Game Mentoring - Status and Performance

[DenisG]

Hi folks.

As I have been offline here for a few months, I am happy to announce being back again.

One particular issue I am interested in: How is the mentoring project going? I receive a lot of requests for mentoring as well and wonder whether this issue has been taking up and whether the response rates from experienced players are up the the task meeting demand?

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,
Denis

[DenisG]

If you don't get an answer, sometimes it's the question. So let me try the other way around:

Is anybody here who is not receiving mentoring support?

Cheers,
Denis

[Cardinal]

In my experience, 8 out of 10 new players that I mentored early on never responded, and in fact never logged in to the game again during their 7-day trial. They click the Mentor button and then leave and never look back. Waste of my time, so now I usually wait to mentor someone until they make a public plea in the forum. At least that way they are more likely to respond.

[Sami]

Hmm, perhaps I should alter it so that mentoring unlocks let's say on day #2 of your membership?   Or at least something like 4-8 hours after joining the world.

= figure out it yourself first, and only ask help after that.

[Aoitsuki]

+1 Most seem to click it but not aware the mean of communication is via messages on top of the screen, where the mentor ended up being ignored from day one and then getting locked out of helping another until the person quits. Might need to rethink about eligibility / system.

[DenisG]

I think the communication tool is quite important. I could think of using something like hip chat instead that can be integrated, but where you get the chronology/history of issues talked through since the beginning.

With regard to trial users, it could be one of the important features to attract new players as well for airwaysim. Hence, we might wanna think about getting communication of here with a message to the trial user that he has not contacted his mentor yet or something like that... to keep communication up.

Also, I was thinking about differentiating between mentoring and board of directors. With mentoring meant for helping new trial players to find his/her way through the screens and board of directors function to have somebody look after your strategy etc.

Cheers,
Denis

[Sanabas]

+1 Most seem to click it but not aware the mean of communication is via messages on top of the screen, where the mentor ended up being ignored from day one and then getting locked out of helping another until the person quits. Might need to rethink about eligibility / system.

You're not locked out of anything. Mentor can end mentoring to pick up another one just as easily as the player can end mentoring or BK.

I'll normally check when someone was last online before picking up their request, and not grab it if they haven't logged in for a few days. And if someone doesn't respond to my initial intro message within a couple of days, especially if they were online, then I'll just end mentoring their airline and grab another. That's rarely happened though, normally get responses, and most of those led to mentoring being at least somewhat helpful.

Don't see the point of mentoring someone to walk them through the basics found in the manual, like how to actually create routes, get planes, etc. More useful to see what choices they've made, how they're building things, and then offer advice to how they might do it better, point out the common mistakes they might have made, answer some of the less obvious questions, help them become a better player, achieve the goals they want to.

[Kadachiman]

Keep in mind that the mentoring program is not just for beginners.

I requested Sanabas to mentor my airline in the last short game and it was a very valuable experience as the tips he gave me on what I was doing wrong or could do better may have seemed minor but they can make a very big difference to your game.

IMO a lot of mid tier players could also benefit from requesting a mentor.
It is a very valuable addition to the game, thanks Sami.

[lunchbox]

Keep in mind that the mentoring program is not just for beginners.

I requested Sanabas to mentor my airline in the last short game and it was a very valuable experience as the tips he gave me on what I was doing wrong or could do better may have seemed minor but they can make a very big difference to your game.

IMO a lot of mid tier players could also benefit from requesting a mentor.
It is a very valuable addition to the game, thanks Sami.

+1
I second that, many players that may have been used to version 1.2 and early 1.3, like me, the mentoring really helped.  Now I have a healthy airline in GW1 with a little help from Sanabas. 

[DenisG]

Hi folks.

I would welcome an improvement in communication tool for the mentoring issue. In order to bring in new players and help improve quality of players, the game becomes a lot more interesting for everybody.

With regard to the experience of helping in strategy vs. helping in game basics, I think it is a thin line. I would value the approach of mentoring and board of directors for strategic supervision.

Do we have any sort of overview (I bet Sami does) on how the quota between mentoring requests and accepted requests and available mentors has been developing?

Cheers,
Denis

[Sami]

The aim is to make an online live tutorial to guide through the initial mandatory starting steps, so definitely that's not part of the mentoring system. Mentoring is supposed to be used when you have understood the basics, which is currently one problem area here still.

(the tutorial thingy is technically done but implementing it to the interface and making it work on all possible combinations is a nightmare so it takes time, but will definitely be done since many new users find the system too overwhelming at first)

[LotusAirways]

In my experience, 8 out of 10 new players that I mentored early on never responded, and in fact never logged in to the game again... They click the Mentor button and then leave and never look back.

Same here.
LA

[Longbow]

Hi there...

I am still waiting for a mentor u.u

World 1, 2 and 4

[LotusAirways]

Longbow,
Cancel the request and ask again. I will take one. Alternatively ask questions via private message.

LA

[Sanabas]

Longbow,
Cancel the request and ask again. I will take one. Alternatively ask questions via private message.

LA

If you want to pick one up, just go to 'My account' and scroll down to game mentor. No need for a request to be cancelled & remade just so you see the pm about it.