[Suggestion] Guided Tour for new members

Discussion in 'Suggestion Box Archives' started by M4ster_M1ner, Jun 16, 2017.

?

Short guided tour for new members?

Would work, is worth the effort 7 vote(s) 53.8%
Would sometimes work, but is not worth the effort 4 vote(s) 30.8%
Wouldn't work 2 vote(s) 15.4%
  1. Upon joining, the new player is presented with an option to get a guided tour.
    (So the new player understands what is offered and requests the tour.)

    Experienced players can register to provide the tour.
    When there is a new player, they, if not afk, get a message and can accept to provide the tour.

    There is a short guide's manual with few points about what to do and what not to do.
    There is a list with recommendations for what to do during the tour. Some points should be obligatory. The guide chooses what to do and in which order based on a quick assessment (3-4 questions, "Are you new to Minecraft?" ...)
    A tour should last somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes.

    When completed and confirmed from the new player, the guide could get a reward, items and/or tokens and/or rupees. Perhaps a special reward every so many completed tours, like for voting. Or simply voting count is bumped and voting rewards are handed out accordingly.

    The option to get the tour should be available for all players that haven't been connected to EMC since at least one year, so old, returning players can get the tour as well.
  2. +500

    It wouldn't even have to be a super special feature, it should already be possible with basic Minecraft mechanics.

    The moment you apply to be a 'helper' your account gets tagged (/scoreboard players tag @p add helper). Then when a new player presses the button all the system would do is message those players with the helper tag present. So you'd basically only get something like: "New player <name> has requested for someone to show them around" after which you can make contact with them and talk them through a few things. Using common sense helps: also keep in mind that others might be doing the same thing, so I'd start using town chat and move on from there.

    Its already doable to test for players who have such a tag present, so the system would also tell the new player that helpers have been contacted or give them a warning when there are no helpers around but that they can always try to ask for help in town chat when they need it.

    You know...
    • testfor @a[tag=helper]
    • title @a[tag=helper] actionbar {"text":"A new player requests a little help!"}
    (very crude example, but still...).

    The main advantage should be obvious: you don't risk pushing yourself onto a player when they might not really like it. Instead you'll know for a fact that the new player would like a bit of a guiding hand, and the new player(s) will known right from the start that there are probably people around willing to help.
    BenMA likes this.
  3. Honestly I didn't read anything anyone has posted on here.... Well I read the title of guided tours...

    We want retention!!! We want retention!!! When do we want it ? Now!!! How will we get it? IDK!!!!!
    ShelLuser and BenMA like this.
  4. +1. I'd sign right up for this. This is something I hadn't thought of, but I like it! :)
    PhoenixAffinity and ShelLuser like this.
  5. How about gilded tours? Huh?
    ShelLuser and Jay2a like this.
  6. I like this idea and if it was implemented I would 100% apply to be a guide, however it may be difficult to maintain. Sometimes new players will log in at times that EMC has very few players online, some of which are AFK so they wouldn't get a guided tour. Another thing, first impressions are everything when deciding a server, and one of the main reasons I don't play a server, is if the tutorial drags on. Plus there is potential for player error, so the guide may misunderstand a question and give the new player false information. I really like the idea, I just have to point out the negatives so we can work them out :)
    ShelLuser likes this.
  7. I like the idea
    There aren't as many experienced players active on EMC any more, but this might give them something to do. The feature would differ depending on who's online, like Ryan said, but it could be an interesting experiment.
    ShelLuser and Ryan_A_ like this.
  8. +9001
    Ryan_A_ likes this.
  9. I am a big fan of this as I agree retention of new players is what we all would prefer. I have seen many new players come in and maybe as someone mentioned above they left before even finishing the tutorial. ...Though I'm a fan as EMC has lots to offer and you are overwhelmed with options and commands even if you pay attention yet alone if you do not. I also see many who spend the time to finish then they leave almost immediately. Those may be the ones that someone can save. The only other issue with this I see is the "needy people" who join. I don't mind making a friend online, helping out (especially new players) but I'm not looking to find that person to go visit each res, travel side by side each time they go to the waste and so on.

