How often do you go out of your way to help a new player?

[Duridi]

most of the time it's them sending me various renditions of the sentence "plz gif me gold m8," which... well. Yeah.

I doubt new players does that. Or well, there is probably some, but if they do, they are probably not new to the MMO genre and should in reality not have a problem finding their way around anyways. That, or they've been tricked into doing so.

[Mirishka]

As often as I can. If I see people asking questions which make it clear they're new (how do I get mounts for example) or at least new-ish, I'll definitely help them, and make it clear they can whisper me again if they have more questions. One of my best friends in the game was, 2 years ago, a player I met in Westfall who didn't know much of anything about WOW. She's went on to become an incredible healer.

On another note, I've never had a new player ask me for gold.

[cetarari]

I steer clear of class advice, mostly because I'm entirely sure what I'm doing most of the time, but I have been know to taxi people about if I'm at a loose end (2 man rocket). I'll also help if someone is asking a question in trade if I know the answer. So far, touch wood, I've had no stalkers

[Zaelsino]

I doubt new players does that. Or well, there is probably some, but if they do, they are probably not new to the MMO genre and should in reality not have a problem finding their way around anyways. That, or they've been tricked into doing so.

True enough, but eh, I've not been asked in a long time anyway. Genuinely new players seem to be something of a rare breed these days.

[Blackmist]

If somebody whispers me, they are polite, don't type like a retard and I'm not really doing anything, then I will help them. I will answer their questions, and not just send them to Booty Bay.

That generally doesn't happen often though.

I keep out of all in-built chat channels and hide yells. The only chat I see is normally orange or green...

[Deleted]

I enjoy helping lowbies, as I never got much help when I joined, as long as they want the help, I'm willing to give it.

[Mercurius86]

I remember back in mid-TBC I spent hours asking for help to obtain my pally's charger mount. This is when the quest chain still existed and was REQUIRED to obtain the mount. No one ran Strat, it was still a level 60 instance, hardly anyone had the key and no one wanted to run the entire place. Most horde pallys were running around on hawkstriders due to not being able to complete the chain.

So there I was, asking in trade every 15 mins or so, offering 150G (which back then was good for a partial clear). I finally had a Druid pst me. Invited me to group, met me at the back door (he had the key) and helped me with the quest. When we were done I opened trade and he declined. He told me how he remembered he was never able to run the place to get his pally's mount and that when I hit 70 simply to pst him and run him for his. By the time I hit 70 a few weeks later he was never logged in anymore. Now every time I see that feat of strength on my pally I remember the first of many helpful people I ran into around that time in WoW. It was when wrath hit that people stopped being helpful I feel. That's when you could find every strat available for every boss, when it became all about gear score and how much dps you could push, how much health you had as a tank, etc. Before no one expected to clear every raid. Hell even I never managed to clear more than a few bosses in BT/MH in it's time. People were more helpful before because all we had was Thottbot and addons from Curse. There was no wowhead, no wikis, no youtube videos from every PoV. Well there were, but not nearly as many.

Anyways, getting off topic. I make an effort to help anyone I can so long as they're not asking for gold. If I craft something to level up a profession and I see someone of the appropriate level with something crappier I give it to them. Every time I'm out picking flowers in Twilight Highlands I stop by the arena place and ask if anyone needs help with it in general. If someone asks for a run through a lower level dungeon I run them and tell them to set it to free for all (unless a mount drops there). I figure the best way to make the community suck a little less is by example. Maybe one of these people will pick up the idea from me like I did from that druid.

[Fabled]

If it's someone asking for advice or where something is, I'll tell them, if it's something nearby like a quest, or a quick rfc run, yea I'll do it. But that's about it, I mostly only get spammed by "new" players for gold, which I just ignore now.

[pakoa]

I was in LFR and this boomkin was pulling 8k dps. His spec was aweful so I whispered him some advice telling him this will up his dps considerably. He just responded with "piss off tard". Yeah im done helping people.

[shandi235]

I don't go out of my way searching for lowbies to help but if I notice one struggling with a quest mob or if they ask me about something I'll always offer advice.

I've never handed out gold except this one time when I was helping a level 62 in outland kill that one elite demon guy over by the thing with the things, I forget the quest haha. The big red demon guy! Anyway I was flying past at 80 going to TK when I saw this guy asking for help in general. He said he needed help with the quest and since I was right there I told him to invite me. I landed and his toon was naked, he had been dying to this guy and all his armor broke and he didn't have enough gold to repair Q_Q.

I felt bad for him I gave him 1,000 gold for his mount and repair items and killed the quest mob!

He ended up joining our guild when he hit 80 and was one of the best off tanks we'd ever had

[Deleted]

If I see they need help, then I'll help. I don't really give gold to beggars but if they're asking about where to get mounts and I fly them on my rocket but they can't afford it, I'll give them 50g or so.

[Kuniku]

if someone asks for help i shall answer whenever possible, if they admit to being new to the class/game i'll often go that little bit further.

however the people that piss me off are the people that ask a question, usually checking what they've done is right (which it usually isnt) and when you correct them they just insult you . . . I never know if I'm being trolled or if they are really that ignorant . . . either way /ignore works wonders

[Dakkamon]

I remember when I first started, my best friend and I, joined a server of someone he knew, and his guild helped us out with the basics. A little gold, bags, advise. Even dungeon runs. I try to help the ones that seem genuine in needing help. I'm not above randomly running some newbie through a dungeon to help them out. It's like paying it forward. I've helped a few people and seen them level up to max, and become raiders in other guilds. It's kind of a nice feeling knowing I helped them along and be successful in their character. Generally speaking though, unless it's a guildie's friend starting out, I don't give much or any gold.

