Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Being nice to new players

Iluvatar · 09-11-2003, 11:37 PM

There are no simple answers and while you can take the time to publish simple guidance and suggestions, it's the kind of topic that's always full of the dreaded "gray areas" junior Imms hate.

The general rule of thumb I've found to be effective is for the Imms to stay invisible unless running a quest or doing some roleplaying just for fun. Helping or hindering mortals in their daily lives is just not acceptable normal behavior. Occasionally though, a respectful, decent newbie actually does appear and they "may" get blessed by a God to retrieve that totally lost corpse with their treasured eq hoard.

I totally agree we exist to cater to the morts by providing the world and it's interactivity, fix code or oversight caused wrongs and perhaps smooth over rough spots with interpersonal relations. There's a limit though and a certain aloofness must be maintained or they WILL walk all over you and your staff. Morts for some reason get the impression that free muds are somehow public domain places and they have a right to demand service, change or information from any Immortal they see. If they can see you, all of a sudden you get bombarded with a plethora of tells ranging in topic from "Yo Dood, when ya gonna fix dat cause it blows" to "Hi, long time no see, I'm new here and can you help me level?" The ones that always get my goat the most are those that decide you're an Imm and as such deserve immediate suck-up as well as access to their private life situations as if you've been friends forever.

Our staff has taken the time to sort of condition our regular players with the idea that the newbie of today may very well be their clan mate or be guarding their back someday and deserving of assistance. That seems to have worked well for us and spares us playing ready help files or encyclopedias of mudding for the challenged ones. I occasionally prod mortals I see sitting around on their duffs into helping the newbs out too. If we don't see they are getting help with questions, the staff will usually provide a short, simple reply like <type help> or <index> which shows an alpha listing of all the help files. Rarely, one will actually go and provide one-on-one guidance.

09-11-2003, 11:37 PM	#7
Iluvatar Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Mississippi USA Posts: 142	There are no simple answers and while you can take the time to publish simple guidance and suggestions, it's the kind of topic that's always full of the dreaded "gray areas" junior Imms hate. The general rule of thumb I've found to be effective is for the Imms to stay invisible unless running a quest or doing some roleplaying just for fun. Helping or hindering mortals in their daily lives is just not acceptable normal behavior. Occasionally though, a respectful, decent newbie actually does appear and they "may" get blessed by a God to retrieve that totally lost corpse with their treasured eq hoard. I totally agree we exist to cater to the morts by providing the world and it's interactivity, fix code or oversight caused wrongs and perhaps smooth over rough spots with interpersonal relations. There's a limit though and a certain aloofness must be maintained or they WILL walk all over you and your staff. Morts for some reason get the impression that free muds are somehow public domain places and they have a right to demand service, change or information from any Immortal they see. If they can see you, all of a sudden you get bombarded with a plethora of tells ranging in topic from "Yo Dood, when ya gonna fix dat cause it blows" to "Hi, long time no see, I'm new here and can you help me level?" The ones that always get my goat the most are those that decide you're an Imm and as such deserve immediate suck-up as well as access to their private life situations as if you've been friends forever. Our staff has taken the time to sort of condition our regular players with the idea that the newbie of today may very well be their clan mate or be guarding their back someday and deserving of assistance. That seems to have worked well for us and spares us playing ready help files or encyclopedias of mudding for the challenged ones. I occasionally prod mortals I see sitting around on their duffs into helping the newbs out too. If we don't see they are getting help with questions, the staff will usually provide a short, simple reply like <type help> or <index> which shows an alpha listing of all the help files. Rarely, one will actually go and provide one-on-one guidance.