Psh, you're on my Facebook. You don't need to stalk me.

I'm another who wouldn't be playing at all, without a mentor. I had just come from Achaea, where I had been robbed blind (once pretty literally, they afflicted me with a bunch of crap first) several times, of everything I owned, got frustrated, and came here. I was astounded when I came and found someone who was that helpful and genuinely interested in helping me learn and succeed. She was real helpful too, until she moved to Glom and then I basically never saw her again, but still. Without her help (and there was a -lot- of it) I probably wouldn't have bothered, with some of the lingering frustration I had. Could go on, but I'd just be echoing what other people have said anyway.

That said, I'm in favor of being able to just switch mentors. Also, I don't understand totally why it works the way it does. Why isn't the novice the one requesting a mentor from a person who's helped them a lot? Why is the potential Mentor the one to initiate it? Not sure that it makes a -whole- lot of difference, I guess, since now a novice can simply ask the mentor, like I did, and then have them do the mechanic. I suppose it could work exactly the same with potential mentors asking their potential proteges.

The other idea I had: why not just have the system ask the protege in question, when they receive their credits from a purchase, (like in the form of a AGREE, or maybe just a YES/NO thing) if they would like their mentor to receive the bonus, rather than making it automatic? That way, only those mentors who have made an impression by helping their protege would receive it, but the mechanic would still be there.

I like this idea

Truly helpful mentors should be rewarded, if you ask me they do far more for the game than those who win artisinals (not that I do not like the artisinals).

I wish the mentor system was a bit more explicitly OOC. So you could have a group of players that were recommended/applied/picked to be general purpose mentors and then new players would be presented with a list of them to pick from after the newbie intro. The registration system could be used to ensure that only true first time players would get the list. I have no idea if it would work out or not but I bet it would improve retention rates assuming the group was dedicated and high quality.

Awwww, I like that idea.
Like how you pick a guild, there is a guild mentors so to speak....But it feels a bit formal. I liked how they approached me and asked! But I haven't been asked to be a mentor in a long time...Typically I was just used for passing in the guild.

Too busy to actually read through it all but the thing I love about when I mentor people is being able to check their login/logoff when I'm online...so I know when I'm not on prime I can still say 'Hey I'm here' to them. I wish this was available with family, actually.

Maybe mentorship could be mentioned in the newbie introduction. Experienced players can easily ignore it and young players wouldn't have to read through a dozen guild scrolls before discovering the benefits.

Another idea would be to introduce a rankings system for mentors. I have no idea how this could work, but I do know if you introduce some competition and offer the incentive of an honour's line then players will go absolutely nuts.

EDIT: Maybe proteges could offer their mentors 'kudos' for appreciation, which would be like points. Mentors could then be ranked based on their score. The highest ranked player would receive an honours line and others could receive some good karma for their volunteerism.

A ranking system would also produce this effect, sadly. Mentor system is fine the way it is right now, we don't need idiots spamming nublets for competition. I disagree also with any sense of way to determine mentors because then you get the GA types, or such...there are other types of mentors then straight up novice stuff. Combat mentors are useful, and out there.

Overall, the Mentor system is the same, the complaint was it has no use. It does, just not one you're looking at.

Mentoring having a revamp would be awesome.

* Remove the credit bonus.
* Allow people to switch mentors.
* Remove the time/level limit.
* Put a cooldown on swapping mentors.

Cap mechanical benefits at level 50:
* Allow mentors to use FirstAid on their proteges using their own supplies, and jack up the balance used to something like 10 seconds to make it worthless for player combat. Healing is a great skillset for helping newbies, but most people don't have it.
* Give a small experience bonus to the protege when they're in the same room as their mentor.
* Let mentors/proteges teleport to and summon each other, same restrictions and time required as teleport nexus, no power cost.
* Inform the mentor/protege when the other logs in.
* Proteges can learn extra lessons per train from their mentors.
* Waive any arena costs for spars between mentor and protege.

Things that help the protege and help the mentor provide guidance and support to them as they grow up would be awesome, instead of a simple credit bonus that only provides incentive to collect newbies for credits.

