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

[Ferocity]

If new players on my server will ask some basic question in /2, they will get trolled and laughed at. When I see this happens, trying to help in whisper.

[Donthealme]

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.

This actually reminds me of a newer player back in Ulduar...granted they are far from just another player now...anyway they had only been playing the game 2 months or so and I noticed one night they werent using their Glory of the Ulduar raider mount and asked why....the response was "Well I gave someone who helped me learn as I leveled 3k to help them get their epic flying" I never throught I would have an awesome mount, and I am trying to make the gold...well I immediately opened trade and put the 6k or whatever it was in there for a few reasons, first being we never would have finished the glory as quickly as we did without them, second I just honestly felt bad they helped someone else and it snake bit them. They closed trade 3 times....I finally whispered look, we wont pull until you take it(being the Main tank, I had that power lol) and they took it. After raid I proceeded to watch them fly around dalaran, and show it off(I think we were the 3rd guild on the server to get the 10 man glory, long before anyone got 25)for a good 2-3 hours. Was well worth it at that moment in time, even moreso now.

[charlieprince]

The few new players I have come across on my server don't seem to have a very easy time interacting with the veterans. They are often shrugged aside, ignored or in some cases even insulted and abused in trade, party chat or anywhere else. What I'm wondering is, how often do you guys come across new players, and do you try to help them as best you can?

I remember clearly one time, I got a whisper from a new player, asking where he could find the alchemy trainer, he was so polite and so nice that I ended up boosting him, giving him some gold to start him off and even logging an alt to go through some dungeons with him. There have been other occasions like this as well. I think its important that newer players are greeted with a friendly atmosphere otherwise it says bad things about every single WoW player. Having said all this, I tend not to give or say anything to those that go around orgrimmar/stormwind shouting "Gold pls!".

What about you guys?

the further one gets away from wow, the more they realize how Anti-Social wow truly is

Bottom Line: Get Yours, screw everyone else as long as you get yours and get out, soon as possible.

that is wow in a nutshell

[Deleted]

I do it if I know someone is struggling with something and they're reasonably new to the game, I've been kicked from a lot heroics for defending people that are new and the elitist assholes are trolling them calling them nooby and stupid. Suspended once too because an argument got out of hand lol.

[Fumu]

I was the person who ran around casting Fort on my own faction...and Mcing the opposite faction just to give them fort.
To this day I'll pass or give out dungeon blues if someone else Needed it and I'm on an alt.

I will admit though, these days I'm less inclined to politely whisper an int geared warrior and politely point out what they're doing wrong so much as I am liable to yell at them or drop group. I'm still nice if they're new or a cool person to group with otherwise, but my patience for flat out bad playing has worn thin.

[Deleted]

If someone asks me nicely I will always help them, whether it's gold or help with a quest or finding something, whatever. I have a large active social guild and mostly it's guildies but I've given gold to people who whispered nicely before. What I don't do is "boost" people who ask randomly as I don't see that as particularly helpful, just them being lazy. But if it's a quest they can't figure out, need a portal, need help actually running a dungeon (like gearing up in normals/regular heroics at 85) then I'm happy to help. I will always help people who ask for advice, I do get people whispering me sometimes asking for spec/rotation help or tactics on raiding.

I will actually give anyone gold who asks politely. Like "Can you spare 50g so I can buy this item on the AH please?" or whatever, as long as they give me a whole sentence, a reason and the word please, as opposed to strange level 1s that follow you around orgrimmar saying gold, gold, gold and opening trade boxes. General rudeness at all I won't tolerate and will just put people on ignore.

I once gave a newbie 1000g because he was dancing naked in orgrimmar asking passersby if they could spare any change to buy some clothes... mind you it wasn't repaid that well since he spent about 3 months sending me whispers telling me about his new levels and his new gear and so on :P

[Reikk]

When i am taking the deeprun tram and there is a low level character on it, I always ride with them, inspect them for boas and other signs of whether its a new player or not, and then if I determine they are a new player I give them some gold. They are always really excited to get the gold and some have added me as friends so I can help with blacksmithing, jewelcrafting etc if they need. I like helping out newer players. When running low level dungeons on alts I also try to help people out. If more people were willing to help others out, our community wouldn't be so dickish.

[bondgirl]

From time to time. But recently (over the last 10 to 12 month) I've encountered more morons with a fucked up attitude towards morality than ever b4. Helping others can end up in profanity attacks towards your mother in its best. As soon as I get one of those replies aka "Go tell this your mom when shes coming home from my JizzShower" etc. just end up in a report and no help for roughly a month
Though I dont have that much actions outside of my guild stuff.

