Mentor Project - Discussion

Need? Of course we don't need it. We also don't need server events or global channels.

Would it help? Possibly.

Would it hurt? No (or at least, every unlikely).

Though I actually completely disagree with Frozen. Whenever I see a new person on a team asking questions, almost everyone bails. All most players want is to get their xps and their paper. They don't have the patience to "deal with" newbies. I'll see a team of eight dwindle down to me, the guy asking questions, and possibly one other person in half an hour's time (while we're still running missions).

If I can confess an ulterior motive of my own. One of my own personal interest in this project is to attract more players to Protector. I find many, many new players on Freedom and Virtue asking in broadcasts for advice or help only to find no one willing. I always answer their questions and normally wind up with a new global friend. These players are out there and WANT to be helped, but unfortunantly, these players are often not on Protector. They look for help here but there isnt the population to provide it without the direction this project can lend. I want to come back to Protector. I want to find players "lft" that I can meet and learn their playstyle. My major concern with this is how do we get the new player to Protector where they can meet this community, be welcomed, and stay here. The "gamerz" will still go to Freedom and thats fine. I want the players who want to experience the game. Everyone keeps asking how can we help new players but I ask how can the new players help us. What is the plan for making all new players aware of this, heck, its even possible that other vets will be intrigued enough with a community to come here and try the waters themselves.

My experience starting out was somewhere between Wolfie and Demon. I had played EQ a while back, the experience lasted all of 3 weeks. I knew before my 14-day trial was up that CoX was a different experience and I enjoyed it.

It was an experience to say the least, I checked the Quick Start Guide to understand what buttons to mash, and I got around okay but I can't say that I was at all effective. It didn't help that I chose a Kin/Arch Defender right off the bat.

It took me a month to find the forums, and the wealth of information here, and probably another month to come across someone who I had a great experience teaming with, ending up in an SG that I still belong to to this day.

I have answered plenty of questions from players, and have seen broadcasted questions or calls for help go ignored. I believe a mentoring programme would be very helpful to new players, and would reduce the frustration and feeling of flailing around aimlessly newbs might experience.

I fail to see how a group of experienced players aiding the newly hatched would be a 'bureaucracy'. I see this as a community experience, and while Protector may be known as the "Unofficial Solo Server" I also know we have a lot of great people here that are more than willing to help others.

We don't need it, as Demon Shell said, but it couldn't hurt.

"Freedom has a much larger population than Protector, to the extent that there are probably more people there straight up "experiencing the game" there than here. Moreover, I haven't run across a player based mentor program on any other server."

You are exactly right, there are more players there experiencing the game on Freedom and Virtue. I want them or part of them here. The fact that there is no mentor program anywhere else is not a slap at those servers. I love both of them. It is simply an edge that we now are in the early stages of developing. You must play blueside, any villian knows how to exploit an advantage.

You're not going to draw a significant number of players here through a mentorship program. Not trying to be mean but that's an unrealistic expectation. The very clear trend is for people to move from the smaller servers to the more populated ones.

I play almost exclusively on redside, but I'm not an RPer.

edit: btw, if you want to do this, there is no reason not to do it. Best of luck with it. My 2 cents in this discussion is that it's somewhat ill-conceived for the reasons I laid out in my initial post. YMMV

I agree that we're probably not going to get new people to come to our server just because we have a mentor program, if nothing else then for the simple fact that by the time people find out about it, they're already comfortable wherever they are.

I'm fairly new to CoX (seven months in), and as a player who Forrest-Gumped my way through the first two months, I have to say this is one of the best ideas in the history of human events. I was about to quit giving NC Soft 15 bucks a month due to the frustration and confusion i felt, when i got a little help from another player. (MUCH love to the brains behind my brawn, Operative Xysticus ) If it weren't for his mentor-like role, i wouldn't be posting this today.

I play almost exclusively on the red side, which is usually a ghost-town in this server. Events help, but are only temporary fixes to this problem. I think w/ an established help-based SG/program providing mentors to newbies will, in fact, keep players on CoX, much less protector. Just the networking possiblities alone are worth instituting this project. Having said all that, i would like to give the newbie's (mine, lol) point of view on this, as it is undoubtedly fresher in my mind.

