Behavior Experiment in Guild Wars

Gaile Gray saying she lost her mask: http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum...d.php?t=442907

The person trying to sell the mask: http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum...d.php?t=442930

'tis truly sad. I often give extra tips to people even if it was not in the original running price, or give extra money if I feel lik I'm scamming them (There was somebody selling a Mindclouder Staff and a Deatheater Longbow for 9K for both. I gave her 10K, and when she realised, she tried to give the extra 1K back. I gave her another 1K )

Sounds like me when I get anything for free

Handed out 6 Monk Starter Kits in Shing Jea Monastery. Got a "thank you" from every single Monk. Not only did it make me feel happy, it made me feel proud to contribute to such a community.

There was a Warrior in Kamadan Dis1 just a while ago who was handing out Yuletide Tonics. I made it a point to thank him.

To put it simply, there's alot of people out there who don't give a flying RED ENGINE GO. People like the leech who stole poor Gailes mask. But you don't have to act like them. You don't have to sink down to their level.

Next time someone does something for you in-game, thank them. Next time you see someone who needs help, help them. Do it once a month. Do it once a year. It doesn't matter.

A single drop in a lake can cause a wave of change.

i always say thank you just ask the guy (twisted something) on this forum that gave me a sweet shield for a low price! Hes awesome!

Actually that's impossible...

Momentum is a conserved quantity, meaning that the total momentum of any closed system (one not affected by external forces, and whose internal forces are not dissipative in nature) cannot be changed.

One drop of kindness into the lake of Guild Wars dissipates rapidly and barely any ripples are felt at the shores.

If i get free stuff, or even if i trade something for gold, I always make sure i say "ty" or "thanks" or something. And in my experience, I nearly always get a "ty" back

You need to keep in mind that giving something away, whether gold, items or advice, is done to make you feel good about yourself. Receiving thanks or some other form of appreciation is icing on the cake, not required, but it makes everything more enjoyable.

As to the recipient selling the gift, what does that matter? The gold they receive is also a help to them, which was your intention.

And, believe me, thanks or not, they remember you. Why? Because so few people give anything away. I still have on my Friends list, the IGN of the player who gave my low-level monk 13k about a year ago when she was trying to sell a blue weapon in Ascalon. He's on the list as a reminder that there are kind people out there.

What a very pessimistic view of things.

Why would you say something like that? You can argue it's "truthful" all you want, but all it is is pessimism. Pessimism that is contributing to the lack of kindness in Guild Wars.

QFT

Lack of kindness in Guild Wars? People are jerks, its a fact of life.

Not ty-ing is smth sad but what about the scammers 0.0
And there are always people that would be happy. I remember i sold some greens at 1k cause they were hard sales and i was tired of keeping them. Now 1k is not that much and the people who bought them were extremely happy to possess a green (cause usually everyone is spamming high prices). They were whispering and idealising me with such happiness i even felt bad for taking 1k. xD

i usually dont give away items just like that
for example, i play alot in pre searing, i sell alot of charr bags
i am lvl 14 myself now, so already a bit above the usual pre searing lvl
i do play alot with lvl 6-10s, and occasionally (when i enjoy them and they are friendly) i give them the charr bags if charr bags drop... specially when i can see they are having inventory troubles

but i am not going to give it to just some lvl 1 standing in town.
i will give it to someone i played with, and someone i liked playing with
even if he was lower lvl. if the gaming experience was positive, i tend to be generous.

this was just a charr bag example, but it happens on other occasions too.
whenever i liked the gaming experience i had.


i also make a habbit of provoking players to say thank you
when selling charr bags, i usually add something like "thanks for the money, and may that bag be filled with loot soon", or "happy hunting, hope you enjoy the bag" ...
then you almost 99% of the time, get a thank you in return,
if you do this, i sort of figured out that players i trade more frequently with
always say thank you from the second trading time on.
so it has a positive effect.

