Helping newbies, errrm, noobs, errrm, nubs, errrm...
by Eric Vice 
Sep 7th 2007 at 7:00PM
Private Hudson over at Wife Agro wrote a very thought-provoking article about new players. While on one hand he complains that the lower level areas are becoming ghost towns, he also reports that he's actually seen some genuine new players on his server recently.
I remember reading a story a few months ago in the short-lived (now deceased) MMO Gaming Magazine about one of the writers who attempted to play the original Everquest for the first time, starting from scratch. The author spoke of the attitude he got from the established high-level players and how difficult it was for him to get his feet under him when there seemed to be nobody on the server who would help him with even the simplest task because nobody believed he was truly "new" to Everquest.
Private Hudson goes on describe and differentiate between two kinds of new players, and proposes that the good of the game is best served by helping them rather than mocking them or ignoring them. We were all new once, right?
A year ago when I was on Thorium Brotherhood (before The Burning Crusade), I remember guild events where we used to help new players, where we'd give away free bags to at least try to help them minimize the number of trips they'd have to make into town. Now you can shoot a cannon off in most of those zones, or if you do see people in them they are leveling at warp speed with their eyes closed because they have done the quests so many times.
Do you go out of your way to still attempt to be helpful? Or is there no point in wasting time on low level players when most of them are just re-rolls? How do you balance your availability to your own in-game goals with the task of welcoming new people instead of turning them away?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ana Sep 7th 2007 7:22PM
To answer your questions, I thought you might like to check these guys out... ;)
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ryumo/watch/
Coherent Sep 7th 2007 7:56PM
I do occasionally see completely new players around town, and I always do what I can to help them out.
You can always tell they're new. They don't know any of the established info about the game. They ask questions like "Where is the inn in Stormwind?" or "How do I feed my pet?" and even, occasionally... "Where is Mankirk's wife?"
I always point them in the right direction and help them out somehow, ask them about their crafting professions, check out their gear and recommend upgrades, etc. Sometimes you'll see rogues with lots of spirit, or warriors wearing shaman gear, and you gently guide them into more productive paths.
It's heartbreaking but necessary to have to tell people "Yes, there _are_ totally useless stats." before they get disgruntled and angry about how they die in every other fight.
Dave Sep 7th 2007 7:56PM
I'll try to help new people, but it's frustrating sometimes.
I kinda feel sorry for the people who are going to go through the game (sorta...) and never go into Wailing Caverns because nobody wants to waste 3hrs of their life with a low-level instance except for the twinks.
By this time, we're all tired of telling anyone who doesn't know about wowhead/thottbot/etc where mankirk's wife is.
I've had a guy bugging me occasionally that seems to just not be motivated enough to level. We were around the same level a few weeks ago, but now he's nearly 20 levels behind me. He keeps asking for help, but while i was all for helping out back when we were close and in the same zones, it's like it'd be a huge waste of my time to run Scarlet Monastery at L55. (especially as the guy is in a guild and my alts aren't). I guess that's the nature of new to the game players, in that they don't necessarily know how to level well enough to be quick with it, and therefore plenty of them get burned out or frustrated or whatever.
I'll do whatever I can to help new people, but there's only so much you can do before you kinda wonder if you're just wasting your time.
Alex Sep 7th 2007 8:28PM
I'm very new to WoW myself. I've been playing for just over a month and I hit level 50 yesterday.
I feel like I don't have that much to learn anymore, but I also know there's incredible depth and complexity waiting for me.
That's what I'm worried about. I'd love to have the confidence to do instances with others, but I just don't know a lot of the ins and outs of the teamwork in the game. And I'd rather not bother with a dungeon than mess the whole thing up for my party.
I haven't done a single instance yet. Not Even Scarlet Monastery! Which I always wanted to do!
It looks like I'm destined to a life of PvP. Apparently it's easier.
