LLRPG

[stormlord]

Low Level Roleplaying Gamer.

Ok, here's the current policy I would use for myself:
1) alts must be less than level 15.
2) alts cannot be twinked by you or by old friends. (remember, you're playing as an equal)
3) Delete alts when out of room or things to do (yes, give your stuff to new players before deleting)

What's the purpose of this?

To keep the low level population strong. To help avoid a situation where a new player gets overwhelmed and quits. My projection is that in the future the rate of incoming new players will decline over time (like on live). This will create a circumstance where new players cannot find groups so easily and will increasingly become dependent on twink items and buffs from high levels. New players will increasingly complain on the forums about grind and complications and lack of groups. One way to help resolve this is to form some kind of community of veterans who nurture the low level community by actively playing with them as equals. When you play as an equal, you're, for all intents and purposes, just as vulnerable as them. And you devote your time to this task. In so doing, the veterans who participate must also sacrifice the glory of having a bunch of high level characters - doing that requires a lot of time that could have been spent with low level players. So this is not for everyone.

Why do I enforce these restrictions in my policy (ex: alts less than level 15)?

Most high levels do not want to sit around buffing new players all day. Leveling past 15 means you're not leveling with the pre level 15 crowd - you leave them behind. And many will twink their own alts rather than twink someone else. If you refrain from twinking your alts, you can twink other players instead - which builds on the community aspects of this game. Removing the restrictions is too tempting. It's like giving a child a loaded gun. What we say and what we do are different things. It's human nature. You want to be an equal to a new player so that they can feel empowered and useful. For me, I go all the way. I want to role play a low level player. So I restrict myself and do my best to enjoy it.

Have fun, but don't overwhelm a new player or min/max. Whassat?

Your goal is to not just have fun yourself, but to make it fun for everyone else. If you haven't done something before, do it. If there's a place that gives less experience, but might offer something new to others, do it. The point is to enrich the experience and use your wealth of knowledge to entertain a new player. But don't overdo it. Let others lead when they desire to lead. Ask them often what they want to do, and just follow along and enjoy the ride. The ride is what it's all about.

Whatcha think? How would you change the policy for yourself?

Please post seriously! I've actually enjoyed re-rolling my alts without twinking them even when I could have. I've done several and enjoy it everytime. So that got me thinking about this idea.

Disclaimer: Opinions and/or assumptions listed in this post are not endorsed or credited by anybody other than myself. Any resemblance to other opinions and/or assumptions elsewhere is purely coincidental. Thank you.

[Ektar]

This is an incredibly overly complex way of proposing people play low level alts without twinking to help incoming players.

Some of the things you said are completely unnecessary. Others are just excessive.

Why do I have to label myself an LLRPGer? Then decide I "want to stop?" This is just foolishly complicated. Seeing as how it's (obviously) voluntary, it's not like there's a difference between keeping an active roster and just saying "do it if you feel like it" (ESPECIALLY if you want people's identities to be secret).


That's my criticism... otherwise whatev sure sounds like a splendid plan for anyone that'd be interested, i guess.

[Uaellaen]

uhm ... are you bored with your life?

[bigforest]

nobody would do this. being a noob all the time is not the motivation of your average EQ / P99 player.

[stormlord]

This is an incredibly overly complex way of proposing people play low level alts without twinking to help incoming players.

Some of the things you said are completely unnecessary. Others are just excessive.

Why do I have to label myself an LLRPGer? Then decide I "want to stop?" This is just foolishly complicated. Seeing as how it's (obviously) voluntary, it's not like there's a difference between keeping an active roster and just saying "do it if you feel like it" (ESPECIALLY if you want people's identities to be secret).


That's my criticism... otherwise whatev sure sounds like a splendid plan for anyone that'd be interested, i guess.

