It was a few years back when my wife decided to give Final Fantasy XI another shot and finally found it really clicking for her. Her first couple of attempts had been largely non-starters, but being able to just pick up Trusts and go out now really was the key element she needed; suddenly the game opened up for her (although she still wound up in numerous moments of asking me what to do next, where she should be going, or how she should accomplish something.)
This meant that I had plenty of opportunities to use a refrain that should be very familiar to any veteran of that game in particular: “IÂ know it doesn’t make any sense. It’s dumb and that’s just how it is.”
When games have been running for long enough, you don’t see as many new players showing up in them, which means that mentoring someone new is a very different experience. You may very well be the one point of contact for a newer player in terms of in-game guidance, and you simultaneously want to provide understanding while at the same time not wanting to make the new player wholly reliant upon you. Have you ever mentored a newer player in an older MMO? If so, how did it go?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
