Focal point for less obvious professions
Learning curve is a bitch..

Something that I think this game could benefit from is something that helps spread the love for the lesser used professions in game and maybe help the learning curve a little easier.

What im talking about is...

if a new player starts and they want to be a gang member.. that's really easy and obvious on who to go for to join up and get some degree of mentoring on the finer points of being a full of flavor big bad mean gang banger...Sure they might try combat before and no doubt fail spectacularly .. but eventually they can and i guess usually find a mentor to show them the finer points icly and in game how to go about combat and being a ganger in general..

if a new player wants to rise the corporate ladder again that's sort of easy to get into and find a means and a ways and one or more mentors to get you into how and why, the ins and outs for you to learn both how to behave and how ,. when why and should you of their chosen profession....

This however doesn't extend to all aspects.. some are obviously more difficult than others to get into and learn the ropes so to speak..

Now i'm not suggesting that this role cant or is not filled in game by players and one off NPC puppets.. but i was thinking more of a semi permanent NPC's to provide stepping stones.... a port of call so to speak at least.. a sign post if you will.. something to scream out into that dark night.. hey there budding (insert criminal wannabie).. your not all alone.. well maybe.. but there is help if your willing to look for it ....

for example.. new player joins and wants to learn the ropes and be the withmores finest cyber jockey.. player does the usual, joins.. RP's and generally hangs out learning the game, the city and does all the usual immie things.. at some point there really should be a semi obvious NPC at least for the player to approach in character to get a starting idea on what they need, who to speak to... where to get x.. or even just tips and ideas on how to use commands.... now some of this could be scripted or even is just a focal point for a player to attract the attention of the GMs icly.. (the usual @notes ives spoken to soo and soo).. now obviously this should be themed and can stepping stone or what not.. so in this instance could be a renowned but burnt out cyber jockey that sits in a dive bar somewhere.... gives out a little bit of advice.. and helps the player have a focal point to contact.. maybe after awhile the GM's could use it as a vehicle to point them in the direction of a well established player in game fulfilling a role that the immie hasnt come across or is on a different timezone..It could also serve as a message board sort of thing that lets other players contact said guru to discretely advertise they lookin for said cyber jockey..

other examples that i could think of that could do with a in game mentor/ guild/ heck even a specific focal message board that's not open grid would be..

Job Broker for independent solos/street samurai.. the wanted / bounty sort of does this but its not the same for immies...

Thieves .. we so need a thieves guild..and who can advertise they want a mentor in this?

Fixer? .. maybe there are enough ingame and they are visable enough? to approach..

Gunsmiths/ Lords of war - basically anything illegal thats hard to know who to contact..

Candy man - i mean there is the corpies.. but im thinking mixer based..i can only imagine but the learning curve and setup costs of this means that for immies its like looking at Everest...so they will drop out / re roll or just get frustrated and look elsewhere..

Tech guru.. maybe there are enough jobs and businesses in the mix./ topside.. what are peoples thoughts..??

im sure there are plenty of other examples...

Now these NPCs might be used also for Player to GM interactions of more establish characters and provide a natural ic conduit for GM - Player interactions for players that either through choice or RP dont want to or it works better thematically that they dont sign up to an organistaion or what not but still need a conduit to the GM's, to advice or even jobs/RP/approiate items/ story hooks etc.....

It would also help the general player base as well.. because then we wouldnt have the slightly jaring experience of someone doing something out of character or totally retarded icly just because the player (not character but player) doesnt know any better... Im thinking of someone failing spectacularly at trying to buy a gun in a open bar ( they should but might not get the subtle art or understand just how illegal they are).. or hacking ( they dont know which equipment or how to do it with commands) or pick pocketing ( they do something stupidly retarded because quiet frankly i imagine that this is a hard thing to get into and the consequences i imagine are quiet serve for a minor slip up early on)....

now dont get me wrong. failing.. and failing badly can be great RP and loads of fun.. but failing because the player doesn't know this or that about a in game command or not knowing something that their limited history says they should know is no fun for the player (not to mention very frustrating) or the rest of the community where they have to turn a blind eye or just laugh it off somehow... i mean there are plenty of character types and ideas i would love to try out and even after months of play im totally turned off them as the learning curve would just be a total nightmare...

anyway.. as always just me thoughts and 2 cent...

just to clarify however what i hoped was my original idea.. and i could be way off bat..

I'm not talking about changing or increasing the means and ways to generating chyen from NPC's via automated jobs or anything of the such, more just a obvious (within the theme of the game of course) NPC that supports some of the more harder to learn / access jobs types in game... in my mind its mainly the criminal ones you cant just ask someone in a bar etc...