    In the end, I give this a +1 (or more but I think this is all that is needed) and I agree anything to make a new player enjoy EMC will build retention which is good for all.
    PhoenixAffinity and Ryan_A_ like this.
  10. Personally, when I have a friend join, I will meet them in the tutorial and walk them through it. Since I already do this for them, I probably would love to work with other new players as well. Plus, I always give amazing tours! :D

    +1 from me!
    PhoenixAffinity likes this.
  11. Any player can offer to show a new player around.
    It doesn't take the server creating some official group in order for players to be helpful.
    FadedMartian and Ryan_A_ like this.
  12. I think this is more of a player tutorial, I see a lot of people join the tutorial and leave possibly due to it having too much information. I have been playing over 1000 days and I've revisited the tutorial and found information I had never used before. A guided tour seems to me like a system in which experienced players help the new player learn tricks and what commands they will use more than others
    ShelLuser and FadedMartian like this.
  13. You're missing the point here.

    Sure new players can offer a tour. But the idea is to give the new players the option to decide if they'd like the extra help or not.

    The difference between the two: when players offer a tour it could be picked up as being a little too intrusive (too many new players see a colored name and pick that up as someone being staff for example). When you give the new players the choice themselves it'll become perfectly clear who wants a bit of extra guidance and who doesn't. This will avoid bugging new players while they'd actually would like to be left alone.

    Sometimes I honestly wonder if you guys aren't taking the new players a little bit for granted...
    Ryan_A_ and PhoenixAffinity like this.
  14. I wanna be a penguin again! :p
    Who ever got the Refrence, I'm pwoud of you ^-^ lol
  15. No, I think you are missing the point I am trying to state. We're not creating some superficial group of tour guides to show new players around. Reasons below.

    First off, because it shouldn't take being a part of an official group to simply be friendly and offer help to new players, if that's your cup of tea. Thinking it's intrusive is a ridiculous notion and I've never had a new player think that someone was intruding by offering help. If they did, they likely simply stated they weren't in need of help, and simply went along with learning things themselves. No harm, no foul.

    Second reason: because we already have an 'official helper group' called the EMC staff. That's why they exist in the first place. A second group just confuses people. The colored supporter names confuse new players enough.

    Third reason: Time. How exactly are you proposing that these tour guides be able to provide a guided tour to every new player that requests it? You estimate 10 to 30 mins per tour, but what about availability across timezones. What about floods? I'm aware that Aikar just restarted advertising for summer. That means floods of new players at certain times. New players that, were they to all choose this tour guide system, would overwhelm any volunteers in this group you want us to make. Then you have these players spending their entire time showing new players around instead of actually playing. Not even EMC moderators are expected to that level of commitment because it burns any non-robot out. Newsflash: humans have limitations.

    Fourth: Hand-holding new players is actually counterproductive to their player development. I know you like giving new players items and you feel the need to help them get started, but its not always a good thing to do that. Some new players, when provided with a rush of 'gifts' from older members, form that mentality that everything is just handed to them. They sometimes never learn to work for their own items. We give the new players what they need to start out, but not enough to have them become dependent on handouts. Now apply this same ideal with this tour guide system. The players being spoon-fed info in these guided tours will never learn to find the info on their own. They become dependent on asking questions and having them answered, not finding the answers themselves through experience/website. It's the whole give a man a fish versus teaching the man to fish....

