PS: You forgot the other reason people mentor. So that the adoration of new little people can make them feel good about themselves.
What's that? ..... Cynical - me?
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| 22 - Dreaming Outloud > General DG Chatter > So, You Want to be a Mentor? |
| Posted by: Raffe Rychmin Dec 19 2006, 01:14 PM |
| These are just some of my personal views on mentoring, not meant to be all encompassing and certainly open for debate. You want to be a mentor. Why? There are usually several reasons. One, you had a terrific mentor who was a superb help to you and you want to return the favor to the community by passing on what you have learned to others that are finding themselves in this wondrous, but strange world of ours. Two, you had an awful experience with a mentor and want to counteract the balance by becoming the best mentor possible, reaching as many new adventurers as you can and steer them to the path of righteous, fun loving RPing. Three, it’s a great way to meet new people and recruit for your guild. While true, I won’t debate ethical guild recruiting practices at this time. Four, someone has to do it – why not you? Regardless if any or none of these reasons are why you want to be a mentor, where do you start? The Easy Part There are four built in features that give mentors their start: The Mentor Registration Form. This puts you on the mentor list. The New Adventures List. You can access this list of adventurers under Level 10 once you become a mentor. Send Mentor Greeting. This can only be used once, but is a standard opening and invitation for new adventurers as they arrive in Valorn. Link to Deek’s Newbie Guide. A comprehensive guide to the way things work. Essentially invaluable when used in accordance with Jolan’s Welcoming Camp and answers most any newbie’s first dozen questions. So, the easy part is taken care of. But is that all there is to it? Answering the Question I have found that many questions are asked with the intent to connect and make conversation, as much as get information. Answering a simple question by sending the link to the Newbie Guide (over and over) can be quite a turn off to someone who is just reaching out to someone on the mentor list with the hope of sparking some potential role play or to get a feel for the community at large. Even when the Newbie Guide will suit the question and is available with very little required effort, follow or precede it with a summary answer or recommendation of where to look in the guide. Or even following it with, “Did that help?” makes it more personable than a cookie cutter, prefabricated answer of basically: Here read this. It may also give them the opening they were looking for to start a conversation. There is also the chance that they have read the guide and maybe didn’t quite “get it” and just want another human to explain it… and also a little shy about feeling silly for saying they didn’t understand it. Taking a moment for conversation will break the ice and encourage further learning. Socializing Meeting with a new adventurer face to face (so to speak) is just as important as mentoring PMs. Although the basics of the game are covered in the Guide and Welcoming Camp (as well as rules section of the forum), showing “how” RPing takes place in the game is important. MEET, GREET, EMOTE. Use both types of chat functions and encourage them through PMs to experiment with expressing movement/expressions. Believe it or not, not everyone joins understanding what the “emote” chat option does. Be an example of socialization in Valorn, not just an answer guide for technical and quest questions. Also, most learn to equip their items (such as swords, clothes, etc) quite easily but don’t always understand the basics of “using” food and drink. Send a PM along the lines of, “Try equipping food or drink in place of your sword and then ‘use’ the item to consume it. You will see the action appear in the chat area and charges used on the item itself.” This goes a long way to helping new adventurers feel as if they are interacting with the world and not just lurking among us. Torches are also tricky and most confusing at first. Mentioning early on that when they find themselves in a dark place to, “hold their torch in their shield hand,” eliminates a lot of the frustration of not understanding why they cannot use a torch when their sword is unequipped. Congratulations The World Crier calls out their proud moment of advancing in skill and power – but they aren’t noble yet and most likely don’t have a host of friends to congratulate/encourage them. Use the new adventurers list to send a congratulatory PM. But try adding a “How are you finding your adventurous life?” or some other inquiry to their well being and adjustment. You may find that they are unsure of where to go or what to pursue next or unaware that they should be checking the merchants for more suitable weapons/armor/items. It’s a good opportunity to steer them toward their next quest and strike up a conversation to encourage interaction with the community. Quests/Lewt/Stuff Spoilers are just no fun. There are NPC’s that serve as initiators for most of the early quests. Encourage