Goblin Squad Member
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Program Objective:
The Guide Program is a network of player volunteers who have chosen to help players, especially new players, in-game and in person.
Rationale for the Program:
Though PFO will likely have a number of ways for new players to learn information about the game (all very helpful in their own fashion), the Guide Program seeks to provide a friendly face and an in-game presence - literally, a helpful guide. Most Guides will likely spend their "on duty" time in starter towns and will be some of the first characters a new player encounters. By attempting to make that first encounter a positive one, we hope to ensure that the PFO community continues to grow.
Just like any customer service, the personal touch is often the one that people remember best. It's one thing to have a store directory, a little better to have an information desk where someone can answer questions and point you down the aisle you need, but when you encounter the employee who not only asks if they can help you, but escorts you to the aisle, helps you find what you need, and even helps you learn how to use it properly...that's the store that wins your customer loyalty. That's what the Guide Program hopes to achieve in PFO.
Requirements:
1. That your desire to help others motivates you to donate a portion of your game time to this cause.
2. That you are a player in good standing with the PFO community. Some of our activities might include escorting the new player outside the safety of the starter town where they began, and if so, Guides need to be trustworthy individuals.
3. That you are able to set aside personal bias or prejudice towards individuals, groups, and play styles (so long as they do not conflict with PFO's use policies, etc.), so as not to give the impression that our help comes with strings attached or that only certain players merit assistance. That if you are not able to do so with a particular "client", you will seek to refer them to a Guide who can.
4. That you will act in a fashion that does not damage the reputation of the Guide Program or its members.
Questions & Answers:
Q - Exactly how much do I have to know about the game to participate?
A - Though helping usually infers that you know more than those you seek to help, Guides do not have to be experts on every aspect of the game. What we prefer is that Guides develop a network of resources to call upon when aiding new players. These might include websites, IRC channels, and community members who are willing specialists in particular game fields (e.g. crafting, PvP, etc.).
Q - Do I have to be "on duty" when I'm in-game?
A - No. As a Guide, you decide when you're "on duty". We are not GW employees, nor are we even expecting that you accept mandatory shifts to participate. As we move through EE and get closer to OE, we will likely try to flesh out a schedule based on the availability of Guides, but we recognize that every Guide also wants to experience the game for themselves. In fact, we encourage it, since a more informed Guide makes a better helper.
Q - Is this In-Character or Out-of-Character?
A - Especially in that most new player questions will likely revolve around game mechanics, it will be easier and more expedient for Guides to chat OOC with their client, likely in a party or via tells. In this way, if you are a full-time Role Player, you can still help without breaking character.
What Do We Do Now?
Given how far we from even EE, I think that making anything more formal than a list of those interested would be premature. Even filling out membership bios (play times, when you can serve, starter town of choice, etc.) should wait, since people's times and choices may change with real life issues and future game developments.
However, I would like to start chatting with potential Guides. There are several things I would like to brainstorm, so if you have an interest in the Guide Program, please leave your name and best times to chat. Perhaps we can get a time that works for most people and meet on the PFO Fan TS server.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Hello again, Hobs! I think I meet all the requirements and remain enthusiastic about this. I can be available (with a day's notice if there's an actual meeting as opposed to our usual random-topic chats) on the PFO Fan Teamspeak on Sunday through Wednesday evenings around 8 pm EDT.
Sign me up hobs
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Goblin Squad Member
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I have created a new Unofficial Guide Program list included in my Guild Recruitment & Helpful Links list to prominently display the threads related to this effort.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Requirements:
1. That your desire to help others motivates you to donate a portion of your game time to this cause.
2. That you are a player in good standing with the PFO community. Some of our activities might include escorting the new player outside the safety of the starter town where they began, and if so, Guides need to be trustworthy individuals.
3. That you are able to set aside personal bias or prejudice towards individuals, groups, and play styles (so long as they do not conflict with PFO's use policies, etc.), so as not to give the impression that our help comes with strings attached or that only certain players merit assistance. That if you are not able to do so with a particular "client", you will seek to refer them to a Guide who can.