For every person who takes advantage of a situation with no reply of thank you, I find many more who really appreciate what you have done and thank you for it.

Sometimes giving away free stuff is more headache than its worth.

I was trying out a new build on Chor, an incest boss in NF, and got lots of his green axes. I think they look cool but the stats are pretty...meh. Anyways I figured they would be ok axes for people starting the game so I went to some of the begginers towns and said in chat that I would give new warriors a free, green axe.

Well...that sure opened a flood gate of greedy, rude, moronic people. I had lvl 20 warriors who were wearing 15K armor trying to get one. I had rangers, monks, necros trying to get one. In the end I had only 2 low level warriors politely ask for one.

Most times its much easier to be nice to people inside a mission or instance. Go out with low levels who are not expecting anything and start dropping items on the ground saying "this is for you".

About a year ago I did something similar. I had tons of collector items, and I decided to cash them in for good max stats weapons. I went to Ascalon City and handed them (including some golds items I had) out for free. Most of the people were downright rude, and I rarely got any thanks. And there were some people trying to get a suspiciously large amount of items, or started begging me for gold.

Even though I still have a lot of gold items I'd like to just hand out for free, I'm not gonna bother to do so when I feel like people are trying to scam me.

I used to organize and lead parties to do the Villainy of Galrath quest often, including the intermediate step of taking people to Temple of Ages. Thanks were quite rare indeed. About the only thanks I'd ever get were people who came along for the ride to stay afterwards to map the zone for cartographer titles.

It's good to hear about all the people who are grateful when you give them items... I try to help out as many people I can, hoping I'll get mentioned in The Scribe someday. (It might be 1 in 1.5 million but that's still a chance) Usually I don't give out items, I have too much trouble finding people that need it, but occassionally I will give out materials/gold to the little newbies out there Most of my gifts are advice. Strangely, 90% of the people I gave advice to thanked me for it... but when I gave out items, only 40% said thanks. Interesting, eh.

yeah i like to give stuff out for free to newer players but it gets ya a little cranky when they just start selling it right after you gave it to them

Perhaps...

but MANY drops of kindness could cause a flood of kindness, and sweep away all the bitterness!

(ok, I'm being overly positive, but the TRUTH is probably somewhere between these two extremes.)

Besides, who would you rather be, the "gloom and doomer" who sits in the corner, doing nothing, or the "Hero" who goes out of his way to help others?

GW is just like real life. There are nice people and there are rude people. When I give things away, I try to avoid the lower number districts of major outposts since the "average" player who is not an active trader usually just zones in to a random district. To be honest, I see just as many people who don't say thank you in real life, so seeing it in a game doesn't surprise me. It's unfortuanate but it is the truth. I will say that even if 1 out of 10 really appreciate the items I am giving out, it is still worth it because maybe that one person will like being part of the GW community a little more than they did prior to that. And after all, a better community is what makes the game better...

But it is not a closed system. The drop of kindness is but one aspect of the experience that a person will experience in guild wars. This drop could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back in that it is additive to the other (hopefully) positive experiences the player might have had and this final drop opens the flood gates into the community.

Ok...so I'm an optimist...

When I was first starting out in Prophecies, I didn't know anything about anything in the game. I had like 300 gold in my account, didn't know about storage, and was still using a crappy pre-searing bow, even though it was post. A very nice guy, who sadly doesn't play any more, took like 2 hours of his time and taught me the ropes of playing a ranger. He also gave me this:



That was almost 2 years ago. It's not the greatest bow, but that's not why I keep it.

The reason I told that little story is that, because of that guy, I take a lot of my own time to help new people out. I could be one of those people that doesn't give a crap about places I've been to and gone, but I tend to go back to earlier areas and help new people. I've given away countless items to people in Ascalon City, ran those missions dozens of times, and taught a lot of people the basics of the game, all because of that one guy taking a little of his own time 2 years ago. My hope is that a few of the people I help out will think back in the same way, and do the same thing. Eventually, the nice people will outnumber the bastards.