Veterans have responsibilities

[AHierophant]

Greetings. I suspect a lot of the people that read this forum regularly have been playing since early launch, and active in the forums before that. I also suspect that you, like me, are heavily invested in the game and Star Wars in general and are by now quite familiar with the way the game works and the mountain of lore involved in the universe.

 

However, I have noticed that many veteran players are reacting poorly to the questions often asked by new players - some even appearing to do their level best to drive new players from the game - while others are apathetic. Only a few veterans on my server take the time and effort to help new players, and these are almost always the same people over and again. This is not a specific accusation, but rather a general appraisal of the attitude exhibited by veterans. I count myself among this group, and have found myself being snarky, arrogant, and condescending to a new player. The idea is not to be an organic Google interface but to show new players how to find the answers themselves. With this post, I hope I can convince many others that there is a way to help new players while ensuring that they also learn to seek answers within the game first.

 

1. Know whom to 'save' and whom to ignore.

 

In the words of the film Cool Hand Luke, "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach." Don't waste your time and energy on someone who is hostile or refusing to try. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone trying to reeducate a person who is angry and obstinate. It simply hardens their resolve, and ensures they are not going to listen to a single thing you say. It makes you appear combative and egotistical, which other new players who witness it will remember when you try to give them advice. Save your effort for new players with a desire to learn and become better.

 

2. You are not Moses descending from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments of Gaming.

 

A couple days ago a player on Dromund Kaas asked whether using a Vibrosword to level instead of Lightsaber had any difference beyond cosmetic. Simple question, right? The person who answered then proceeded to spend 45 minutes trying to get that player to use only Lightsabers because of lore reasons and the differing min/max damage for the two weapon types. Helping new players does not mean they must make a conversion to your idealized game world. Answer truthfully and leave judgement behind. When a new player asks if using Aim on a sniper is a good idea, give the answer, how to find the main stat for each class, and if the player still wants to use Aim, live and let live. They will come around when their gaming suffers for their choice, but if people are trying to pursue an inquisition it will once again harden the player to your viewpoint.

 

3. Don't be the organic Google interface.

 

One of my pet peeves with new players is that some are lazy. They KNOW where to get an answer, but find it much easier to continually ask questions into chat and have someone else Alt-Tab out of the game and Google it. I've seen a veteran player spend 10 minutes researching with Google and then answering the question in chat. The message delivered was: You can keep playing and have someone else go and find what you want for you. This, in turn, creates an expectation on the new player's part - when I have a question I just ask the chat. Thus, veteran players end up answering the same questions over and over and over again. I needn't explain how grating this becomes, especially when the same people ask the same questions or two people ask the same question mere moments apart. Additionally, you aren't helping the player to become better or more self-sufficient. Instead, give the player web sites or directions to access information contained in the game. Not only will you not to have to continually fetch answers, but that player is now that much informed and can in turn help other new players.

 

4. Make no assumptions.

 

The easiest thing a veteran can do is assume all players in the game are not only as supremely knowledgeable and wise as themselves, but have years/decades of previous MMORPG experience. Let's put this to rest here and now: many, many, MANY people are absolutely brand new to ToR and even brand new to MMOs. You may think you're being impressive by blurting out MMO slang and expecting everyone else in the group you've never met before to understand you, but it is going to set up a massive train wreck that teaches the new player nothing and makes you angry. I start out every PuG group the same way, by asking the other players what role they perform, and quickly evaluate their knowledge. If they do not know what CC, FF, kill order, or some other term means, I explain it. I take the initiative and mark targets myself. I explain WHY I chose the order we kill them in. I teach players with CC abilities how and when to use them. I've found that approaching new players without judgement or scorn has resulted in these new players becoming group proficient very quickly, which means the next group they join will have one more good player than they otherwise would have.

 

5. Patience, you must have. (sorry, could not resist)

 

It's tempting to simply wash your hands of all this and become of one of the apathetic. You lounge in guild chat most of the time, popping out to join the mocking of a new player that makes the horrible mistake of asking for help on Fleet. You bemoan the state of the player base in not only this game but all games, but you are not so concerned to actively change anything. When recruiting for a guild, you'll complain about the lack of well-geared, knowledgeable, competent players to pick from as if they just are born with raiding/PvP wisdom and it is someone else's problem to make sure they are up to snuff.

 

Please, try not to fall to this. You needn't spend every waking moment in game tutoring new players, but take some risks. Spend a Saturday afternoon on an alt doing leveling heroics, helping new players gain skills. This benefits not only them, but you and your guild as well because the players at max level will have the basics when you need to recruit. People with bad attitudes, trolls, and other malcontents will find themselves with an ever-dwindling number of players to interact. As time goes on, you'll find more and more that you won't have to spend time teaching skills or helping, because those players you helped before are in turn helping others. The entire server community benefits from this. PuG PvP is more competitive, flashpoint PuGs become a fun way to meet new people rather than a waking nightmare.

 

Thank you for reading.

