Tangentially, because nuggets are tangential!

Back when we used to play WoW, one of my best friends was well-known for being a good tank. And secondarily, but no less importantly, he had that ‘it’ factor that made people want to follow him. (I swear this is going somewhere…)

Although I was almost as good as he was at tanking (or mebbe I just kid myself eh? but he trained me…), anyways. Although I was almost as good as he was, he was the kind of tank who simply had to log on, and he’d be flooded with: Come tank for us! Pleeeease! I was the kind of tank (when I tanked), who, when I asked people to come with me, they’d say, ‘Oooh yeah I’ve run with her before. She’s decent/good, let’s gogo!’ Which may be a subtle difference to some, but to me, it’s pretty darn different. =)

Nowhere did I find this more evident than when it came to giving praise for things done well. I had people ask me, when I said stuff like, ‘Nice job with that!’ etc, if I was being sarcastic. Some of them even taking offence, >.> when really, honestly, I meant it! Then I’d have to spend 10 minutes assuring them that I was NOT being sarcastic or mean and that I really did like what I was complimenting them for. Sheesh!

Me friendy, he never had problems like that. Yes, it bugged me so I thunk and thunk and thunk about it. And eventually came to the conclusion that perhaps the difference between us, (when it comes to giving out praise, at least), is that me friendy was/is very specific.

Instead of just, ‘Nice job wif dat!’, he was more, ‘That was a very well-timed seduce’, or ‘Nice chain trapping’.

So meandering back to things about newbies…

…maybe it’s not just the tolerance and niceness that should be thought about – although of course that’s always great!

When I look back, I think that, for a newer player especially, me friendy’s comments/praise were a lot more helpful than mine *if by chance the complimentee was just a good new player*. The specifity (is that even a word?) of it probably helped to communicate the sincerity (vs people thinking I was being sarcastic T_T). And if the player was new(ish), then it probably helped even more towards reinforcing good behaviour.

iRamble. Ee! *scuffle*

i did notice in WAR even with lvl 40 characters, there were many unguilded characters around.. probably 20% even. One would imagine that most people would be guilded at that lvl.

But yes, I’ve run into “those” super needy newbies. Usually how I handle them is just give them a few tips, maybe some website links, tell them it’s best to find a guild, give them a bit of gold and go our seperate ways.

I agree with you that the ‘basics’ of the game don’t come easy, but as is such with any MMO. WoW probably has the lowest learning curve of all of them for entry level players. But it only teaches you how to get by, not about the game. But I think that’s part of the fun. Discovery and the “oh, neat” factor.

They have no understandling about so many basic, fundamental parts of the game; the AH, crafting, talent points, gearing, etc, etc, etc.

To me, the “basic learner’s portion of the game is horrible. If you don’t have someone to walk you through the basics, good luck.

I spent over an hour on Saturday night walking this one guy around. He wasn’t one of “those” (uber needy,annoying gits) as he had worked some stuff out on his own, and was able to learn, but just didn’t know much.

I can’t help but suspect that true newbies wouldn’t be the ones to requeue as quickly, but rather stick it out and see what happens, but perhaps that’s rose tinted supposition.

I didn’t bother switching specs, just put on my tank gear and away we went. When we re-queued mid instance, I just listed tank, since it was going well enough.

I don’t mean it never happens that a hybrid switches mid instance, but like I say, much rarer now in 5 mans.