Chapter One: A Survival Guide to Mentoring
What this chapter contains:
- A basic overview of the Discipline of Leadership.
- A basic overview of the Test of Mentorship.
- A list of do's and dont's that will help you foster success.
Leadership Philosophy
Leadership, as a discipline, attracts two very disparte types of players: Those who wish to serve their community and those who wish to command their community. It should be noted: This guide is written by a Servant of Egypt. This mindset is key to my approach to mentoring. My methods and mindset may not be the best source of advise for you, if you are of the "command" variety of leader (it should be noted, there is nothing wrong, inherently, with that style of leadership, it is merely different from my own). My opinions are all over this handbook; I cannot seperate who I am from what I do.
Mentorship in a Nutshell
The Test of Mentorship is, in my opinion, the very backbone of Leadership. Moreso than any other Test in Leadership, what you do and how you do it, in this context, has the longest effect on other players in the game. The opportunity to build a society BEGINS with teaching.
With this test, you have the opportunity to gain certain rewards granted by passing the test and accumulating shrines, but those are really second-hand. What you are really doing is creating the environment in which you will be playing. Consider this similar to coding the game, as the developers do. Thats what you are doing, in teaching others and creating a helpful environment. You are minting neighbors, trade partners, leaders, artists, thinkers, etc. All areas of the game will be impacted, in a large or small way, by the manner in which you greet and incorporate others into this game.
Sound daunting yet? Don't worry, its actually a good deal of fun ;)
The Do's and Dont's of Mentoring
- DO NOT verbally abuse the noobs. Seriously, I dont care how badly they behave. Walk away, if you need to.
- DO report noobs who are being extremely profane and abusive on the island to a GM. Please do this only in extreme circumstances (i.e. if the noob sounds like he's staring a Quentin Terrantino movie, thats probably excessive).
- DO NOT demand shrines as payment for your time, for membership in a guild, or really, for any reason at all. I passed Mentorship several months ago. I never asked for a shrine. You do not have to ask for them.
- DO educate your student about what a shrine is, and tell them they are in NO WAY OBLIGATED to build one for you. Try to prevent them from being taken advantage of by people who would use them soley to get a shrine.
- DO NOT demand payment for your time in other resources, such as "if you make me 50 canvas, I'll show you how to mine".
- DO teach your student the basic skills, or ascertain that they have used the wiki to learn this on their own (some will prefer to learn almost entirely via wiki, albeit rarely so).
- DO NOT give 3 hour dissertations on every aspect of the game to a new player. Parcel out information in bits, and allow them time to incorporate it. The amount of time varries by student, you'll need to feel this one out.
- DO give an overview of the game's storyline: Pharaoh good, Stranger is his snotty little brother, gotta show him up, etc. Understanding the storyline gives context to the tasks, and makes them seem far less like mindless drudgery.
- DO NOT give a long list of tasks to your student and then vanish. Not everyone is powergamer.
- DO take time after each set of instructions or explaination to ask them if they have more questions about what you've just said. Gauge your student's reactions in these situations so that you know how often they will need more information.
- DO NOT disparage other nations and/or cultures. This game is international and multi-lingual, we have players from all over the world. Comments like "all french people are snobs" are highly offensive.
- DO feel free to ask a GM to use the System channel to request a language-specific mentor, if you and your student have no common language or use an online translator, such as Alta-Vista.
- DO NOT use racial slurs/attack someone's religion/be a sexist (male OR female)/use the word "fag" as some kind of insult/etc. Really, I'm midly disappointed that I need to say this, but clearly, I do. Just don't go there, okay? Its bad manners, no matter what your personal beliefs may be about such things.
- DO hand off a student to another mentor, if you cannot deal with the fact that they have just told you that they are black/gay/female/christian/republican. If you can't be polite about something because of a personal issue, its really best to connect that student with a mentor who doesn't have the same issue.
- DO NOT keep working with a student who REALLY drives you up the wall. No kidding, you're better off and so are they.
- DO hand off students to other mentors with full disclosure. Don't try to trick someone into taking a student because you dont personally like them. Please do not hand off every other student, this is something you do when its really bad, not just because you dont think they will build you a shrine.
- DO NOT "poach" students from other mentors. This is very rude, you're sure to piss someone off if you go there. Its okay to answer questions, but not to "steal" someone's student.
- DO make contacts in as many regions as you can, make sure to ask a person if they already have a mentor and/or are in a mentoring guild. A /info on a new player will answer most of these questions. Take the time to do that.
- DO NOT abuse your relationship with your student by setting up unfair trades or conversely, give them a load of stuff for free.
- DO encourage them to trade and trade fairly with them. This sets up resonable expectations and creates autonomy.
- DO NOT try to make your student into a little version of yourself.
- DO recognize them as individuals and attempt to discover their own unique playstyle. Ask them about other games they've played to reveal a load of information that will help you do so.
- DO feel free to send me a message if you feel that i've left something off of this list. This is a work in progress.
And..the "Always" list
- Always show your student the wiki and teach them how to use it: its just as important as flax or mining.
- Always remain accessable to your student, keep communication lines open
- Always treat people with respect
- Always remember this is a game, and its supposed to be fun ;)
Conclusion
Mentoring is hard work and it can be stressful and thankless. Its also easily the most important relationship a new player makes. Try to make it a relationship that you can be proud of. Consider shrines something like an after dinner mint at a restaurant: Its a nice bonus, but really, you came for the meal, didnt you?