Learning more lessons from mentor already exists.
Experience bonus when hunting with mentor already exists.
Informing the mentor when the protege logs on already exists. Further, the protege also sees when the mentor logs on.

Which means a good half of your benefits are already in place as-is.

Credit bonus really doesn't hurt anything to keep in place, either. I really don't think that many newbies are getting pressured into taking a "bad mentor," but it does give the mentor some reward for time invested (because if you're using those perks that you listed, you're investing time).

Most of what you want... already exists. I also don't see an issue with the credits. From what most of the people in this thread have said the amount of credits that have been gained is nominal if any at all.

Also as I said I actually bought more credits specifically because I knew my mentor would receive some. I doubt that is a common reason for people to buy credits but I thought it was an awesome way to give back to someone who had done so much to help me.

Putting a confirmation on the credit bonus, or letting people switch mentors would be nice however. I also think the time limit should be removed. The mentor should get the bonus from the first credit sale no matter how long has passed.

I actually have a protege who, about a week ago, directly transferred me a not-insubstantial number of credits.

When asked why, he told me that it was my mentor bonus, because I didn't get a mentor bonus on his actual purchase (he's done more than 5 purchases now, and there was some other stuff going on this time involving where he purchased it). I was actually really surprised, and grateful.

I don't see why people want to remove the credit bonus. It's hardly an issue... sure some people are only 'in it for the credits', but they'll soon realize that it's a pretty crappy way to earn them. In real life, teachers get paid squat and therefore lots of smart people avoid the profession. Let's not make it so thankless in Lusternia too.

Huh. Guess I haven't mentored or been mentored in ages and haven't checked.

I think it's really important in the Aquamancers that we require mentors. Equally important is the fact that we don't require them to be official mentors. Basically, the idea is for the novice to have someone who helps them feel welcomed in the guild, and also someone they can talk to if they want to. Some of the novices are alts, so they don't need as much help with mechanics, but it still nice for them to feel welcomed. I think it's disgusting that people mentor for the sole reason of gaining credits. Do it because you love it -- the credits are just a bonus.

Currently the Aquamancer's mentor program is going through a bit of a change so that novices get paired with mentors that are compatible with them. It might take some time to implement, but I'm hoping we have good results. Sometimes I think novices go through their first few guild ranks too quickly, and never really get to experience the Lusternia beyond taking tests. That really is a shame.

I'll admit, I don't have too many proteges myself. I'll often train young ones and never see them again (which is upsetting for me when I really like them). It's very important to answer novice's questions right away. If they feel ignored they wont want to stick around. Also I like to make sure they are doing okay on the college aether or in a tell. I would not tolerate someone purposely blowing a novice off.

I have spent many, many hours training novices. I haven't gotten many credits for training them, and it wouldn't be the end of the world if I never got any more credits from my proteges. I do think it's a mistake to get rid of the credit bonus. Good mentors have to spend a lot of time helping their proteges, and they should be given a little something extra to show them they are appreciated.

Just throwing this out there, I don't ever recall a mentor requirement for the Geomancers. Since the day Ongaku was made, he's never had a mentor, and the Geos certainly haven't held him back due to not having one.

At the same token, do you feel that it's quite right that you -have- to take a mentor to advance in many guilds? Some people just like going it alone. When I started the game, I didn't get a mentor. I just went and did my own thing. It should -never- be required for one to take a mentor.

What? You don't make people feel welcomed by forcing them into having someone welcoming them. You force people into welcoming the new people. If anything, you should be required to mentor someone to advance or something.

I forget if my aqua had a mentor, he might have but I would not have talked to them. Especially when I'm first playing I actually don't feel all that comfortable with the requirements and even if the intention is not to abuse the system it is the end result because I have just selected a mentor even though I never speak to them again.

I think that's why Selthar is mine actually though it was one of multiple advancement options for the moondancers at the time, and I was too lazy to do one of the others.

The idea is good but the implementation is more likely to be abused than used correctly.