Mentor Project - Discussion

Updated Recap:

• 3 roles defined: Advocates (one for heroes, one for villains), Mentors and Neophytes.
• No official committee or leadership. All Mentors and Advocates have the same "weight" within the Mentor Project, although Advocates can assist in resolving issues between Mentors and Neophytes.
• Use a global channel to help coordinate things, and provide another layer to the support network for neophytes. All Mentors will be OP in this channel, named "N P C" (note the spaces).
• Stay in close contact with our server's P.E.R.C. and PVPEC reps, if only to let them know how things are working out in their areas of interest.
• SG will be available for experimentation on base building / SG management. Within any SGs created for/by neophytes, the tier 1 role would be that of the Advocate. Tier 2 reserved for Mentors / graduated Neophytes. All other ranks used for neophytes. Tier names will probably fluctuate due to experimentation. This will be applied to any VGs as well.
• Propose optional mentoring partnerships between more experienced player (Mentor) and less experienced player (Neophyte) that are:
  1. Not enforced, but open - Either party can opt to leave at any time if it doesn't work out for whatever reasons. Mentors will have 100% control over how they can assist the newbie in their care, including what time is spent doing so.
  2. The mentor has no duty towards the newbie except to act as guide. As such, he/she could answer questions, help the Neophyte find a supergroup or start one, team up if schedules permit, etc. The Neophyte will be made to understand that the Mentor is not responsible for his/her enjoyment of the game, nor will there be any expectations of PLing, loot, etc.
  3. Mentors will be free to cover areas of CoH gaming they want with the neophytes, in private, using their judgement about the pertinence to neophyte's game style. This should cover questions re: farming and powerlevelling. To avoid un-needed discussions in the global channel we should keep these talks private. We don't want to impose our own likes / dislikes to them, yet they should be free to learn (or at least find out about) about all aspects of the game.
• Allow Neophytes to "graduate" and in turn be offered a role as mentor after their contract has ended.
• Graduation ceremonies will occur every 3-4 months for Neophytes. They can then become a Mentor as well, or move on to other activities.

A graduation ceremony?
Are the graduates going to recieve a diploma?
Are the mentors in this program going to be certified instructors?
How much pomp and circumstance are you going to cram into people trying to have fun in an online video game?

Please tell me that at the graduation ceremony, all the mentors will line up. And the graduate will walk down the line and the Principal or whatever (presumably you) will do an emote of handing something over. I think that would top online wedding ceremonies.

Will my degree transfer if I move to another server?

Sounds pretty good, Stale. However, I'm a bit concerned that we might be over-complicating things. I think there is a large portion of new players that would be happy to have folks available to help them, but will shy away from anything that is too formal or complex.

Why not simplify things, and stick to having a mentor/student SG available for those that want to go that route, along with a global channel? Keep the mentor/student relationship informal. Drop any mention of 'contracts'. This way, students can feel free to access any of the mentors as a resource at any time, when they have questions or need help.

This is such a wonderful idea. I know when I first started playing I spent my first three months soloing and not even understanding the advantages of teaming in the game, let alone where to do things and what was important to get done. Something like this would have been invaluable.

Maybe its just that I am a little closer to those days when I started playing than some here, but a question comes to mind. How are you going to let the newbies know this is available ? I know I wasn't aware of the global channels till I had been around awhile. Just how can can the proteges and mentors be brought together ?

Guys, we're discussing something that's already covered here... maybe I need to tweak that recap.


Mentors and Neophytes can:

1) Join / be invited to N P C global channel
2) Join in a partnership with a mentor ...or not
3) Join a N P C SGs / VGs ...or not
4) For Neophytes: Graduate and move onto becoming a Mentor ...or not

The more a player is interested in getting involved, the more options open up (hence, the more complex it can get).


At least, that's how I understood the discussion to have gone so far.

Whatever we're discussing here will not be made available to Neophytes in this form. The method and manner we'll approach them will be very different from the tone of our talks here, and even the interactions between Mentors later on.

Judging the number of further changes, questions asked, and all around interest displayed at this point, Mentorship applications should be flooding my inbox any time now.




B_L_Angel: Those questions were answered on Page 1.

Once the initial promotion has gone through, and the N P C channel gets populated, we can set up times where Neophytes can ask for personal Mentors - and so on.

Final Recap (I think):

• 3 roles defined: Advocates (one for heroes, one for villains), Mentors and Neophytes.
• No official committee or leadership for project. All Mentors and Advocates have the same "weight" within the Mentor Project, although Advocates can assist in resolving issues between Mentors and Neophytes.
• Use a global channel to help coordinate things, and provide another layer to the support network for neophytes. All Mentors will be OP in this channel, named "N P C" (note the spaces). This is the only mandatory criteria in participating in this project, regardless of role.
• Propose optional mentoring partnerships between more experienced player (Mentor) and less experienced player (Neophyte) that are:
  1. Not enforced, but open - Either party can opt to leave at any time if it doesn't work out for whatever reasons. Mentors will have 100% control over how they can assist the newbie in their care, including what time is spent doing so.
  2. The mentor has no duty towards the newbie except to act as guide. As such, he/she could answer questions, help the Neophyte find a supergroup or start one, team up if schedules permit, etc. The Neophyte will be made to understand that the Mentor is not responsible for his/her enjoyment of the game, nor will there be any expectations of PLing, loot, etc.
  3. Mentors will be free to cover areas of CoH gaming they want with the neophytes, in private, using their judgement about the pertinence to neophyte's game style. This should cover questions re: farming and powerlevelling. To avoid un-needed discussions in the global channel we should keep these talks private. We don't want to impose our own likes / dislikes to them, yet they should be free to learn (or at least find out about) about all aspects of the game.
• Graduation ceremonies could occur every 3-4 months for Neophytes. They can then become a Mentor if they like, or move on to other activities.
• Stay in close contact with our server's P.E.R.C. and PVPEC reps, if only to let them know how things are working out in their areas of interest.
• SG will be available for experimentation on base building / SG management. Within any SGs created for/by neophytes, the tier 1 role would be that of the Advocate. Tier 2 reserved for Mentors / graduated Neophytes. All other ranks used for neophytes. Tier names will probably fluctuate due to experimentation. This will be applied to any VGs as well. Coalitions with established SGs / VGs will be considered based on overall reputation and

Sounds fine to me. I'll try and remember to join that channel.

The number of people who participated in discussing this project far outweighs the number of actual volunteers, but that was expected.

Those who signed up to be Mentors, please add the N P C channel to your favorite chat tab: /chan_join "N P C". We'll start talking about promoting this over the course of the next few days.