Official Training Guild/Academy for New Players

[Sir Thalius Hayle]

I have been thinking over something for some time now, and shared a few discussions on the issue. What I am offering here is partly to make a suggestion, but mostly to request opinions/suggestions on the subject. I could not find anything in a quick search of the forum on this issue. Forgive me if it is there and I missed it...

The subject is that of establishing an official Starter's Guild to catch new players. (Open to better name suggestions. Would prefer it, actually. Something in character with the game. Just putting some thoughts out for discussion here.)

Anyone paying attention sees how many come to the game and leave before they get past the first mission. The training guilds send invites, but the new players have to get far enough to want to accept the invitation before the invite means anything.

I wanted to solicit thoughts on the idea of automatically starting new players out in a starter's guild.

The guild would be overseen by experience players that solicited admin for the role of overseer within the starter guild. Or perhaps that Admin hand picks to offer the role. This could change from time to time if needed. Admin would provide oversight to make sure there is no manipulation going on by the overseers, but all advice/tutoring would come from the players/overseers.

New members would remain in the starter's guild until a certain level of tutorials had been completed, at which point they would graduate out. From there they could go where they pleased- one of the other recognized training guilds that could help them progress to the next level in their game, or one of the other guilds they have connected with during their initial training phase. Or on their own, should they so choose.

Point of the auto entry in to a starter's guild would be to get new players into a community as fast as possible. PG is huge on community. I think it would help retain players if they started out in community with others in a similar position they are, asking questions and working through things together (overseen by experienced players).

New player retention is the reason for the suggestion. More players are good for the game, which makes it more fun for everyone. And that is the point, no?

Having been trained in Ravenlocke and now a leader in a merchant training guild, I have been watching new players come and go in huge numbers daily. I know I am not the only one.

I am trying to think through ways that new players could be "caught" before they click away from the first page because they don't know what comes next in a text based game. Being immersed into a community right from the start, I believe, could help with that.

Respectfully submitted,

~TH~

[Astragek]

+1

I think there should be a restriction on the overseers/tutors though, just to make sure that their own game-style is not being pushed onto these new players. It's good to have different game-styles within that training guild, so no matter which path a new player decides to take, there's always someone there who can help, but these tutors need to be un-biased within their role.

And maybe it's possible just for this purpose, to create a second guild-page for these tutors, so they can swap between their guilds without actually having to leave their current one. That way it makes it more attractive for people to actually take on that responsibility.

[Sir Thalius Hayle]

I agree. There would have to be some level of oversight by the admins, but something could be worked out. Not sure what that would look like exactly, but it would need to be discussed.

I would not imagine that just any player could take on that role. Perhaps the community could choose/vote on who fills such role for a time? I can't imagine anyone would have trouble with SHM in the role for instance, should he be willing. I could name a few others.

[DezNutz]

1) Training Guilds already exist.

2) Shouldn't force players to join a guild. (Even though joining one is extremely helpful for new players)

[Sir Thalius Hayle]

I know training guilds exist. Training guilds exist for those who make it far enough to see them and have interest in them though.

Besides, the suggestion I am making is in regard to something quite a bit different, and with membership being temporary. They would not be "forced" into a guild. It would be more of a training academy of sorts, and they would graduate out into the world of Avonmora. At that point they can choose a guild or sail solo, as they please.

If you have any thoughts on how to better assist, train, and retain new players, I'm all ears.

[Sebena]

Most training guilds are easy target for "pirates" because they keep away from combat since they want to protect new players since those players have no respect twoards new players and they aim them. At one point I said that people kept me in the game and not gameplay mechanic and mayn other confirmed same. Then admins gave new mission of posting on forum which is good step and I say it should be direction where other tutorials should go aswell. Someone proposed that admins make mission where they plunder ship from NPC player to introduce that mechanic to players aswell. I know that it is possible on marquess mission but many don't achieve that mission. I saw players leave game after they lose ships so that mission can explain them why that happen and how to pervent it. There are million other ways but most people don't bother presenting them because it is often filled with spam and it ends up in trash.

[Stan Rogers]

It's been my experience cajoling new players into the game, despite a strong social interaction with them, they just didn't click into the game or didn't like it enough to become a long term player.
Many had a very good knowledge of the game through tutoring but still become inactive for their own personal reasons.
5-10% retention rate is very good IMO. In reality, its probably less than.

[Meliva]

Part of the problem could be how it can be slow at first. When you start out you have next to nothing, and without getting help from others it can take a fair amount of time and effort to really get things going, but with help from a good guild it can really help with that, though another factor is when a player suffers their first big loss-. It can be especially bad if it happens real early on when they haven't built any backbone. As for what Wolfie mentioned of people picking on newbies, I don't really know of any veteran player who does that, except in the instances when said newbie pokes the bear-in which case I still think some restraint should be used, but a lesson does need to be learned.

[Sebena]

It's been my experience cajoling new players into the game, despite a strong social interaction with them, they just didn't click into the game or didn't like it enough to become a long term player.
Many had a very good knowledge of the game through tutoring but still become inactive for their own personal reasons.
5-10% retention rate is very good IMO. In reality, its probably less than.

That is true I had similair expiriences but also some said that they stayed in the game because social interactions only. I believe that if we improve social interactions through missions rate of active and long term players will grow.

Another idea of raising social interactions with other players is making something like librery where admins can write small lines from life in Avonmora about seasoned active players. That way new players can read about accomplishments of those players. Maybe if player agrees and allowe admins can suggest contacting those players about advices. I believe if we add something like that we will get more active players. Game can reward those players with x credits or x ammount of gold coins if new player whom chose them as a menthor stays active for 60 straight (login once per day) days minimum. Most will say it is long time for small reward but in this case it is not about reward. That way all those players will try to get new player to stay active it will pervent spamming fake accounts for reward and reward is not too big to risk getting ban.

[Sebena]

Part of the problem could be how it can be slow at first. When you start out you have next to nothing, and without getting help from others it can take a fair amount of time and effort to really get things going, but with help from a good guild it can really help with that, though another factor is when a player suffers their first big loss-. It can be especially bad if it happens real early on when they haven't built any backbone. As for what Wolfie mentioned of people picking on newbies, I don't really know of any veteran player who does that, except in the instances when said newbie pokes the bear-in which case I still think some restraint should be used, but a lesson does need to be learned.

I met few from my days as a menthor and no they did not poke bear first. I agree lesson needs to be learned. Maybe sinking ship or plundering ship or just blocking them from bank can teach them that they are still too green for exibitions like that but in most cases diplomatic solution such as approaching guild leader (if they are in guild which is not their own) with proofs will result in repaying any damage either by a new player or guild leader and lesson for that player either by a guild or by that person aswell.