Blizzard unveils the Guild Mentoring Program

Written by: Carina Vossos (@Rinaxas) | July 10, 2012 4:39 pm

50 Comments

Blizzard unveiled a new community program today called “The Guild Mentoring Program.”

The goal is to identify guilds who can take new low level players under their wing, invite them to their guild and teach them all about the World of Warcraft.

The current list of realms selected for the program are here:

US and Oceanic

EU EN Realms

Thunderhorn
Azuremyst
Lightbringer
Aggramar
Stormrage
Aszune

EU DE Realms

Thrall
Alleria
Malygos
Arygos

EU FR Realms

Hyjal
Dalaran
Eversong

To be selected as a Mentor Guild, you must meet the following criteria:

Be located on one of the selected realms
Be able to commit to the program for the 3 months
Willing to change your guilds name for the duration, which can be changed back afterwards
Your guild must be at least level 6 and have an active membership

There are lots of nice perks for guilds who want to participate. MVP forum status and private forum access, as well as recognition for participating in the program.

Only one guild per faction will be selected on each realm. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, check out the full Q&A here on the WoW blog.

This is a great way to help people learn the ins and outs of WoW before they get to 85 and get lost in the maze of LFD and a great chance to make some friends in game.

What do you guys think? Do you wish this program was in place when you were new to Azeroth?

Blizzard unveils the Guild Mentoring Program

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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=804773153 Akash Patel

None of the videos on the site are working for me. They were working fine yesterday but today i keep getting this message “Sorry, this episode is temporarily unavailable”
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Yeah, they just stopped working a few mins ago.
http://www.twitter.com/_Laughter Laughter

Sounds pretty awesome.
http://twitter.com/kirzanSix Michael Coulombe

It’s an interesting idea… but it’s way too late. It’s not “added guild perks” that will bring people back. It’s by giving people free stuff. I’d probably go back if I could get another free 80 with epic flight. Alas, I already used mine.

You gotta think, like, this is specifically appealing to the entirely new player. Do you know a lot of RPG enthusiasts that didn’t try wow yet? Even if you do, are you on the targeted realm in the 1 guild? That’s not a lot of options. It really looks like it’s very much tailored to the one guy in the one guild that has a friend that might want to play, or a random person without friends.

This doesn’t sound like a marketing move because of how small the scale is… but if it isn’t, what is it? What does Blizzard gain except a few, very very few, “new” subs?
- http://twitter.com/H3L1ON Samir
  
  to me it sounds like blizzard try’s too keep the illusion up
  that wow is still the nr1 mmo. Wich it is, but everyone can see that the new subs are
  decclining and wow issent the beast it once was.
  So by making some form of content or promo’s in this case community content
  or the previous diablo + 1year wow, etc.. Blizzard keeps appearances high this way
  as if it is a happy triving community, wich its not.
  
  I also speculate, and this is a old one that they delliberletly make MoP x-pack for the potential asian market to fill in on those lost and new subs.
  
  so wat am trying to say is they try to convience there shareholders that wow is still growing and not sinking slowly becuz of the competition. thats what they could gain happy shareholders.
http://twitter.com/Diogo_Pereira10 Diogo Pereira

hmm this will be like GvsG in TERA
- Brosaxon
  
  …Except good
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Tj-Vossos/647768691 Tj Vossos
  
  in Guild wars 1 seven years ago, there fixed that for you,
Old Ben

If the in-game community was healthy (as it was during the first four or five years of the game’s existence), then every server would naturally spawn several “starter” guilds. In fact, even the raiding guilds I was in (one of which was comfortably in the top 10%, worldwide) regularly invited new players that seemed to meet our attitude and IQ requirements.

By feeling the need to sponsor a specific “newbie guild” per server, Blizzard is acknowledging that new players are unlikely to have a good experience without “protection”, which suggests they’re well aware of the decline in the civility of their player base.

Either that or they’re just saying “the game itself can’t hold new players for more than a couple of months so we’re going to hire other players to be our in-game pushers, and pay them in forum icons”.

While not a bad idea in itself, this is like putting a band-aid on an infected wound. It might hide the symptoms for a short period, but it doesn’t address the root problems.
- Cody Moody
  
  It’s not Blizzard’s fault that their most vocal players are also dickhead elitists.
  - Old Ben
    
    Whose fault is it, then? Who made players’ reputation irrelevant by implementing a dungeon finder that allows anyone to request a group of “automatic friends” to carry him through content, without any consequences for behaving like a jerk? Who refuses to punish ninjas, scammers and spammers because they can’t see beyond the risk of losing their subscription fee?
    
    As Gabe Newell pointed out in several interviews, some people bring new players to the game (or make them want to stay) and some drive existing players away. Smart companies will reward the former and punish the latter. Blizzard’s post-Wrath policies and design choices do exactly the opposite.
    