Well, if you keep all your alts under 15 you won't have the temptation of logging in your level 50 to buff and sit there all day. I guess if you find that fun, do it. Also, as a high level, you give new players the impression that they cannot exist without you. It becomes about you, not them. A huge DS buff, or a big hp buff does not make a new player think about their choices very much but it does give them crazy experience. Bottom line, you become their god that way, not their equal. You help them more by playing alongside them. And you can do this part-time by levelling higher, but I'm really referring to people who intend on doing this full-time when they play and are targetting new players less than level 15. Those are the ones I'm concerned about at this point. My thinking is if you keep them going, early on anyway, they're more likely to stay or come back later.

Lol. Sorry if it seemed too complicated. Most of it was arbitrary. Just read it in spirit. The idea here is not to follow it like policy, but to keep the new player population active and satisfied with their numbers.

On live i've buffed lots of players over the years, twinked, broke every rule I wrote in this thread. So I'm already guilty. These are just the rules i've made for myself.

[stormlord]

nobody would do this. being a noob all the time is not the motivation of your average EQ / P99 player.

Tell ya what. I'll present a challenge to myself. If you're right, I won't succeed. Or maybe I'm just not average.

As soon as the server comes up, I have two choices:

1) Delete all my characters and start fresh
2) Keep playing druid

I'll pick (1) to prove to myself that this is about new players, not me. If I can survive like this for a while, maybe this really is a style of play. Or maybe not. I just wanted to post something in support of helping new players and putting emphasis on them. I did not make this post to argue with people.

[Uaellaen]

to prove to myself that this is about new players, not me.

you sir, are one out of a million that doesnt put him self before everyone else ... im impressed ... and this is no sarcasm, i mean it

[Bayleo]

I can haz ur stuff??

[stormlord]

you sir, are one out of a million that doesnt put him self before everyone else ... im impressed ... and this is no sarcasm, i mean it

Put yourself in my shoes Uaellaen. I came here I think it was in nov or dec and had some fun with low levels. I left and went elsewhere for 3 months. Came back and same sequence of events. No twinking. I enjoyed it. So I started to wonder why I am I enjoying this? I guess it doesn't matter. Fun is fun. So I came here to explain what I enjoy and the policy i'm going to follow. I may not have used the choice of words, or maybe I didn't fit your fancy, but I did my best not to get negative respones.

[stormlord]

I changed the first post so every post previous to this one is referring to the old update. Put this here so previous posters (including me) don't look like morons talking about things that don't exist.

[Murdokk]

This cannot happen, i enjoy leveling my troll sk around guk and being buffed by the high lvls like Uuaellaen! lvl 8 killing heart spiders ftw!

[Loke]

I agree that you are making it way too complicated; however, I do like the idea of anonymously playing low level alts to help the community and might even do it myself. I never really thought about making a character unattached from my main before reading this post, so I definitely commend you for throwing that idea in my head.

Outside of selflessly helping the community, this is also a cool way to meet other people. I know I met a ton of people leveling up Loke, but since hitting 50 I've only really grouped with friends and guildies (Or been afk according to Vish). I think you've got sweet intentions, but are just going about it the wrong way.

Ideas like this that help strengthen the community, regardless of how radical or ridiculous are always worth sharing imo. Maybe it sucks and no one will want to take part, but it also might inspire a person or two.

[Murferoo]

Hey Storm, I don't think any further proving is necessary. Sounds like your doing a great job as is, so why don't you just keep your druid and have fun on your alts with the newer crowd and call it a day. Nice post.

[Ektar]

Tell ya what. I'll present a challenge to myself. If you're right, I won't succeed. Or maybe I'm just not average.

As soon as the server comes up, I have two choices:

1) Delete all my characters and start fresh
2) Keep playing druid

I'll pick (1) to prove to myself that this is about new players, not me. If I can survive like this for a while, maybe this really is a style of play. Or maybe not. I just wanted to post something in support of helping new players and putting emphasis on them. I did not make this post to argue with people.

