Once again, I am amazed after reading yet another new person’s issues with a terrible mentor. These people sign up disciples left and right, probably make money off of them by selling them overpriced crap and then toss them out into the open never to bother with them ever again. They probably use other avatars then their primary one for this too.
How about we try making a list with names? We could see if MA would help out, or be able to do anything for the new people. This greatly affects the pleasure new people have in the game, and in turn ends up affecting everyone (including MA) in a bad way.
We could list advise on how to get rid of bad mentors. We could try figuring out if there’d be a way to prevent this from happening and advise MA (Say, a proper mentor ought to have passed discipleship himself, skillwise at the very minimum. No replies to calls for help from the disciple for x days, and the mentor will be bumped. No more than x disciples per avatar. If an avatar spends minimal time in-game but has signed on lots of disciples, ban every single avatar on that PC (after all, multiple avis IS against the EULA, and these people ARE scum by exploiting those who aren’t as knowledgable about the game)).
There is an easy answer to getting rid of crap mentors. Get rid of the ME gifts that they get at the end of discipleship. Thats the only reason crap mentors take on disciples.
If there was no gift at the end, then only the players that enjoy helping newbies would take on disciples. Also i think more societies would start to take over the role of mentors as they looked for new players for their ranks.
Another option could be for MA to give the mentor item to the disciple rather than the mentor. That way if the mentor was rubbish the disciple could keep the prize. If the mentor was good, then the disciple has the choice to give the ME gift to the mentor, or share the value of it.
Only thing is… new players would have to read it first. And judging by many posts here, new players first play and then read some guides and forums
…
[/QUOTE]
That is indeed the tricky thing
Just out of curiosity, what does it say now on the new tutorials for mentoring? That would be an optimal place for MA to alert newbies to potential hazards with mentors Might be really nice if somehow MA made it just a little more difficult to accept a disciple in order to eliminate the hording of PA freshies by particular dead-beat mentors. Certainly, one such way to do that would be as Viagra advised: perhaps have stricter rules on who can and cannot mentor.
I would also like to see a larger pop-up tutorial for the newbie about to enter into discipleship. It should explain in good detail the system so that every newbie can be aware (or at least those that speak English well enough).
As for naming- hmmm… ya, we could do that I should think. Although, what if a newbie claims his/her mentor is never around when in reality they simply do not play at the same time? It’s an easy enough fix for the newbie to request to leave the discipleship from MA, but is that enough for us to essentially blacklist the mentor? Hmm… not sure
I am not certain there is much more that we on EF can do for potential disciples. “Stickifying” threads such as this in the n00b forum would be great… perhaps MB could go so far as to create a new link once some1 registers that takes them to the stickied n00b corner Of course, a non-newbie registrant could just exit out, but I should think that might be something that would help out in general with any newbie questions…
The entire mentoring system needs a revamp/overhaul… so there are many possibilities… but Viagra, I like the idea of what WE on EF can do
Nice thoughts Viateslav… maybe after the mentorship the disciple gets to decide ( via a mentor evaluation ) whether or not the mentor deserved the ME gift… ( without either of them knowing what it’ll be )…
I agree that the Mentor System needs a serious revamp. I have posted this before in one of DDs discusions and will post again.
As many play for a reward, MA should consider a couple of things such as time spent whilst in team or regualr communication with the mentor. So skills gained and time spent plays a large factor in both reward and mentor skills gained to the mentor isntead of just flat out 11 lvls(?). This is very profitable to both sides becasue MA has someone who is being guided around the game and means that the disciple is more likely to deposit to have fun. Mentors will do more things with them to help them gain skills.
The flip side is that barely anyone will mentor anymore. I think this is the realistic side becasue its mostly done for the reward.
MA also needs to introduce a trust between the mentor and the disciple so items can be loaned for xXx amount of time and will be returned to actioneer after that expires. This helps to mentor people becasue its like a try before you buy type of deal. ‘Here use my Adj V1 and slaughter some cornu’ and then the disciple cant trade/drop/steal it. So they will fall in love and buy one.
There are so many professional disciples also. Might I remind you what happened with my soc m8 Eps. There is a small group of scammers who create avatars and prey upon certain people just to build trust. They do it with mentors and also soc m8s. Then they borrow items and leave. Many diciples get some reputation from who their mentors are. So knowing their mentor might be another reason to trust them. This is what the scammer preys upon.
If MA plans to move into new markets then I think they need to start taking in some of these suggestions from the communities. The current experience for new players is not enticing enough to keep them. Unless MA has their business plan heavily dependant on short term deposits/departures rather than long term customers/investors. But I cant see any sense in that.
I would love MA to actually acknowledge problems and work with the playerbase to overcome them. But until then, I fear we post in vain and just have to hope MA do something about such negative aspects of PE.
