New Player Mentality

[Senyu]

Bringing this thread up to discuss about new players and their mentality to the game and what we as vets will need to do. As some have seen, there was a NDA video showing either an extreme case or actually very common new player mentality and opinion of the game. And that is all I am going to mention of it. Moving on......

I am now more concerned on new players viewing this game and what they expect from it. Its obviously alot different than every other MMO out there and the way of thinking it needs is going to be a big change in alot of players. This change will be very drastic to other MMO players that it is going to cause alot of mindblowns and hates.

It's going to be so different on how it does MMO that people will praise and chastise it. And as vets and people who at least put an ounce of research in what this game actually is, were going to be key in explaining this game and getting people used to it.

I understand eventually people come to terms and understand what this is all about and it will weed those who like shooters and MMO's combined and those who simply want to play games like WoW. But that initial start, of tons of people who may be like certain video posters who have no clue and have no idea of the mentality needed to play the game, we are going to be very important people in creating examples and easing people in.

We are going to be the first impressions and that can make or break it for alot of people. I know most can shrug off the people who don't have the patience to understand the game and feel the game will be better off without them, but I still want to create the best first impressions of what this game really can be and all its awesomeness.

Its amazing moments, its massive group coordination, its factions tactics, all its great things that makes the game what it is. If we are going to be dealing with people like mentioned above, we have our job cut out to make it a great experience and showcase this game. We will be the people who showcase this game. We will be the group of people organizing the masses and showing them what this game is really all about. The devs made an awesome game. And we are the ones who will be showing the world its amazing moments.

[Rivenshield]

I'd like to get a small group of TR vets together on opening day and offer to take a platoon of newbies out on safari, yeah.Show them how to lock down a line of MAXes indoors, with engies behind. Show them how to lay epic big minefields. Show them how to conduct giant-ass Gal drops. Familiarize them with the game, but also pass on some culture.

Don't boss 'em. Help 'em.

[Minigun]

I'm in but after we're all squaded up we need to first drop them to their death over water/out of bounds

[Littleman]

Originally Posted by Rivenshield

I'd like to get a small group of TR vets together on opening day and offer to take a platoon of newbies out on safari, yeah.Show them how to lock down a line of MAXes indoors, with engies behind. Show them how to lay epic big minefields. Show them how to conduct giant-ass Gal drops. Familiarize them with the game, but also pass on some culture.

Don't boss 'em. Help 'em.

I think we'll have to experiment ourselves and see how things handle now before potentially making asses out of ourselves while teaching the FNG's.

MAXes can be taken down with small arms fire fairly quickly for example. I'm also not aware of any lock down feature, nor tightly compact indoor locales that make flanking the barricade difficult. We'll definitely be learning along side the newbs.

I mean... for Connery's sake, towers spawn vehicles now. Bases are mostly just important for their auraxium as a result. Totally different from how we approach bases and towers in PS1. Never mind hexes vs the old lattice.

So much has changed, we're going to be essentially newbs ourselves

But I guess this is where priority beta access comes in, keke *drools.*

[Rivenshield]

Originally Posted by Littleman

I think we'll have to experiment ourselves and see how things handle now before potentially making asses out of ourselves while teaching the FNG's.

The first-gen FPS addicts who turned the TR into what it is today -- the infantry empire, the support empire, the All For One, One For All empire -- were learning game mechanics and map layouts along with us, too. What they offered was organization. Philosophy.

When your team only has six-eight people on it, there's no room for lone-wolfing. Every single guy is super important. You have to take care of the people around you. That was a product of the early tournament circuit, and that's what they passed on. Like the rest of us, they were attracted to the TR because of the whole pro military/authoritarian lore, so we wound up with most of them. And they were nice to us. They didn't cop an attitude and call us noobs and try to boss us around; they just vacuumed us up into squads and led us by example.

I intend to return the favor.

[Littleman]

Originally Posted by Rivenshield

The first-gen FPS addicts who turned the TR into what it is today -- the infantry empire, the support empire, the All For One, One For All empire -- were learning game mechanics and map layouts along with us, too. What they offered was organization. Philosophy.

When your team only has six-eight people on it, there's no room for lone-wolfing. Every single guy is super important. You have to take care of the people around you. That was a product of the early tournament circuit, and that's what they passed on. Like the rest of us, they were attracted to the TR because of the whole pro military/authoritarian lore, so we wound up with most of them. And they were nice to us. They didn't cop an attitude and call us noobs and try to boss us around; they just vacuumed us up into squads and led us by example.

I intend to return the favor.

I wasn't referring to teamwork and philosophy, but to teaching them old tried and true tactics from PS1 thinking they'll work in PS2. I'll admit, I was thinking of the specific examples given, instead of the point of what you were attempting to get across: teaching them teamwork.

