to do so. These same people will judge you if you don't make a good enough group.
Making a group on FFXI sucks so bad due to the things I pointed out above it's actually less stressful to make 5 alts and struggle to do it that way...or just solo with trusts.
