Val-brother,

The best way to really make novices love Glomdoring is to immerse them into it, and teach them at the same time. Collegium's help with that, but player to player involvement is great for making people feel welcome and eager to help out. Gregori's idea of novice packs is costly, but a good idea nonetheless. Knowing you, brother. You should be able to keep novices if you're Ambassador, we are of the same mind afterall.

This is a dupe post because the hotel's Internet connection is so sucky, it makes me miss my satellite Internet.

I'll add three more suggestions.

1) Offer but do not insist. Make this a watchword of everything about novice training, and I mean everything. Don't ever force novices to do something other than what the game forces them to do. Don't require them to train a particular way, or at a particular time, or to do things in a particular order. Ever. If your roleplay requires you to force them to do something (other than be loyal and things like that), change it. The temptation to force novices to do something is so great most guilds don't even realize they're doing it, but the novices do. Especially the ones you never saw again. Let the novice decide what they need and just make sure that it's there waiting for them.

2) Over time, there is a temptation to pile more and more and more onto the novices. If the welcome scroll is a little long, and one day a novice misses an important fact and gets discouraged and leaves, someone will suggest adding that to the welcome scroll. Or to the novice intro, or to the list of suggested reading, or something. Makes sense: today a novice left forever because we didn't teach them X, so let's teach them all X from now on. Unfortunately it's wrong. That welcome scroll is going to be around for years, and once something's in it, it will take an Act of God to get rid of it. Resist at every turn every encouragement to add stuff. Yes, people need to learn stuff, but they don't have to learn it all on the first day. You'll lose a lot more people to the overwhelming and cumbersome stuff than you ever would to someone missing one little thing.

3) Ask some novices what they think was missing. Don't take any single answer too much to heart: remember, the novices themselves don't have the whole picture, so their answers aren't perfect. But they're a part of the picture, and one that people too often don't get. Don't ask the people who've been around forever in your guild. They are not only non-representative samples, they're probably people who would have gotten to where they did with zero help anyway. Ask the people who you've seen around a few times, who recently graduated, but who haven't drawn attention to themselves, and then average the answers of many of them, and zero in on things a lot of them said.

By the way, I don't like the novice packs thing partly because for every novice who's glad to have it, there'll be one who's put off by the sense of how much they need. Plus I don't think it's sustainable. Give them enough to keep them from being discouraged, but not everything, so they still have to do some things for themselves. My guild gives them 5 each of 12 key herbs, because finding them all is frustrating, and it helps us teach them how to use the rift, and they feel very appreciative. But we don't give them vials: they already got some from the Fates, and what's left, finding those helps them learn other things they need to learn. We provide a source for lutes when their first ones run out, at no cost, except this: they have to follow a GHELP to get to the guildhall to get them. And then there's the free instrument at graduation, because an instrument is a big expense and having to buy one feels like a setback just when they're graduating and should feel encouraged, and because the passing of the instrument to them marks the graduation itself as a moment of importance. I think if we gave them more than that, we'd be eroding the good we're doing by giving them what we do.

Having a Glom alt who's only recently come out of novicehood, I think I'll offer the little experience I had with that character.

I can't say I had a great teaching experience, because I skipped asking on CGT for a teacher (since I already knew all that stuff anyway, no point doing lip service... unless it would gratify you in some way?). The length of the CGT scrolls seems ok: you're not asking us to read every possible scroll in either the collegium or guild indices/indexes. They covered, in my opinion, what was needed and encouraged asking questions on CGT if there was ever a question that needed answering. I suppose I could say Brennan was cool. Never said no to me or delayed on typing OK while I was learning.

As for asking questions on CGT, I did very little of that too, except for asking for help with a few of the quests to which I got a prompt response. Kudos for that; sometimes it takes a while for a novice to get someone in Celest to help them get to Astral. I agree with Nazin, though: CGT and CT are usually very quiet, but I can't say I've seen a question go unanswered on CGT. I'm also on Pacific time, but maybe I'm still on earlier? I remember from a while ago that the only thing you would EVER see on CT was NMBG and GBTG, but that's calmed down a lot lately. Eliron seems to be the only one still doing it often. Keep the fanaticism at low levels! NMBG is disturbing to hear over and over and over again (imo)!

