The Veterans Pledge

Today I found something interesting on the forums, with the imminent influx of newer players, the current testers have taken up two camps.

1) We should be as nice and friendly as possible, so that newer players enjoy their experience and become part of our little game community.

2) DO I SMELL AN EASY KILL? I THINK I DO

This reminds me of a discussion that comes up in EVE Online about weekly, which basically amounts to "Does making the game more understandable, make it easier and thus less fun for those looking for a 'hard' experience". In other words, what I like to call the "uphill both ways in the snow" problem.

I like to fight people, preferably in a game, preferably in a game with big machines. The reason I enjoy this over some single player experience is largely because players adapt, the make decisions, and behave unpredictably in a way you simply cannot program a computer to do. After fighting bots for any significant period of time, the experience begins to feel hollow, and the cognitive disconnect becomes harder and harder to ignore.

The problem is that while killing people is fun, killing people who are obviously outgunned or out-skilled only is fun for so long. Sure its entertaining to watch the LRM Catapult launch set after set of LRMS from 50 feet away into your torso as you rip them apart with your weapons, but eventually it becomes dull, and unfulfilling  True enjoyment in a competitive game is facing off against an opponent of near equal skill, and besting him in a round of fierce adrenaline pumping action.

Because of this I think that we as a community SHOULD be dedicated to teaching newer players as much about the game as they are willing to learn. It is not enough to simply have more players, we must have more QUALITY players, for this grand experiment to be successful. Do not horde your knowledge  but give it freely, only then can you know that you have truly bested your enemy (as an aside, there are a lot of "vets" that could use some lessons as well :D)

To to that I pledge:


I Pyrodante pledge to be helpful to noobs during the opening of beta.

I will not berate those who ask questions, because we've heard them a million times before, doesn't mean they automatically know.

I will be helpful in game when asked how to set up firing controls and any other setup or how to play questions.

I will not belittle the new players for running off alone and dying in a fiery twisted hunk of shame.

I will politely tell them tactics on maps.. like for god's sakes stay out of the crater on Caustic it will increase your heat and thus make you fire less and prone to blowing your mech up!

I will politely direct them to the multitude of stickies in the forums (which I will assume to be moved where all can read)



See you on the battlefield

PS: I know the original post called this the "Noob Pledge" but I changed the name because it is the vets giving the pledge, not the noobs :) Reference: http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/58982-the-16th-of-october-noob-pledge/