I for one want PE to succeed. I want PE to be here in the long run with players from across the world as my soc m8s. But I also want it to be safe and enjoyable. Not the depressing, bugged, exploited, credit card freudulant, losing game that some may see it as. PE is so much more.
[QUOTE=ViagraFalls]
How about we try making a list with names?
[/QUOTE]
Please dont, then we would soon see a thread about resellers also, and… and…
Although naming is allowed on EF we shouldnt have “hall of shame lists” like that, yes we have the scammer alert thread, but that is kinda different and was one of our very first threads when the forums started.
On-topic:
What is needed is that newcommers cant have a mentor the first couple of days they play, or would have to investigate the game for a certain amount of hours, before being able to get a mentor. That way they have some time to learn a little about mentorship and to be careful.
An “accepted for college/university” kinda thing, maybe with a small questionary they would have to get good characters in before getting a mentor.
[QUOTE=Jeroen3219]
Nice thoughts Viateslav… maybe after the mentorship the disciple gets to decide ( via a mentor evaluation ) whether or not the mentor deserved the ME gift… ( without either of them knowing what it’ll be )…
Going along with what Mindbuster said about college/university, why not create a college in say PA where players can sign up to be a mentor and newbs could sign up to be disciples. Newbs could fill out a form asking what they plan on doing in PE:hunting, mining, manufacturing etc… and then they could be given a list of mentors with high skills in whatever they prefer, to choose from. Or their application could just be sent to an appropriate mentor who could then accept/decline it.
[QUOTE=apathy]
Going along with what Mindbuster said about college/university, why not create a college in say PA where players can sign up to be a mentor and newbs could sign up to be disciples. Newbs could fill out a form asking what they plan on doing in PE:hunting, mining, manufacturing etc… and then they could be given a list of mentors with high skills in whatever they prefer, to choose from. Or their application could just be sent to an appropriate mentor who could then accept/decline it.
[/QUOTE]
Its a nice idea but the problem still remains why so many skilled players wont accept disciples: they scam.
I would love to have a nub tag along and come hunt. I dont mind taking nubs to tps. I mine and hunt on the way and the only times I ever hoffed was leading nubs to tps (3984 atrox :P)
I need to be able to trust and help my disciple but I fear that they will scam me and MA do not do shit about scamming disciples. There is a little group of them that do it constantly. Disciples borrow rascal armor and quit, borrow fap50 and sell it etc etc. Not until it is safe will many skilled players help the nubs.
I know more people who invested time in n00bs, only to get scammed or them to quit while still having a loaned item compared to people who have graduated. Its not worth the trouble until MA does something. They want more players to get addicted then MA needs to make it safer for those already addicted to spread the drug. Sure I can ‘not’ loan them anything but then they wont be able to try before they buy.
I want to create the Calypso Institute of Proffessional studies, but that is going to take more time then I hava available at the momment.
My suggestion to help out with current mentor problem is to increase awareness of the issue, but creating a Rate my mentor site.
I am thinking about creating a site where mentors and potential dicipilse can meet. Then the mentor and the disciple can rate each other and put it out for the world to see.
I think this will help create awareness.
Now I just had this idea last week and I am trying to get it together, but creating this will take alot of time.
Do you think this is a good idea?
Do I need to rewrite it because the fog of my fever is in the way?
I’m think the simplest and best sollution would be for real mentors to be more agressive. The more noobs who get a real mentor, the fewer will get a bad one. This should hopefully also make more people stay in the game after trying it out
Has the mentor kick function disappeared?
When the mentor system came, there was problems with diciples taking on a mentor, getting stuff to get started and then kicking their mentors, wasnt it?
As to rewards..
In my opinion its rather obvious that they should be given to the mentor, that does afterall spend his time (and in some cases his money) to train new players. However some kinda rating system would be very nice.
If diciples could rate their mentors, they could also get a box with information about the mentor when they are about to be added as diciple, with a brief text like
“Mentors Feedback: 10/10”
“Diciples graduated: x”
Showing diciples that has NOT graduated however is kinda pointless as its only like 1 of 10 that play more than a week
And yeah.. many of them do get stuff from the mentor and then disappear never to be seen again.
About multiple avatars…
That is only disallowed if the avatars was created AFTER the rule was applied and its also not disallowed for my friend to come by and log on his avatar on my computer.. So deleting all avatars that have been logged on from one computer.. Sorry Viagra, but i think that would get MindArk into SERIOUS problems..
Might be really nice if somehow MA made it just a little more difficult to accept a disciple in order to eliminate the hording of PA freshies by particular dead-beat mentors. Certainly, one such way to do that would be as Viagra advised: perhaps have stricter rules on who can and cannot mentor.
Of course, a non-newbie registrant could just exit out, but I should think that might be something that would help out in general with any newbie questions…