Post-collegium, the Blacktalon have been really great. Dowapaa and Arilyon both made themselves available for advancement tasks, which is greatly appreciated - especially since Arilyon is GM, and I know that having an elected position can leave you quite busy. All of my questions about Druidry skills have been answered very quickly so far, and Nyir was very good about helping me learn about carving totems. Dowapaa especially was very good about checking up on my progress when I was in collegium/novicehood. I'll drop the suggestion to favour her, IG, at least to the Blacktalon leadership!

Oh, and Yeralih gave me vials and pointed me where I could get them filled up with all the things I needed for advancement tasks. (And you guys have allheale! I can't find it anywhere in Celest, and Glom has it cheap! Damn alchemists with their ready access to herbs. >.<) I like aid along this line: meet the novice half-way. Give them empty vials, but tell them where they can get cheap refills and how to make the gold to afford it. Glomdoring seems to be doing a good job along these lines, though I haven't really poked around and asked other novices how their experiences have been in this regard (i.e., have they gotten free handouts?). But I like. I think this alt might just be a keeper. At the very least, he'll have a longer lifespan than all my other alts (avg. 2 weeks).

No tl;dr summary! Less laziness, more reading!

EDIT: Although I'm not a member of the Shadow Envoys clan. Lack of attentiveness on your collective part.

When I first started and was in a class that had a basic attack that used mana, some kind soul, I don't remember who, gave me a ring with perfection on it and a health and mana potion. I just thought it was the best thing ever and that I was totally decked out to take on the world.

Of course I wasn't but at my size it made all the difference in the world. Maybe a tiered approach would be a better idea. Just a couple of the most basic things before 21 and then after 21 a check in to see if there is anything needed that they are unable to afford themselves.

I think there is value in working toward a goal of being able to get new gear and stuff.

Just as in any MMO, I often find the thing that keeps me on a character is the daily interactions. People they meet every day and interact with reliably. I was fortunate in that someone was willing to be a punching bag for my Nekotai, so I was able to get a primer in how newbiekata works. Still working on the not-so-newbie stuff, but that takes time and less squishy punching bags than I'd have had as a novice. I liked the fact that guild leadership isn't above making themselves available to novices as well, meaning I had plenty of help along the way.

The big thing is the one no one really has much control over, and that's being available fairly consistently. Not just when the newbie has questions either. Pop in and ask how they're doing. If they're in your guild, encourage them to go for advancement tasks. My moondancer is just now hitting GR2 because I'd never really felt the desire to push him through the guild. No one ever really talks to him about it, so he, and I, rarely think on it. Whereas the Nekotai was GR2 or GR3 within about a RL week of stepping through the portal. Fairly certain he's GR3, but I need to double check that.

Anyway, tl;dr summary:
Make yourself available, be consistent. Glom is good about giving the sense of detachment anyway, you don't need to go out of the way to encourage it in the novice.

Of course Dowa was good to you, she's the best!

Shameless!

You be quiet, I'm right and you know it.

Just make sure she gets her sparkleberry.

You know, Val... if you gave the herbs and powerstones, Myrkr would do kegs for free for the novices. (AND ONLY THE NOVICES!)

When I was in the Moondancers, whenever I taught a novice and sent them off to Newton I had my sprite follow them. It made bashing -immensely- easier for them. I got quite a few "wow. Thank you!" for that, so that made the time spent on teaching them totally worth it.

Yeah. The Shadowdancers (well, Shayle at least) always did that, too. They were usually so excited.

It's awesome.

If one novice looked promising I occasionally bought them a perfection ring too and told them how to use it. For some classes having regeneration enchants is -really- of advantage. But the novice-vanish rate is pretty high so yeah.. perhaps you can give it out to novices, but have them actively -ask- for it? It may help to sort out those that QQ to never be seen again shortly after creation.