    Make your game jerk-friendly and soon the majority of your player base will be jerks.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco
      
      +1 for gabe. valve is one of the few developers i still have respect for.
      - Old Ben
        
        > +1 for gabe
        
        There goes his diet…
    - Brosaxon
      
      Just look at Tera for a perfect example of a jerk-friendly game full of jerks, hell even the GMs are jerks!
      - Old Ben
        
        I had a WoW GM once freeze my character in the middle of a raid boss fight (causing a wipe) because I didn’t accept his chat request.
        
        The request was about a ticket I had submitted the previous day reporting a typo in some quest text. His first sentence after freezing me was “Now you have to stop ignoring my chat request, I know you’re there, I can see you playing.”
        
        In other words, that GM _saw_ that I was in a raid, but decided that having him cut & paste a generic “thank you for reporting this” reply into my chat window should still be my #1 priority at that point.
        
        I’ve never played Tera, but I’d say their GMs need to work very hard to compete with that.
      - http://profile.yahoo.com/BMDWR4QQM5EXAEKXBRCK4QW4H4 Everlast
        
        You know reading your experience with the GM was hilarious! That made my day, i wonder how many more stories do people have to share! lol! Just wanted to say your comment made me chuckle!
      - Brosaxon
        
        It is kinda hard to top that.
        
        Still that GM didn’t told you that if you don’t like it go ahead and unsubscribe because we don’t care if you’re subbed or not pretty much telling you in a nice way to go f**k yourself, specially when the game itself doesn’t have that many subs to begin with.
      - Old Ben
        
        As I think my messages on this thread make pretty clear, I would love to see a game where GMs aren’t afraid to show jerks the exit, instead of putting the subscription money above all else.
        
        Obviously, if a GM goes around telling random players to leave for no reason, he’s not going to keep his job for long.
        
        But, with some players, showing them the door (or even kicking them out) does wonders for the social atmosphere and actually keeps more people playing in the long run.
      - Brosaxon
        
        I get your point, I really do and I agree.
        
        And just to be clear that example I used, that’s what GMs where telling to people reporting the jerks so apparently Tera Gms are OK with players being jerks to one another but they’re not OK with decent players asking them to do something about the jerk problem in their game.
      - Old Ben
        
        From what I’ve read, that reply was sent to a player who kept spamming the chat channels and paging GMs, basically annoying everyone else and delaying replies to other support tickets. In other words, a whiny snitch, “reporting” something that everybody was already aware of.
        
        But, to be honest, I don’t care either way.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco
    
    they weren’t “dickhead elitists” until the game started inviting casuals. 90% of the community was hc, or at least serious about progression in some sense during vanilla and post-nerf TBC. so yes, it is blizzards fault.
    money money nerf money blah blah blah
    - Old Ben
      
      It’s not a matter of being “serious about progression”. I knew lots of people who played a couple of hours a week and weren’t the least bit interested in raiding, and they were still intelligent and civilized.
      
      New players learned pretty quickly that if they didn’t behave, their reputation would spread through the realm, and they wouldn’t be able to find anyone willing to trade, quest or do instances with them.
      
      With the dungeon finder, the nerfs, and the passivity of GMs towards disruptive behavior, those same jerks have no reason to care. Even if suddenly they need to shake off their local reputation, they can send some heirlooms to an alt and make it to max level in three days.
      
      And with guild perks being so dependent on the number of guild members, lots of guilds accept any applicant automatically, because getting those bonuses is worth more than the negative impact of having several known assholes on board. Half the time, the assholes are actually the officers or even the guild master, spamming new players with whispers asking them to join just so the guild can get more experience.
      
      Even design options such as making mobs sit on nearly every resource in Cataclysm seem clearly designed to promote competition and conflict between players of the same faction. One player starts harvesting, gets attacked, and while he’s dealing with the creature, someone else lands, gets the node, and flies away. Ha-ha, the jerk wins and there’s nothing you can do about it, except become a jerk yourself.
      
      In short, WoW has become a game where players are actively encouraged to use others for their own personal gain, at every level (guilds, dungeons, gathering, etc.), and without fear of any consequences.
      - http://profile.yahoo.com/T2CF4DYZNZBU3MGDQOADWCBWQE Big
        
        Well its a double edge sword Ben. You see back in the days before LFD I was a victim of the so called ” BAD reputation ” It all started when I was doing SM cath and I was dead but we did mange to beat the boss. So I got a rez say my thnx to the group and left.
        Note I did not loot and was no where near the boss, I just left because
        back then there was no way to determent if it was your turn to loot a
        mob. Shortly after I left I get a message calling me a ninja. I was like
        WTF, the person explain to me that the rest of the group believed that I
        ninja loot the boss and left. Trying to explain to them that I didn’t loot anything I just left the group after I got rez fell on deaf ears. Even when I told them to look at the the LOG, if I had loot anything it would show
        it. A few hour later this person was spamming LFG so I reply and he
        added me, a few sec after that he add one of the person which I was just
        with from the sm run. A few sec later BAM I was kick out of the group. I
        pm the guy asking why I was kick, he replay OH the guy I just invite
        tells me you are a loot ninja. End of story.
      - Old Ben
        