I wish people on my realm were kind enough help me out instead calling me a nub or something. Props to you guys that are decent enough to help the new guys.
draeth Sep 7th 2007 9:19PM
Whenever I roll through some lowbie part of azeroth, I will always respond to someones general chat inquiries for help in group quests because I remember how hard it was to get groups as a noob. And usually ill toss them a few gold because I recieved gifts of gold from endgamers when I was a noob and they told me to share the wealth when I was their level, like that movie pay it forward lol
m1courville Sep 7th 2007 10:41PM
Just yesterday a guildy and myself were bored playing in outlands when we both saw "LFG Mara need DPS and Tank!" We joked for a minute then decided to tell this guy that we were in. He responded with in for what? Well clearly its not often that 2 lvl 70s will respond to a LFG for Mara. They were ecstatic that they could finally run the entire instance without someone quitting after they got what they needed. I think it is fun revisiting places that were such a pain the A**! It's like going in for revenge.
Tyler Sep 7th 2007 11:30PM
It truly might only take you 20seconds or at most one minute of your time to help out. Your 20 seconds just made they're entire day. It feels good, I like to do it as often as someone needs. And think about how they feel now too.
Apoc Sep 7th 2007 11:44PM
When I get bored and don't feel like doing anything else, I either run through southshore and gank some horde, or I'll actually head down to northshire and help out a noob.
Most of the people I have encountered have been playing alts, and have level 70 main characters somewhere, but quite a few have been genuinely new people, and I tell you, they really appreciate the help, especially if you just toss them 1g to be nice... that's a ton of money to a lvl 3!
People have have high level mains not only don't appreciate help, they complain about you cutting into their experience, and aren't generally very nice about it. But new players really appreciate it, and have plenty of questions to ask, and I'm happy to oblige.
It does feel good to help somebody out from time to time, so I make a habit of it. Recently I've been seeing a lot more high level people in the newbie areas helping out. It's a trend I'd like to see continue!
katyanna Sep 8th 2007 1:30AM
yea, even when I was new I helped lower players out. especially the ones I remember being hard, and as someone else said, that I had a hard time finding a group for. Now I have my guild, but I would still help out a lowbie.
Krianna Sep 8th 2007 2:03AM
I help folks that I think are new.
This results in having to ignore a lot of folks, honestly, because many folks can smell a sucker.
This also results in some folks faking newness to get help from known helping guilds.
On the other hand, I do know that roughly half of the people in my guild are new to WoW because my husband and I recruited them into the game. *grin*
Omacron Sep 8th 2007 2:09AM
Heh, you were on thorium brotherhood? I still am- I created my first character on it when it was a med-pop server, and I love it there. Why'dja leave?
Justin Sep 8th 2007 2:12AM
My buddies and I have only been playing for a relatively short time (post BC). After dropping our Alliance pallys on a PVE server (we had no idea what we were doing;)...) we made some Horde toons on a PVP server. We got a "friend" invite into a good raiding guild and we're happy for a while... We were still learning and there were some guys willing to help, but those numbers were few.
We all ran through several races, classes, professions... We finally found what we were looking for. By now we were comfy in the game, running instances, whatever...
We then at about 40 started our own guild and devoted ourselves to being helpful. (shameless plug: Nerd Herder Nation of Illidan) We're constantly answering questions, giving recommendations, and the like. We won't really help people level through questing, but if they need that drop from whatever instance, there is normally someone that will run them...
Then when our main core (10 or 15 devoted people and growing) of folks get to a new Instance we run it until everyone gets the drops they need, and normally after we're tired of spending the time we'll run it as a raid to knock it out real fast and get those drops.
We're just a customer service guild for 3 reasons...
1. We never had those options when we were new or even leveling re-rolls.
2. We figure when we are all 70 (& 80) and getting into end game content we'll have one hell of a core group.
3. Kindness is contagious.
Our guild is new and it's only been about a month and a half but our system works well.
