Topic
Some obvious questions...
Okay, so I have a few questions I'm pretty sure the answers to which are common knowledge, but I REALLY wasn't social for very much of the run of Glitch due to shyness - I only started interacting with other players at all as a result of the shock of the closing announcement. But it seems like there was some good stuff going on while I wasn't paying attention, and - if nobody minds - I'd like to find out exactly what they were.
So, here they are:
1) What was "Civility Group"?
2) What were Guides?
3) What was the Greeter Program?
Thanks for your time! I appreciate your tolerance of my staggering naiveté.
Replies
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1) The Civility Group was a bunch of people who gathered together to help people out and have fun in the process.
2 & 3) The Greeter Program recruited people to become Guides, volunteers who helped new Glitchen find their way around the game. -
The Greeter program included Greeters and Guides. I was a Greeter but not a Guide. When new players entered the game they had an option to ask for a Greeter. When the new Tutorial was created, new players got a Greeter Twig which they could use to call a Greeter.
Greeters met new players and helped them get started. We answered questions, helped them learn the basics and sometimes went further and took them on Tours, etc. We also Gifted them a few items. As Greeters, we had Greeter Badges which occupied one inventory slot and held16 items. The Badge included items we would need during a Greet (such as Awesome Stew so we wouldn't go to Hell (but that happened anyway) and a few items for the Newb including a Music Block and Spinach. The Badge also could transport us back to our point of origin at the end of the Greet and it could be "Topped Up" replacing used items. I also kept a few important personal items in my badge such as my Conch.
Guides were Greeters who manned the Live Help and answered questions. I was not a Guide but several Greeters were.
The Greeter program was a volunteer job which I felt honored to be a part of. Jade was the original Staff member who managed us and in the past few months she was replaced by Herp Derp although she still was part of the program. Other Devs and staff also belonged to the Program including Stoot.
When the Greeter program began there were special Start Streets that were accessible to Newbs and Greeters but not to other players. I seem to remember about 5 of these. Start Streets did not count on the Travelers Board. I could see them on the map while I was in one but as soon as I left a Start it disappeared from the Map. Start Streets had basic training for Newbs. There was a chicken and a butterfly, two patches, a Music Block, Fruity Juice, Spinach. There were Fruit Tree Beans in the Greeter Badge. During the past few months the Start Streets were replaced by Gentle Isle and Greeting occurred in Ur when the Newb used the Greeter Twig.
When a Newb entered the game, they were given the option to be Greeted if there were Greeters available. If they chose to be Greeted we received a notice on screen and in the Greeter Group. When the notice was accepted, we were immediately transported to the Start Street or later to wherever in Ur the Newb happened to be. Occasionally more than one Greeter answered the call especially during the last few months after the Twig was introduced. When we accepted a Greet it was announced in the Group, "I've got (name of Newb)!"
There was training for new Greeters. You didn't just jump in and Greet. You kept your Badge "Muted" during training and got called to first observe some a Greets, then to practice with the help of a Greeter. Finally, if everything went well, Jade would give you a Greeter Badge. The Badge could be Muted, meaning that you would receive no calls. I muted only if I was busy with something such as a Quest. Otherwise, my Badge was always unmuted and I went when I was called. In the last months, I Muted my Badge when on a Greet because if not, I often got called again before I finished my Greeting. There was also training for Guides but as I was never a Guide I do not know what that involved. -
Greeters and guides were fairly different things, actually. The guide program didn't even start until well after the greeter program was underway, and the greeter program started as an informal group.
Greeters met new players who requested it and helped them learn about the game and the community. Back before the housing and tutorial changes, we'd act as the tutorial as well. We'd show people some of the neat things (like activating spinach) and answer any questions people had at the time. Each greeter had some freedom in how they did things once they were trained -- for example, I'd always talk people in to trying "taste" on the butterfly lotion to get an idea for how delightfully random things could be.
Guides were players who were knowledgeable about the game and often in Live Help answering questions before they were guides. They were there for everyone's questions and basically answered the things that didn't require staff. They had a tag next to their name (only in the Live Help channel) that identified them as guides. In short, we answered gameplay questions and told people whether or not things were bugs and if they needed to be reported or not. A lot of the time we'd sit quietly and only speak up if someone said something that wasn't actually true. We'd also try to avoid directly giving people answers to questions about the game itself -- we'd opt for pun-filled hints when available (after all, we were guides, not wikis). =) Things such as "How do I jump?" would usually get direct answers, whereas "How do I find ghosts?" would not.
Here's the now-old FAQ info (Greeters is actually a little out of date, once imagination was introduced one could summon a Greeter for a little while after the first time in game):
What are Guides?Guides are player volunteers who want to help other players get around Glitch. Specifically, Guides help us make sure we can get the questions players ask in the Live Help chat channel answered quickly and correctly.Does this mean that I can't help other players in Live Help if I'm not a Guide?Absolutely not! Live Help is first and foremost about our community helping each other—but if you get stuck, and a Staff member isn't around, Guides will be available to answer and help.What is a Greeter?Greeters are player volunteers who help new players learn about Glitch. When a new player enters the game for the first time and chooses to be greeted, a Greeter is summoned to their location to show them some game basics and fun stuff and welcome them to the wonderful world of Glitch. -
Thanks very much everyone!
It's nice to see that, even after ending, there were some more lovely things Glitch had to show me. -
Just to clarify - one didn't have to be a Greeter first to become a Guide. I know of at least two people who were Guides but not Greeters.
Here are some (not all, sadly) of the guides: lem.to/p/XHoo -
The original staff member in charge of greeters, in March of 2011, was actually jdawg. Once the greeter badge system had been created, jdawg invited three of us to test it out (Jade, who wasn't staff yet, hburger, and me), and when it was fairly stable, the group grew to ten or twelve testers, with many more added as time went on. After a few months, jdawg's role in the company changed, and kakul ran our group for a short while. As soon as Pepper Rose was hired, she took over; when she left about a month later, Jade took over. We were able to do just about everything ourselves, once appropriate systems were put into place, but we did need staff to send invitations to new greeters and to hand out badges.
The idea behind the guide program was that it can be hard to know who to trust when you're new to a game. A visual indicator next to our names assured other players that we were giving them accurate information (or at least attempting to do so!), and sitting in a channel with staff meant that we were able to quickly report problems and/or ask them for information when necessary. Originally, the idea was to give greeters some identifying mark, but since not all greeters were interested in Live Help, or had the time to spend on it, and since people didn't necessarily want to be identified as greeters every time they spoke, it made more sense to have a separate guide program just for the LH channel. There wasn't guide training, per se... just an initial e-mail and some group forum threads. - That is all so interesting! I'm glad to hear about it, so thanks.
- I had no idea these programs even existed. I only got my invitation in August, so I hadn't been playing for long when the game shut down. I wish I could have joined one of these programs. It was always fun helping out players who needed it. Really gives you a sense of purpose among the rest of the community.
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What fun memories of being a Greeter (and using the Greeter Badge as extra storage <_<). Not so much when I got back into the game because I had to re-familiarize myself with a few of the updated interfaces, but oh how much fun it was to show new Glitchen the magic of Ur.
*sheds a happy tear*