Its a novelty.
I don't really care for the Helper or Help Me tag so don't use either. I do like to access the Help Channel though and answer any questions I can. Even if I see someone with a Help Me tag I doubt I will ever take the initiative to ask them what is up, the channel is a good place for that.
Paragonian Knights
Justice Company
My impression is that many people just like having a different-colored name.
It wouldn't be the first time a player-base used a feature for something other than its intended purpose. =)
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Are we s'posed to offer help to people with those tags?
I thought we just put on the helper tags and waited for someone to ask.
I'm one of those people who use whatever tag matches their outfit. I don't think the help tag is a particularly well thought out tool that will ever actually help anyone, so I don't really feel bad about abusing it either. It's my experience that people who are playing a game don't want their hand held 24/7 but would rather only get help for specific problems, so I ignore the tool which is only useful for 24/7 handholding in favor of the perfectly adequate tools that are used to address specific questions and problems newbies may have - help chat, local/broadcast, or the forums.
I'm willing to have my mind changed on this though, so if you have some heartwarming stories of newbies being helped just because they set their "help me" flag then tell 'em.
Yeah, I suspect that a lot of players are using these just to have the different colored name.
Most probably take the HELPER Tag (Just a wild guess there), but that makes the HELP ME tag a little more unique of a color (for those wanting to be that extra level of special).
And I'm sure there are some that just choose it for a lark or whatever.
It's an interesting observation though... People hindering the ease of the system to spot people who could use help.
Fortunately, I don't think the system is really needed.
Someone in need of help can be easy to recognize.
I actually haven't opted into either tag on any of my characters.
I'm not sure a new player is going to know the difference and I just help when I can.
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
Purple names are cool.
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I think Supernumiphone has hit the nail on the head. +4 enemies are purple. I want to be purple too to show how badass i am. |
Originally Posted by Supernumiphone
Purple names are cool.
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Honestly, they should have made "Helpers" purple, and "needs help" greyish white.
Quote:
Yep, I think this was the mistake made.|
Originally Posted by Seschat
I think Supernumiphone has hit the nail on the head. +4 enemies are purple. I want to be purple too to show how badass i am.
Honestly, they should have made "Helpers" purple, and "needs help" greyish white. |
I think it'd be better if they dropped any color attachment to the HELP system tags. Just make it a title and search system thing...
And provide a full custom color option for your character's name.
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
Quote:
Indeed. That would be a nice feature.|
Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
Yep, I think this was the mistake made.
I think it'd be better if they dropped any color attachment to the HELP system tags. Just make it a title and search system thing... And provide a full custom color option for your character's name. |
As an aside, on the graphics I have the pink names don't look a thing like the purple names, but they for sure look a lot more purple than he golden names do.
And I also agree about the potential utility of the system, but, if we are using it as a form of self decoration instead of it's intended use, I do think we are taking away some of the tools that a truly new player may have access to, or more accurately, making us 'even more likely that we might otherwise be' to ignore a request for help that used that particular medium.
And, I have no problem in general with using tools in ways other than how the devs intend, but it if is of little benefit to me, and may be to the detriment of someone else, than I'm a little less cool with it. And if the folks that are using it as a costume accessory just want coloured names, perhaps we should nudge the devs into tweaking the system so that those that want the colourization option get it without diluting whatever (albeit, perhaps very little) positive effect it may bring to new folks that are trying to use the tool as it was originally envisioned.
Just a thought that occurred to me and wanted to try and make others aware of it, too.
Quote:
I agree in entirety (except for the bit where you said that my feet smell... well they might).|
Originally Posted by Madadh
Indeed. That would be a nice feature.
As an aside, on the graphics I have the pink names don't look a thing like the purple names, but they for sure look a lot more purple than he golden names do. And I also agree about the potential utility of the system, but, if we are using it as a form of self decoration instead of it's intended use, I do think we are taking away some of the tools that a truly new player may have access to, or more accurately, making us 'even more likely that we might otherwise be' to ignore a request for help that used that particular medium. And, I have no problem in general with using tools in ways other than how the devs intend, but it if is of little benefit to me, and may be to the detriment of someone else, than I'm a little less cool with it. And if the folks that are using it as a costume accessory just want coloured names, perhaps we should nudge the devs into tweaking the system so that those that want the colourization option get it without diluting whatever (albeit, perhaps very little) positive effect it may bring to new folks that are trying to use the tool as it was originally envisioned. Just a thought that occurred to me and wanted to try and make others aware of it, too. |
I feel the same way. It's a system in place to possibly help new players (YAY! NEW PLAYERS!) and I'm not going to use it to change the color of my name.
I generally don't even notice any such things... As all names are shut off unless I hover or click over someone.
Other characters' names tend to only be seen by me in the chat tab!
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
Quote:
I don't think it is intended for 24/7 hand-holding. It's just a flag that says "hey, if I screw up don't hold it against me" and it points them at the help forum which otherwise they might miss.|
Originally Posted by Pampl
I'm one of those people who use whatever tag matches their outfit. I don't think the help tag is a particularly well thought out tool that will ever actually help anyone, so I don't really feel bad about abusing it either. It's my experience that people who are playing a game don't want their hand held 24/7 but would rather only get help for specific problems, so I ignore the tool which is only useful for 24/7 handholding in favor of the perfectly adequate tools that are used to address specific questions and problems newbies may have - help chat, local/broadcast, or the forums.
I'm willing to have my mind changed on this though, so if you have some heartwarming stories of newbies being helped just because they set their "help me" flag then tell 'em. |
And I know that I've helped a few people who asked because they saw the helper tag in a low population zone.