Why don't you keep your druid and have 7 level 15- alts? This is a step I'm not getting. Or are you trying to say that man cannot resist temptation to buff his companions? lol =p

[Uaellaen]

Put yourself in my shoes Uaellaen. I came here I think it was in nov or dec and had some fun with low levels. I left and went elsewhere for 3 months. Came back and same sequence of events. No twinking. I enjoyed it. So I started to wonder why I am I enjoying this? I guess it doesn't matter. Fun is fun. So I came here to explain what I enjoy and the policy i'm going to follow. I may not have used the choice of words, or maybe I didn't fit your fancy, but I did my best not to get negative respones.

seriously, i wasnt attacking you ...i realy ment it :o

it so rare that people suggest solutions / ideas that do not benefit them selfs, and only them selfs ... but are in fact for a "greater good" ...

even thou your idea is not for me, because i usualy only play 1 character as main, and stick with it ... i think the base of your idea, having people do things that might actualy benefit someone else then them selfs (in this case the low level pop)is quite rare, i like it ...

[Cribanox]

Im going to create a group of players called losers, you must be a ranger.

thats it

[kevincheese]

There's still a huge low level population on this server, this won't be an issue for a long time.

[w1ngz]

Interesting...

I recognize and appreciate the amount of consideration you've put into this, and I empathize with your sentiments about the difficulty of being able to find a group on a server where everyone is max level. However, I don't think it's any less valuable to be one of those level 50's that sit around and buff noobs all day. Not to say I disagree with your approach, merely that it's not necessarily more valid than the alternative, and certainly it ain't for everyone :P

When I first started on p99, I was helped by a ton of random kind strangers (all higher level than I) within an hour of logging in for the first time. I was given 400pp, a slew of leveling buffs, free ports, directions, and assistance with retrieving my many corpses, and someone even went so far as to run me through my Testament of Vanear quest (thank you Jerrod!).

^ THIS experience more than anything positively affected my feelings about p99, and cemented for me the urge to return the favor some day. So, to do my part, I frequently do charity ports or randomly run noobs around from zone to zone, contributing a few plat here and there.

Without that formative experience, I can't say I'd feel the same way about the strength of community on this server, and it's surely made me want to help the low level population in my own little way.

[stormlord]

Interesting...

I recognize and appreciate the amount of consideration you've put into this, and I empathize with your sentiments about the difficulty of being able to find a group on a server where everyone is max level. However, I don't think it's any less valuable to be one of those level 50's that sit around and buff noobs all day. Not to say I disagree with your approach, merely that it's not necessarily more valid than the alternative, and certainly it ain't for everyone :P

When I first started on p99, I was helped by a ton of random kind strangers (all higher level than I) within an hour of logging in for the first time. I was given 400pp, a slew of leveling buffs, free ports, directions, and assistance with retrieving my many corpses, and someone even went so far as to run me through my Testament of Vanear quest (thank you Jerrod!).

^ THIS experience more than anything positively affected my feelings about p99, and cemented for me the urge to return the favor some day. So, to do my part, I frequently do charity ports or randomly run noobs around from zone to zone, contributing a few plat here and there.

Without that formative experience, I can't say I'd feel the same way about the strength of community on this server, and it's surely made me want to help the low level population in my own little way.

You're right. I had to go through and look over some of what I initially put and i've had a bit more time to think about it. You can be any level, a new player or a veteran, any class, an old grouch like me, poor or rich, it doesn't matter, you can have an impact on others!

Like I say in my post, the reason for all the restrictions is because I got weak knees. If I'm tempted to play a high level character and group up in guk, that's probably what I'll find myself doing most of the time. I have no idea what others would do in the same circumstances. So anyway I prohibit myself from leveling up any higher than 14, at least at this point. I haven't even got past 8, so it's a bit premature ain't it? I already promised to someone on here that I'd delete my chars and start over, so it'll be a while yet! I'm sorry if things I say come across the wrong way. These are my own assumptions based on what I am good at and what I am not.

I didn't put this thread here to shine a light on me and to say "Hey you! Do what I say!" These are ongoing ideas, straight from the cesspool of my aging brain. Many of the posts here are just from people trying to tell me that there's no single way to go about these things. And they're right. But, lo' and behold, this is my thread and I barfed it up. If you don't like the smell, stay way. But I thnka you for the comments, you made me think a little bit more about my own assumptions.