ALICE - Virtual Guide to the Universe

[sir odd]

Alice in Wonderland
Virtual Guide to the Universe

Although a rather quiet individual in Entropia and on the forums, Alice has made her mark as one of the top mentors in the Entropia Universe. I am happy to announce that Alice is the highlight of this week’s “Wednesday’s Who’s Who”.

Alice In Wonderland’s name was not derived directly from the movie “Alice In Wonderland” as some would expect, but rather it was a name she used for her avatar in another MMO. When a fellow player asked where she lived, she simply said “Wonderland," and the name stuck.

Alice has been playing Entropia for the past two years. She first joined when a friend from another game suggested they find out what Project Entropia (as it was called at the time) was all about.

Although reluctant at first, she sweated a bit then bought a Repedge 1x0 axe with her sweating proceeds. With its low durability, the axe kept breaking all the time, so Alice continued to gather sweat. “This game won’t break me” Alice commented, and it’s been held true to this day. Alice hopes to reach the rank of ‘Great Sweater’, unlocking serendipity just by sweating.

When I asked about her initial interest in becoming a mentor, she joked “It’s the uber gifts”. Alice began mentoring with the release of Club NEVERDIE, as newcomers would be sent to Fort Troy or Fort Argus when the Port Atlantis Server was full. Fort Troy was not an ideal noob starting point, so Alice would take the newcomers back to Port Atlantis from Troy. "They skill anyway, so you might have something of it..." she thought to herself. Thus, she began mentoring the newcomers she helped. Alice is usually found around the Port Atlantis land zone, helping the newcomers as they enter Calypso for the first time.

Alice's primary motivation is helping the disciples learn the best they can be, not simply the mentor gifts awarded upon disciple graduation (though she still collects all the Mentor Edition FreanD Alphas as keepsakes). She takes pride in former disciples who had difficult beginnings, but who can now take on a Hogglo by themselves.

Alice takes on a small group of newcomers at a time, usually about 4-6 active players, sometimes more, sometimes less. At the time of the interview, she had successfully graduated 32 disciples, with four more soon to graduate.

When I asked what challenges she encountered during her early mentoring days, Alice said it was learning the knowledge of every profession in the game. One of her early students asked what was the best beginner rifle in game, and she answered it was the Jester D-1 (which at the time it was). She did a lot of research afterwards to gather information on the best course of action for a newcomer to start with in each profession.

Alice started with skilling Longblades, however the Repedge axe had too high decay to hunt for long periods of time, and with the introduction of limited melee weapons there was no suitable weapon for a reasonable price available. She still sweats a lot, along with some ematter mining on the side to collect nexus. “So, no favorite one really”.

I asked Alice what advice she would give to newcomers to EntropiaUniverse. “Read my guide” was the first answer, which I was amusing, as she is always quick to point it out. But she did point out that communication with the EU and EF community was important to anyone as trading relations, as well as the actual relationships that are made.

As Alice is one of the foremost experts on the mentoring profession, I asked if she was satisfied with the current mentoring system. She did not like it much, as a graduated disciple now gains about half of a skill point, when it used to gain 20-30 levels per graduate. At times it doesn’t even move now with 2 or more graduations, and don’t get Alice started on the mentor gifts. To sum up her answer, “its simply useless crap”. The weapons are cheap (as in use and market value), and there are plenty of non-ME guns with better stats. Also, since the items come with a TT value of 0 PED, this does not help much when one has to pay in order to use it.

To follow up on the last question, I asked what could be improved upon in the current mentoring system. The list was small, but concise. More skill gain per disciple graduated, was at the top of the list. Useful mentor gift items, such as amps, furniture or clothing would at least be suitable rewards. Another thing Alice wanted to see improved was more balanced graduation skill requirements. While the 1900 skill levels it takes to graduate in Handgun is a reasonable requirement, since many start with one of the hunting professions, attempting to reach the 1900 level in Concentration is far more difficult to achieve, with fewer skill gains and much more effort required.

Writing tutorial guides made her mentoring job much easier, Alice points out. “The PM system when I started was a disaster. You had to open the msg, wrote your msg in a box, clicked the send button, after that you waited for the reply, read the reply, clicked the reply button, wrote your msg, and clicked send...for explaining how the trading works it took ages.” So she wrote the guides, which was enjoyable for her to go collect all the necessary information and screenshots. Those guides were also submitted in the EF tutorial contest last year, in which Alice won 8 categories out of 10, and prizes of 400,000 EFD (Entropia Forum Dollars).

While Alice declined to share any RL photos or personal things, it was an honor doing the interview with her. In closing, I put a few ores and oil on the ground while in the PA landing zone, and while she rearranged them into a face she simply said,

“have fun”

[Novacula]

thank you for the nice story and thank you aLice for all the great and usefull stickys !

[Jamhot]

Nice article!

[Jimmy B]

Nice article Sir Odd

[Oman]

Good Article. Alice deserves it. I know I would have stopped playing if it wasn't for Alice.

[Mikah]

For those who know Alice in a personal relationship, shes FAR more remarkable than any words put toguether, this interview simply doesn't do her justice....

Alice is not just a mentor, nor a sweater, she has almost 7k in Longblades as well... she is fully dedicated to every single individual, regardless of affiliation. Alice is a sensible individual, who truly cares about her disciples and will go to any extent to make sure that they fully understand every concept of the universe.

She is more than a mentor, but a role model to many... reserved, timid in many cases but she will go out of her way to help out whenever needed, regardless of what she is doing, if any of her disciples or friends are stuck in an outpost, you can count on Alice to get you out as Eco as possible .

As one of her disciples, who wanted to graduate in Concentration, I can honestly say that Alice didnt just change my life ingame, but also impacted me in a personal way that few people ever will... her generosity, understanding, patience and genuine humanitarian personality is simply outstanding, in every sense of the word. She is not afraid of speaking her mind and certainly doesnt kiss anyone's ass... she is who she is and that's all there is to it.

As a newb who once spawned in Fort Troy as part of the CND generation, I was blessed by meeting Alice early in my time... without her, I couldnt imagine doing half of the things I did while being in EU. And even though I didn't 'choose' her as my mentor, there is no one else that I would ever chosen over her.

Alice spends countless hours helping others in what she calls NAZ (Newbie Arrival Zone), TP runs, updating her guide as needed, answering questions in the forum. etc... while also managing an active role in the University she attends persuing a higher education as well as other personal projects which of course, I won't divulge... she is truly the definition of multitasking.

And even though many people will never know the personal side of Alice, I can say from the bottom of my heart, that she is one of the best things that has ever happened to me in Entropia and in my own life.

Thank You Alice, for being not just my mentor, but my best friend, my confidant and most importantly, for being YOU

(phew, sorry, but it had to be said ^^)...

[NEVERDIE]

Super interview of a Super Hero

[Dom_sufc]

Well what can I say. First off, great choice on who to do an Article on, but second, a BIG thanks to Alice.

Ive never met Alice, and never been mentored by her. This thanks I give Is purley from what Ive seen from him/her on the forums, and his (I'll go for "his") impact on people.

So many times I see first time posters, who post just about Alice, to say thanks for her mentorship.

I found a fitting thread of his, that I think you should all visit, and give a +rep to.

mentorship offer but mainly thanking

Here's to hoping your around for years to come. Or until there's no more newbies, which ever Is first

Go get youself a RJ ME!

EDIT:

You cannot rep that thread

[Usurper]

Very nice story, as always!

[twitchie]

Very nice article Odd! Thanx for the good read, as usual.