them to speak with those specific NPC’s or nudge them toward exploring an area instead of telling start to finish what awaits them. Don’t “walk them through” the quest. Seriously, don’t say, “Follow me to get your Iron Knights Shield!” Exploring is most of the fun! Every area has something enlightening and beautiful to discover. Walking them along the best path that takes them directly to the boss is only ruining the experience of their discovery of our fascinating world. You are not doing them justice. If you find you have a lost, misdirected or frustrated adventurer on your hands, direct them to some of the very useful map resources. Leave the choice to use them or wander around blissfully clueless up to them. Don’t encourage them to pursue quests that are far above their level – this will frustrate them when they cannot complete every quest uber-blessed/enchanted 5 level before they can use the item. Level 1-5 adventurers don’t *need* 2000 HPs and 100 plat. They do *need* to learn to earn/save their gold. A bit of a boost in the way of gifting their armor for the next level or 20-40 potions to assist them when a quest is daunting them (that they are appropriate level for, I should say) will go a long way and maintain the value of earning your own way. Making them reliant on the gifts from others will create a backlash when they are no longer others waiting in line to give and will annoy you when they are level 25 and begging you for potions/plat to buy their next set of armor (because they have never had to farm/earn plat so far, why start now?!) Explain the concept of farming vs. training when giving gifts – so they will feel they have the capability of being self reliant and not depend on you to supply their potion stores. The Follow up What ever happened to that newb you spoke to a few days ago? Check the new adventurers list occasionally and send a greeting or “just checking to see how you are getting along,” PM. Say hello when you see them around town. Most are too shy to strike up conversation first. Also – try it those you see on the new list that you haven’t spoken to before or you didn’t get the opportunity to send a mentor greeting to. Don’t forget to encourage them to re-read the Story Page. They may have brushed over it when they first started, but once they get a few levels and quests under their belts it may hold a lot more meaning and answers than when they first read it. Offer to give tours of the Towns, Caer Laledan, Holy Order of Light, Your own guildhall. Mention historic and recent events of significant impact and tell of your own adventures as well. Why NOT to be a Mentor You are the appropriate level, you can send a mentor greeting and the Newbie Guide without needing to blink… so why NOT be a mentor? Don’t mentor if: 1.You can’t do it without being a walking/talking spoiler. It makes you a killjoy. 2.You become quickly annoyed and are short tempered. No reason to put yourself or the new adventurers through that sort of stress. 3.You have to constantly ask other people the answers to the newbies questions. If you aren’t knowledgeable in those sorts of things, it’s okay. There are plenty of mentors out there and you might be better off just directing them to people who can easily and confidently answer any questions they have. 4.You find you don’t have the time or interest any longer. Mentors should not be lackluster and ignore requests for help. You can remove yourself from the mentor list the same way you registered to be one. Sometimes even mentor’s don’t have as much time as they would like, if this is a long term problem then resignation is not such a bad thing and re-registering is just as easy. |
| Posted by: Fleur Dec 19 2006, 01:20 PM |
| Pinned - thank you! PS: You forgot the other reason people mentor. So that the adoration of new little people can make them feel good about themselves. What's that? ..... Cynical - me? |
| Posted by: Raffe Rychmin Dec 19 2006, 01:41 PM |
| *grins* A pleasure. I should mention that Zak inspired me and that I will be adding that bit about adoring little people in Version 2.0 |
| Posted by: Haleth Dec 19 2006, 02:11 PM |
| Nice resource! Something to post on the DG forums as well, IMHO. *smiles* I especially like tone you've taken with the last section, perhaps enabling those like me with next to no time any longer to mentor the grace to do so with minimal guilt. I do miss it . . I always nurtured the hope that one of those "little people" would grow to become another good friend!  |
| Posted by: Raffe Rychmin Dec 19 2006, 11:27 PM |
*grins* I was a little person once upon a time...  Did I get nurtured hope?  |
| Posted by: Zakath Dec 28 2006, 02:59 AM | ||
*Laughs* inspiration? oh, yeah , something like 'here is the way NOT to act, now I will explain how to be different from that' |
| Posted by: Raffe Rychmin Dec 28 2006, 11:53 AM |
| *laughs* Now, Zak... that is not entirely true! It was our conversation, as you recall, where I said I would toss together some tips... I wasn't saying you DID all those things In fact, some of those you said to me yourself. I was trying to give you credit for urging in that direction.Im really glad you liked it though... most of all |