[TrueNovaZero]

Spent enough time getting burned being the nice guy. You run into bloated egoes and people who're a bit too hostile. Happens enough times that apathy becomes more appealing. Beyond answering simple questions that people ask in fleet general (and believe it or not, you can STILL cop abuse from certain bad eggs -- which is fine to ignore, it just gets tiring), I've more or less stopped actively helping. I like to think it balances out though -- the good eggs that you help out pass on the good deeds and they help the next generation of good eggs, leaving the vets to retire.

 

Like life. Only faster.

[AHierophant]

Spent enough time getting burned being the nice guy. You run into bloated egoes and people who're a bit too hostile. Happens enough times that apathy becomes more appealing. Beyond answering simple questions that people ask in fleet general (and believe it or not, you can STILL cop abuse from certain bad eggs -- which is fine to ignore, it just gets tiring), I've more or less stopped actively helping. I like to think it balances out though -- the good eggs that you help out pass on the good deeds and they help the next generation of good eggs, leaving the vets to retire.

 

Like life. Only faster.

 

I can't argue with that, since I have been burnt as well. There seems to be enough people in game whose only purpose seems to be derailing anything and everything they can. I used to help people in general chat, thinking other new players would be free to pick up information that way, but the trolls and troublemakers made that impossible. They'd argue, sow false information, or failing that, start up the bacon or Spoiler! memes. So I took it to whispers or groups. Then, of course. I'd start a heroic with two new players seeking to learn but the third would pull randomly, screech at us to hurry, and everything else.

 

It is daunting. However, I am not ready to give up yet and I was hoping this post would have other veterans decide to make the game better.

[Sindorin]

tl;dr

[spookyBen]

I personally am from the beta test, as well as early access and completely agree with this.

 

I've been attacked several times (via language, not by a NPC) and honestly didn't want to help them in any kind of way, but they're basically a confused player just starting to play the game (Usually anyway) and need guidance to become a good player that doesn't make a horrible response to every question or every statement.

 

Veterans like myself need to help educate them but unfortunately I've been lacking with this because of my inactivity, and hoping to resume soon and help more.

 

I personally also used to be a Troll once on SWTOR, but that stopped over time of me trying to stop myself from continuing that. So all trolls out there that may be veterans, just try to at least not troll when it comes to answering questions or responding to statements. Otherwise troll all you want, but don't break the rules of SWTOR, or discourage someone, or even not giving a good answer to a question or statement.

 

But anyways, yeah, we do have responsibilities and we need to do it more instead of acting like we're better then everyone else or not willing to help with something just if we're veterans.

[Slightrider]

Smart azz usually in open general forum, but I will always wisper very helpful answers to even the silliest questions.

[psandak]

#1 I agree wholeheartedly. Those who admit they are new and are willing to accept advice and follow instructions are usually some of the best players I group with.

#2 again could not agree more. Everyone has an opinion, but fact is fact. In the immortal words of Joe Friday, "just the facts..." Let the player decide to act on those facts or not.

#3 I agree to a point. If you know the answer, give it. If you don't then google it and give it because then you've just learned something . But you are right that some players can be lazy.

#4 I never do. When chatting with a new player, I always spell things out and show abbreviations in parentheses (e.g. Damage Dealer (DPS)).

#5 in everything, this rests (you did it, so can I ).

[Freedannad]

The OP is definately correct. Vets and lovers of the game do have a responsibility to new players. A healthy community is key to the life of the game. I have been playing mmorpgs for 10 years and I've noticed one thing across more then 10 games in that time. The rudeness, laziness, arrogance (in mmorpgs) is getting progressively worse.

 

Back in 2003, I helped every new player that asked for it. This was so rewarding that I didn't care that it stunted my own character's progression. By doing this I not only made great friends, alot of which I still play swtor with and visit eachother IRL. I even met my wife in the Cornet Cantina on the Lowca server of SWG. We have been together for 9 years now and have a 16month old daughter. I can say that I would not have played mmos this long if it wasnt for those early friendships. My life has been enriched by helping newbie players more than I could ever have imagined.

 

With that being said, the SWTOR community seems to have alot of entitleld babies. So many cry about cartel coins, bugs, "someone killed me in a pvp zone while I was questing", im sure you get the idea. The people that I have helped in the game have been ungrateful and have given me attitude for not looking things up for them or just doing the quest for them while they stand there. I know that this is not all new commers, this is just my expeirence in SWTOR. Personally, I believe that the mmo community as a whole is growing increasingly immature and entitled. Noone want to earn anything they want it given to them. If someone loses in pvp it is because of hacks and exploiting instead of just being beat by a superior player that has spent more time learning the game and gearing a character.

 

I believe that attitude is one of the reasons that this game is not more popular. I have played alot of games that were less polished then this game at launch and I have never seen a communtiy act the way this one has towards devs and other players that are having fun playing the game. I have never seen people waste time to log into a game just to tell the people that are playing it and having fun doing so, that they are stupid and should stop playing. I know that the people that act like this are the minority, but they are a vocal minority. Us people that like the game don't run around the fleet yelling in general chat that "WE LOVE SWTOR". I'm with the original post we need to help the ones worth helping and just ignore the others. Eventually, they will go away. Hopefully, thier parents will kick them out of the basement and force them to get a job and they wont have time to ruin our good time.

Edited February 20, 2013 by Freedannad