I know it's happened to you... just minding your own business when you get a chat saying "Hey, how do I (insert task here they should know how to do if they had been *actually* mentored)?" You start asking yourself questions like, "Who the heck mentored this guy?", "Why doesn't he know how to do X?", "why doesn't he read the wiki?"...
People fall through the cracks of the mentoring process all the time, whether through intent, accident, or by being just plain stubborn. I've decided to create somewhat of a guide to mentoring these people that have already been mentored.
I find it best to follow these 2 steps:
When I am asked questions, one of the first thing I try and discover is what type of player am I speaking to. The answer I give will vary based on this information. To me there are 4 types of players as far as determining how to give advice goes:
Now others may see different categories of players, but these 4 types give me what I need to know in order to answer their questions.
The completely clueless player absolutely needs you to hold their hand through the entire process. This may or may not require your actual presence in order to assist them. They will ask questions that are thought provoking as well as ignorant at the same time such as, "OK, so how do I shear my sheep to make wool and thread?"
The self-reliant soloer just wants the answer in the most pragmatic form possible. They will often terminate chats immediately upon receiving their answer. Keep it simple and keep it short.
The social butterfly wants to talk about pretty much anything while also receiving an answer to their question. They will often leave chats open for days, weeks or months. They love anecdotes related to the current question.
The beggar will inevitably lead from his question directly to something like "well, could you just give me some X?" or "well can you just do X for me instead?" They range from trivial to shake off to EXTREMELY persistent.
| Bad | Good |
| The mentoring guild is at X | Hey, after we're done, why don't you drop by the mentoring guild? |
| You need X? Here's an X. | You need X? OK, here's the best way to make or obtain X. |
| I'm too busy at the moment, try someone else | I'm pretty busy right now, but I'll leave the chat open. Go ahead and ask I'll try and answer as soon as I'm free |