Guilds > Global Mentoring > Welcometext

Welcoming New Players

As the stated primary goal of this guild, I believe that there should be a level of consistancy and structure in the way in which we contact and form relationship with new players. Of course, every individual is different and has different needs, and as such there will be no 'perfect script'. We can, however, provide general notes, suggestions and possible approaches.

Identifying your style and pitch

As ever, you need to know your audience in order to aim your pitch correctly. I find it's generally useful to open the conversation with a fairly leading and ambiguously friendly statement. The response to, 'Hey there! Welcome to the mainland :)' should instantly give you a very good idea as to the profile of the person you're dealing with. From there, you've several possible approaches.

Depending on their reactions, you may find that the conversation ranges from anywhere between a relaxed and casual chat, to a formal introduction and conversation. Below is an idealised sample conversation:

Mentor: "Hi there! Congratulations on getting to the mainland :)"

New Player: "Thanks! I can't wait to get into the game!"

Mentor: "That's great!"
Mentor: "Well, this is basically a courtesy call. I represent a kind of.. central organisation of mentors, and we just like to make sure that everybody who hits the mainland sees a friendly face admidst the confusion. What we try and do is to provide directions to and membership in a mentoring establishment, should you be interested. The first steps in Egypt are often quite overwhealming, and it helps to be part of a friendly and supportive community! :)"

New Player: "Ah, thank you! So, what do I do now? Haha."

Mentor: "Well, I can contact a mentor for you if you're interested, and we can see about settling you in with some new friends :) Of course, you don't have to do that by any means, but if you're interested we've a bunch of good mentors who'd be more than happy to take you under thier wing :)"

New Player: "That sounds great, thank you!"

Mentor: "Super - in which case if you give me just a moment, I'll see who's around and available to give you a hand. I'll try and find somebody local, but failing that you can always use your 'newbie warps' (starting options menu) to teleport directly to one of our team :)"

New Player: "I can teleport to people? Cool!"

Mentor: "Heh, indeed. Right, [mentor] is going to send you a chat tab. He'll show you around and help get you on your feet. In the meantime, I'll leave this chat tab open - you're more than welcome to nudge me at any time. I'll check back in on you from time to time, if you don't mind, and just make sure everything's ok and that you're settling in ok :)"

New Player: "That'd be great - thank you very much. I'll keep in touch!"

Structing the conversation

So, obviously this is very idealised. However, it forms the basic framework which we should try to adhere to. It's comrpised of several key parts:

• Identification of the player's response levels, maturity levels, language skills, etc.
• Introduction from the mentor, and outlying of who/what we are.
• Positive confirmation from the new player that they're open to assistance.
• Information from the mentor about mentoring in general, and affirmation that mentoring is by no means obligatory.
• Confirmation that the mentor will 'check up' on the mentee at various intervals.

Note that a lot of the mentor's text is in larger paragraphs. This generally tends to make it easier to keep the conversation close to the above structure. With some players, however, you may wish to make use of shorter sentences as 'prompts'. This will be discussed further on. Watch what happens when we split up part of the pervious conversation into smaller chunks, even with the idealised mentee...

New Player: "Ah, thank you! So, what do I do now? Haha."

Mentor: "Well, you've a whole bundle of options."

New Player: "What like? Can I improve my stat points?"

Mentor: "Yes, by taking part in Tests, and eating cooked food"

New Player: "How do I cook food?"

Now, there's nothing inherantly wrong with this conversation, but it's broken down from the structure, and now we have no idea where it's going to end up. It also means that our greeters are going to be spending more time actually mentoring than greeting, and are going to end up with a lot of these players attached to them rather than to any other mentors that we might hand them over to. With students that are less suited to independant learning, this type of approach can also often risk leading into a 'how i mine for fish?' conversation. The structure of the conversation is very important.

Different styles

Let's take a look at a different student, and some ways to try and keep the structure.:

Mentor: "Hi there! Congratulations on getting to the mainland :)"

New Player: "hi."
(Note the following instant change of approach in terms of the pitch of the conversation, based upon the percieved difference in player type.)

Mentor: "Well, I'm just dropping by to make sure that everything's ok! I'm Kaotika, and I'm part of a group that tries to make sure that everybody gets settled in ok on the mainland. If you need a hand at all, or would like some help getting the hang of things, we'd be happy to assist :)"

New Player: "what do i do"
New Player: "where is a school?"

Mentor: "If you hit F3 it'll bring up your map, and you should be able to find schools neaby (labelled as SArch, for example). As to what you can do, that's up to you! But I might reccomend the following...
Mentor: "If you'd like, I can contact a mentor or guild for you who can help teach you some of the basics and give you a hand settling in and meeting new people. You don't have to, of course. If you prefer I can give you a few hints and tips and you can do it yourself :)":

New Player: "ok, how do i get a mentor?"

(etc...)

Dealing with rejection

The other possible scenario is the player who doesn't want assistance. If you can do so without fraying tempers, it may be worth pushing a little to make sure that the player understands what we're offering,and that a mentor can be benefitial. However, it's important to respect that some players simply will not want or need a mentor. We're not here to decide that for them.

Still, if things remain polite it's nice to leave them with a quick tooltip on how to /chat people, the wiki url (atitd.net) and a few friendly words. Don't burn any bridges :)

Finding A Home

If the player expresses an interest in meeting a mentor, your first call is to check who's available in the guild chat tab, coordinating your search and choices with the availability list on the front page of the Global Mentoring wiki. When you've found them a mentor, it is then that person's responsibility to take over the mentoring of the player - though you will be responsible for contacting the player for their week one and week 2 'check in', and for filling in the survery results in accordance with the 'Mentor Chart' page.

Another point to take into account is the player's general playstyle in games. Will they prefer a more relaxed pace in Kush, to to be in the hustle and bustle of the heart of Karnak? Bear this, and any other relevant information in mind when locating a mentor for the player!

Notes / Suggestions

Notes placed here may be gradually incorporated into existing texts in whole or in part. If your note vanishes, it's likely because it's been mashed about, moved, taken to pieces and put back together within the main body of the text on this or another page.