just saw something great...

a guildmate of mine who is a total newbie, started a few days ago(lvl 8) had already got burned out. he thought the game was very hard and complex. I think many felt like him.

then another guild mate gave him a nice axe and a nice shield. now the little dude who got owned by mobs lower levels than him, pwned hard and it gave him new motivation.

it sort of made me remember how much long time playing gamers can help new people out.


GW is a very hard game to understand and I think 80% of everyone who plays it never really takes the time to really learn it. its probably only a small fraction of people who actually use forums and learn about damage calculations and advanced builds.


It was just great seeing a new person who only meet defeats and got frustrated by his trial and errors, and managed to find a lighter path when he just got some help. I reallly hope that someday ArenaNet will implant more ways for advanced players to help beginners, in many ways.

maybe create an master - apprentice system were an advanced player would be able to take a newbie under his wing to train in certain dangerous places. that would be fun...

Thats great, but out of my experience

e.g:

I ran this guy to droks, he was unkown what was up there.
So when he asked questions about i thought like wtf?
but i thought, when i first played the game i had a run to droks too unkowing what was over there at droks.

Offcourse, he couldn't afford his armor, so i gave him all the stuff he needed to buy his thing
a little victos blade here and a nice gold shield, and i really thought, wow, ive done something real good

But now, he keeps asking me for more..

=/

Because killing enemies, when you first start, without a nice axe and shield, is terribly difficult and only the most elite players have accomplished this feat.

Do new players expect their levels to be handed to them on a silver platter, along with shiny max stat items? Because, the game, especially beginning Tyria, is not hard at all.

Rather than give him good items, give him a few lessons on how to play the game, and using henchmen and skills correctly.

I guess many casual gamers dont really care about all that. they just wanna have fun, killing stuff, finding cool loot and following a cool story. gaming is about having fun, and reading a ton of complex rules and strange skills is just not fun to everyone I guess.

I think many people dont have the patience to sit down and read what the npcs and torturials say. people are to busy just wanting to play.. and as a result they get owned early one.

I completely agree with Lawnmower here - you have to remember that GW caters to all types of players.

It's a game - everyone should be entitled to have fun at every level....

Everyone from the Teenagers who have tons of time (over ~25 hrs a week) - to a Mum/Dad holding down 1 (or even 2) jobs with a family (under ~6 hrs a week).

Those who want to be leet - can be.
Those who want to play 30mins, meet/make online friends, have a laugh etc - can be.

That's why this game is so great - you can get your head to toe 15K armor or just make do with collectors stuff. No big deal.

It's because you choose whether to invest heavily in the game or not - the game doesn't really say - sorry must have 100K to enter this area etc. (yeah UW/FOW is 1k but that's doable )

Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a life-time.

Almost the exact same thing happened to me in Star Wars Galaxies! I was a master doctor, so I had no problem making LOTS of money fast. Either way: one time, I gave this new guy I had been playing with a pretty decent bunch of cash. It didn't take long before the PMs started coming in. This guy just didn't stop begging for more. He even got REALLY impolite, saying stuff like "zomg ur a master doc u can maek it back rly fast!!! so giev me sum more!!!"...

What did I learn from this little experience? Don't EVER give newbies big $$$.

Ever sicne drop rates have gone to hell, yes, they have notably changed sicne I started playing, it just isn't worth it.
You practically have to be an abusing farmer to get anything half worthwhile.

i belive the true problem is in the lack of items and loot to find.

it would be great that to get a maxed out weapon you would need to find all kinds of little hilts for certain weapons.. certain fragments and rare drop-only materials. with rare attributes connected to each the possible outcome and possibilities for different weapons, effects and looks could be incredible

i bought a guildy some 15k armor, he never stopped begging after that"you have a supermonk you can just farm more" "i dont have time to farm"grr i hated to have him begging, really messed up a good group of guildys when we kicked him out.lol
i now only give out materials at cost and loans of 8k or less. and i dont even have a set of 15k myself, so i am saving like a madman

In Chapter 1 there was always a problem with new players (not new characters, players that never played the game) not being equipped well enough.

When I started out (as a ranger), I didn't have a max bow til Loin's Arch, and thats just because a friend I met in another game gave it to me. I had beat all the Kryta missions before I put any mods on the bow (that was max req9 white clean)

Don't yell collectors, because the collectors in chapter 1 before the desert give weapons and equipment thats WORSE core stated than what you get on the ground in the same areas (especially melee and bow weapon wise, now offhands and stuff come with 20/20 and such you wont find everyday on the ground)

Thats why I suggest so much that people get friends, or a guild, atleast a temp one, because you can ask these questions and such in that chat and not feel like a noob screaming it in all chat.

This is a textbook example of equipment substitution for skill. It reminds me of people that "NEED" Droknar's armor just to get through the Tyrian missions...
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You don't need any equipment other than the collector's armor to go through the entire campaign. Hell, you don't even need a weapon or focus on a caster.

A warrior can get by with a clean white sword and a clean white shield gotten while playing if they were so inclined. I did it and I'm sure many other people have too.

If anything, the newer player will just think everything will be handed to them if they have the "best weapons and items". That's not a "great" thing.
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To say that it is hard to learn the dynamics of GW is kind of laughable. You don't need to know the calculations, just what things do. And everything is in the manual that comes with the game.


You don't need max weapons for any area. Sure it increases your effectiveness, but you don't need anything other than collector armor/shields/weapons...

The reason I don't help out people like that, is because most of the time, I think they're lying. If i know the person personally, then sure i will help them...and I'll help out 'friends' ive made in the game, but I'm sure that a lot of the time that 'noobs' ask for money or weapons, theyre really not who they say they are

What about the teenagers who work ten hours a day?

Yeah I'll admit that it was kinda confusing for the first couple weeks. I finished the game pretty slow..=)

I only truely go out of my way to help Guildies and the three friends I have that play GW. When it comes to cash if it's under 3k, I normally have no trouble just giving it to them, I have never had an issue with people wanting more, in fact they most times pester me to accept repayment. If it's over 3k then I loan the cash to them and so far I have always gotten it back in a timely manner. When it comes to stuff like basic materials, which I normally have unecessarily large amounts of, I will usually just give it to guildies or give them a steap discount depending on the quantity. Same goes with rare materials.

I don't really help newbies too much, for the same reason most people have stated here; begging. I will gladly answer any questions they may have and sometimes run them to a nearby town, but I almost never give them cash or items.

Much like bums on the street - don't give them anything, as you're simply enabling their lifestyle and doing more harm than good.

only thing that discouraged me was not knowing that you could open your map and just port to places instead of walking everywhere...dang pre-searing....slowest 2 hours of my life.....

but i have to say, thats the only thing thats ever stumped me, i find guildwars rather simple. seems like FPS games are more complex

idk about a master/apprenticeship. I know too many people with big egos who would love to be seen as some know-it-all guru by others and may take the role too far.

I do however think you bring up some very good points. I think this is a good reminder that the next time you're about to throw some max purple/gold item to the merchant, maybe you should see if anyone wants it in Ascalon or Shing Jea Monastery (just don't go charging ridiculous prices or scamming people of course). You never know, you just might make someone's day.

well i help n00bs alot, maby more then i should

but now when i think of it, when i started in the game nobody gave me any weapons, i got to droks by doing every single mission in deser, jungle, ascalon etc, and got my first max dmg bow in the desert

and look at me im ok

the game is more fun when you struggle for abit, and when you do you also learn the game better