In novice training, I touch on that as part of the brief explanation of Totems. Something like this:


Adds a little RP flavour, gives our guild perspective, is fairly short. If the individual novice is interested/curious and wants a more in-depth explanation, they tend to ask at that point or later on ... but that's on their own initiative.




Really though, any person capable of inguilding worth his/her salt is still going to ask something like that. Why do you want to join us, what interests you about the , what do you know about the , what questions do you have about the . Just because something is available doesn't mean people take advantage of it (case in point, newbies who would have benefitted from the tutorial don't go through it ... or those who think they want to join a guild without knowing anything about it, regardless of various sources of information in-game and on the website). I've had people approach me about joining the Moondancers, and when I inquired what interested them, or what they knew about the guild, or why they wanted to join, they've sent me a tell saying that they're a wiccan IRL. And that's their entire reason/knowledge. It's something y'have to ask, so you know when you have to give them better information about what they think they're interested in. So they actually know why they are or why they aren't really interested in joining and what to expect.

I'm not sure whether to just assume they don't realize this has nothing to with real Wicca, or be terribly, terribly scared of whatever sort of Wicca they actually practice.

Well, there is a sort of fairy magick practiced by some Wiccans IRL

Sure, but I've yet to see faeries popping out of planar portals and people being turned into toads.

You're just not going to the right parties then!

You haven't met my aunt She says they were born that way, but c'mon...

Sure I have. I just got stuck being the one cooking the biscuits and running for snacks because I wouldn't be arrested if a cop saw me walking down the street.

The reason I stopped giving out enchantments was that I found that novices get confused when you try to explain how it works to them. Especially when you try to tell them how to recharge it. Usually its because they get overwhelmed by all the healing techniques (sleep, meditate, sip), and only after they manage to digest those first, then will they understand jewelry. And besides, I've lost quite a bit giving jewelry out to novices who never come back. So all I do now is to give a vial of mana if they were attentive and likely to stay, and point out where the novice shop is and ask them to ask questions if they have any.

I always be sure to give novices a cheap comm like rope for them to practice with the rift. It helps them understand it much better, plus I get brownie points.(For all you Wiccans, pardon the pun.)

I usually give 20 coltsfoot. Being an herbalist who lives in the forest, it's cheap, it's easy, it's useful, and it's appreciated.

I doubt I would still be playing Lusternia right now if Xenthos hadn't taken me to Shallach to hunt, taught me about the skills, and answered all of the newbie questions that I had.

Yeah. I can't do that right now, though.

Ah well. Mag hates newbies!

And Glom needs more people to take care of em. Seren needs to shape up some programs and apathy. Celest needs to stop snuggling theirs.

I wholeheartedly agree. Shayle's attitude in-game towards people in general would make me not want to play, if I were just testing the waters. The whole Glomdoring is everything RP is fine, but when you start making it into DO EXACTLY AS I TELL YOU ALL THE TIME and act like a total nutcase, and threaten them with being outguilded or outcitizened... You need some lessons in How To Deal With People Effectively. I've dealt with this on Richter and other alts, and as a general rule, I just try to stay as far away from her as possible.

Oh, the horror. You're expected to actually be a member of the Commune! You have to defend when you're being attacked, you should learn the correct lessons so you don't drown in the Glomdoring's river!

To be honest, Richter didn't really "deal with it" very well. I don't know about your other alts, but Richter himself was the prime example of a character who did everything for himself and not for the Glomdoring, after he retired from Ebonguard GA. There were a lot of reasons, but both you and I know that he didn't really fit Glomdoring's RP at all by that point. I remember a conversation with you IC in which Richter stated that he didn't like Glomdoring much, but he didn't want to leave because then he'd be "free game" for every other org who hated him.

We're a small Commune. We tend to keep pretty close tabs on those who are around, make sure that they are doing well, make sure that they're not making silly mistakes like forgetting to learn athletics to breathe deep so that they don't burn all their endurance. That's not a "nutcase". That's being concerned about our members. If you are backtalking? Yes, there can be some stern responses for that.

Again, I don't know what happened with your alts, but Richter earned a fair bit of ire from Shayle IC, and that's no cause to attack her OOCly with that. And that really IS a personal attack, which a moderator of these forums should NOT be engaging in. I'm rather disappointed in you.

She was actually really nice to one of my glom alts.

It's not a personal attack at all, but rather an observation on the way that Shayle plays her character, and the ooc ramifications it may have on other players. I have no problem with her as a person, but every once in a while, some people who are a little more hardcore need to Tone It Down, especially for newbies. I don't really have all that much of a problem in the way that I was treated in Glomdoring, because I know that I didn't fit in. If other newbies have not encountered similar problems with her or other players that roleplay as hardcore and overbearing, then perhaps it's not actually a problem. *shrug*

so again, if the admins really want to have retention of newbies a critical KPI - offer sticks and carrots.

How about adding a category to TOPGUILDS of retention rate - defined as the number of newbies (defined as characters in the first 2 hours of play time) who go on to log 24 hours in your guild divided by total number of newbies (same definition) who enlist in your guild. You could leave this as a running total or reset it every month or something.

Give the top 2 guilds in retention rate a 10% and 5% bonus on credits they receive from player purchases, give the bottom guild a 10% penalty. It won't make vast amounts of difference to the number of credits going to guilds, but who will want to be last?

Yes its possible that some individuals will try creating lots of alts to lower some other guild's retention rate - but making that a shrubbing offense and screeening IP's of newbies who drop out would fix that. You could simply make it straight completion rate (24 hrs of logged time) but that would be a bit unfair on the guilds that don't attract as many novices for some reason (like all the glom ones that eternally sit at the bottom of TOPGUILDS).

as i'm sure someone will misinterpret what i just posted, i mean the credits a guild receives from player purchases, not what individual players get, and a 10% bonus on the 5%, meaning 5.5%, not 15%.

I've only managed to browse through some of the suggestions, so if the suggestions below have been mentioned before, ignore them.

1) I understand the need to make new players read policies and help newplayers, I don't really have a better suggestion for this, but when coming out of the journey, one gets 'spammed' with info overload, plus if at peak time and in a larger guild, they have the guild greeting and welcoming them at the same time.
Perhaps a slight delay in announcing the arrival of a new guild member can be done, allowing the new player to read the help files intended.

2) This has always annoyed me a little. The fact that the end of the journey does not point to the guild's HELP GUILDNOVICES (guild name) does not help the newbie or the guild to get introduced immediately. Most guilds have a nice one written up and it seems like a waste that it does not get used much. It worked in Achaea when they still had guilds, I don't see why it shouldn't be made used of in Lusternia. Specially considering there are times when Lusternia has like only 20 people in total on prime.

3) If the GNT channel could be coloured bright green or purple from the start, that will also help the new novices see what the guild is speaking to them. I have come across several newbies who did not realise anyone was talking to them. Something many people forget when speaking to new ones is that often times the new player does not know how to respond back. so informing them how to use GNT or TELL (name) (message) is important as well.

4) Oh and move away from the nexus, or main teacher when teaching, it goes much faster for one when the new one has less 'spam' to read through and can concentrate on what the teacher is saying instead of on random speeches from npcs, people teleporting in and out, etc.

5) Just random rant, why not make the newbie go to PORTALS instead of OUT to the mountains. That way they learn about portals right away, instead of the guild's having to explain to them how to do so.

That's it.