On a similar but not related note: I do love also answering 'WTB mage portal to Dal' in trade as a shaman, then make a portal using Jaina's Locket. You'd be surprised how many people don't know about that thing. I've even got decent tips before because of it.

[Rageadon]

if they ask about "where is that guy/place" i help them out, but if they ask for gold or something i just act AFK or put them on ignore.

[SynergySin]

I'm pretty well known for being one of the best rogue players on my server, so from time to time I will get someone who whispers me and asks for help about how the class and how it should be played, what poisons for what spec, why we do certain things, etc. and I ALWAYS am more than happy to give a simple, full explanation for fellow rogues so that they can prosper and be better.

If I see a someone ask for help in an area that I'm in, usually I'll help them with a quest or two, killing mobs, etc.

As far as random strangers, I don't give away an absurd amount of gold but I don't mind giving someone 100g every once in a while if it's for a good cause like getting their first mount, overhearing that they're saving for a "really awesome" blue from the AH or something, it's their first toon and they can't afford glyphs, etc. It genuinely feels great to courteous and kind and while I won't give away 10,000 gold or something, amounts less than 200-300g don't bother me at all.

As far as good friends, I have spent an ABSURD amount of gold. I have helped pay for professions, given runs, paid for epic mounts, etc. I remember very vividly my friend Lacefat would try and save gold so that he could get an epic mount. He didn't play much as much in WOTLK as he did in TBC so he could never really save more than 1k to 2k gold. One day I came into vent and heard him say he was going to spend the 2k gold he had saved to level alchemy to max, and it broke his heart cause he really wanted his epic flying mount but he couldn't make enough gold without a max profession. I invited him to group cause I told him I needed to make a raid to go into MC, flew to him and immediately gave him 10,000 gold to level both his professions, get his epic flyer and have enough left over to get some upgrades from the AH he wanted. He lit up, said he couldn't take it, it was too much, etc. but I insisted and eventually he took the gold and thanked me profusely.

I have never, ever regretted giving that gold to my friend even though he doesn't play anymore, because making him so happy and chasing him around on our epic mounts outside Dalaran for a few minutes and hearing him be so happy to finally be able to get the things he'd tried for a long time to save for was worth every copper.

[Ascendant]

I stopped trying to help new players a while ago since 9 out of 10 times it seems like new players are perfectly contempt with not knowing how the game works and often flame people for trying to help them out. Other times they get into arguments with you when they have no clue whatsoever what they're talking about but still try to convince you that they're doing nothing wrong and their class must be underpowered.

[Veliane]

Never.

5 years ago I used to almost all the time, loved meeting new people and I loved the idea of being a tutor, of those who stood out for being fun, friendly and knowledgeable, the go-to guy for a tip or advice.

Sadly I've gradually seen (and I hate to be that guy, cause I'm not, but it's true) the community going to hell.
All the zones once full were mostly empty, no more curious and eager to group questers, the well mannered people vanished, advice became "dnt tll me how to plya" groups of people who'd go entire dungeons without talking, or the whole dungeon flaming back and forth and everything slowly turned into a chore until shit lost it's magic.

'Course everything looks great with the good old rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia on, but like I said I'm not that guy and I don't complain about these things, I've accepted how the game evolved and found new things to enjoy in it.
I'm still very much the same way as when I started but only among friends; New players? I lost all interest for them.

[Aberration]

I always help people if they ask me a question or need to know where a place or thing is, I even give out free instance runs through RFC or what have you. On the other hand though, I never give out money, ever. Especially to a level 5 who asks for 40g. >.>

[Donthealme]

I'll be honest it is not as often as I should....but myself(and I get my guild helping at times as well) do it from time to time. A few examples

One night I was semi afk doing AH type crap, and I noticed these two guys talking, they then dissappeared for about 25 minutes, and showed back up, started chatting with them in trade and learned both had just came back to the game recently and hit 85(this was at the end of firelands)and trying to run heroics to get into the troll dungeons. Being a tank, I hopped in and ran them through several with their instaqueue I think we did 5 or 6 in just under 2 hours, the same amount of time they said it took do 3.

I want to say maybe two weeks after the ZA/ZG dungeons came out, there was someone in trade chat asking if anyone would queue with him to the troll dungeons, he was being kicked because he used a bit of gear to boost him to the required ilvl and he had only been 85 two weeks....I did one better snagged 3 guildies and got him a warbear when there were maybe 20-30 on our server

Prob the biggest help I have given someone, was a shaman he was looking for a gem cut, and while doing it we started talking....new player, had no idea what he was doing etc... Well for some reason I was feeling really generous that day, at tht point he maybe had 5-6 gems in his gear no enchants etc. I told him let me grab some extra gems from my bank and I would brb(had to switch toons). I toon hopped and gathered all the gems to fully gem him, put enchants for everything on scrolls, grabbed mats to make him the 365 MH, bought him valor bracers and boots(this was at the end of t12 iirc). Looged back on grabbed it all out of the mail and handed it over.....I think it was somewhere around 25-28k worth of crap.

My guild is also looking at server transferring and brain storming ideas on how we will give a way a Savior of Azeroth and Life Binders Hand maiden to someone on the new server.

[meifumado]

I always help when asked politely, And when someone wsps me for gold i am quick to let them know of the many ways they can make the gold themselves, however i am always polite when doing so, i do not see the point of being rude to new players as it just makes the community worse as they see people acting this way so they themselves will act that way, thus the circle of mean players continues