In my humble opinion, a one-on-one mentor situation would be ideal. A single Vet a noob could get in contact w/ to field most, if not all questions about basic game-play and game functions (i.e. BM, PvP, etc.) I refer you to the method a devotee to the martial arts would pursue: In the formative years, all the basics are learned from a single master. As time/ skill progressed, the student would learn from many different masters. The point of all this is to say that a single vet would be the best way to start out. As time/skill progressed, any specialized knowledge in any one subject (i.e. farming, PL, PvP, etc.) would be reffered to someone w/ a vast body of knowledge on that particular subject. In this way, a noob is exposed to all desired aspects of the game, not just one particular mentor's opinion.

I would propose a central SG w/ satellite SG's in coalition. New players would be inducted to the central SG to learn the basics and let mentors evaluate playstyle. For each style of play, there is undoubtedly a SG that would serve the NP's needs. That's where the satellites come in. I have my own SG, and I'm not really willing to give up all of my hard work, but would very much like to be a part of this project. To protect noobs from predatory SG's, I would suggest that any new initiates to a satellite from the central SG not be required to run SG mode for the duration of the mentor project, as agreed upon by the satellite and the initiate before the aforementioned initiation. I realize the honor system is the only rule in play, but w/ a central SG there would be sufficient control, w/o the need for too much red tape.

I hope this project will go ahead, as i think it will be a good thing for this server. Who knows, maybe the idea will catch on? Is that such a bad thing?

One thing we are intentionally avoiding is the use of the term "noob". A newbie is someone who is new to a concept, a noob is someone who has no desire to learn beyond the newbie level of knowledge (or un-knowledge).

Villain Side Advocate: I believe that whoever this is, needs to be someone who can reliably, or nearly reliably log in every day. People are not going to want to wait very long for conflicts to be resolved.

Duration of Personal Mentoring Contracts: I'm not sure that we need a set duration. People learn and teach at different paces. People can move on when they're done learning or if there is nothing more to teach. If a pupil has been around for a while and we have many more students than we have teachers, it could turn into a classroom setting (with no more than seven students to a single teacher, for obvious reasons). Going straight from one student to seven would probably be problematic, but a gradual increase over time should be manageable, if it ever even comes up.

Apologies, Demon. I come from a "roughneck" brand of occupation, and noob and newbie are interchangeable words for my field (both being dirty words) Nomenclature aside, i agree, and i wasn't suggesting myself for anything. If anything, i want to be on the newbie side of the equasion, as i'm hardly qualified to teach. My knowledge is laughable compared to most of the people i meet in-game. At any rate i was just putting my two cents in, for whatever its worth.

Only my first paragraph was addressed toward you. I wasn't jumping down your throat or anything, sorry if it seemed that way.

I think you bring a relevant insight, just like everyone else. But yours comes from a perspective most of us haven't had in a long time (or, possibly due to when we started and when you started, a perspective we never had).

lol, i don't offend easily, and like i tell all the teams i join, "I'm just jazzed to be on the show."

Anyway, I love this idea, and would be willing to participate in any capacity. DON'T LET THIS IDEA PUTTER OUT!!!!

Another thought; how are you going to make this mentor-to-newbie project known to newbies and the like? And what about us semi-newbies, who know basics, but would very much like to learn more advanced stuff? Not to put too fine a point on it, but how's the word gonna get out?

Doh! Guess i should've known that. :P Anyway, still excited, still interested. If i can help, just let me know.

Actually, I think you might be able to.

Your position, between newbie and vet, puts you in a middle ground. You could be a guinea pig for the program acting as a newbie. Since you already know certain key things, you could help us make sure we aren't leaving anything important out that someone should know.

Now, that's what i'm talking about. I would be ecstatic to be the lab rat. Send me the who, what, when, where, and I'd be happy to comply. It'll be just like the good ol' bootcamp days, where they inject you w/ God-knows-what and see what the reaction is.

*edit: i would have prefaced this w/ Demon's post, but i lack the required skills to do so, lol

We'll both be at the SFS tonight, we can discuss something before/after that.

Edit: Some other time than.

I help out new players a lot already - but I might be able to help with this too.