I should probably flag my tanker as "help me" simply because anyone who trusts my tank to (a) survive and/or (b) hold aggro, is in for a rude surprise and a team wipe. Hehehe.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Yeah...
When this feature hit live I mistakenly figured anyone picking the Help Me tag would naturally be needing help/had questions.
So whenever I'd log in a low level praetorian I'd send a tell or /local and ask them if I could be of any assistance. 8 times out of 10 I was told no thanks, I know my way around. Once I was told off, along the lines of "If I needed your help I woulda asked" (Ummm, derp)
and 1 time out of 10 it was an actual new player that wanted to figure things out for themselves and just didn't know any better when making the choice 1st time out the gate. They did later send a /Tell asking if I could show them how to find the trainer but I digress.
I've never actually seen anyone with the help me tag really wanting help.
Now the ones that pick Helper, most often they are genuinely wanting to help and usually get miffed when nobody asks.
Maestro Mavius - Infinity
Capt. Biohazrd - PCSAR
Talsor Tech - Talsorian Guard
Keep Calm & Chive On!
Broken feature. Scrap it and replace it with something that grants the Help me! title only to new accounts for a set period of time. Helper status can remain a choice.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Is there a way to opt out of the Helper/Help Me tags after you've selected one?
I picked Helper on a couple of my characters partly out of novelty and partly in case someone needed help, but I really don't like it anymore. I would think there is a way to opt out, otherwise someone who genuinely needed help as a new player would still be stuck with that tag four years down the line.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
Quote:
Through the Help menu. There's a dropdown you can select it in. (If we weren't in maintenance, I'd grab a screenshot for you.)
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Originally Posted by mousedroid
Is there a way to opt out of the Helper/Help Me tags after you've selected one?
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I find the system ridiculous because of the current abuse of the "Help Me". I choose neither, if I can and feel like helping someone I do.
The idea of choosing it because of the title color also I also find to be ridiculous since the only time I even see it is when I select a character or hover over them. I found after 2 days of playing the game that seeing everyone's name, title and affiliation floating over their heads constantly to be quite annoying. Removing the constant display also reduced my lag when in highly populated areas. Usually if I want to know something about another character I select them and then I don't look at the character, I'm looking at my target window since it is easier to read and I have options there. I've been contemplating turning it to "Never Show", don't remember if that setting exists.
I used to send tells to everyone with the Help Me! title but it didn't take long to realize that none of them were actually in need of help. The closest I got was "yeah, how do I turn that off?" and "I need a team", both had more veteran badges than I did once I looked at them. I think that most new people are going to blow right by that prompt and not turn it on and have no idea it is available later. New players are usually more interested in jumping in and killing things that reading all the stuff.
The last time I asked someone with a purple name was over the weekend when I came across a 50+ month vet on a level 50 IO'd out the wazzoo character in the market. I sent a tell along the lines of "I'm guessing you don't really need help" and he said "I'm in neeeeed!" I just lol'd and told him I only asked because he had his help-me option turned on and he replied that it was sexy. I told him it wasn't so sexy to have a golden "Help Me!" above his head and he retorted that he always accepts donations. That made me chuckle considering the purple sets he was carrying around and I told him he probably had more cash inf on that one character than all of my alts combined were worth. I got "heh, probably" back. While amusing, I'm planning on ignoring purple names from now on.
I know one friend who was a very experienced vet who did this just because it was funny. I use neither option.
I think for me the funny part was the guy asking in broadcast why his name was yellow. /em headdesk.
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
In my opinion, it's best to help people only if they explicitely ask for it. Even if you used the "help me" tag legitimately, would you appreciate random people sending you tells all the time? It could be just me, but I know I wouldn't, so I tend to see "help me" as "I'm new to the game and might need a hand if you see me confused".
I'm just noticing that a very high percentage of the newbies to the game are lvl 50, 50+month vets, and are IOed to the gills....
I'm referring to the 'Help Me' indicator designed to let new players get the assistance they need. I'm noticing that the majority, perhaps even overwhelming majority, I see thus flagged seem to be a little past the point of really needing much help.
I know, one's child or SO may be playing an alt on an account of someone who has been playing a very long time. I get that.
But I also suspect that a certain percentage of people just think it's funny to claim to need help when they don't. I don't have any idea how many people this might be though, so I was hoping to get some feedback..
And the reason I'm concerned at all is that the game could be a bit intimidating if you're new to it. All MMOs can, especially since as they age and grow they tend to become more complex, and thus potentially less friendly to new folks. But this is a new tool that's designed to help those new folks out who want help. But, I find myself less and less willing to even take time to offer help since I begin to assume that the people flagged in this way are more likely doing so on a lark, rather than because they actually want help. If I'm not the only person who's making this assumption, then we (us vets among the playerbase as a whole) may be taking away a useful tool from new players who most need it, and have the fewest other tools at their disposal. If so, we may be losing at least one or two potential new long-term subscribers just so we can have the kick of joking, "Look at me, HA HA, I'm a newb," or whatever else the incentive is.
Of course, I may be totally wrong. Maybe really most of the people that are willing to ask for help really are playing on toons that were made for them by someone else till the get the hang of game play, and then will try a lvl 1. And maybe I'm the only person starting to ignore the "Help Me" designator when I see it. I hope to be wrong on both counts.
So, looking for feedbacka nd impressions.
Lastly, I'm not sure if maybe this might not be better posted in some other location, but couldn't find one that seemed a better fit.. So, feel free to suggest on that front, too.