More on the point of this post, we do have several people that are brand new, first character players. It's nice, we were all there at one point in time. I also firmly believe in random gifts to the lowbies... Gold, bags, whatever, it builds that feeling of being a team.
Sorry this is so darn long...
jlpknights82 Sep 8th 2007 2:14AM
Me and a friend tend to trade a lot of SM runs for our alts, so we both end up with a lot of silk and such. Lately I've taken to making bags out of all the extra silk, since none of my alts need it anymore.
When I make a bunch of bags I'll run my main down to the noob area closest to wherever I am and give all the bags away. Usually the guys that are not genuinely new already have better bags and will refuse them, but there's always at least one genuinely new person that is really grateful for some bags and a gold or two. :D
They usually have a bunch of questions, too, which I try to answer. It's like adopting a noob for a few hours. LOL.
Clink Sep 8th 2007 4:22AM
When I do find a truly new player I often spend an hour or two teaching them the mechanics of the game, such as how to SHIFT+R CLICK to auto loot and so forth. I also provide them with a set of bags and make sure that they /friend me for later.
Wes Sep 8th 2007 4:49AM
yeah im a complete newbie with a current lvl 20 warrior i dont seem to get much help a few high lvl players have actualy stoped and helped me i also have a lvl 70 shaman friend in Real life but he seesm not to play much but i think there should be something to show ur not another char from a lvl 70 :P lik an icon.. :P
Theserene Sep 8th 2007 9:44AM
We have a new member to our guild who is low level and new to the game. We've boosted him through WC/SFK/RFC etc. and helped out with advice (like how to train your warlock minion and why it's good to keep demon armor on).
We are a guild that will take on newcomers because we find that a bit of kindness at the start nets you some really devoted guild members at higher levels.
Also, I just love running SFK. We did lower blackrock yesterday for a couple of the level 50+ members and for us level 70s it was one hell of a fun run.
Gabby Sep 8th 2007 10:58AM
I am a noob myself, I have a lvl 41 warrior, and found out I hate tanking. So I made a shaman and love it. I am lvl 57 now, and I get alot of help from my husband but is usually too busy to help me. I have no guild and I have only been through an instance because my husband ran me through it (Sunken Temple and Zul Furrak). It's hard to find help! and when people see that your not in a guild they think your a gold farmer or something and completely ignore you. I almost fear getting to 70 because I have never done a raid before and I don't want to be the reason we wiped!
madcaddie Sep 8th 2007 12:00PM
in m yold guild i helped lower level, maybe not new people to the game, out with instances, quests and what not. i took time and gold to help others where i didn't get the help. the problem that insued, was that people got lazy and wanted higher level people to stop what they were doing to run this or do that. now, i didn't mind helping cause as we all know, some instances, *cough* uldaman *cough* are hard to find a group.
but as the old saying, you can give a man a fish to eat and he eats for the day, but teach him how to fish, and he eats for life.
help others, answer their questions, point them in the right directiom, and kill all gold beggers!!!
Potatowedge Sep 8th 2007 1:16PM
Ah, when I was a little nooblet ... wasn't that long ago, only April actually. Someone randomly mailed me a spiffy green BoE lowbie bow, and greens below lvl 10 are pretty hard to find, at least by my experience. It made my day. Alas, I don't remember their name ...
TheMinority Sep 8th 2007 2:28PM
I love to help new players, except sometimes new players can get greedy. I usually like to give them a new green weapon, do a quest with them while teaching them the mechanics, and (if they're a high enough level) run them through an appropriate instance while teaching them about instances. Unfortunately, I often get people who keep coming back every day for stuff, asking for gold, begging for runs, etc.
If you're new and someone willing gives their time/gold/items/advice to you, please don't take it and ask for more. I've run into a couple of new players who were so nice about respecting my time and work that I gave them a good blue item/took them through an instance multiple times to show my appreciation for the dying tradition of etiquette.