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Where r all the helpers gone??
Skylan
Member UncommonPosts: 24
iv'e been playing mmo's for 8 years now and i love them, the only problem is when i start a new game like recently i checked out AL as i had stopped playing EQ2, and well for a free to play mmo its nice, but because i have joined the game late no one seems to want to help a noob there is not a help system or just a guy running by and seeing i needed help stopped and gave his assistence i know people are busy doing there own thing but do you all agree that there should be a helper system in place for MMO's as they are so big and indepth?
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Im one of these "weirdos" thats prefers to Solo pretty much all the way. I enjoy discovering stuff for myself and even though I will ask for help if I really need it.... I prefer not to.
For people new to MMO's altogether though.... its probably a good thing.
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
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"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
I really liked Saga of Ryzom's system where they had Player Welcomers given the ability to teleport in and out of the newbie zone and city areas.
If newbies had questions all they had to do was ask and they would get personal help from a player that had been playing for a long time and most of the time these people were absolutely amazing. Players helping players has seemed to decrease here and there but not complertely, I certainly go out of my way to help youngins when I can in the games I play.
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Helper systems (IMHO) are a thing of the older more complex games which frankly, had a different kind of community that does not exist in the newer games.
Games like WoW really don't need a "helper system". Whats there to understand up front? Hit the mob, level up. There are no points to assign, no attributes to tweak, no skills to choose, nothing to really learn at all. Thats not a bash or a flame but reality. (actually this is one of WoWs great strengths from a design view, easy to learn and "fun" to play) the other side of that is there is no complexity or real depth that needs a "helper". (at least up front )
One other thing to take into account is starter tutorials have improved 1000% over the last few years. MMO's use to just dump you into the landscape with very few explainations of anything except maybe movement and basic combat.
I remember the helpers from the days of AC (the advocate program) and even SWG and few others. Games like that maybe needed someone to give some guidence. For a newbie, they were complicated, cryptic and frustrating. The wrong choice could mess up your character down the line in some cases. Todays games, thats not the case.
The leveling now a days is also pretty fast and painless unlike the old days. The early levels are designed to keep you feeling like you are making progress not to challenge you to much in the beginning. Its just not the same as 5 or more years ago.
Thats just my opinion, you know what they say about those.
An automated NPC system would be handy in most games. But failing to actually sit down and read the basics on the games website is why there are so many people out there hollering for help.
As for real life helpers. Speaking mainly from my own experiences, with a touch of the added opinions of many game friends, it is the greedy ungrateful children that has killed my charitable side.
Once upon a time in a game far far away in the past I, along with many others, use to visit the starting area often. There we would chat up the youngins and answer questions. Give quick tours around the town. Take time to fill the charity boxes with starter gear. Even spend a little coin once in a while. When asked in gratitude what they could do to repay our kindness our answer was simple. "Remember this day and repeat it yourself with someone new to our lands and you will have paid your debt"
But as the years flew bye and new generations of players came into the game thier gratitude for a little carring help faded and thier demand for coin and items grew. With new games comming out to be grind mob X till level, move here grind this , repeat formula and the quests thinly disguised as something to do, actually only just showing you the way to the next level of grind fest. Well there isn't a lot an old hand can give advice about. Plus when you have heard the same question for the 1000th time .... from people who are too lazy to spell the words or even put the question into the proper form ...... after a while your kinder side is beaten sensless and the ignore option becomes a tool often used.
A part of me is sad to know that there are some deserving gamers out there that are now getting the shaft because the general populace is tainted so.
The reason there are not any in game helpers anymore, because there is a slight problem with the legal system.
UO used to have councilors until someone sued them and they found they were running afoul of the labor laws, essentially minimum wage.
So it is a legal no no. Now some of the Asian MMO's still have non paid help, but they are not hosted in the US.
People just yell that crap out in the general channel, and if someone feels generous they'll yell the answer back, or maybe send the person a /tell. It seems to work just fine.
MMORPG Maker
I don't know really how a helper should work... What really is it? A npc that will help you out, players getting rewarded for helping you?
As I see it now I don't think there is any need for a help system. The players who tend to ask for help are those aren't fit for the game, they can't comprehend it and therefore have to ask. These players may not be ready to enter the world of mmos, they may still have to train some in one person games.
Amen. I am noticing that alot nowadays. I was talking to a potential recruit the other night and he asked what he would get for joining the guild. LOL, he was expecting money, high end loot and other gear. I politely told him to take a hike, thinking that was one in a million chance to get a person like that but a few others later on were the same way, demanding stuff to join.
Same thing with folks asking for help to higher level folks. They don't really want help, theyw ant the higher level guy to walk them through it so they can get the prize at the end.
What the heck is happening to the community out there? When I started I had nothing, asked a ton of questions to folks that would take the time and earned my way in the game. Some folks nowadays think that they should be given everything right from the start. Where is the fun in that?
I still wear the HELPER tag in game and try and help and teach where I can, but it is starting to become a bit of an annoyance with more and more folks thinking I am an ATM or Loot dispensing machine.
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
I remember Anarchy Online had "ARKs", which was a volenteer help system. Worked great too. They were EXSTREMLY strict in who they took in as well.
Its a good thing too. Saves the compainy alot of money in hirering people to do it.
I suspect helpers are a dying breed because:
1) Communication Barriers. Most people who use TS/Vent are not willing to chat in local, and most people who chat longhand aren't willing to log on to TS/vent just to communicate with others. I suspect that the considerable variety of communication preferences available now eliminates any possibility of the sorts of serverwide communities we had ingame, and the only real server community exists on the forums, where the communication medium is standardized.
2) Private Guilds. Private guilds want to be the ones that are responsible for indoctrinating new players, and claim they can do it better. I'm not necessarily sure that guilds indoctrinate new players to be successful better than the helpers, but they certainly indoctrinate players into being dependent on the guild to be successful. Given the guilds are strong interest groups that shape the direction of games, and the voulenteer helping communities are single players with no real voice at the table, its natural that the games start to facilitate the nees of the guilds, which are simply to make the game inaccessable without being a member of a guild, so that people will have to join guilds, to play the games the way the guilds want them to play.
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"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
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"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
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Last game I did this in was Anarchy Online, I was even part of the ARK program at launch but as someone who was around back then probably can imagine you took a LOT of heat from angry customers.
Later though when I was rich and famous, well not so much famous but still, I would quite often take some new player under my wing.
Someone who asked an honest and good question in local could all of a sudden find themself on a really in depth tour of the game, wich is quite complicated, at least by todays standards.
Added to that some nice startup gear and money to get them quite a bit past the newbie state.
Met some great friends this way and it was both fun and rewarding.
I even had some basic crafting skills on my soldier and crat for this purpose, even though it costed me in skills.
I no longer have this inclination, the community as a whole does not make me want to do that anymore.
Sad but true.
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Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
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