We do, yeah. They need a "mentor" to graduate early from the 10-hour-novicehood (used to be from the 25-hour-novicehood but colleges changed that). Either official or unofficial.

Then Paladins stole the "Ward of" title from us. Hmph.

However, a lot of true newbies don't try to rush through the novice thing, and the mentor part never comes up in any tasks after that. It's not a huge deal, we mostly have it in the quick advance thing to give true newbies a way to forge a connection with someone early on in order to try to get help as-needed. I also prefer it where it is for us instead of as a GR1 task, because they have an option of bypassing it completely if they don't want a mentor.

The positive effects of the mentor system outweigh the negative ones, I believe. Personally, I would get extra skeptical if someone who barely knows me asks whether I would like them as a mentor. From what I've heard so far, the people who are really 'successful' as mentors are those who get in touch with new players alot and are generally helpful; normally, the people they help out will ask them to become their mentor at a certain point.
The only person who ever approached me about mentorship suicided the day afterwards and I never address people about mentorship myself, so uh. Yea, I've HEARD of good experiences with mentorship.

I think the newbie tour should probably mention the benefits of seeking out a knowledgeable and helpful mentor, so those of us who want to mentor don't have to feel like we're pushing it on them.

No one will ever become powerful off the credits gained from mentoring a few kids, though. I think I've earned about 100 credits from protege purchases in the 5+ years I've been here.

problem with the paladins is that they allow unofficial ones if you are either to old or already had one before joining. But I have seen drama when a novice takes an official mentor outside the paladins (in this case it was a moondancer), and imo that should be off limits. If that moondancer helps the novice better then any other paladins then leave it be. Heck Celest was not even at war with serenwilde at that time.

Don't know what the current leadership's view is on it though

I always thought the mentor system worked, so long as you don't happen to have that bad-experience-mentor, which I always thought was the exception and not the majority. Personally, I have never received credits for it.

The purpose for the Paladin mentor system is to not only give the novice the go-to person to get them established, but to also have the mentor give a final recommendation for Knighthood. Yes, mentors have made Squires "grow up" a bit before allowing them to advance.

Also, getting to level 50, or whatever the game mechanic is, is not the only requirement to be recognized as a Paladin guild mentor. You must have become a full Knighthood Order member (basically as high as you can go through guild advancement, beyond being a Knight). So, it really isn't just some schmoe (in theory). It's pretty much "forbidden" that an unadvanced Paladin take on another Paladin protege.



Even though they are encouraged to take a Paladin mentor, there have been people with outside mentors. They simply need an unofficial mentor to sponsor them for the guild progression.

Tahtetso had a similar thing I came up with, a Master/Disciple program, which optionally could include Mentor/Protege. The Master was required (among other things) to be involved in certain portions of the Disciple's advancement rituals, and there were a few social rules involved in the relationship to include having the relationship nulled by the Grandmasters if the Master were unable to keep up with their duties to their Disciple(s). That was the only place I ever knew Mentor to be brought up in any way in Tahtetso guild files. And again, it was recommended, but not required.

All of that got deleted sometime ago while I was away. I need to see about getting all of that back into the guild again. The lack of guild culture issue mentioned elsewhere was something I'd intended for this to help address, but I had to stop playing before it took off.

Had it not been for the first mentor I ever had on Achaea, I would not be here, would not have enjoyed Imperian before it sucked, and most definitely would not have continued to play Achaea. That person was incredibly supportive - as well as the other people who had offered to mentor me. I had endless streams of questions that they patiently answered, they helped me get back on my feet in game or deal with enemy statuses I happened to 'accidently' accrue..

Good times. I've always tried to provide that kind of support to my proteges in any game, but I've sadly gotten nobody in Lusternia.


EDIT: What I'm saying is, the mentor program is only as good as the players involved in it on a relationship of mentor to protege basis. Some mentors suck. Some do not. Some proteges do not use the system fully. Some do.

