I’d like to see a Mentor, New Player, and Returner System in World of Warcraft.
I’ve been familiar with and playing the Warcraft series since Warcraft 3.
I feel that I’d like to see more new players joining this game, and having experienced players mentor them would be great. I had the opportunity to experience the Mentor system in FF14, and it made me wish that World of Warcraft had a similar system.
This system could help experienced players understand when someone is new to the game and hopefully reduce toxicity. It could also go beyond teaching and sharing experiences with new players.
I’d also like to suggest a Reputation system to assist new players and returners, where they could accumulate points to exchange for items like Transmog or the other rewards within World of Warcraft. Such a system could help bridge the gap between veteran players and newcomers and enhance the in-game community.
While I respect that you want people to be motivated to help others, the best case is internal motivation. If you are motivated to help someone out of the goodness of your heart, you will want to be patient with them and you will want to see them succeed.
If it is a reward-based system, there will be more players helping new and returning players, absolutely, but the average quality of the help might decrease. For example, someone might have a question about how to unlock a garrison, and then someone farming the reward points may respond “read a guide and if you check mark this answer as a solution I’ll give you 1000 gold.” Or collectors might even start a trial account to ask questions and get “helped” by their main account.
I would welcome a system which would help new players and not be abusable in this way, but I can’t think of a way yet. I am unfamiliar with the mentor system in FF14 but if it can connect new players with nice people who want to help for the sake of making someone else’s life better, I’m for it.
Unrelated, but something else I would like to see is alt + clicking an item, achievement, NPC, or quest in WoW offering you a link to that object’s WoWhead page.
And it’s entirely reward free, we Guides do it out of the goodness of our hearts in order to see new players make their way in the world, just like we did so many years ago. It also lacks some of the inherent toxicity that FF XIVs Mentor system suffers from where some Mentors are only there for rewards and not for helping new players, and are given entirely too much power over who can be in the Novice Network chat (the kick system needs to be dialed way back).
I like FF XIVs Mentor system, but the fact there are tangible rewards tied to it means it can be a cesspit at times
Wouldn’t work on WoW. FF14 players are trained to behave and treat other people with respect. There’s still absolutely a bunch of toxic selfish people over there, as there is everywhere, but they’re generally not the norm. WoW practically encourages people to be as selfish and as big of a jerk as possible. There’s still absolutely a bunch of good, helpful people in WoW, but they’re generally not the norm.
And even with that distinction, the mentor system still just barely works in FF14. It’s way too easy to be a mentor and still know basically nothing about the game. New players aren’t automatically added to the Novice Network without needing a mentor invite, possibly to help prevent bots from getting in, but still. A lot of mentors use Novice Network as a general chat tab and ignore helping new players. A lot of people become mentors just so they can get Mentor Roulette and farm it for a mount, without even trying to help new players.
I’m lucky enough to be on a server with a good Novice Network, but even there bad mentors still exists. Like, toxic bad. I can’t even begin to fathom what a WoW Novice Network would be like.
The XIV version of the system is a nightmare. Full of self-important veterans using the Mentor crown as a status symbol than actually using the tools to help new players.