4. That you will act in a fashion that does not damage the reputation of the Guide Program or its members.
Mmmmmm......
Well. Best of luck to you, but this will most likely prevent me teaching my class on how to pick up tavern maids and wealthy nobles' daughters.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I will make myself available to show new players the finer points of banditry, theft, back alley thuggery and other forms of greedy unpleasantness.
I have at least one member in my company who will gladly teach the finer points of assassination and or cold blooded murder. Then there are others who will gladly teach all forms of debauchery and other depraved activities.
All joking aside, I'm hoping your program will also cater to those who are not adverse to walking on the seedier side of society. There will always be those who want to protect, but then there are those who want to prey on others. While still playing in a meaningful way.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Set this up with a similar idea in mind: http://tonys-breadmaking.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=recruiting
Be it for forming actual companies, or smaller, informal networks, or twisted apprentices, please use this section to advertise.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I will have time this weekend and would like to chat with some/any of the people who intend to be Guides. I would like to kick around some systems and activities we might want to consider once we get closer to EE.
If you have time this weekend, please post days and times and we'll see if one works best.
Hobs
Anytime sunday
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Goblin Squad Member
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Do we all have to be good guides? Can there be evil guides too?
It's like rolling the dice. You have an 80 percent chance of something good happening to you when you enter the queue for a guide... and a 20 percent chance of learning the game through the school of hard knox. But they don't tell you what you rolled.
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Goblin Squad Member
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You have an 80 percent chance of something good happening to you when you enter the queue for a guide... and a 20 percent chance of learning the game through the school of hard knox.
Who, after the 20% experience, would ever use a Guide again, and who would fail to bad-mouth the entire program by exposing that risk to all within shouting distance, both in- and out-of-game?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Having evil-aligned guides is great - some percentage of new players will want to play as evil-aligned characters, after all, and having guides who can offer insight on that will be useful. But the purpose of the guide program is to be helpful and informative, by all guides to all new players. That doesn't include being the "hard knocks" that new players suffer. No guide would ever be trusted again.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Fair enough, lol. I was just trying to be funny. But an evil guide would more be someone who was educating new players on being evil characters. Since these are valid alignments, there will need to be such guides. And I see people have already volunteered to take apprentice bandits and such.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Those who could make it (Harad Navar, Deianira, Krow, and myself), we met from 3:00 pm EST to roughly 4:30. To keep everyone "in the know", below is an outline of the topics discussed and several decisions reached. We welcome suggestions and comments.
Charter/Venture Company:
Though our original plan was to avoid having a charter company for the Guide Program in that doing so would exclude members from being in a second company, with the news that players could be members of up to three (but only one of those being settlement-sponsored), we are left with a number of new questions (see below). Until we have more detailed information about venture companies, we are tabling this topic:
1. Will a venture company be big enough to allow membership for all those who might wish to be Guides? One benefit would be that Guides would be flying the Guide Program company title (if, like traditional MMO guilds, your guild membership tag is visible). This might be some assurance to new players that the Guide has been vetted for membership and likely isn't trying to scam them. However, I'm not willing to lose out on potential Guides if venture company membership caps are too low.
2. We assume that because settlement membership requires a particular alignment range, that settlement-sponsored companies will as well. Will the other two venture companies a player is a member also have an alignment requirement/restriction?
3. Given the different alignments of the three proposed starter towns (where Guides will likely do most of their work), and the possibility that venture company membership might have alignment restrictions, should we have three Guide Program venture companies - one for each of the starter towns?
4. If, like in most other MMOs, venture companies will have extra company storage (i.e. guild banks), and if we go the route of creating Guide Program venture companies, could we then have Guide Program storage where members could deposit and withdraw donated goods to gift new players in need?
