EVE New Citizens Q&A

Didnt we used to have a thread like this in here?

In any case, im open for this. Any new players who want to learn PVP, PVE or some low-end indy, message me.

I think if someone is really looking at pursuing this from a mentor's standpoint, the following should happen (based on current game-mechanics).

1) Mentor (or mentor corp) flies to career agent systems and/or starter systems.
2) Mentors advertises in local a "Mentor" chat channel where new players can join up. If that process is too complicated, the Mentor can private convo a player to tell them how its done.
3) Mentor channel has a bunch of helpful links to various resources. (ie UniWiki, Fuzzworks, etc...)
4) While in the "Mentor" channel, players can fleet up with eachother to help one another. Either two or more new players together, or a mentor and a new player.
5) Advertising needs to be done in forums so that new players who look here first will also know where to go.

As a Mentor, you could go into local starter systems and say something along the lines of :

"If you're a new player and are struggling, feel free to reach out to me for help. Right click my name + start convo, or join XXXX chat channel)"

Rookie Chat is helpful but only to a certain extent.
Being present is important - and having that 1-on-1 aspect will do two things:
a) Help the new player more efficiently
b) Hopefully create a long-term relationship between the two people involved. Players quit EVE early because of the steep learning curve. I hope if someone pushes this idea forward, more players will join and stay.

Hmmm i dont think sheltering the newbros from the real content is a good thing to do,
About half of the rookies (under one month old) iv have spoken to ingame were fine with getting ****ed in game once you explain to them what happened,
around half of those went "That was ****ing COOL MAN! Can you show me how to do that?!"

Many a bloodthirsty newbro came, got borde, left to go play something else,
hell the only reason i stuck around after this happened to my mates corp in the first year was because i read the damn forums and had "that" moment (you know the one) when i got what eve is about and then got involved.

I would support a "Mentor Button" in game.

I've had an office in the Trossere starter system since last August with a corp description offering mentorships. And, I spend almost every Sunday night there as well, contacting new players through private email, with limited success.

Maybe one in twenty will respond.

New players are suspicious, of help offered.

A "Mentor Button" would offer validation to a new player the proffered help was actually help, and not a scam.

Did you play FFXI?

Well, they could just leave Rookie space sooner. If they've hit the "Help Me!" button, got everything explained to them to their satisfaction the Mentor could kick them in tush and tell them "Go Fly!" and push them off the cliff. It's actually an advantage to the Mentor idea that they can get some player to figure out what level they want to play at and the Mentor can coach them in the next steps.

I think the faster the new player gets an experienced opinion on things the better off they are... one way or the other.

My ideas for rookie space are simply to be a nest, you can push the chicks out as soon as they are ready to fly.

Yeah check it out

There was no reward or anything special except having a little 'M' by your name. In a game like Eve however, I could see the mentor thing being abused.

We should have a sticky where we just list up all the people who are interested in being a mentor so that newbies who join this forum section can contact them.

Nothing prevents a blood thirsty newb from leaving the safety of a new player area 5 minutes or 5 days after they start the game, so this idea of a nearly 100% safe new player area would have no significant impact on those that are blood thirsty.

Beside that Ralph I have to disagree with you even in a basic way on this. I spend a vast majority of my time in high sec doing basic game training with new players that move on to low and nul sec groups I am affiliated with through real life contacts. The problem these groups were having was players not learning the basic game skills needed to play efficiently in a fast paced PvP environment because scared / nervous or simply the first to die because mistakes limiting their exposure. After a long beer and pizza session one weekend many years back we hit upon the idea of one of us (I drew the short straw) setting up shop in high sec and running a training school for the new players. We teach them some basic fleet skills, meaning of words and phrases that are used in the groups, basic D-Scan and probe scanning skills and the list goes on and we found that doing this in high sec makes the process faster and the end results better simply because these players can concentrate on learning the skills needed instead of trying to stay alive long enough so they have the opportunity to learn. With this basic training complete (usually just a month or two depending on the player) off they go to low / nul and bigger and better things. Yes I agree all of this can be accomplished in the heat of battle and any group that is worth a damn has some form of this same thing that goes on. However after more than 5 years of experimentation we have found this method gets the average new player into the battles more quickly and it allows them to feel like they are contributing from day one instead of just being there as cannon fodder. You are right this is a little different than the general new player systems, however I am still convinced that the basic concepts apply even in those newb systems. Give them time to learn the interface and some basic EvE gaming skills in an environment where they are safe so they can concentrate on the skills to be learned instead of worrying that they will die at any moment. And as I said earlier if they want the white knuckle thrill ride while they struggle with the basics of the EvE interface then nothing would stop them from venturing forth into the wider universe and taking their chances.

Getting back on track to the idea of mentors.
An official mentors program would be good for everyone.

New players wanting help would have easy access to a listing of characters that were in the mentors program instead of the current crap shoot pick a name and take your chances system.

New players would know that as part of this program the mentor they choose is being watched and their actions reviewed.

And some of us in the game (like me) that get more enjoyment out of helping others than we do playing the game ourselves would have an opportunity to return back to others the help that we have been given over our years in the game. A way that would be better for us as well as the new players we would be helping.

Alas the hurdles to overcome from CCP's side of this would be immense, I am not convinced it would be a good use of CCP's time and yet even with these I would still like to see CCP take a serious look at setting up an official mentors program.