We all know that GLB needs some new blood to survive and thirve. Now that the game is out of beta and some sort of effort happens to attract new players, it's in GLB's best interests to give those new players as positive of an initial experience as possible.
Problem is, that does not happen right now. The FAQ forums and WIKI are somewhat helpful, but you are still really left on your own to find out how the play the game. Building players is complex and not intuitive at times for newer players. So they spend some money, make bad players and lose interest in the game. Owning a team and coordinating is also very complex and can lead to frustration and quitting.
When I started playing the game, I was lucky to get on a team that had an active owner who was willing to teach me how to build. When I decided to take on team ownership and coordinating, he was also there to help me learn how to do that. This was incredibly helpful for me, and is a big reason why I am still playing.
I got lucky though and most do not get that kind of training. I suggest that we have a more formal process in place to provide a mentor for new players, or existing players who want to learn a new skill, like team ownership or coordinating. My suggestion:
1) When a player first creates an account, allow the new player to ask for help in certain things when they create the account, like player building, team ownership, coordinating, etc. Assign them a mentor from a pool of established agents who have volunteered to be mentors in those areas selected by the player.
2) Provide a way for existing players to request a mentor for areas that they want to learn about. A "Request Mentor" button or something like that.
3) In order to encourage agents to be mentors, compensate them in some way. Either by giving them some extra flex each season, more free players, etc. The compensation would not have to be huge, I think (or maybe hope) that a lot of established folks would volunteer just to improve the game.
Problem is, that does not happen right now. The FAQ forums and WIKI are somewhat helpful, but you are still really left on your own to find out how the play the game. Building players is complex and not intuitive at times for newer players. So they spend some money, make bad players and lose interest in the game. Owning a team and coordinating is also very complex and can lead to frustration and quitting.
When I started playing the game, I was lucky to get on a team that had an active owner who was willing to teach me how to build. When I decided to take on team ownership and coordinating, he was also there to help me learn how to do that. This was incredibly helpful for me, and is a big reason why I am still playing.
I got lucky though and most do not get that kind of training. I suggest that we have a more formal process in place to provide a mentor for new players, or existing players who want to learn a new skill, like team ownership or coordinating. My suggestion:
1) When a player first creates an account, allow the new player to ask for help in certain things when they create the account, like player building, team ownership, coordinating, etc. Assign them a mentor from a pool of established agents who have volunteered to be mentors in those areas selected by the player.
2) Provide a way for existing players to request a mentor for areas that they want to learn about. A "Request Mentor" button or something like that.
3) In order to encourage agents to be mentors, compensate them in some way. Either by giving them some extra flex each season, more free players, etc. The compensation would not have to be huge, I think (or maybe hope) that a lot of established folks would volunteer just to improve the game.