Identifying Areas of Need:
The need for the Guide Program won't be evident for a very long while - perhaps later stages of EE, but most likely not until OE. During EE, those who hope to be Guides will be learning the game for themselves. It is during this time that we could begin amassing a list of topics for which we anticipate future questions or areas of difficulty for new players. If it's something we had difficulty learning, it's likely others might as well.
1. We decided to create a library of these topics (areas of difficulty and frequently asked questions).
2. Having such a library would serve two purposes. 1.) It will provide current Guides a handy reference tool for answering questions for which they are not personally an expert. 2.) It will provide future Guides a place to study up on what they are most likely to be asked.
3. We decided to look at Google Docs as a possible system that would, with appropriate permissions, allow access by all in the Guide Program. If someone has a better tool, we welcome the suggestion.
Schedule of "On Duty" Times:
As stated in the original post of this thread, we wish to avoid required "On Duty" times. However, Guides will want to be able to refer clients to one another for a number of reasons (e.g. the client has questions outside your expertise, you are not currently on duty and want to point the client to a Guide who is, geographically, you are unable to reach and service the client, etc.). For this reason, we plan to look into the creation of a Guide Program Calendar with the following considerations in mind:
1. It would need to be accessible by all Guides, but only Guides. Though the "only accessible to Guides" part was not discussed at the meeting, I have given it some thought since the meeting. I believe that the time a Guide is "On Duty" should only be known by other Guides. I anticipate that many Guides will be playing their main characters, who may also be very involved in a particular settlement/nation's affairs. I would not want public access to the Guide Program calendar used as an easy means of predicting when and where certain Guides are located in the game world and have that knowledge then used against that Guide. For example, if Krow, the High Thane of Pax Aeternum is known to be on duty as a Guide for two hours in starter town "A", it might be a prime time for an enemy of Pax Aeternum to attack their settlement. I'm sure this information could be deduced by other means, but I have no intention of making it any easier.
2. The calendar would need to have hourly increments, so that before a Guide logs into the game, they can block out on the calendar the hour(s) they plan to be on duty. If they have to cut that time short, a quick change on the calendar could be made, so as to keep other Guides as up-to-date on which Guides are on duty.
3. Again, Google has group accessible calendars which we plan to look into, but any better suggestions are welcome.
Guide Profiles:
This one we all agreed needs to be kept private within the Guide Program, in that at least one item on the proposed list below (e-mail) is something Guides may not want to be public knowledge. We did not reach a definitive position at this point as to how the profile information will be provided by prospective Guides or or how it will be made easily accessible by those in the program, but a spread sheet was suggested for the latter. Below is the list of Guide information we thought pertinent:
1. Name of the character that will be played as a Guide.
2. Alignment - since access to certain locations that a Guide may need to go may be alignment prohibitive, or if the Guide is a full-time role-player and will not be servicing those of conflicting alignment, we thought stating your Guide character's alignment would be helpful.
3. Area of Expertise (e.g. specific skills/roles, specific game mechanics, PvE/PvP, etc.). - though every Guide will hopefully have the above mentioned library of useful topics at their fingertips, if a Guide who is an expert at a particular topic is on duty, it may be more helpful to the client to be referred. After all, there is a difference between being able to reference the library and find a particular answer and being able to hold an in depth discussion on a topic.
4. Geographic Zone of Operation - given that there will be no means of instant travel, a Guide will not be able to get to everywhere a client may be located. Having (but not being limited to) a set geographic zone of operation may help Guides to direct clients to the closest available Guide.
5. Charter(Venture)/Settlement/Nation Affiliation - for Guides to know one another's outside affiliations might again help to better direct clients to the most beneficial Guide. On the other hand, some Guides may not want their affiliations known. Everyone at the meeting strongly believed that when you put on your Guide hat, when you're on duty, your affiliations stop as far as favoritism, bias, prejudice, etc. are concerned. However, having such affiliations, if you wish them known, might be handy. Unless a better argument is presented, we're marking the reporting of your other affiliations "optional".
