Why not to help newbies!!!

[Rei]

Well say,teach one how to fish instead give one a fish.

[Sisqua]

Ok, so the subject line was a little bit over the top but that was deliberate to try and provoke some interest!

This might be a bit of a controversial topic, but it's been bugging me for a while. I think a lot of people are in danger of killing the game with kindness. I remember when I was a level 3 Ramar, sitting in the lobby for the first time, wondering what to do when a level 70 something guy offered to take me down to the forest and get me some exp.

Great! I thought - and indeed it was an admirable gesture. However, as soon as we got to the city, he dropped 100,000 meseta and a bunch of other stuff and said "take this" which of course not wanting to offend, and not really knowing what half of it was, I did.

Since I couldn't use most of the stuff I sold it giving me a tidy pile of cash - I kept the best weapon I could equip and banked one other and headed off to fight. Later that day (and not having yet discovered the bank) I was fighting with a different party and got killed. Of course I dropped all my money (something like 120,000) and someone else took it.

Despite asking who had it, the cheat never gave it back. And do you know what ? I'm glad they didn't.

Why ? Because since then, I've had enormous fun slowing building my bank balance and finding new items. I've enjoyed balancing my cashflow with feeding my mag, buying a few decent things from the shop when they occur and fighting down below to supplement my income and find new items.

A few of days ago I found my first rare - and because I'd earned it and hadn't been given 20 rares already by well meaning higher levellers it meant a lot more to stumble across it.

I guess what I'm saying is, while I admire the altruistic sentiment of those who want to help newbies and lavish them with all sorts of items and cash, in some ways unintentionally you are spoiling a part of the game for them. The struggle to survive the first 20 levels of the game, slowly progressing, slowly improving your arsenal and finances is a major part of what its all about.

My level is in the 30s now - not massively high I know, but not bad for a UK player (we've not had the game here for long). I'm just getting to the point where I can tackle most areas on hard without worrying too much about dying (except the final boss!) and I'm also starting to find useful items and build some cash up.

Since I'm in this position, I've started to help out one or two newbies I've bumped into in the lobby. BUT - and this is important, I stick to these general rules:

1. Don't give more than 2-3000 meseta - it's a nice gift and to a newbie its a generous amount - they can use it and it will help them, but it won't spoil them too early.

2. Don't give them rares - they probably can't equip them anyway.

3. If you want to give them anything else - try giving advice. You'd be amazed how valuable this is and how much newbies often appreciate it. On several occasions I've spent 10 minutes giving general tips, pointing out things like, "what a telepipe is and how to use it", or "what the stars mean on the weapon stats screen". We often forget how much there is to learn at first when we've been playing a while.

In conclusion,

YES - this is a social game
YES - it is good and decent to help people
YES - I believe that people who give stuff away, do it because they care.

BUT - Everything I currently own I have earned, fought for, found, bought or traded for something of similar value. Everything I own is mine and I earned it - and that makes me proud to have done it.

Do I care about newbies ? Sure - I want to help them as much as anyone else - but the point is, I care enough to want to make the game special for them - and part of that is the growing experience that can only happen if they do it on their own.

Sisqua

[Tiny_Tim]

I don't think people give away stuff to be nice, I think they give away stuff just to be rid of them, 'cause once you reach a certain level, all that meseta and items really start to take up space. I should know, 'cause my character's at the point where I literally can't stand the sight of meseta and the more "mundane" items. So them newbies who'd rather work for their stuff than take freebies should just accept the stuff with a smile and then go dump it all off on somebody who DOES want it.

[Sisqua]

With the greatest respect, I don't buy that argument at all. If you don't want 'mundane' stuff, don't pick it up.

If you read my posting you'll see I'm talking about occasions when people drop 100000 meseta or rare items - not mundane ones.

[meleth]

What exactly do the stars mean? I've figured it has something todo with the level of the weapon. But i thought that was just all it was, a sort of level indicator for items. Didn't know they actually did something besides that. While i'm asking these newbie questions i might aswell as another one. All those green (photon) items out there.

What exactly do they mean by them being more photon aware or however they phrased it in the manual?

Does it just mean that weapons deals more damage towards the attribute indicated on the second page and armor just deflects more damage from those attributes? Or does it do something else aswell, like help getting your photon blast up?

Cause if you ask me, that one go up so sloooow. I've only been able to use a photon blast twice. And that was on the dragon and on the mines boss.

[Sisqua]

I'm prepared to be corrected on this one as I'm no authority on the specific details of how different stats are affected etc. However to my knowledge, the following is true.

1. The number of stars show how rare a weapon is, so a 9 or 10 star weapon will be rare or very rare. Rare weapons also appear in gold (yellow) on your items list and usually in capital letters. Although rare weapons are usually extremely good, I don't believe the number of stars necessarily dictates their stats. For example I have a non-rare laser (4 stars I think) which has better stats than my rare Varista+2 (9 stars).

2. As far as I know, photon aware weapons have no relationship to your photon guage - that is only affected by your mag. I think on the whole green weapons just tend to have slightly higher stats than white ones and be better against all types of monsters.

Someone else might be able to add more or correct any errors I've made.

Hope this helps.

S.

ps. I'd be interested to see if anyone else has any views on my original comment about helping newbies.

[Dymlos]

Yeah, Rei said it best...teach one how to fish instead give one a fish...

Although that doesn't really make sense. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_razz.gif

Give a person a fish, and it'll feed him for a day. Teach a person how to fish, and it'll feed him for a lifetime...right?

[meleth]

tnx.

[MechDan]

The "photon bonuses" on weapons have nothing at all to do with the "photon guage". My advice on the "photon guage" is to ignore it. It goes up very slowly, so you hardly ever get to use the photon blasts--which aren't that great anyway.

The photon bonuses, however, are critically important! A mere handgun with a good 30% bonus is better than a lockgun with no bonus (especially since it can be grinded up to the same max ATP). It means doing that much of a percentage more damage against creatures of that type. Since there's only one type of creature in each of the four sets of stages, you don't have to worry about switching weapons mid-stage to take advantage of the bonus.

Anyway, back to the original topic:

I have chronic "filled bank" syndrome with two of my characters. This is because I play offline and in single player locked games a lot. I like it because I can take my own pace (especially good for feeding Mags) and don't have to worry about sharing (or stealing/cheating). Naturally I end up with a lot of spare good stuff. If someone ASKS for stuff, I'll give it to them, but I don't impose it on anyone because I understand the desire to get stuff by oneself.

I have a lot of friends who just started playing and who would honestly rather take the easy way. That's what's fun for them, so naturally I give them plenty of stuff.