erm, I've heard the opposite, that novices are 'pushed off to newton to fast'

This is definitely false. GNT depends on your planar skill just like all other channels at the moment. If you have no knowledge of planar, you can't be heard from another plane. I don't know if the newbies can hear me or not though, but I think they can because I have broadcast. It used to be same plane only no matter what planar skill anyone had, but it was changed to work like other channels.

If it was supposed to be changed to be game-wide, then it's bugged.

Yes there are some novices who want to ask questions and will do so, but for the most part if someone is trying a new game, especially a M.U.D. they will give it an hour to see if they like it. If they like it after that hour they will stay longer, but when bouncing through mud listings, to see which one they like the best and will go back to, they don't want to spend all their time in just one.

If they have to spend 45 minutes of that "testing" hour sitting there listening to someone tell them the philosophy of Faethorn they will likely move onto a faster paced game.

Oh, I was reading it right. Well, what he said again.

Agreed.

However, it needs to be remembered that you still have a new player that needs to be taught gradually over the next few weeks. Too often people are fed the standard newbie intro then forgotten.

A casual question on gnt is sufficient to see if people's alts are OK, but new players often won't know what questions they should be asking and need more interaction.

And this really is the crux of the proplem as I see it. New players and alts have vastly different requirements and I think some way of identifying which is which at a casual glance would be helpful.

I've heard from many people that this turns them off to the game more than anything. I have also heard that teaching them for too long turns them off to the game. So... what are we supposed to do?

I've always tried to impress upon novice teachers that you just want to cover the basics, not give them too much or take too long. I agree with how many people might just be testing it out, so I want to make sure they have time (without having to spend too much time) to try playing as well before signing off. Aim first for concise presentation of basic information. If it's someone who already knows the ropes, by covering things quickly they won't get bored/impatient and will actually get some starting interaction without having to be bogged down or feel they should just sneak around and learn things on their own since they know how. If the newbie needs more detailed help, you can modify things to slow down and explain more fully (if you're paying attention and care enough to recognize that they do need more help, which is fairly obvious if you ask them to, for example, try creating their Nature Talisman so you can tell them how to use it to hunt and they sit there for a minute or two without doing anything ... fairly easy to recognize). If they want to be more involved and take more time from the start before doing something on their own, being of an attitude that's welcoming/allowing/encouraging questions if they have any will give them the opportunity to ask those questions, leading to a longer training session by their choice.

Easy, you plan for a basic training to get them going and having some fun right away, explain to them that if they have any questions at all you are there to help them and if you are not there to ask on GNT (and be sure that people in your guild do answer questions). If they seem really interested, and some really do want to know the history of that statue they see in your guild, and why Ridien talks to much, and what does that totem thing in the grove do, and why is your guild tutor a centaur, then you tell them. Let -them- lead the length of the intro.




Get out of my head! There is only room in there for one of me!

Hmm ... great minds think alike?

Arg! I'm starting my novice teaching career (by making an Alt) and first thing I get: Glommies sending a circle 2 to find the Tidal flats and try it there Poor novice I had to chat with her a while

I knew I was over-doing it.

Pssh, I've accidently gone over an hour and a half becuase they take so long reading.

Eh..I have trouble keeping it to half an hour. Not even sure how to cut it down because I am following our help scroll. I dont know, I dont like teaching because its pretty much all I ever did as Dia, the few others that worked in the Novice area can attest to how many novices we got daily. Its difficult and saddening to deal with the impatiant know-it-alls we sometimes get, and it does suck when youre stuck on a question theyve asked and then suddenly in tells they answer it or they fish for background stuff like what started with what and who did what and whos better than who and if the great fighters of the org is around and giving lessons.

New novices are nice, and they tend to thank you which is always nice because someone is taking the time to help them and give them advice. Guess a 'thank you' here and there would be the nicest thing I could ever recieve but it cant be forced from them.

Charune mentioned somewhere that we do sit around and ask whos going to teach, Im not going to deny that. We do, some of us do not want to teach, nor are some of us capable or ready to take that up cause they graduated just recently. We'd rather ask over GT for someone who does want to teach and is being a bit slow about answering that jumping right to it.

I really hope that ramble made sense. And sheds some light on why some people avoid it like the plague.

Next time I teach one, I'm gonna skip all the extra stuff I add and just teach the guild required stuff and see how long that takes me. (Last one I taught, I went into all kinds of extra stuff, including a tour of the city and explaining how desks work and stuff.)

One of the things I notice, that doesn't seem to happen any more is the quizzzesss! Over newbie. That was the most ahwesomestest thing that's ever happened in my life. I love it when the Guides are totally interactive. It was funny when Skein and Bobbins were bashing Spindle, and saying he ate novices and such. Fun, fun. I get gittery with quizes because I want to win, and show my ahwesomely good skillz of memorization. I find it fun when novices are interacted with like that, even if its over an aether.

Anyway, kind of went off topic but teaching novices isn't bad. Its just sometimes you don't know how to teach a novice. I think, perhaps, GA's could take undersecs. aside and possibly give a class on how to teach or just sit down and say "Ok, look. When you teach a novice, make it simple, to the point, and short as possible." While I don't think that the teaching process should be excessively long, I don't think it should be extremely short either. I enjoy the Nihilists training because quite often I've been told a little bit about the guild and city I'm in. It helps. What makes me sad, though I've done it myself...is when a novice appears, you teach, and poof! they're gone. Now...I feel sadder when my poor novice person says "hey! Might wanna read this to start, friend! Need help? Just ask me via tells or over GNT!" And then I go and honors them, and they're gone. *tear*

Might be the same reason we don't have quizzes in the moondancers anymore.. people just aren't interested. Whenever we get a really big load, maybe 6-10 novices around at once, I always see if any of them are interested.. last two times, I had no one interested, and just one interested.

My newbie experience so far has been really great. Admitted I am not a true newbie, since I have played a lot of text games before. The intro was a little blah, but not bad. Then I got online and puttered around a little, trying out the quests (which I love) and ran into some of my guildmates. I tagged after them and managed to coax a roughly three hour conversation from Tsakar about everything in Lusternia, entirely IC the whole time, from mythos to skills to how to be useful in the city and what I should do next, essentially covering everything a newbie needed to know, all the while giving me a tour of the main land and some of the villages and Nil. And I'd like to reinforce the fact that this was done entirely IC, with none of the "type this plz dude" which always grates at me. I was looking for some way to express esteem for him like in the other IRE games but I guess only gods can do that? So I guess my input is that while the automated things help, character to character interaction is the absolute best thing for newbies I think it can be really enjoyable for all parties, and while some newbies can be a pain, there are a lot of true newbies that also know the meaning of the word "roleplay". Anyway, my two cents.

Those were fun though to do eh?

I would be more than happy to have a personage in every guild, except you warrior guilds sorry mates just ain't a warrior, but alas...I can take only so much. <3 Quizzeess! But curious, you have prizes no?

Before I was dormant and still GM I made an effort to wrap up all the basics within 15-20 minutes, sometimes less and tried to impress this upon other guild aides. I'm actually in the process of trying out the new intro now to see what it's like since this wasn't available when I first started.