New Players Read

[Krath]

Welcome to Armageddon.  I am usually online a MAJORITY of the day. Rather than posting
complaints and questions here from the hours of 8am EST -4:30PM EST
Email me at
petros.gheresus@siemens.com (work email) and after that time from 5pm EST-12midnight
AIM me at Thegreenmofo or email me at potroast_ex@yahoo.com  

I am more than willing to help you, so Please rather than take the chance of getting flamed
on here, Hit me up. Just CC: Mud@ginka.armageddon.Org.

Also Obvisouly after Wednesday, you can reach me at my AIM or Potroast email account
because it is a holiday and I will be home

[sarahjc]

You are cool Krath. This also goes back to my having a mentor thing too. So I thought I would stick that here since it didn't get much press.

I know a few people thought it was a cool idea, but I didn't get too much feedback on it.

I'd even be willing to apply to be a helper when the next app comes around.. But until that day, newbies please stay away. make no attempt to contact me. I preffer to ridicule you on this message board and use witty remarks like "Find out IC" and "That's IC info"

It would be cool if helpers were actually assigned to Newbies. Maybe each helper could get two or three of them each, with a three month drop off.  I think it's a cool idea because:

1. The Newbie now has a specialized person there to help just them. It's much more personal than just passing on a web page with a list of people.

2. I think you would find that a lot of the newbie questions would now get filtered through the helpers instead of on the boards.

It would be nice to see when a new person logs in, or gets approved for the first time a note that says:  

Hello Stinky Pants, welcome to the Armageddon mud community. We noticed that you are a brand new account. To help you adjust to our extremely detailed world we have assigned you one of our helpers. Please contact:

Sevendeadlyvenomz by the following means:

Sevy@seven11.com

Sevy@ilovesnowballing.net

Our helpers are highly knowledgeable and can answer a majority of your starting player questions, from game mechanics to basic social etiquette. Sevendeadlyvenomz has been notified that you are new player assigned to him/her and looks forward to hearing from you.  If you would like your helper to contact you,  please respond with a reply email stating "Yes, I would like my helper to contact me."

Also please visit out General discussion board at Yada, Yada..



Having one contact that you can depend on as opposed to just a list of strangers, in my opinion is a much better Ice-breaker for Newbies. I think it also promotes player retention, that we care enough to have a buddy system when just learning the ropes.

Just an idea though.

[Seeker]

I love the above two posts.


Seeker
Shameless Supporter

[Gaare]

I am with you Sarahjc. I really would like to see that kind of mentorship system in ARM.

[Kankman]

If I had to mentor with someone to play Armageddon I wouldn't have stayed around. I hate people. That said, its a good option to have. Of course, the option already exists in the form of helpers.. So..


Perhaps we should just make the fact that helpers exist more painful obvious, so that the only people who wouldn't know about them would be blind and therefore fairly unlikely to play anyways.

Kudos to our blind player.

[Kankman]

I just read the quote in Sarajc's post and I am official declaring myself an idiot.

[sarahjc]

I just read the quote in Sarajc's post and I am official declaring myself an idiot.

Well, at least that saves us the trouble, doesn't it??

:wink:

Nah, I don't think we should force helpers down people's throats. But if they want one, they are there and are there to personally help you.

[Rhyden]

Props to Krath  

[WarriorPoet]

Bump[/i] to resurrect an idea I think is fantastic, even if it does need some discussion.

I've seen a dozen obviously new players in the past couple of weeks, and half of them seemed eager to learn, but utterly clueless. Though I usually give a brief ooc with some encouragement and the link to the helper page, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to say," OOC: Hey man, I can see you're very new. Though you're doing well, I'd like to offer my services. My AIM is XXXX. If you'd like some tips on syntax and other things, or if you have any questions at all, please get at me. I'll be happy to help in any way I can."

I know it's frowned on to 'adopt' a newbie, but I have a burning desire to help these little guys along, be it through syntax help, or seeing them and arranging a little something or other to show them what RPing here is really like. Mebbe offer them a fistful of coins for a couple of handfuls of salt of some kind, a cheap dagger from the bazaar, a hat, some meat, or anything that will catch and, more importantly, keep their interest for awhile.

If I had the chance to adopt a newbie in-game, I would.  The Helpers are all well and good, but I know how frustrating it can be to look for a helper and find NOONE on the list on-line.

I wish a newbie, for their first character or three, had a command to toggle, that would let Immortals know they were looking for someone to help them along or at least interact with them. Say they toggle the 'mentor' command. This sends an echo to the Immortals and would allow them to come find me, who volunteered for such a task, where I sit in my clan-room, and send,"There happens to be a newbie in the Gaj. He seems eager to learn but is kind of confused, and is doubtless getting bored after two hours of rambling at the bartender. If your character is bored you might mosey over and buy him a drink. I'll give him your AIM, if it's okay, so you can work with him on syntax and things while you roleplay."

Just a vague idea, but one I think has merit. I know alot of the people I've tried to get into Armageddon have been discouraged by the sheer amount of confusion that we all probably experienced during our first few hours. I remember struggling with the emoting code for days before I finally got the trick. It would have been beautiful for a player to IM me with "You need to use the % symbol there, instead of ~"

/rambling. Just an idea I think could help us keep our newbies around in larger numbers and to make their first few hours more enjoyable.

-WP

[Revelations]

Perhaps for a future goal, we might have a newbie-land sort of place.  :wink:
Heh, I'm not crazy, I swear!  :roll:

Going with my idea though, have an option to go to this seperate OOC/IC place that newbies can go to get tutored by a few NPC's in a story-like fashion. At the hall of ancients, or whatever you call that place, they can pick to go to this location that would be sorta of IG but OOC in most regards, with helpers able to go there with pregenerated characters to help them out if needed, but most information would come from the NPC's. Most syntaxes could be learned there, along with a few neccesary IG knowledge. Thoughts, anyone?

[Anonymous]

Getting thrust right into the game and having to learn just the level of roleplay expected here is better training than any newbie land I've ever gone to.

[sacac]

That is the only reason I stayed.

[amoeba]

Perhaps for a future goal, we might have a newbie-land sort of place.  :wink:
Heh, I'm not crazy, I swear!  :roll:

Going with my idea though, have an option to go to this seperate OOC/IC place that newbies can go to get tutored by a few NPC's in a story-like fashion. At the hall of ancients, or whatever you call that place, they can pick to go to this location that would be sorta of IG but OOC in most regards, with helpers able to go there with pregenerated characters to help them out if needed, but most information would come from the NPC's. Most syntaxes could be learned there, along with a few neccesary IG knowledge. Thoughts, anyone?

This has been brought up quite a bit.  Search on Newbie and school.

One good link: http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8706

[Maybe42or54]

Sign me up to be a helper.

[Cuusardo]

Helpers are not brought on the way IMMs are.  You can email the mud about it anytime.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Sarah, while it is so bloody cute that you thought to include me in your example, I am going to take that little email thing personally.

J, smack your chick for me, please.