EreRant #6
Wow, 18 comments on EreRant#4. It's so cool to see this taking off. But that said, I'm going to stop promising EreRants on certain days, because it's becoming obvious I'm not going to keep my word. I'll type them up whenever I have some free time, such as right now!
A guy that gets a huge number of items. It seems like every linkshell has one of ‘em. It might be someone with like seven jobs at 75, or maybe it’s someone with only two or three. Either way, you can check your linkshell’s loot pool distribution and it seems that one name keeps popping up time and time again. Sometimes it’s a good thing. Sometimes that guy works really hard and puts all of his gear to good use because he switches jobs frequently depending on the situation, so you don’t feel like any of those items are going to waste.
Unfortunately, other times it’s because the guy’s a lootwhore.
Lootwhores are people that actively try to lot as much stuff as they can regardless of if they really need it or not. It’s a completely negative term - there’s nothing good about being a lootwhore. Some people are undeservingly labeled lootwhores simply because they work hard and, in term, reap the rewards. Other people just take as much stuff as they can and completely deserve the label.
It can be hard to tell if you’re being a lootwhore sometimes. It’s easy to get so blinded by your grand quest to pimp out a job or assemble gear for an experimental build that you forget that other people had their eyes on the stuff you want as well. You might be a lootwhore if you’ve done the following or see nothing wrong with them:
1) You lot a piece of equipment you have no real use for just because you want to walk away from an event with the feeling of having gotten something.
2) You lot against someone who wants an item for their main job because you think you could use the item to work on an usual/experimental/not really important build for one of your alternate jobs you don’t use much anyone.
3) You have no problem lotting an item someone can and would use immediately on their main job for one of your jobs that isn’t 75 yet, just so you’ll have it when you get there.
4) Despite having recently gotten multiple useful items, you jump at the chance to lot anything new that drops.
Conversely, in the interest of fairness, the following examples are absolutely NOT lootwhoring:
1) Lotting against someone extremely new to the linkshell isn’t lootwhoring, unless you have absolutely no need for the item. People in the LS only for a few days haven’t done squat to help anyone yet and have no real claim to items yet, especially when pop items were farmed before they even joined. It’s fine to give these people freebies in good faith, but they have no grounds to be whining if they aren’t chosen to lot things.
2) On a similar note, if you put a huge amount of effort into obtaining an item - getting a ToD or pop items, setting up a party to fight it when the time comes - you have full right to lot the item even if it would be “better” for someone who didn’t do any of the work to get it.
3) Lotting something you don’t really need when nobody else wants it either isn’t lootwhoring, as if nobody else has an interest there’s no dispute.
In summary, the essence of lootwhoring is lotting any and all items simply because you have been given the privilege of lotting (either by a linkshell officer or by being one yourself) regardless of who you are lotting against, how deserving or how much effort anyone has put into obtaining it, and what the item actually does. In order to be a lootwhore, you have to be taking an unfair share of the loot.
In summary of the summary, lootwhore says shinyz = yay
The key word there is “unfair”. What exactly is fairness? This is the sort of thing that linkshells build huge and complicated rule sheets and point lists and attendance summaries in an attempt to try to create a structure of tangible order to who should be getting what. The problem with all of these systems is that they’re trying to put a term that every human being knows deep within their core, like fairness and justice, into words and rules. Linkshell leaders have a hard time with this concept because it’s very difficult to do - lawmakers in governments have the same problem.
Unfortunately, no matter how simple or how complex or how seemingly perfect a linkshell’s system is, it is based on either qualifiable or quantifiable criteria - in other words, some sort of indicators that are easily measureable. Unmeasureable qualities such as being a friendly person, knowing and performing your job well, being nice in a group setting, giving that extra oomph, are usually ignored because it’s too hard to put some sort of point value to them and would (perhaps rightfully so) anger people that believe they are doing their all but not getting a special reward.
This means that linkshell systems end up being made out of rules instead of true concepts like fairness and justice. And rules, as they say, were meant to be broken.
That’s a blatant catch-line to try to regain the attention of people that are just skimming the rant. Though, while not literally true that rules need to be broken, the essence of the rules are being twisted as the rules were set into place to emulate justice. Lootwhores don’t actually have to break any rules in order to get what they want, but neither do they need to ascribe to any sort of justice. They play the strengths and the weaknesses of the system like a fiddle, getting maximum output for minimal work. They don’t have to lift a finger to help people beyond what’s required, or do an amazing use of a 2-hour that saves the day, because they know that those sorts of activities won’t get them anything extra.
So how do you oppose a lootwhore? It’s harder than it would seem. They thrive within the system, so an attack on a lootwhore is, in many people’s eyes, an attack on the linkshell’s rules and the officers that created them. That’s a bad attack position for anyone to take; no matter how well their intentions or how flawed the rules, it’s an uphill battle at best and an easy path to being declared a whiner, a rebel, or some other anti-linkshell label. Drawing fire onto yourself and away from your lootwhore target isn’t exactly a smart move.
Nor does stooping to his level seem to work. Remember that you dislike these shmucks because of what they do - lootwhoring. Trying to counter-lootwhore may get some minor results, but it will be at the cost of your moral high ground, and perhaps eventually your friends.
And you should absolutely not just let him lootwhore as much as he wants in the hope he’ll “get it out of his system.” That’s not how true lootwhores think. If you open the way for them, they will take full advantage for as far as you’ll let them go. As soon as they finish their main job, they’ll work on their alternates, and eventually they’ll get to the point where they’re just taking entirely random stuff because it’s “for their next job to 75,” regardless of if they actually plan on leveling that job at all. No, seriously, this sort of crap happens. Don’t make it easy on them.
Really, as someone not an officer in your linkshell, you’re limited in active ways of opposition that don’t lead on straight roads to personal conflict and linkshell-wide drama. Probably the best comforting thought when dealing with lootwhores is the fact that they reap what they sow. I’ve grown tired of waiting for some cosmic karma to strike them down, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking things into your own hands a bit. FFXI is an online game - eventually lootwhores, no matter how pimped out their gear is, need some personal help. Maybe they died somewhere and hope for a raise. Maybe they need one or two people to kill an NM or open a pressure door or something. Maybe they just want to talk to someone. Regardless, what goes around comes around, and if they are willing to trade respect for linkshell mates for a few pieces of gear they don’t really need, you can have a clear conscious in letting them sit with their gear they love so greatly, alone in the corner, maybe shedding a tear. And you can laugh like a maniac in your small amount of subtle revenge.
Or you could D2 them from events before stuff drops to them. That’s probably a one-way ticket out of the linkshell for good, but I hear it’s a great stress-reliever.