I like the mentor system and no, I haven't really got a whole lot of credits from it aside from one of my proteges. I don't ever approach people about being a mentor for them, most people know what I do and if that is what they are into and they want me to help them with that, then they'll ask me to mentor them. My most recent protege said that he had a glom character years ago that he tried out and he said that they weren't helpful at all to him and so he just quit playing and started playing again recently and asked me to be his mentor and I took him and helped him, taken him hunting occasionally, etc and he said it has been a much more pleasurable experience and he has decided to stick around this time. I feel that having someone as your mentor makes you feel more connected to that person and gives you the feeling of being able to ask said person whatever, whenever to get the help you need. My first mentor was on Achaea, a character named Arelas and another mentored by Gaillardia and Lusternia I had Zalana who was very helpful with various things and her being married to Daevos who helped me occasionally was even better.

I love those credits.




Oh wait, no... I mean I love to mentor new people!

I always offer to mentor any novices I teach unless they already have one, simply because it allows me to keep track of the novices comming and going, it most certainly has no paid off much, with only one protege buying any credits. I think it's a good system.

One thing that does disturb me, who's just said 'go bug your mentor'? I've never seen that.

This annoys me to no end. We had a person in the guild this morning tell a novice "Go ask your mentor" and when the novice said "I don't have one yet" the person responded with "Then you should wait to ask questions till you do have one"

I ended up answering the question for him, but the situation bothered me. Since when is the novice channel for guilds not meant for them to ask questions about their guild on?

I'm tempted to go with, "Name and shame" here.

Hi. Met me yet?


I've mentored probably 20 people between all my alts. Only perhaps 3 have purchased credits, and those are mostly "buy some so I don't get erased" puchases. 95% of my proteges may be alts, I don't know and I don't care. I try to treat every protege as if they are my best friend. I take them hunting if they want, I usually try to show them the odd quest or two, and I never mention buying credits. Ever. I've actually had some tell me, "I don't buy credits" and I tell them that I don't care, I don't offer to mentor for credits. If I wanted credits, I can guide, write a bardic, or gamble up the gold for it. Now, I'll admit that I'm a terrible mentor in the way that most mentors are supposed to -show- their proteges stuff, while I tend to walk them through it, buy them their first basic enchantments/herbs/vials instead of showing them how to make the gold, and so on.

I've also had some people mentor alts of mine that they might or might not have known who I was, and I've only had one mentor ask if I were planning on buying credits.

I suppose there are good mentors and bad. I'm not against removing the credit reward for a protege buying credits, but I'd still like to see it as optional. If a protege buys credits and feels like their mentor has worked their ass off and made the player feel welcome, there should be a way to reward them. Hell, there are plenty of people who can't get credits any other way.

This is the sort of people who you need to kick the out of your guild before that bs spreads.


Name and shame, please.

I gave my protege my email address so they could ask me a question while I was off-line. At least I think I did...

I doubt I'd go that far. I get too many stalkers.

I message my proteges once a week (not that I have many, I actually avoid the whole mentoring process and taking on proteges to begin with) to check up on them and see if they need anything, if I don't see them often. Anytime one logs on and I get the message I am quick to send them a tell asking how things are going and if they have questions.

Though to be fair, I only do this with obvious newbies. If I do happen to get a protege that is an alt, and only asked me to mentor for some requirement I tend to be a little more on the "you are obviously not in need of much help so come to me if you do have a question" school of thought.

I have like... two proteges. I rarely take them.

No to ditching the whole system. As of right now, proteges can learn 20 lessons per session from their mentors. This is... quite nice, really. And the little exp bonus is cute too.

*stalk*


Seriously, Shaddus was a tremendous mentor. I am among those who would not have continued playing the game if it weren't for his active involvement.

As the GA, I try to take an active "mentor" role by checking in with all NOV, COL, and GR1. Just a general "Hey I'm here to help... " type discourse. Although taking a guild mentor (through actual game mechanics) is part of our novice advancement, I've only taken two proteges or so in my 22 mos of RL game play.

Dunno, I think novice retention is an extremely important aspect of in game mechanics, and the longevity of Lusternia as a whole. The mentor mechanic is one way to promote these positive relationships.