    The solution: Now, here's the part that Aikar and I finished talking about earlier today. The answer is simply a video. It's constant and reliable, as no player tour guides would ever be able to match. The staff have a 20 minute 'guide video' to staff tools that I made ages ago. It is a instructional into how our Square system works and goes through all aspects they need to know, thus making it a 'tour' of Square. Now we just need to take that ideal, apply it to showing a new player tour, spruce it up with some hamster magic, and voila! It is the ultimate tour guide without the baggage of weighing down any player and without too much hand-holding.
  16. Interesting... So seeing how active the Stream Team is when could we expect this video? Before or after Dragon Tombs?
    BenMA likes this.
  17. Jack is currently busy this summer because he is almost a grown adult and is doing things to further his success as one. I'm not going to fault him for that and instead I salute him on it (congrats again btw hamster). Anyone who has been actually active on EMC has seen and possibly participated in EMC streams and giveaways no more than a month or so ago.

    Now, please note I said 'spruce it up' with hamster magic. I have a good portion of his templates in my database, but I know he is busy. I plan to have a beta version fairly soon without all of his fancy stuff. We can always update it. Aikar and I are working on a list of what to include this week.
  18. Some points from your comment...

    Or leave the server never to be heard from again.

    As I said: you're missing the point.

    This isn't about players obtaining some kind of status or anything like that. The players don't even need to stand out in chat, I think most of us who are interested in this suggestion would even prefer that we're not.

    As to staff... No offense intended but one of the first thing I often get to hear when people are dealing with a griefing or other issue is "As usually there are no staff online when you need them". Now, such comments are from the heat of the moment, sure, and there are more ways to contact staff. But fact of the matter is that plenty of servers hardly see any staff in-game.

    I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, not at all, but it does somewhat invalidate your argument about staff helping new players. For that to happen they'd need to be online in the first place.

    What about 'm? This would all be on voluntary basis, also made perfectly clear to the new member at hand.

    The essence of all this, in the way I picked up the suggestion, is to have the initiative to ask for help with the new player instead of the currently playing ones.

    Of course.. M1ner would be the better person to dive into this because I'm simply basing myself on his suggestion.

    Which is exactly why I think a setup like this could actually benefit the Empire in the longer run.

    This I actually agree on. And it's absolutely true.

    However, I do think there's a difference between a brief tour (showing the basic commands for example) and spoonfeeding them. But... you still make a very fair point here.

    Assuming nothing changes and needs updating.

    For example... The Empire Shop has been gone for quite a few months already yet the new players guide still talks about it and how you can use /shop to visit this unlimited shop with massive high prices.

    So yeah, I don't necessarily agree because this is basically the same as keeping the wiki open and using that as reference material.

    However... I do think that this is a good idea in general.

    Because lets face it: reading things is soo 2000 nowadays, people more or less expect video's everywhere. So with that in mind I do think this can definitely improve on the whole situation.

    Thanks for taking your time to read into all this. We may not agree on all points but I do appreciate the effort you took.
    Ryan_A_ and BenMA like this.
  19. Something I have often seen in Chat:
    Player #1 - "Can someone be my friend?"
    Player #2 - "We're all your friends."

    It's treated as a joke but it is true. You can ignore people or connect with them, but as soon as you join the server you are interacting with all the other members in one way or another.

    I don't think we need a special group for tours or helping players and I think Krysyy has a good point regarding too much help or the wrong kind hindering some players' development. People do come here to communicate and make connections with other people though. If players want to give tours and a new player desires it then I do not see anything wrong with it.

    Something I think would be helpful would be global chat. It does not matter how many tour guides we have if someone new joins when they are not also online. If a new player's tutorial completion and Welcome Message were announced server-wide along with their SMP number then anyone who is logged in could potentially welcome them and offer help.

    We could possibly also modify the server that is selected for a new player based on the number of players that are active on it. I think we currently rotate servers or select the ones with the least population, which is fine, but we could perhaps also avoid letting a player join an empty server or one with only AFK players in the dead of night. In that case a different one with active players could be chosen instead. Preferably with players who are in Town or with players like Supporters or Staff who can see Town Chat and interact.
  20. That is crazy smart right there ^