Tour guides and Newbie helpers

[garetjax]

What about tips for newbie helpers and tour guides?  The newbie handbook is really helpful but most gamers I know only skim manuals (if they crack it open at all) before they're chomping at the bit to play.  As a knight, I was asked, quite a few times, how to play.

Ok, maybe it went more like...
Utter Novice: Hello, Sir Knight, could you spare some money?
Knight: Are you new to Nanny?
Utter Novice: Yes, monetary assistance would be highly appreciated.
Knight: Hmm, if you're new then what you need is experience! (pun intended!)  Let me give you a quick tour of Nanny!
Utter Novice: Uhm....Ok.....
Knight: type party join and I'll take you to Pet! wheeeeeeeeeee!

[Dain]

well the newbie booklet is not the 'nanny mud how to' compendium. so have them read that and after help them in anyway you think it's better.

i don't think you'll get them to pet .... i'll be watching you Gj  

[maximus]

Don't think it's a good idea to use the partyfollow command on utter newbies. At least I know that I thought it was pretty confusing when joining a party and then the leader wals so fast you see the text flowing down like 100 mph   . I still don't like to party, even if I have been on nanny for 10 months now. Ok, my english isn't the best, but still I think it can be pretty hard to read the descriptions of the rooms you pass if you tag along in a party with a leader that speedwalks. Not only that, but it feels meaningless if you are brought to help with a kill, cause often I don't even have time to see what I kill. Could be everything from a pig with a strange name to a giant spider, if it has a strange name, since using the exa command and reading the description takes to much time. Eh, don´t take this wrong garetjax. I hope you go on helping newbies after this note   . It's just an advice to people who use party follow. I usually help people out by letting them follow manually, since I think they remember the path easyer if they have to walk them selfes. But hey, I could be wrong, there might be people who don't have a problem with this. But there might be those who don't want to say no to a partyfollow. It's hard to say no to someone that offers help and has been on nanny ages before you. It almost feels disrespectfull. Thats why I patyfollowed a couple of times. Hmm, just something to think about to all you nice helpers out there  

[eris]

Save the buffer (sorry...emacs...) , make a log whatever and review it at your leisure.   Also you can always stop following if you choose,  i.e. it is not solely the decision of the leader who follows.  OFC you might want to give a heads up if you unfollow so the leader doesn't come "rescue" you.

Then again there are those of us who talk as much as play.  We're not hard to keep up with.  

Eris

[Yavathol]

Hey, Garetjax, I know you've never dragged a newbie to Pet, but it does seem you've started an excellent topic.
I can tell you how I've helped out newbies myself, with is a bit of a blend of some of the ideas suggested already, bascially.

When I have run across newbies on Nanny (a rare thing actually, but still ocassionally wandering in), I usually suggest reading the newbie booklet and then have them send me a tell with any questions.  I will then add them to a party and teach them to use that line and the party specific commands.  It makes for a great introduction to many other topics, such as guilds, without having to walk through each.

The guided tour seems to be best done, as Maximus suggests, by manually walking them from place to place.  This tactic gives them a chance to practice moving as well as a sense of direction which will be greatly needed later.  I have found it best to lead them to newbie areas that I think are useful, rather than Pet or the Rift Demon, but I guess Garetjax is more of a taskmaster than I am.

I do not help "power-up" newbies, so if you're looking for that I suggest you ask someone else - based on other posts seen here, perhaps Lepers?

Things I always do try to touch on is important places (Green, shop, adv guild, at least one newbie area), items (what they are, how to use them and help with obtaining a starting set), and some idea about economics without over-funding (a little coin may teach more than the ability to wastefully splurge early on).

Well, those are my thoughts on it.  Of course, if I suspect it's not a newbie but a veteran player trying to bilk others out of gold ... I Join forces with Garetjax and head to Pet, offender in tow.

[Snafu]

Also you can always stop following if you choose,  i.e. it is not solely the decision of the leader who follows.

You haven't been able to party follow for quite some time...well...you can, but you HAVE to be in the same room as the leader...I have NEVER liked that and I rebel against it...I continually use the example of 2 players killing...you wimpy...then other player wimpies...heals themselves...and drag you right back in to meet your maker, sorry Lars. That's always been a sore point to me...

And I've never liked speedwalking either...too impersonal...drag me oh silly^H^H^H^H^Hfearless leader!

/Snafu

[garetjax]

Yes, I was joking about the pet bit (well, maybe ) I just wanted to get the ball rolling and see what your thoughts were.

When giving a quick tour of how Nanny works to people who ask (has been a really really long time since someone has) I like to show them 1 or 2 puzzles (like the well in Gandor) as an example of what to do in nanny that wasn't killing/exploring, a couple of newbie areas near green (blanka's, etc), a place to get free equipment (behind Stanley in Holo).

At this point, the player in question is usually really wanting to dive into the game and I just remind them to look at the newbie book as needed and let them loose.

I feel that such a welcome is much better to introducing new players to Nanny.  The newbie book is great for explaining how to play the game, but its a poor advertisement on what Nanny has to offer.  Like a speech, I feel that any game introduction has a limited amount of time to entice the audience to pay attention.  And keeping their attention is something that can be vitally important when we're trying to enlarge Nanny's player base.
(and no, we're not gonna do it with graphics )

Ok, off my soapbox