Mentor Gifts, what has been given out lately?

[keltigirl]

(message to self) remember that MA is a business - and gifts are gifts.

Mentoring is just that, mentoring. sponsoring a newcomer to this new place. Helping them to learn the in and outs of this new situation. Teaching them how to use these different tools, equipment, and skills. escorting them past the pitfalls and sinkholes that we have found. Helping our new friends with this new environment.

Showing them how to do the different things that we have had to learn ourselves. This is the mentoring system.

And yes, this takes our time, effort, attention, and even sometimes our ped.

to help these folks learn to enjoy this new place, these new skills, enjoy meeting all these new folks. to participate in different social activities. learn the in and outs of the widely different tools, technology, crafts, and beasts.
to rescue them when they are in situations over their skills or equipment.

this is the mentoring system.

Not the 'gift' at the pre-determined end of the apprenticeship program.

mentoring the newcomers is a choice. one may choose to not participate. just as the newcomers may choose to not select a single mentor, but may instead question many individuals along their path. there is no one way through many situations.

i have tried to help anyone that asked for information, as best as i can.
but, that is MY choice. if one is well-informed, then one may make a better choice for themselves.

this is the mentoring system.

my best gift from mentoring? all the friends i have made along the way.

[DrPaddo]

25-May-2007


Click to enlarge

TT+2500

[-=rAndom=-]

Originally Posted by keltigirl

Not the 'gift' at the pre-determined end of the apprenticeship program.

obviously not much ppl in this thread take it this way.
+rep for being a nice person :P

[Xerces]

I agree that the friendship is all I expect to get, because it is common knowledge that the "gifts" typically are junk. But, because this mentorship program is MA's way of introducing New players to the game. They should just like any other profession that has skills associated with it provide the opporitunity for advancement of ones PED card. This is the sole reason so few mentor. I believe a large reason so many new players leave so soon other than the economy and cost to play.

[~CHOPPER~]

Originally Posted by xedin

I got Foxtrot ME about 6 month ago may be a little bit ealier at that moment the price been +1000 PED.

Foxtrot ME for me as well ~6 months ago

[Lerxst]

You would think MA would sweeten the deal for the mentors. If there were no mentors my guess the dropout rate would be much higher. Mentors help keep players in the game longer and in the long run make MA more money. A 0 TT gun that will probably sit in storage even after it's maxed at L100 is just a slap in the face. I'm not saying everyone should get a 100 ped gun with a +2000 markup but something we can actually use would be nice.

[Az Bloodz]

Well...so you people want a rare item...perhaps you should look up a word: 'rare'.
The meaning is like: not common.
Guess that is why only a few people get rare items but that's just my opinion and since English is not my 1st language I could be wrong about it.
People just need to stop being so greedy x_X

[Herbalizer]

*g* mentoring is for sure something you dont dojust for the Item at the end, at least for me this takes too much time :P if its just for the items i would just hunt ne mob which can drop something nice - the chance to loot it is about the same as getting a ML35ME - and i guess most ppl know that too.
But i dont need a crappy gun, as i wrote b4...
but i would love to get a clowns nose or a pary-hat such funny stuff would rock! (for me ;o) )
This has not to be rare or unique (totaly unique might even be hard to realise for MA...)! i was kinda thinkin of something like e.g.:
1st graduated: a Sunflower
2nd: party hat
3rd: a beer glass
and so on...
Mentors could hang out at a bar, have a party and drink beer :P would be at least muchmo fun as getting something you just put in your storage... i mean these guns are even not interessing to give it to your diciple at the end - so he/she has something nice at the end... such a gun you could need right at the start for the diciple to start skilling - THAT would be nice... and what would ma loose? nothing, because the guns have a tt of 0 ped and are extremly common...

[Rayne Jade]

Well... I appreciate the responses and the information here. It certainly does not encourage me to mentor anyone. I do understand that the main purpose of mentoring is the education of new players in the ways of the universe... but I think MA could do a better job to recognize those that take on this responsibility.

[Coelacanth]

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!