We also used to stock 40+ mercy/perfection rings in the novice shop at a time and replace them once they started getting low. We didn't get enough newbies to run through them very quickly, even with a lot of the newer ones getting pointed in that direction, so it worked out pretty well. It was nice to be able to point them to the shop when they were complaining about health/mana regeneration.

There was a small charge (we sold them around cost for production), but even so... they were cheap Glom-customized rings and were not very expensive at all. Was nice while it lasted, at least.

You know. That makes me want to do that for the Shofangi (just so I have an excuse to create a ring design really). We only get few novices too so it should be affordable. Plus I could use shop codes more *squeal*.

Thief!

If you need a jeweller, let me know! Together, we shall steal all of Glomdoring's ideas!

Vaaaader!

Well, I'm not what you consider a "newbie," but as a recent Mag to Glom convert, I have some observations. I don't want to compare the two orgs-- as its apples to oranges; but there are some things that worked for Mag that I think would also work for Glom. Hope this is all positive criticism.

First, I love the deep RP atmosphere of Glom; however, the CGHELP files on guilds were a bit tough to follow. As a newb, I would rather see CGHELP NEKOTAI rather than CGHELP STING. Let the GHELP files reflect these RP intricacies, and keep the college files simple to index. I would rather see CGHELP NEKOTAI at the college level.

Many of the CGHELP in conjunction with the CHELP files are very well written-- they give away just enough to give newbs good info on college quests. CGHELP POWER, PLANAR, GEOGRAPHY, and MAPS. Though I was sad not to see anything for influencing. Thank god the Glom influencing quest was tons easier than Mag's, but all the same. Influencing isn't always easy or intuitive for newbs. Would love to see a help file.

Along the same lines, the organization (particularly the Nekotai GHELP) makes great efforts to inform newbies about enhancements. Kudos! Though I would love to learn more about the mechanics and roleplay info behind SHADOWDANCE and the BLACK EGGS. Poked around a bit, and haven't seen anything.

Outside of a few help files, keep the city shops well stocked. I believe there are plenty enchantments and kegs to be had. Though my character is having a tough time acquiring a pair of nekai-- not even a cheap pair (which I would define as the 3000 gold range). Not even in the manse stores such as Attai. Hopefully a persistent newb could manage to use the market channel to have some forged. Would love to see a city store reasonably stocked for this purpose.

When I first started out in Glomdoring waaay back in the spring, it wasn't that bad since I had a friend who's been playing a while and helped me through my collegium OOCly (because I, being shy, avoided talking on CGT).

And then Ried met Emar, and everything changed. He was so involved in RP and was an amazing mentor for her. He answered whatever questions she had and even sat down to have meandering conversations with her. He'd tell her stories. Dylara too, when they met, was a great influence on my staying in Glomdoring. In fact, it wasn't until after GR1 that I really enjoyed being in the Blacktalon.

Later, the tables turned: I ended up being the one on the look-out for newbies. I made it a personal goal to talk with each Fledgling at least once, see how they're doing, answer any questions, point them in the right direction - even help them with their collegium quests. If they liked my company, they spoke with me longer and I tried to get their interest piqued. However, it was a matter of "Did the player have time?" and "Did the player like what they found in Glomdoring?" because oftentimes these newbies were fleeting. I'd like to think I did a good job, but...

And then I created an alt. Granted, I didn't really need to ask anyone on CGT since I knew how to learn my skills, etc. and when I did ask, people were prompt and gladly helped me out. Someone even checked on me to see if my training was going well, which I'm thankful for. However, what struck me was it was only one person. Out of all of the guild members awake (which, granted, are not many) at any given time, only one bothered to talk with me. Sure, I should initiate conversation, but not many newbie players do. Shyness, maybe, or fear. That's what I was like when I first started Ried, and if an older guild members initiate conversation beyond "How are you doing? Good." then it makes it easier on those kinds of new players, and makes them interested, and keeps them.

Those are just my two sovereigns, anyway.