Okay, I'd like to weigh in with some food for your thought...(
MA ain't gonna like it, surprise surprise!)
1) Years ago, even before I ran a semi-successful little society dedicated to teaching n00bs how to make a little money to fund their hunting/mining/crafting, and before the mentor system was implemented, I must've mentored dozens of people. Many of those players went on to become fairly successful, one of them even won the recent Merry Mayhem event (congrats!). I only did it because I wanted to show n00bs that it WAS possible to get ahead in the game without depositing. That probably didn't work out in
MA's favor. Hehe!
2) Since then,
MA nerfed practically everything that was useful to me in my showing n00bs "the way". Random items no longer appeared as "treasure", and implementing the oil rig instead (which wasn't to provide n00bs a few treats now and then, so much as to get income from ubers who like to shoot each other and incur decay on their gear, which they then must repair); and the auction appeared, all but killing off responsible trading as a way to fund your gameplay.
3) Years ago, I took on 2 or 3 disciples, investing a fair amount of my time helping them to shape their desired professions. The best one reached 42% and stopped playing after about a month. The other disciples I took on, were all punted within days after having the opportunity to incessantly hassle me for freebies. Being that a disciple has you on their friends list, it's like they have your cell phone number and can call you for freebies anytime you're logged in, and you can't turn it off.
MA needs to consider that we, the players, have to endure a LOT of this crap, just to FINALLY find a few "noob diamonds in the rough", new players genuinely interested in learning about the game and DEPOSITING to get ahead.
4) Isn't that
MA's primary goal with the mentor system? To get veteran players to help guide the newcomers and get them past the ridiculously steep learning curve, and STAY, and hopefully DEPOSIT? To acquire items, incur decay, and pay for repairs? To use auction to sell stuff and
MA takes their cut? What OTHER reasons are there? Do players need a new way to make friends in-game? No, I can befriend a nice, curious n00b with or without their mentor system. Trust me,
MA wouldn't have implemented all that extra code if there wasn't a benefit to THEM.
5) When
MA gives out a mentor gift that has 0 TT value (I didn't even *know* that until now! Geesh...), this is truly ingenious! They're not really giving ANYTHING away, in real-world dollars. By giving a mentor a gift, they're actually MAKING money by inducing the repairs the mentor must pay for! It doesn't matter if the item is a MKV Mentor Ed., because it still has 0 value until repaired, and if it changes hands to a rich player for 10K PEDs, that's neither here nor there as far as
MA is concerned.
Unless I completely misunderstood the
MA financial model, this is rather brilliant!
6) For the first time since my sour experiences with past discipleship, I met 2 really decent, interested players, and decided to bite the bullet and mentor them. I'm very pleased with the progress of both, one is at 57% after only a week or so of playing. I give them a fair amount of my attention when in-game. Yes, it's a lot of work, and also rewarding, but why should I do any of that, when I can do it just by meeting nice n00bs in Nooblantis WITHOUT a mentor system? I could be off hunting on my own as I usually do, with less interruptions. I admit, I'm interested in seeing what my gift will be, and if it's wonderful, I'll reward my disciple who helped me win it, handsomely.
7) Now that *I* have helped *
MA*, by helping encourage two newcomers to get past the whole keymapping/GUI annoyances/steep learning curve prat-falls, and both to deposit to the game, and devote my time and patience to guiding those players on their path, the only thing I have to look forward to is a zero-TT P.O.S Mentor Ed. that will end up in the TT or in auction for TT + 2? I'm not too intrigued about going through this process just to get a mentor edition Brave, EP-17 or other similar piece of crap.
What others have said about some cool items being introduced, an uncommon clothing item, hat, or even a wearable clown nose, would be more useful than an EP-17 ME.
MA, please don't forget, at the end of the day with this mentor system, WE are helping YOU!