New Duelist Incentive Package

[Sabine]

Why not have all of that in an automated PM that everyone gets when they register?

That feels less personal to me. I feel like having people actively engaging new people would be helpful or meaningful, at least to some.

[JewellRavenlock]

Just wanted to throw this out there quick: think how nice it would look to outsiders and people visiting the site for the first time if what they see is a big welcome to new people.

[Claire Gallows]

Why not have all of that in an automated PM that everyone gets when they register?

That feels less personal to me. I feel like having people actively engaging new people would be helpful or meaningful, at least to some.

And not everyone that registers will duel either. It definitely feels impersonal to make it so wide sweeping. I feel like waiting til they've dipped their toes in is a way of saying "Hey, we noticed your new face and thought this might help"

[Jake]

Why not have all of that in an automated PM that everyone gets when they register?

That feels less personal to me. I feel like having people actively engaging new people would be helpful or meaningful, at least to some.

I think the personal touch is critical if we're going to try and create a more "welcoming" atmosphere for newcomers.

[Kalamere]

Any time someone new shows up for the DoF standings and they don’t have a first and last name for their character as either the username or that I can pull out of their profile, I drop them a welcome PM. Mostly I’m looking for a proper name to list in the standings, but I start out with the niceties of saying welcome and that they should feel free to approach the staff with any questions, etc. I’d say about 25-50% of these are never read and sit still in my outgoing PM box.

I mention this just as a bit of information - something to be prepared for if you take on the welcome basket stuff. Not a reason not to do it, ‘cause I like the idea.

Standings usually go up as follows:
* DoS: Wed or Thurs
* DoF: Thurs, occasionally Fri. morning if I get too busy on Wed.
* DoM: Sunday.

With that in mind, a once a week thing would probably be best done on Friday I think.

I haven’t figured out how best to display it for people to see who still has what left in the welcome basket, but for recording we’ll use a google spreadsheet (at least to start) just like we’re currently doing with standings. You can check the 3 standings Debut lines then add anyone from them onto the spreadsheet after confirming they aren’t already on there from a debut in another sport.

Do we want to put any kind of time expiration on things, or just the already mentioned expiration upon hitting emerald/mage/warlord? (I’d suggest it also expires upon achieving a title and would not be usable in title fights. This impacts DoM the most, but could occasionally come up for DoF/S).

Why not have all of that in an automated PM that everyone gets when they register?

The personal touch was already pointed out. The other thing I would mention here is that I’m not positive I can do this. That’s not to say it couldn’t be done, but that I think it may include the need to touch things I don’t have access to, so you’d need to rope in Xeno to go that route.

It also has the problem of skipping people who only register on the RDI side of things. That, by the way, could be an issue for delivery of the welcome basket in general. You'll want to find them on the standings to get their username and you'll be able to tell from that if they are an RDI name only and deliver the basket it to them over there.

[Kalamere]

I think it'd be awesome to have a running list of those willing to mentor/coach OOC and/or IC.

This would be good. I actually suggested something like this in conversation to Jewell last week, but she rightly pointed out to me that it would be unlikely to be seen by the truly new duelist in any kind of a timely fashion. If you were to link to it in the welcome basket PM though, I think that could solve the visibility problem.

One thing I’d suggest for this though is that I think it would require somewhat regular pruning. People come and go around here, have spurts of activity and then vanish for months or forever. Just take a look at any of the sticky challenge callers list posts and you’ll spot a few people who haven’t been around in a good long while.

Maybe once a cycle or once every other cycle the list needs to be burned down and re-established with the names of people who are still active and willing to be on it.

[Mason]

A couple of suggestions.

The biggest available pool for new recruits is the RDI. Any new policy like this Welcome Package should be advertised a ton on the RDI site.

The list of members willing to help is a great idea. Some people are shy about PMing people they don't know. Perhaps some people offering to help might consider having some event style workshops open to anyone who wants to attend.

[Sylus Kurgen]

As an addition, my current schedule leaves my Sundays open. I'm willing to park myself in the Battlegrounds room for a couple hours before regulation dueling if anyone wants to practice before going to the live rooms. Like a training mode before starting the actual campaign.

[Kruger]

I'm going to bump this a little because I would like to know where we stand with this. Has the conversation stalled? Are we agreed and need someone to get into it and begin?

[Claire Gallows]

It's my hope to have this finalized, polished, and ready to roll out by the end of August.

[WillSomnia]

It's a cool idea, but I don't know how much use I'd get out of it. I'm the kind of guy that doesn't get worked up over preorder bonuses, I play the game on Normal until I'm bored then jack it up to Hard... hell, my char is jumping right in and getting his butt kicked by pros just because he likes the challenge. Personally, I would prefer to just do things straight up. But that's just me, and I'm sure it would be nice to get new people in. If I were to get some sort of incentive package, I'm sure I'd still try it out.

[Claire Gallows]

Just as an update for curious parties, life has gotten the best of me these past few weeks so I'm running behind on possible implementations of this idea. That said, I've not forgotten about it and it's at the top of my To Do list.

[Kalamere]

This could always begin with just the "easy" part. Meaning the part that takes no tracking and no new incentives. Just a PM to anyone to show up new to the standings in a given week with maybe some helpful links to DZ items or suggestions on mentorship, and then a post to the Headlines section as a public welcome.

I thought I read in here someone wanting to take that on (Sabine, maybe?). If I'm wrong though, then I could probably begin doing this, I just didn't want to step on anyones toes who had planned for it. The hardest part will be putting together the form letter to make it less form letter sounding and more friendly.