Day 1:
I arrived in Port Atlantis, eager to start my newbie experience. I only got Marco's permission about 20 minutes before and just finished the avatar set up moments ago. As I mentioned in the
introduction to this series of undercover articles, I will not be using my knowledge of the game to help me in my quest to learn about newbie life, so needed someone to tell me what to do. This included teaching me how to move... after all, if I arrived and ran straight to swamp camp to start sweating, without wandering around aimlessly trying to get to grips with the controls I wouldn't be emulating a new player
My first problem occurred almost instantly - no Guides! I was counting on Emma and Simon being there to advise me how to get started.
There were however, a couple of people around I recognised as being regular PA new arrival zone helpers, but as no offers of help came my way. I decided to demonstrate that I was having trouble with the controls by running straight into one of the surrounding walls. I kept backing up and re-running into the wall for a couple of minutes until I was asked if I needed some help.
Joshua Jot Avarius and
T R Pant Pant started to explain how to chat, move and most importantly, how to sweat. I asked as many questions as I thought a newbie might - "Is the game free?", "Can I make money?" both of them were very helpful, giving me a little information about the game in general from a realistic point of view. They then pointed me in the direction of
Alice's guides and this very forum, so from the next time I logged in, I would be able to count my new avatar as having read a little and have some basic knowledge of the game. They also explained a mentor would be helpful, and I should look to join a society at some point who too should help me in my noobie adventures.
Under
Jot's instructions, I headed to Port Atlantis teleport area, when out of the blue I got a mentor invitation. Having told been told by
Jot and
Pant I should get a mentor to guide me through the game, I accepted the invite. The Avatar in question had to double back on himself as he was already inviting the next newbie he saw by the time I hit "yes" to accept. He requested a trade. Not having been told how to trade as yet, I accept the trade as it seemed to me most new players would hit yes in this instance and found a Jester D-1 placed in the trade window, along with 200 medium weapon cells. Now as a newbie, I couldn't believe my luck - I can't deposit until next week (under the rules I set), so it was very lucky to find a mentor who supplies his disciples with weapons and ammo!
I played dumb and got him to explain to me how to complete the transaction, thanking him for his generous gift. He instructed me to follow him and explained how to shoot my new gun. I was a little peeved he didn't explain how to use the "hot keys", only telling me to drag the gun onto myself and click creatures to shoot. This was really frustrating, knowing how to make the equipping process easier, but not being allowed to under the rules... I continued to follow him, shooting what he told me to, while he stood by, fapping me whenever i needed it. I soon realised he was taking me on a Teleport run to Billy's. He didn't speak to me during this process, other than telling me what to shoot from time to time. Whenever I ran out of ammo, he instructed me to give him my loots and in return gave me more ammo. Soon we arrive at Billy's and I was up to 5 ped of ammo and a Pixie harness along with the gun in my inventory.
Now this sounds pretty good so far, but as Pinky I had some concerns - he barely spoke to me, other than to instruct me to shoot and had provided no information about repairs to the equipment, no mention of sweating, or any information about what I should be doing apart from shooting. I wasn't even told we were going on a TP run, or what to do with the TP once I was there. So, is this guy really helping me by giving me ammo and a gun, or ensuring I am skilled enough so I cant kick him as a mentor? I guess only time will tell, but at the moment, my character is supposed to be new and for that reason, I don't say anything other than thank you. Time was ticking on and I needed to log off to allow my character time to read some of Alice's Guides and to browse the forum so I can at least justify that I learned about sweating and swamp camp ready for tomorrow...
Day 2:
I logged in, and as there was no sign of my mentor online and having taken adequate time out for it to count as reading some of Alice’s guides, I set off to Swamp Camp for some economy hunting and sweating.
As Pinky I don't often go to Swamp Camp. I am amazed just how busy this place is – back in my day it was camp Phoenix that was the main area for sweating, but it never attracted numbers like this… I wonder if this means more people joining the game or if they were just spread out more when I started…
Another big surprise was the plentiful supply of healers available, both at the Revival Terminal and "out in the field". I soon realised I could just stand next to a healer and sweat like a loon. Most of the time the healer would heal me before I died, making the whole process faster. Whenever I did die, I was generally healed by the person at the revival before the screen had even fully loaded. The healer "out in the field" was the well known player, Lady Trisha and the revival terminal healer was F-mode Segni D'Attico. Although there were lots of other healers out there, these are the two that helped my sweating activities the most that day, so thanks guys!
I soon discovered I still hate sweating, but must admit, if this whats normal these days (not counting trapping sweat mobs), its far easier to gather sweat now than it was in my day, although it is doesnt help as much as it should, as it has a quarter of the value of when I started too!
Soon I found a window popping up asking if I wanted to trade. Now, having been given free stuff last time this happened, I of course hit "accept" once again, to be confronted with the face of
Eugenya Iron-Maiden Bloodly-Rabbit. She asks if I want to buy any Pixie Arms. I explained to her I didn't have any money and she replied I could pay with sweat. I explained I only had 128 bottles at that point, and the Pixie Arms appeared in the trade window with a value of 81 pecs. Even as a noob, i could see this was a good deal, as my 128 bottles were only worth 64 pecs (at half a pec a bottle). So I put my bottles in and completed the trade. This is a really nice thing to do for a new player - selling at trade Terminal (TT) is one thing, but below TT value is a real helping hand!
I continue to sweat for what feels like forever, gathering a little over one thousand bottles. Before the day is out, I decide to look into joining a society (as Jot and Pant advised yesterday) so, I ask in public chat whats the best society for a noob and get the reply instantly; "
CENSORED". I apply at the society terminal (after having to ask three people how to apply for a society
) and call it a day.
Pinky's final thought: What a good couple of days - I was still concerned about the mentor issue, but had recieved a lot of help from a lot of people considering it had only been two days of playing. Maybe I was unlucky as Pinky, but I don't remember there being this level of assistance back then.
The next Article should be up in a couple of days, where you can hear about my new society and how I faired in Simon & Emma's newbie event!