EchoMan's New Player Newspawn Planet

[Black Canyon]

Because he didn't do it himself, I'm making this an official suggestion

I have been playing with the thought of newbie towns without roads. Staff would have a character there, and new players first char would spawn there, and be locked there until approved, while learning the ropes of the game. You would only be able to spawn one character until approved. There would be an entrance to "something" to enter the game for real, but it would only work after approval. When entering the char would spawn somewhere along the lines of normal spawning.

If we had something like this, there would be enough time to review applications, and the player would get a feel for the game meanwhile.

[Bmot]

Oh, then I'll add my additional suggestion about the respawning!

When entering the char would spawn somewhere along the lines of normal spawning.

Maybe you could make it appear as they walk into town from a road (or "out of the field/forest or something like that) so it is clear not only the player, but the char too, has some "experience" in life?

[Black Canyon]

What are some of the reasons against? I'm just curious.

(I promise I won't retaliate in any way. I don't even know your address)

[Bmot]

*Just tries to find reasons why not to like this... Man this hurts my head. XD*

Ummm...

Maybe:
- Too busy for the staff?
- How about different languages? Will we put them all in one village together, or separate?

Honestly, that's all I can think about...

[Black Canyon]

Both good thoughts, Bmot. I'm not sure how to respond to the language thing. It's a valid issue for sure.

And the staff time thing is valid as well. I suppose there could be some newly created staff positions, such as "Newbie Liaison" or "Newspawn Coordinator" or some such thing.

[Nathan89]

No way. And I will state why. Lack of staff for one. Then the new player drop out rate is high enough this will make it higher. And some players help new players some dont. I help as much as I can and honestly there is a chunk of the players that do not like new players or newspawns. Why make it worse.

[Black Canyon]

I help as much as I can and honestly there is a chunk of the players that do not like new players or newspawns. Why make it worse.

Why would this make it worse? Seems like it would make it better, since the new player's newspawns wouldn't be coming out of the chute totally clueless. Like ot or not, the survival of this game depends on new blood.

Also, I think I mentioned that one way to address the staff issue is to offer new positions for those players who might be interested in performing such a role

[EchoMan]

- Too busy for the staff?
- How about different languages? Will we put them all in one village together, or separate?

This is not more busy than playing an extra char. Probably less than a full "normal" char. There would be one town for each available language group.

No way. And I will state why. Lack of staff for one. Then the new player drop out rate is high enough this will make it higher.

Lack of staff is what make new players have to wait up to 24 hours at times before they are accepted into the game. That's a huge drop-out reason. If they could play around a little in a "play world" while waiting they would be better prepared as spawns and they wouldn't think we totally stink for making them wait.

And some players help new players some dont. I help as much as I can and honestly there is a chunk of the players that do not like new players or newspawns. Why make it worse.

If you read the initial suggestion, these are separate towns from the normal game, where only staff and new players have characters. When the player/character is approved he/she will be allowed to enter the game, and spawn like any other spawn. But better prepared than how it is today.

[freiana]

The language problem is probably solvable in terms of staff, most language groups could fine at least one person who wants to do this. I do think the towns of the smaller language groups would be relatively empty most of the time... It might be a good idea to recommend new players to start playing in English, if they can do this (or Polish, probably, but I don't know much about that).

All together, I really like this suggestion! I volunteer to help in the Dutch village

[Estaar]

The language problem is probably solvable in terms of staff, most language groups could fine at least one person who wants to do this. I do think the towns of the smaller language groups would be relatively empty most of the time... It might be a good idea to recommend new players to start playing in English, if they can do this (or Polish, probably, but I don't know much about that).

All together, I really like this suggestion! I volunteer to help in the Dutch village

I agree with Freiana, I would also suggest to new players that they play in English if at all possible. The French community - at least as I have experienced it - is quite small and not very active, so you do need staying power to even keep your characters alive. And staying power comes from having experienced good game playing with other characters in more populated areas.

Having said this, I could help with French and German newbie towns, should you decide to go for one town per language group anyways. And English, of course.

[oddedd]

Yeah, I love this idea. I would definately volunteer for the English channel. Also these could be staff monitored, but in reality I think there would be enough volunteers for this that aren't staff, to totally negate the staffing issue.

[Black Canyon]

Okay... I'm bumping this.

Because I think its such a great idea. Such a great idea that I wish I had won the anniversary wish and made it happen. And because all I see on the forum are posts about how bored or burnt out people are and how they are thinking about quittting and how can they kill their characters faster and yadda yadda....

Well... I'm not burnt out and I want to have some fun playing cantr and I can only do that with other people playing cantr. So if everyone playing cantr is all tired and too busy... then we need new people who aren't tired and too busy. And that means making cantr a more welcoming experience for new players.

(maybe I should have posted this in the rant thread....)

[Estaar]

Where are we on this?

[Doug R.]

It's EchoMan's idea, and I say if we can get a commitment of at least one player per language group, we move this to accepted.

I can commit for the English.

[Estaar]

I can commit for English, German and French.