6. E-mail for Guide Program Internal Use - to access things like a Guide Program Google Doc library, we will need to provide e-mails, but we see no reason to make these public outside the Guide Program. The Guide Program will be providing assistance in-game and in person, not via e-mail.
7. Playing Style - full role-player, RP light, RP friendly, non-RP, etc. Though we fully anticipate that most of the questions we will be handling will be about game mechanics and dealt with via out-of-character means (party chat or tells), clients may have questions about role-play. If a particular Guide is not a role-player, other Guides need to know that. As Guides - as players spending in-game time with a client - we want that pairing, especially if it may last for an extended period, to be as productive and enjoyable as possible for that client. Matching a Guide and client from opposite ends of the role-play spectrum may not be as productive as possible if other Guides are available.
8. Other - not being able to predict what else we may need to know about Guides, we're leaving room. :)
Vetting:
Though this topic has been discussed previously here on the forums, we did not discuss it at the meeting. In that we have over a year before EE, I think we have time to kick this one around a bit more.
I hope this provides everyone a better idea of what the Guide Program is shaping up to be, and again, suggestions are welcome and encouraged.
Hobs
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Goblin Squad Member
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Thanks, Hobs!
Great meeting all around, and I'm glad I got to meet Harad and Krow. I strongly encourage other interested guides (and players who don't want to be guides, too) to throw out anything you think of that wasn't covered here - we're sure we've missed something, but after 90 minutes, the creative muscles get a bit tired.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I doubt I will have time to be involved in this, and most of it's goals will overlap with TEO's anyway.
I will however contact you closer to release to talk to you about providing you a safe place to run operations from, and providing you with military protection.
I expect nothing from you. Assisting us in any way will make you a target for our enemies. This is a one way deal with no strings attached.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Andius,
Being passingly familiar with your Seraphic Commission, I think you have several people who would make excellent Guides. I welcome any TEO member's involvement. After all, as with any community effort, the better networked we are, the more productive we are likely to be. As for being a target, well, killing Hobs in PFO will gain the killer very little, but I thank you for your concern.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Guide Finder Online?
Guidebook.
Tony's Totally Legitimate Guide Directory and Cheese Shop.
I was assuming that other people would be coming to the domain looking for person Guides and perhaps written guides on key topics. Did your context mean just for Guides to use amongst ourselves?
Guide's Club.
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Goblin Squad Member
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As mentioned in the original post, The Guide Program is meant to provide in-game, face-to-face assistance. For skill/"class" guides or a place to post questions, I'd rather that was kept as close to the PFO forums as possible. This is a place mainly for the Guides in the program to access, coordinate efforts, house information for their use while on duty, etc., as well as a place for those interested in joining the program to make their intentions known.
Personally, I'm the "keep it simple" type and would go with something like "www.PFOGuideProgram.com", but I want to get the opinions of fellow program participants.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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If it would be of assistance, I think a sub-directory of khaiognos.org could be provided for a guide program.
Disclaimer: I would have to get the approval of a a couple more principals before actually setting up a third party with database and FTP rights. I do think that they are very likely to provide that approval.
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Goblin Squad Member
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...Personally, I'm the "keep it simple" type and would go with something like "www.PFOGuideProgram.com", but I want to get the opinions of fellow program participants.
Simplicity is elegant, yet tales, even myths, offer promise.
If it is to be nonprofit it should be an .org
“There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same” Chinese proverb
www.ManyPaths.org? It doesn't appear to be taken, anyway.
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Goblin Squad Member
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DeciusBrutus - Thank you for the generous offer.
Nihimon - That's correct. Though this isn't a GW sanctioned program, I think it will be received better if it is not affiliated or beholden to any particular CC/settlement/nation.
Being - I need to check and see what type of ".something" I have access to. As for names, you know I appreciate your philosophical side. I'm just thinking that it might be easier for people to remember the URL if it's something that's name seems directly, easily connected to its purpose. Then again, the majority of the site will be for Guide use, not the public, so that might not be as much of a concern.