06-21-2012, 07:11 PM
I suppose I'll weigh in on this.
A mentor system would be nice, but this isn't the first time this was suggested (although maybe one of the first times it's been publicly suggested). If anything, this system should be left to, in my opinion, the Game Masters. We should be taking more initiative to show newer players and peons around, explain rules, give them some RP, and then help them make friends in the community to keep them around. New faces are nice, and we'd like to see more of them. However, I don't think the proposed mentor system is the way to go about cementing the presence of peons on CotH. Why do I say Game Masters should be doing this? I say it because many players are intimidated by us, especially newer ones, who, to be frank, are often easily intimated by anyone who's been around long enough. This also grants game masters the opportunity to leave our own circle of friends and do our jobs more efficiently; and my view on this position is to fulfill a few obligations, such as take part in decisions that affect the server, run events, perform disciplinary actions, and help introduce peons into the flow of the machine that is Conquest of the Horde. I feel that last one is sometimes neglected beyond approving the Introduction and offering them the chance to PM us or Forum Helpers with questions. I think that instead of expanding the staff even more and creating a new position, the green-named folk should just step up the game and take initiative by PMing newly accepted peons and offering them tours and answers directly, to take out the overwhelming "new server" feeling as much as possible, while keeping the flair of a new place as intact as possible.
That's not to say Forum Helpers shouldn't play a part in helping new players, or the general population for that matter. I think Forum Helpers should be available to help new people with things like lore and profiles, and Game Masters for everything else (but we can help with lore and profiles and the like as well, I suppose). I only reason this out because Game Masters know the rules a bit better than others do to our obligation to enforce them, which requires a thorough understanding of them to know what crosses lines and what doesn't.
TL;DR: Game Masters should act like mentors so we don't need a mentor system, and Forum Helpers should be around to answer questions about our lore, Warcraft lore, and profiles. The rest of the server should be willing to answer general questions other than that, so that we're a nice, oiled machine smoothly moving along.
A mentor system would be nice, but this isn't the first time this was suggested (although maybe one of the first times it's been publicly suggested). If anything, this system should be left to, in my opinion, the Game Masters. We should be taking more initiative to show newer players and peons around, explain rules, give them some RP, and then help them make friends in the community to keep them around. New faces are nice, and we'd like to see more of them. However, I don't think the proposed mentor system is the way to go about cementing the presence of peons on CotH. Why do I say Game Masters should be doing this? I say it because many players are intimidated by us, especially newer ones, who, to be frank, are often easily intimated by anyone who's been around long enough. This also grants game masters the opportunity to leave our own circle of friends and do our jobs more efficiently; and my view on this position is to fulfill a few obligations, such as take part in decisions that affect the server, run events, perform disciplinary actions, and help introduce peons into the flow of the machine that is Conquest of the Horde. I feel that last one is sometimes neglected beyond approving the Introduction and offering them the chance to PM us or Forum Helpers with questions. I think that instead of expanding the staff even more and creating a new position, the green-named folk should just step up the game and take initiative by PMing newly accepted peons and offering them tours and answers directly, to take out the overwhelming "new server" feeling as much as possible, while keeping the flair of a new place as intact as possible.
That's not to say Forum Helpers shouldn't play a part in helping new players, or the general population for that matter. I think Forum Helpers should be available to help new people with things like lore and profiles, and Game Masters for everything else (but we can help with lore and profiles and the like as well, I suppose). I only reason this out because Game Masters know the rules a bit better than others do to our obligation to enforce them, which requires a thorough understanding of them to know what crosses lines and what doesn't.
TL;DR: Game Masters should act like mentors so we don't need a mentor system, and Forum Helpers should be around to answer questions about our lore, Warcraft lore, and profiles. The rest of the server should be willing to answer general questions other than that, so that we're a nice, oiled machine smoothly moving along.