I tried not to stay too long, but stayed long enough to get an idea or a good impression. And I listened to newbie and GNT, but most of the time no novices were asking for help. I think I even helped another novice or two in tells.

Yeah, that's a silly question. It could just as easily been another real novice taking time from the first. It also doesn't get a true assessment if you only aim for times with no other novices. I'm not going to say Imperian has absolutely crap novice training, because I purposely create my alts at three am when no one is showing on HELP .

My best novice experiences have been in Glomdoring and Magnagora - though Celest and Serenwilde can be great, they don't seem to be as consistant, the Paladins and Serenguard especially. Glomdoring suffers from its low playerbase, however, and the Shadowdancers can sometimes be overwhelming, which might drive off less rabid novices.

I have a toon in Glomdoring right now... sadly... only novices from my guild are on.

I figured the "Evil" people would have less people in it , but that also means less people to get help from . Ah well... considering how yesterday went when people were on, I'll be fine. They were helpfull.

Lusternia really doesnt have evil orgs.. Theyre good in their own ways and evil in their own ways.

And thats why I'm a newbie

And now you now know.

Lusternia's good and evil concepts are not based on morals, but on what is essentially beneficial or harmful to a certain organization. *sagenod*

"Everyone's evil but me"

well, with the exception of Magnagora

"Everyone's an ignorant but me... seriously people TAINT FTW"

Actually, Glom is the newest org, hence the relatively low playerbase. It's been around half as long as the othe three.

More like 3/4 as long. It's had more than enough time. Most of the original (first six months) playerbase is long-since recycled anyway.

The game started in the year 100, glomdoring started in the year 115, I think its currently 156.

anything about glomdoring, has nothing to do with its relative age. (though it might have some things to do with the history)

You certainly had a better expierience then I just had...

I created an Ur'Guard alt recently and the person who was training me (no names mentioned) took an hour and a half to go through all of the dogma of the Ur'Guard, describe the two GHELP scrolls that had the dogma in them, and then have me say them in my own words, and eventually get the actual learning done. If any real newbie had come, he might have just gotten real board real fast. The RP was good, but a brand new newbie doesn't care about the dogma of the guild right at the start. He's more interested in getting to the killing, and actually exploring the game, not the dogma of the guild.

Let any person who comes through, get them the lessons needed, get them ready to go, but don't bore them with the dogma of the guild right out of the portal. Wait till after Newton and the newbie has had a chance to explore around.

I personally believe that you *need* to give them *some* hint of what you're about before you send them off to Newton. Maybe not an hour and a half worth, but at least 2 minutes of "this is what we're about, this is what we expect."

I've found that novices who are told that earlier are better at crafting their character / fitting this than if they don't learn until later in their life, when they're already used to "being unrestrained".

A little is good, but yeah... all that time is waaay too much. Usually I give a small bit of who we are, and then ask them if they have questions. I only give a longer history to those who ask and keep wanting more.

While I agree that an hour and a half seems excessive for an introduction, it's reassuring to know that there are players prepared to give novices that level of time and attention.

For skills, experience is often the best instructor, and offering the novice a brief explanation of how to use the skills available to them, coupled with the opportunity to do so, usually works well. That said, I've always thought novicehood to be as much about becoming acquainted with the views and purpose of a guild, as with the skills that it offers. The guild histories given on the main site are, by necessity, brief, and a sweeping statement of principle by a more experience guild member is likely to go a long way towards helping the novice determine whether the guild is, or is not, suitable for them.

Reading the previous few posts, I do agree that SOME background of the guild is nececessary.
IE:
Welcome to the X!
Read GHELP Y, GHELP Z, and GHELP A
When you're done, please use GNT to let us know that you're done.

Then, when you're with the Newbie, give them their lessons, and then give them a BRIEF overview of the guild, that will let them know what they are up against, and answer any questions that they have.

But if you're going to bore them for an hour and a F-ing half, go and do something else.

I swear, I felt like suiciding my Ur'Guard alt and just going back to bashing stuff on water/Toronada with my main during that grilling session...

I still don't know where you gave the Ur'Guard an A+ and the Aquamancers a C-...

It always depends on who is around and what time of day and whats going on. When Reiha went around it was far different than when you went to the Ur'guard because you probably did not get the same people.

I created an alt and joined a certain Guild that I will not name because I'm not into hurting feelings and the like. At any rate, she was given a list of files to read and told to announce over gnt when she finished. She read them and asked for a tutor over gnt. One Undersecretary said she would train her and told her to hold on a few moments. My character waited, and waited, and waited. After a good 30 minutes to an hour, she just read the selftraining file and went to the city tutor. It kinda made me mad because when I got to the city tutor and began to learn, I saw this person there having a grand time!

People were very, very helpful when Reiha first joined the Aquamancers (coming over from Magnagora)! But as Dia mentioned, this was only one instance.

This was one big-fat-test-run-done-in-a-day (sort of), and I do not plan on doing this again. By the way, Ortia doesn't count. She existed purely to soothe Orti's lonely soul.

Though, I must admit, the Ur'guard RP can be very intense - except if Ildaudid is training you