[Scummer]

I try to help as much as I can if I know they are legitimately new.
The problem I have is that finding out if a person is new to the game is hard especially as new people will be quite shy initially.

A good place to help is giving advice in a levelling guild chat of which I enjoy helping people out in.

[microtonal]

If someone displays a genuine desire to learn, sure, I'll help. I'm not one of those twits in trade chat who gives stupid answers to real questions.

If they're just bad and don't say anything or don't seem to care, I'll just not say anything at all to them. No skin off my nose.

I suppose it depends on how you define "out of your way", but I don't think I fit the definition.

[Duridi]

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.

That is very true. I think I met 2 new players the last 2 years I played.

On topic, I rarely go out of my way to help strangers. I will be nice and help them somewhat, but I don't often have the patience to be a persnal babysitter. I allow them to add me as friend and contact me whenever, but if I am to devote a lot of time to them in one go I really need to be in a very special mood. One thing I find a bit uncomfortable, is people looking up to you as if you are a god, and expect you to give them all the answers as to how they should gear, gem and your personal opinion on class changes. There is luckily not many of them, but I don't like coming across as arrogant either. I still die a little inside whenever a player like that approaches me, but luckily that doesn't seem to happen unless you've got the correct guild tag. Which I haven't for a couple of years.

---------- Post added 2012-05-04 at 04:36 PM ----------

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.

Reading this makes me look like a douche. That's really not how I intended it to be . I help people as much as I feel I have the time for, but I found it highly uncomfortable being whispered by lower progressed players about class advice and my personal opinion about class changes. I felt like any other player, just figuring my way around and being in a decent guild, and when treated as if I was somebody awesome that didn't quite add up with my own idea of who I was as a player. I really wish I carried the same confidence, because that seems to be what it comes down to.

[ComputerNerd]

Is a substantial difference between genuine questions, genuine difficulty and straight up begging.
Questions or assistance within reasonable limits I find fine, but begging for gold is something else entirely and a right turn-off.
As long as you aren't stupid you should earn enough during your levelling for your own needs.
No need to buy any gear upgrades, and nor any need to buy your way through professions.

[Pony Soldier]

Well i dont get much new players asking me for help but if someone needs help on how to do something or they need help finding where to go im happy to help. But if the player begs for gold or wants me to run him through dungeons just so he can level up then no that person is on his/her own. Just last night someone needed help in Silvermoon. He need to know how to get to Undercity from there and i showed him, was no big deal, was happy to help.

[The Kao]

I certainly won't be the one raising the offer since people hardly ever appreciate it when you come out of nowhere trying to tell them they're doing something wrong. One usually gets pissed right away in such a situation, end of story.

However I almost never refuse to help someone when they ask. That's a different kind of situation since you can be sure these people really do want some help and are ready to listen and understand, and hell why would anyone not want help in this case? Big exceptions might be really silly questions where you can't be sure if it's a trolling attempt or just groundbreaking bad humor, or when they ask something I think they are better off figuring out themselves.

[Annabee]

As often as I can

I was new once, and I always like to "pay it forward" as much as I can. I was lucky and had my husband there to guide me ♥

[Nayura]

It really depends on how they go about seeking help. If someone is genuinely confused, or doesn't know how to do something. I'm more than willing to help, if they're an asshole about it and they keep spamming or begging, like say some stupid level 8 orc runs up to you in Orgrimmar, opens trade with you, without so much as a word, and then goes "GOLD PLS" a million times. No one is going to want to help this guy.

[Deleted]

If I see its a new player (without heirlooms) and they got a good reason to "beg" gold, I usually give them up to 50g, I just like the feeling to help newbies. If theres a guy spamming /s with "GIF 300g NEED MOUNT!!!11!" I dont ever give them. Takes like 20 min to get 300g, cmon man!

[Lucifer Morningstar]

If the person I encountered is willing to learn, and speaks English/ my language well enough, yes I help them. Otherwise, no.

[Protonet]

If somebody takes his/her time to write politely I will do whatever I can to help them out with their problem as long as it´s not about giving them riding skill etc

[Nayura]

If the person I encountered is willing to learn, and speaks English/ my language well enough, yes I help them. Otherwise, no.

Yes being competent and speaking English well always scores brownie points with me.