I'm not sure if something like this has been discussed before and apologise if it has. I would like to see something of a "Guide" system or some other helper. Warframe has a poorly done version of this where selected individuals can hang out in the relays and help anyone who has questions. Vindictus had a system that would link you up with a mid- to high-level character to help run you through a dungeon or two and answer questions.
In a game with as much complexity, difficulty, and higher learning curve as this will likely possess it will be harder to retain people who have been taught by modern games that they should be rewarded constantly, spawn five feet from their corpses, and be able to do nearly everything alone. And as Brad said in his "I build worlds" interview, it is difficult to show what Pantheon is when you can't really get the depth of gameplay from watching videos as much as the flashier games (I think he cited Destiny and Wildlands). I believe something akin to a guide or helper would help retain players and show the value of a more difficult, high-risk/high-reward type of game. I hung out in newbie zones often in Everquest to help people and show them the ropes, but there wasn't any system in place because it wasn't really necessary. Games back then were often more difficult and we were used to it. Especially those of us who played MUDs. However, I think that to go back to a game like this, there is quite a lot of...psychological training? Presuppositions? I'm not sure what to call it, but I think a great deal of their expectations on what makes a great game need to be undone and a guide could help ease them into this. Otherwise, I fear many will simply quit after a couple deaths and return to their instant gratification game of choice and never see what makes a game like this an incredible experience.
Thoughts?
4.11 Can I play with my friend’s new character using my high-level character? What about alts?
Yes, through the Mentor System. Mentoring temporarily de-levels your character and allows you to group with them. You will either scale down or assume the character you were at that lower level (TBD) and be a huge help. This will enable players to group together without one being overpowered and content trivialized.
The Mentor System is voluntary although there will be incentives to mentor, giving your character certain advantages (points, recognition, and other rewards – the details are TBD). We want to encourage people to help new players. Additionally, there will be incentives to create alternate characters through the Progeny System (where when you reach a certain level you can create an alternate level one character who will have some advantages over a brand-new character).
10.2 Will there be a volunteer guide system?
Absolutely. We will begin putting that program together in Beta or earlier. Additionally, we will also have a guild outreach program and mentoring system. Onboarding and helping newcomers get acquainted with the game is very important to us.
These are from the FAQ. Is this what your looking for?
The volunteers in the formal guide system in previous games were less of a mentor and more of GM, where they would get involved in player disputes, recover corpses below world, take roles in GM events, perform RP player weddings, etc... It would be great if we had enough volunteer guides that they had time to engage in more player interaction such as mentoring, chatting up new players or general RP. Past personal experience as a guide, we were usually too busy with CS queues to do too much of the fun. So I have high hopes that the Pantheon Guide experience will be better for both the player community and the guides.
If you have a friend who is already in-game, then the Mentor System that Saicred quoted from the FAQ will be awesome. I'm sure we've all been in games where our high-level friends convinced us to play, handed us some twink gear, pointed us to a cave, watched us for 5 minutes then got bored and ran off. The new Mentor System will let them temporarily scale down their character appropriately to actually play and group with you. Huge difference.
You will likely find that the player community in Pantheon is much more mature and friendly to new players than most other games. As you pointed out, folks who want instant gratification are likely to play for an hour or two then leave Terminus forever. There are lots of very friendly and helpful folks present already in the Pantheon forums and guilds which are quite focused on helping their members enjoy all Pantheon has to offer.
Overall I think the new user experience is going to be awesome.
Celandor said:The volunteers in the formal guide system in previous games were less of a mentor and more of GM, where they would get involved in player disputes, recover corpses below world, take roles in GM events, perform RP player weddings, etc... It would be great if we had enough volunteer guides that they had time to engage in more player interaction such as mentoring, chatting up new players or general RP. Past personal experience as a guide, we were usually too busy with CS queues to do too much of the fun. So I have high hopes that the Pantheon Guide experience will be better for both the player community and the guides.
If you have a friend who is already in-game, then the Mentor System that Saicred quoted from the FAQ will be awesome. I'm sure we've all been in games where our high-level friends convinced us to play, handed us some twink gear, pointed us to a cave, watched us for 5 minutes then got bored and ran off. The new Mentor System will let them temporarily scale down their character appropriately to actually play and group with you. Huge difference.
You will likely find that the player community in Pantheon is much more mature and friendly to new players than most other games. As you pointed out, folks who want instant gratification are likely to play for an hour or two then leave Terminus forever. There are lots of very friendly and helpful folks present already in the Pantheon forums and guilds which are quite focused on helping their members enjoy all Pantheon has to offer.
Overall I think the new user experience is going to be awesome.
