Guild Wars 2

So a recent discussion in a thoughtful map chat brought up the point that a lot of new players don’t recognize what the ‘apple’ mentoring icon is on their map, or what it should mean to them.

A player in the /m conversation mentioned that the system should be explained in the tutorial process, or at some point while they are still learning to play so they can utilize players marking themselves up for mentoring.

I’m not certain, but I think I’ve only seen the explanation for the mentor tag once in a loading screen, -maybe-.

Where do you think the mentoring system could/should be explained to new players that can most make use of them?

Seems like an ideal thing to explain during one of the level-up messages.

Isn’t it just like a commander tag lite? I wasn’t aware of it actually doing anything that would need explaining.

The intention is that, if I’m a newbie and I see someone with a mentor tag, I know they’re someone I should ask for help if I need it. For most experienced players, they’re just a commander tag lite, but that’s not all they’re supposed to be.

If that’s not actually the case though then telling newbies that will just lead to confusion and trolling I imagine.

Eh, the options are either “abandon the original intent” or “tell people what it’s intended for.”

I’m in favor of using mentor tags to mentor people, not just as a little doodad to show where you are on the map. Perhaps if people expect to have newbies asking them questions when they wear a mentor tag, they’ll think twice about whether they want to wear it.

(Having said that, I’m pleased by how little I see people wearing these just for the heck of it. After HoT came out, they were pretty common for a while, but they’re not super obnoxiously common now.)

I don’t think they need to know. They see it on the map and will naturally be drawn to it out of curiosity and find themselves face to face with their new senpai. Doesn’t hurt to add it to a tutorial thingy though I guess.

I think it should just be a pop-up like when you get a new specialization slot or something, or perhaps a ‘mentored’ NPC like the “Learn to Dodge” activity in starting zones.

Didn’t one of the recent patch notes say there will be (helpful?) information on some loading screens? I’ve yet to see any kind of information, or text of any kind, on any loading screens. Has anyone else seen these elusive loading screen texts?

I would think the loading screen information (if there actually is such a thing) would be a perfect place for such.