Help that newbie elf!

[Sanvean]

The person who is a newbie and gets some help, whether it's an OOC suggestion or an IM from a helper, is much more likely to stick around and become part of our world than the person who is not. By my estimate, about 1 out of every 10 people who try the game stick around for more than a day, and I'd be ecstatic to get that number up. But the only way that's going to happen is if a) we discover a way to beam the docs directly into people's brains or b) are willing to be helpful.

A similar situation might be how we treat applications. If I'm looking at an application and it's the person's first (or even 2nd or 3rd, given how fast characters can die) application, I will fix things that I might reject in an application by an experienced player. This may include rewriting their description or background - or even supplying one if it's been left out. I want to make getting people hooked on the game as easy as possible. And the important thing there is that it's not a case of lowering standards - I don't say "Oh, that person has a one-line description but they're new, so I'll approve it" - I say "They're new, I'll help them make the description fit our standards." and add what's missing.

The docs are a substantial investment in time - to a daunting degree, and I can understand where a new player might want to see what the world is like before investing that time. They'll enjoy it more if they look at them beforehand, absolutely, but I'm not going to make someone take a quiz on the elf helpfile in order to play. Get them addicted and then they'll read them on their own. The Quickstart Shaleah came up with addresses that a little, and I'm interested in seeing how well it works.

When I've been in situations where helping a person would be out of character to me, I take it to OOC and I'm willing to keep it there until they're prepared and ready to plunge back into the world of IC with me. Is it inconvenient and an interruption to play? Perhaps sometimes - but it also means I'm helping make sure there's people for me to immerse myself in the story with later on down the line.

I appreciate the people who help newbies because it's an important part of keeping this game alive. I think the helpers are swell, and I'll gladly buy any of them a beer at the APM.

[Dan]

I happen to be underage, and not an official helper. I try to help newbies in the game as I see them, in as much of an IC manner as possible too.

To get to the point: If I come to the APM, will you buy me a beer?

EDIT: Oops, realised I hadn't offered anything to the discussion-


I think of elves as that guy you know that deals in some hard drugs or something, but you don't know what. You'd go to him if you needed something in that way, either it be information about it, or the actual substance. He wouldn't think twice about taking a loan and not paying it back. In short, you deal with them if you have a reason, but you should be suspicious the wole time as well.

As far as newbies come into this, I think it ought to be even more stressed that they aren't suited for newer players.

[crymerci]

Edit: Er, nevermind.  Thought I was in derail thread.

[Dracul]

Note, Im a bastard who only read a few of the first posts before replying.

Especially if your friend would read this I'd like to apologize, I think I might have been one of the couple of people involved in an event.

A character of mine was trying to have a meeting with someone, and the elf was obviously a newbie, intruding and asking for a job. (time was short, and I tried to convey but never used an ooc comment, maybe I should have)  Pretty much brushed them off with some rp...but I really --meant-- to brush them off...go find them...and show them the way zalanthas really is with a pair of razor edged kidd gloves .


Ahh well...newbies are great, give them a little ooc time to get the game,so at least when they catch on to grasp the game well. The type of newbies I hate are ones that seem to catch on...and then never end up catching on, ever.

[Mar]

"A character of mine was trying to have a meeting with someone, and the elf was obviously a newbie, intruding and asking for a job."

Well, do not need apologize, because it probably wasnt me :-) How many other elf newbies are wandering here around? It looks like I am not only one in troubles, maybe I should start to find another newbie like me and we can... figure things together IC :-) Of course, if looks like that -all- other newbies like me are in ´nak... hmph.

Mar

[Anonymous]

Don't dilute the harshness because of some people not reading/grasping the help files and documentation.

Good that people showed her disgust and didn't go out of their way to help her! Yes, she's a newbie, but there's already some experience under her belt. She now has a better feeling of how things are. Surely it's a truer welcome to the world then if people are nice and friendly to her (as an elf). There are ways to be helpful and still show your revulsion, but as the norm -is- to dislike elves, surely we should try to convey that to newbies, and what's better than immersing them in it IG? As long as people roleplay, i don't see the problem. Worst case is newbie elf leaves because it's not Middle Earth and people don't likes elves.  :roll:

I only gave the docs a cursory glimpse before diving in (and i don't see how they can make it clearer that elves are hard to start with), but as soon as i was in i realised that it was a serious, involving game, and in order to respect the people who played it i'd better read more as quickly as possible and fit in as best i could with the detailed world already created.

Inconsistencies between the docs and how people play social and cultural norms is far more confusing when you're new - because you feel strange and abnormal for doing what -is- meant to be normal.

The quickstart is great by the way.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be great if chargen would be modified to include a warning when picking a race other than human and requiring input from the user.

*WARNING* You have selected $race.  Typically elves, half-elves and to a lesser degree dwarves, suffer from varying degrees of hatred from the most populace race on Zalanthas, humans.  Most notably elves are not viewed as the tall, fair and upright race found in other fantasy settings.  Elves are viewed as thieves and assassins who can't be trusted.  Because they are.

[Dracul]

"and show them the way zalanthas really is with a pair of razor edged kidd gloves"


Let me elaborate on that, when figuring out someone is a newbie I like to help show them the game a little. If they're an elf show them somehow that theyre discriminated agains, if I'm an elf, scam them a little. I think the best way to take a newbie is to give them some good solid rp, even if its trivial stuff, and if you have the certain character, fuck with them, go with everything ICly, with some subtle ooc hints to guide them, etc.

Like an elf helping out a newbie: Describing the city to him...telling him a bit about what he thinks about others...getting him to hand over some sid...etc.

[Krath]

I will go out of my way to help a newbie.

[jmordetsky]

I just pretend newbies are crazy....

...before killing them of course.

Just kidding.

Well...Maybe.

[Cenghiz]

Please don't flame me but, I become totally OOC when I'm alone with a newbie. Why? I was one. I read at least three books a week but it was still hard to devour the whole documentation. Why not to be OOC if you're not going to mess anyone's RP?
As the last word, I tell them that this never happened IC. I would ignore the elf, kick the halfbreed's a**, check my pack and go away. Of course saying:
>tell elf -chuckling Yey.. Why didn't you still get some weapons? Go kill a templar. I'm waiting for yeh 'ere.

... is fun too, I'm sure I'll be too tempted by Satan and do that one day, but not these days.