Yeah, the guides in EQ were just Junior GMs. And the mentor system seems too tailored for acquaintences and friends. I think the scale of newbie help I am thinking of is a bit larger. I do hope the community is friendly and helpful, but they aren't always going to be in the right place when a newbie needs that help. I guess I am thinking a very simple flag you can turn on that signifies you as a helper and an option for the one needing help that sends a ping of some sort to the nearest flagged helper.
Certainly being a guide isn't for everyone. It's a volunteer position and the ONLY reward is the warm and fuzzy in helping fellow gamers. You get no special treatment. You guide on a different server than you play and the guides on your play server don't even know you're a fellow guide.
I wouldn't have said there was a lot of paperwork, but you are there to perform a service and you do have to keep rather minimal records of how each CS ticket was resolved. My most memorable moments were doing GM events, a few player weddings and spontaneous role-playing opportunities that just happened while working on the queue. If you knew you didn't have 5 people waiting for corpse recoveries below world, you could hang around a bit more and make the guide contact moment memorable for all. I always felt like we were short "staffed" but the other guides I got to work with were hellafun to be with.
I like Arcs idea for a ping/flag for helpers and noob assistance. I'm not sure how the ping would work or if it might have to be something similar to the LFG interface from other games.
Traditional methods for asking questions such as asking in /ooc might not be practical if they were to restrict broadcast channels for trial accounts, etc... A formal LFH system would be a nice addition.
Not sure I like the idea of a formal Looking-For-Help system. To me, it seems that such a system would be based on the expectation that new players wouldn't be able to figure out the game mechanics - that they lack the abillity to learn on their own or to reach out for help on their own. I fear that making such a system will rob new players of, as Feyshtey says, the mystery.
-sorte.
>Not sure I like the idea of a formal Looking-For-Help system. To me, it seems that such a system would be based on the expectation that new players wouldn't be able to figure out the game mechanics - that they lack the abillity to learn on their own or to reach out for help on their own. I fear that making such a system will rob new players of, as Feyshtey says, the mystery.<
This is a very valid point - we don't want to hand-feed new players too much.
Perhaps two things that wouldn't go too far in that direction would be something like a Mentor tag (perhaps the wrong word in view of the limitations I have in mind) and a short tutorial.
The Mentor tag would, in the simplest possible version, identify people that have volunteered to answer questions. Not that many of us won't be helpful but these are people that clueless newcomers are encouraged to reach out to if they feel lost and confused and don't want to just figure everything out on their own. Thus a Mentor might have her name marked in a different color or font (if names are visible looking at characters) and if the new player had a question he couldn't answer the mentor would try to help. "I am brand new here - I've been trying for hours to figure out what that round yellow glowie is hanging overhead and I give up." Mentor: "Too much time in dungeons in other MMOs friend. That is a sun - it provides light and heat". Noob: "Are they always male? Does a daughter provide the same light as a son or is it a different color?" Mentor: "AAAARGGGGGGHHHHHHHH"
The tutorial might be a 10 minute instance where a new player learns the really basic commands - like how to move - and gets a very simple explanation of the game's key points e.g. much of the game is based on grouping with other players and in general a good group requires people playing different roles, the basic ones being tank, DPS and healer (optionally throw in crowd control or buffer or ....).
I think that core gameplay concepts (controls, etc) should be intuitive enough that they don't need explanation. However, the nuances of skills and abilities should be set up such that players can talk and learn from each other. "Easy to learn, hard to master" is a cliche but I think it holds here.
As far as systems go, I'm in favor of systems that encourage players and guilds to help new players out, but I don't know I'd go so far as an official "mentor" tag or channel. One of the things I've observed in games that have those is that they're a really great way for new players to get bad advice. They also tend to require policing, because unscrupulous players will use them to try to scam newbies (or just to troll).
One of the things I loved about EQ's and Vanguard's community is that people would give material help to new players. "Oh hey you're new? Here, let me give you some silver so you can buy some spells. Or hey, let me craft you a basic weapon." I want to see that sort of thing happening in Pantheon, within reasonable limits of course. In order to accomplish that I think the new player experience needs to be relatively challenging, difficulty-wise. Not as in struggling to figure out controls, but where the things you are fighting are evenly matched and there's a solid chance that you could lose until you get geared up a little bit.
Sorry for the randomness, it's been a long day :)
Personally, I don't want a help system, but that could be because I like to find my own way in a game. It's always worked for me, in the last 3 MMORPGs that I played I ended in progression raiding guilds. My RL best friend, who I met in EQ, always gives me a few weeks head start so I can help her. I do help her and anyone that needs help in a quest. Saying that I still don't want a LFH tool. My hope is Pantheons community will be the LFH.
I remember the first day I logged into Kelethin with my baby bard and was instantly bewildered by all the acronyms. I got into a family guild and they helped hugely, all but one of my characters stayed in that guild until the day the guild moved to EQ2.
Maybe Pantheon has a LFH tool but it's called community or guild, that's my hope anyway 8)
Have a good one!