The question i would pose is..

Put yourself into the eyes of a new player.. who has played for say 2 - 3 weeks.. wants to be one of the archetypes that i raised in my original post..

Now if you wanted to approach someone in game to ask advice or help icly then who would you approach? ..

if the answer is person x or NPC x.. ask how obvious is that to someone that hasnt been playing for months and months or years..

or

If the answer is a blank.. then i would suggest that there is a hole that needs to be filled that could help give a little more love to professions that tend to fall by the way side...

Please note i'm also not in anyway shape or form saying that the GMs dont already do this, as i can only suspect just how much time and effort that goes behind the scenes to help out all players and immies in particular by our great hard working GMs..

I merely suggest this as a way for the players themselves to know who to approach icly to gain the attention of the GMs if they need themselves.. think of it as a signpost to icly ask for assistance and a handy vehicle for GMs to be able to use to answer these questions. After all surely its better for players to whenever possible interact with GMs icly rather than resorting to Xhelp or leaving @notes..

It also going to have a nice side benefit of adding a little extra character to our city with flavorsome 'characters' and potentially also steer some people into the theme more... ie if your mentor uses appropriate dress or language then you will as a immie tend to copy them.. just thinking its a nice vehicle to steer some of the more wayward expectations that new players might have.

Now im not complaining as everyone can play how or what they like in game and i'm sure there is more diversity that i see regularly.. but i for one see an awful lot of certain easy to get into professions (you can guess what i mean by looking at how many people advertise the same service on sic.. lost count when ive been online and seen say 10 people on sic.. 6 of which are all advertising the same service/product range..)... and looking at immies makeup that tend to last more than say the usual 2 dayers.. i feel like a lot of the successful ones tend to fall into a limited number of similar archetypes and not always the rich diversity that this game allows.. and the question i ask myself . is this because the other professions are very hard to get into ? ..

#nb i know im using the word profession and SD doesnt have classes and strict professions and its amazing and great that we as players dont have to follow set paths.. etc.. but for lack of a better way to describe just over look that as you know what i mean..#

I whole hearted agree on what I see as your two most fundamental points of

1) maintaining the challenge/mystery and dare i say it satisfaction of finding stuff out in game and not being spoonfeed everything. I've always loved the way that things are hard in this game, the tone is set right from the start with the @newbie and the limited icly info available on the website/ wiki and player answers on the help channel.

and

2) also a point on the danger of making things too easy and obvious with "a neon sign".. that ruin the nuances afforded by the subtler arts of RP. The golden rule of RP is king should always be cherish and protected as it would be too easy to dilute what elevates and makes SD great by a misconceived idea however well meant.

These things are of paramount concern and I agree could be spoilt by a heavy handed approach to resolving what may not even be an issue.

My purpose in the post is mealy to raise the question to the GMs and community at large to see if anyone else believes that there is an issue with diversity of archetypes (as my limited perspective of one player in a fixed time zone) and if we believe that might be due to a perceived (rightly or wrongly) steeper learning curve for some archetypes compared to others..

The solution i threw out was always premised on the concept of subtly and fitting within the theme/style and nuances of the wonderful world we call Withmore, and I would never suggest we dilute it by making things too obvious or too easy.. and as has been pointed out maybe there are these mechanisms already in place that fulfil this role that I have simply missed and not witness myself in my game playing..

as always just my 2 cents throwing stuff out there to see if 'we' think its got any legs..

Really, the rest of t is pretty easy to find someone to help you, in the first couple days, let alone weeks. I think the real hurdle here, is the awkwardness a new player feels. They are nervous about asking for puppet's because in other games, staff are assholes. They are nervous asking other pc's, because they don't know anyone. And when they do, they tend to be very, very, new about it, and ask about like, buying a gun, in the middle of a bar, which naturally gives them dirty looks from others, which might make them feel more awkward.

That being said, I have been working hard to kind of... Nudge them in the right directions with my current pc, since he's pretty available. And I see others do the same.

have an npc fixer that will litterally sell the data to people. Costs like 1g, and staff can puppet them, and make a suggestion on who to talk to.

Dunno. I don't personally think it's needed, but that's my idea.

As someone says, staff does want PCs to succeed. Difficulties and failures, too, but not from start to end. Becoming established in your career of choice is one of the most basic elements of getting started as a new player or new PC, and it's doable if you're either persistent in searching or (as needed) cautiously asking around. Some of the suggested jobs do indeed take time to qualify for, but as with most things on Sindome, showing commitment toward sticking with it often gets you to where you're headed.