Feature Cut: Mentors

[Draco Tanos]

Fun indeed.  And its only just begun, you're missing out on Jor being an ass =)

He's also Viktor.  And Ravier would  take a fine without question as he knows he was in the wrong for accepting the death duel.  Isn't that right, Ravier?

[Chaotrance13]

He's also Viktor.  And Ravier would  take a fine without question as he knows he was in the wrong for accepting the death duel.  Isn't that right, Ravier?

You might have to beat me a bit first, but generally that works..

[Indirik]

Wrong? What could possibly be wrong with a nice, friendly duel to the death?

[Gustav Kuriga]

can we get back on topic please? take your talk on death duels elsewhere.

[Chaotrance13]

can we get back on topic please? take your talk on death duels elsewhere.

Who made you the damned Forum Police? I'm ever so sorry your royal highness for making one small aside comment linked to IC mentoring which people picked up on. [/sarcasm]

Anyway, Loren's point is a good one and I have personal experience of it. If you can keep being a mentor an IC thing, even if there isn't an explicit game mechanic to support it, then it can help in some ways to develop characters. Which can never be a bad thing, really, because at heart we're here to RP medieval nobles in a PvP setting. That's not to say there shouldn't be an element of OOC thrown in as well, I mean some of the good lesson plans that I read on the wiki had an OOC lesson at the end where the player behind the new character could speak freely and ask other questions about the game that didn't quite fit ICly.

But I also wonder then whether a quick tutorial for first-time players would be beneficial. But how would it fit in? I assume if someone were to code something like that they'd not integrate it with the game itself because it might cause havoc with the turn structure of the existing islands.

[Eithad]

The question is if we should make it an IC thing or an OOC thing.

If OOC - we could simply set up a board in the forum.

Forums are bad, most people that play the game will not read the forum.

[Tom]

So, has anyone found a reason why an island-wide special guild wouldn't be the best solution?

It would require a little bit of additional coding so it doesn't suffer from guildhouse maintainance fees, can't be closed down by local lords and new players auto-join, but aside from that?

[JPierreD]

The question is, would messages sent there be restricted to OoC messages? That would prevent the abuse of the guild.

[Tom]

The question is, would messages sent there be restricted to OoC messages? That would prevent the abuse of the guild.

"restricting" messages makes no sense. We can't control what players write in messages.

[JPierreD]

"restricting" messages makes no sense. We can't control what players write in messages.

No, but would prevent players to confuse it with a IC-communication guild.

[Peri]

So, has anyone found a reason why an island-wide special guild wouldn't be the best solution?

It would require a little bit of additional coding so it doesn't suffer from guildhouse maintainance fees, can't be closed down by local lords and new players auto-join, but aside from that?

I believe there should be rules for joining or else I'd foresee basically every noble in the island joining such a guild to the death for spam of anyone who dares to ask a question.

[Gustav Kuriga]

I'd say let there be a set limit for how long you are in it after joining, say... 3-4 months? I'm just throwing a number out there. Long enough that you can learn most of what you need to know. After that you are kicked out automatically. Now the mentor side of it, I believe that should be voluntary.

I personally prefer a set up where you interact with the player and it doesn't matter what continent they play on. The only reason it would be limited to an island is if it is related to the specific character, not the broader issue of game mechanics, in which we don't care which character it is. The more we can separate this from IC, in my opinion, the better. IC mentoring is for stuff like politics and teaching the IC parts of the game, not the game mechanics.

[Revan]

I believe there should be rules for joining or else I'd foresee basically every noble in the island joining such a guild to the death for spam of anyone who dares to ask a question.

I've got nothing against helping new players, but I can't be bothered tutoring them day in day out. Even if I did want to have a useful point of contact with some far-flung comrade across the continent, I don't think it would be worth the responsibility and the haranguing I'd get. The price is too high. I really, really hope we don't need to have to point out to people that the guild is for players interested in helping new players only and not some new-fangled messaging tool for people who couldn't care less.

[Peri]

I've got nothing against helping new players, but I can't be bothered tutoring them day in day out. Even if I did want to have a useful point of contact with some far-flung comrade across the continent, I don't think it would be worth the responsibility and the haranguing I'd get. The price is too high. I really, really hope we don't need to have to point out to people that the guild is for players interested in helping new players only and not some new-fangled messaging tool for people who couldn't care less.

No well I wasn't referring to using the guild as a communication tool. More to the fact that with a hundred chars in the guild to the question "hello, how does travel work" one could have a ton of answers back. But maybe it's not that much of a problem in the end..

[vonGenf]

No well I wasn't referring to using the guild as a communication tool. More to the fact that with a hundred chars in the guild to the question "hello, how does travel work" one could have a ton of answers back. But maybe it's not that much of a problem in the end..

It's better to have redundant answers than no answer at all. This is especially true since for such simple questions on the first few days of playing, it is nice to have an answer within minutes and not have to wait for the next day.