Can we make a @help tag?

[omegahero]

im behind this idea. i have seen many newbies progress to rank 5, still absolutely clueless and it really shows when im on, during late night. it frustrates commanders who arent experienced enough to both help newbies out and command their team, leading to some bootings (since the newbies are 5). naturally, this would lead some newbies to quit, ragequit, forum ragequit and so on (see many threads in forums)

cadet is a great program. it teaches you stuff that most players, even vets, just dont have the numbers knowledge of. in a way, i see it as a kind of a library. it has a vast repository of knowledge and information, but i think the difference (hopefully) is that @help will provide a more of a hands-on, mentoring program which allows the newbies to really understand the game on a practical level. furthermore, @help should be more accessible to newbies than the cadet program, which only runs every certain number of weeks. as adept has said, it will help the first time players overcome the initial learning curve before the next cadet session starts, and hopefully, they will be more inclined to listen if there seems to be a dedicated person to helping them understand the game, rather than a vet they dont know "palming" them off onto the academy website.

for those of us who have stuck around, we all know what a great game allegiance is. id really like to spread the and share what the rest of us has experienced with the rest of the world. i think with the right approach, allegiance as a game is definitely marketable and currently, it has a niche not replicated by any other game i know.

[Ozricosis]

I think the @alleg coverage needs a good looking at again. There's rarely one on and if there is one, they are idling in the lobby or whoring on newbs.

We need @Alleg on as much as possible.

[cashto]

The unspoken elephant in the room is that the newbie server is even more useless than usual, because with the changes to the ranking system, it takes only a few games to get to (5). Fix or remove. Either we believe the newbie server is a useful larvae pond for people to monkey around with the game long enough to fall in love with it, or it's a filthy cesspool of bad habits that should be avoided as much as possible. My view is mostly the former. Right now Alleg is a take-it-or-leave-it affair. We throw new players into the deep end and hope they like what they see enough to endure people bitching at them until their newbieness wears off. Sure there's Cadet but not everyone wants to go to school in order to learn how to play a video game (I certainly didn't). So I'd rather see the newbie server expanded. It'll keep the kids out of the big boy game for a bit longer, and I think from time to time, an @Alleg or a @Help or otherwise qualified vet should be allowed to go down there and give tips, perhaps even try to comm a game and see if they can get the team to do something useful.

[Makida]

I believe cashto is absolutely correct. I know the newbie server (which was far, far more active when I first started playing) really helped me stick with the game, when I found the "real" games confusing and scary. Eventually, I was ready to move up, but the newbie server gave me the opportunity to fall in love with the game before dealing with its more complicated aspects. It should be expanded, not shrunk. This game exists for fun; if more players have fun, and it means we have a few more bad habits to deal with, it's still worth it. It's not really that hard to give a few tips to players who picked up a bad habit or two on the newbie server, and after all, if they actually *enjoy* the game, it's more likely they'll want to learn. I think limiting the newbie server in the interest of preventing people from learning "bad habits" was a case of taking things a bit too seriously, and losing sight of what this game is really like for absolute noobs, and the importance of them actually having fun as they learn.

[Spinoza]

Why do this?
Oh, I support this idea and you can sign me up as a vulenteer right now, but I must pose the question.
You see, Adept in his zeal maybe did not put enough emphasis on the reason we need this.
The reason is that - our new player retention rate is statistically insignificant!*
That is what we hope @help would actually help with.

Now here's my full response:
This is a great idea !It could fail completely.@help may end up wasting their time trying to teach players who quit after three days.**We want to try doing it just the same. What's it to you?Whatever anyone says, this is not like the cadet program. This is more like what I expected of cadet before I was told cadet does not involve anything in-game.***Yes, the new ranking system has had a ridiculous effect on newbie status.
* IIRC Adept was told it's about 3-4 out of a thousand...

** I hope at least some of the @help will have the necessary communication skills to explain to the newbies that they're not bots. TeeJ, thanks for a really funny and important clue about newbie mentality.

*** I have a great deal of respect for the cadet program, but it's not helpful for people who just logged in. In fact, if people who just logged in knew they'd have to spend weeks studying for a test for a chance to play with the big boys... well I doubt Alleg's newbie retention rate could be lower. But I doubt it would rise.
I did say I liked cadet, right? Coz it's great.

[Raveen]

I've always been in favour of something like this but never passionate about it to force it through.

The Cadet staff fulfill their roles brilliantly. Do not make the mistake of assuming that if they're not in game with tags on that they're not doing their jobs. They are doing everything that's been asked of them and doing it brilliantly.

If you want to create @Help then the cadet staff is a great place to start, but at the end of the day that's not likely to be enough people to give the needed coverage.

The @Alleg situation is in hand.

[Sealer]

While we're at it, how about having a few more active @alleg's ? Like someone already pointed out there are rarely any in game. I feel the same way as Raveen about this idea.

[notjarvis]

QUOTE (Sealer @ Jun 4 2009, 09:34 AM) While we're at it, how about having a few more active @alleg's ?

QUOTE (Raveen @ Jun 4 2009, 09:10 AM) The @Alleg situation is in hand.

[slap]

So it seems like Adept has community support on this, what do we need to do to make it happen?

[Ozricosis]

QUOTE (Raveen @ Jun 4 2009, 03:10 AM) The @Alleg situation is in hand.

Glad to hear that. But make sure what's in your hand isn't one eyed and hairy.