For the record, I don't think anyone needs to be taught teamwork so much as one simply needs to be eager and willing to help their allies around them. The teamwork part comes naturally to one after that. As a distant example, people whom like playing healers in MMORPG's because they like healing are generally team-oriented players because they enjoy supporting someone. Terran infantry were strong because a vast majority of them may as well have been healer oriented players, only without the accompanying crux of low dps

Not saying advising people that looking out for your allies makes for a strong team is a waste of time though. Many people need that nudge.

[Firefly]

Grief points, grief lock, and the "BLOMMMPPP!!" noise probably would cure that right up.

Uh. Presuming they didn't have this in the beta/tech-test, I mean. Because, you know, totally speculating that they didn't.

[Rivenshield]

Originally Posted by Littleman

I wasn't referring to teamwork and philosophy, but to teaching them old tried and true tactics from PS1 thinking they'll work in PS2. I'll admit, I was thinking of the specific examples given, instead of the point of what you were attempting to get across: teaching them teamwork.

The only game mechanic they need lecturing on is one all-important, very simple, very brutal fact of life on Auraxis:

UNEQUAL BATTLES ARE THE NORM. You are either steamrollering somebody or getting steamrollered. The sole exception is when the majority of the pop of that continent gets pissed off at each other and decides they're not backing away from a given objective. The lattice system facilitated this to a certain extent. It is no more.

There is no autobalance in Planetside. That takes a lot of getting used to.

Originally Posted by OnexBigxHebrew

The reality you're all going to be dealing with is that this game will handle more like games I play than games you play, and won't be nearly as deep or outfit-run as most vets seem to think.

You're, uh... assuming a lot of assumptions, here.

[Joomba]

Are you referring to the video where the guy is in the tech test attacking allies in the base because he thinks that he needs a quest in order to get into battle, and hoping that this game is not subscription-based?

[vVRedOctoberVv]

Actually, that guy being referred to is less of a "new player" mentality, as much as it is a general purpose dipsh*t. He spent twenty minutes TKing and wandering aimlessly mostly from his own incompetence. It doesn't take more than a couple seconds to open the map, notice your guys are dressed in blue, this section of the map is blue, and over here is a red section of the map.


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Actually, you're probably right. This will be a common new player mentality. They have tutorials and welcome screens lined up already (which said guy clicked through). As the saying goes, you can't fix stupid. People who come in and start behaving erratically and doing weird stuff, it's not because of the community they're joining or the presence or absence of guides... It's just cause they're weird.

[Renegadeknight]

Originally Posted by vVRedOctoberVv

Actually, that guy being referred to is less of a "new player" mentality, as much as it is a general purpose dipsh*t. He spent twenty minutes TKing and wandering aimlessly mostly from his own incompetence. It doesn't take more than a couple seconds to open the map, notice your guys are dressed in blue, this section of the map is blue, and over here is a red section of the map.


....
....

Actually, you're probably right. This will be a common new player mentality. They have tutorials and welcome screens lined up already (which said guy clicked through). As the saying goes, you can't fix stupid. People who come in and start behaving erratically and doing weird stuff, it's not because of the community they're joining or the presence or absence of guides... It's just cause they're weird.

Not sure it was actually just to be an ass for that guy, think he was under the impression that it was just a stress test and didn't realize that people were actually fighting.

[RSphil]

Originally Posted by vVRedOctoberVv

Actually, that guy being referred to is less of a "new player" mentality, as much as it is a general purpose dipsh*t. He spent twenty minutes TKing and wandering aimlessly mostly from his own incompetence. It doesn't take more than a couple seconds to open the map, notice your guys are dressed in blue, this section of the map is blue, and over here is a red section of the map.


....
....

Actually, you're probably right. This will be a common new player mentality. They have tutorials and welcome screens lined up already (which said guy clicked through). As the saying goes, you can't fix stupid. People who come in and start behaving erratically and doing weird stuff, it's not because of the community they're joining or the presence or absence of guides... It's just cause they're weird.

agree with you on that. some of vids that have been leaked so far have been idiots playing who dont seem to have the first clue what they are doing or even a clue what to do in tech/beta test. its a shame you cant vet the people you let into these things first so people who get in are actually helpfull.

im a new player to planetside 2 but an old player of MMO's and FPS's.
planetside is the sort of thing im gona love and really want to get into.

also done alot of beta testing and a few Alpha tests.

from what iv seen over the years you are right, you cant fix stupid lol.

[Renegadeknight]

Think the best thing to do to aid a new player is to guide him to the action. Once they realize where to go to Fight, they will be able to learn the rest on their own. Ofcourse any other help someone more informed could give a new player could go along way in helping them.

[vVRedOctoberVv]

@RenegadeKnight


Sorry, rampant TKing ALWAYS falls under the category of "being an ass". Especially after he made the comment "Weird, nobody else seems to be killing anybody but me". I'm sorry, just the SLIGHTEST amount of effort on his part would have cleared up any misconceptions he had. Waste of a tester slot, imo.

[Goldeh]

I'm sorry the more people talk about this guy the more I want to see the video.

Just..because..