        There’s a message printed in the console showing who looted what, and it was there long before the dungeon finder was added to the game.
      - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco
        
        i can’t even see the comment you’re replying to for some reason, but
  - MMO_Doubter
    
    Yes, it is. The game was designed to appeal to selfish loners.
    
    Not that that is unusual for modern MMOs now.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  While I think your comment about “in-game community health” is a part of your bias.
  
  There was a time, that servers would have leveling guides and raiding guilds. You would join a leveling guild, play your character and level with assistance from your guild.   Once you hit max level, you could leave the guild and join a raiding guild.
  
  That separation of guilds is no longer necessary. There really is no reason to not invite a friend of a guild members. Blizzard has removed most of the “difficult” leveling content. The only group quests that require some type of assistance is the “Ring of Blood” style quests. Gone are the days of bugging your guild for a dungeon run (and getting run through a dungeon by a high level players, helps no one.)   At least LFG gives the opportunity to play their role.
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Sorry guys. Be nasty to each other, if you must.

But this is real, there is an amazing number of players returning to World of Warcraft. I’m seeing multiple new raid groups being built, made up of players who know each other in real life.

World PVP is starting to pop up, had an Alliance guild even attempt to blockade the Dark Portal attempting to deny Horde players from entering Outlands.

It’s very clear, players are coming back and leveling to 85. I’ve talked to players who purchased Cataclysm and left shortly after. They are coming back and finishing the job, leveling to 85. While I suspect many will finish leveling to 85 and let their subs expire, but it’s starting to sound like they are getting ready for the next World of Warcraft expansion: Mists of Pandaria.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Is Blizzard paying you by the word?
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23323284 Heather Kelsey
    
    You really want to make that assumption with no proof? I mean, really, say something with substance. Just because someone is positive and likes an idea, they’re in Blizz’s back pocket being paid? That’s crap.
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      So, that’s a “no”?
      - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
        
        No, just giving my personal experience. Instead of making things up like some posters do.
http://www.facebook.com/oneniisama Bear Powell

This is too late to have any real effect on WoW. The Mentor idea was pretty nice in Final Fantasy XI and I enjoyed being part of it back in 2004… Blizzard is just throwing everything at the wall now and hoping something sticks until Titan comes out.
http://twitter.com/ecrockettjr ed crockett

8 Years ago called, they want there good idea back.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23323284 Heather Kelsey

I like and I dislike this idea. I like it because it really has the potential to help out new players who may not be familiar with the mechanics of the game yet. It also has the potential to strengthen the community (something that many would argue has begun to weaken). If done correctly, it could be pretty cool.

But here’s the flipside: it’s really hard to find a good guild who would be appropriate for something like this. There are just so many guilds that are filled with asshats. I regularly heal for PuGs (Le sigh), and there appears to be about a 3:4 ratio of asshats to cool people. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope Blizz is real picky about which guilds get to mentor!

WoW as a whole has changed to where we do need something to help the newbies along; I agree with this x10. Most people just don’t have the patience or time to help.

I know there are a lot of nice people who play WoW, and I hope our new players / returning players get to meet them. ^_^
- MMO_Doubter
  
  People have the time. They don’t have the patience or generosity to help others learn to play well.
  
  Most guilds I have seen onyl help newbies with cheap gear from the vault and/or dungeon runthroughs. Neither of which help players become better players.
Trombu Tonkba Gumbeerbo

I can see where they’re going with this in trying to build a better community, but I just don’t think it’s wise to be putting the “Blizzard Stamp of Approval” on a guild. No matter how much they interview these applicant guilds for friendliness, game knowledge, etc… I think we’re going to have a few that slip by and new players end up experiencing the Onyxia Guy (Dives from Wipe Club) first hand — that timeless WoW raid leader archetype. I can’t imagine how big of a letdown this program is going to be for some new players when they go into their first or second raid and the GM screams at them “Splashface, what the FUCK — kill the FUCKING mana void you IDIOT!” at Yor’Sahj or something. Of course, it could be a big success for some servers; it’s really a giant double-edged sword.

The other problem: it doesn’t really do much to bring old players back to the game who are sick of the content. It might just keep new players, or players who haven’t reached max level yet subscribed for a bit longer. Maybe that’s the hidden tin-foil hat message here, maybe they’re really suffering from the subscription cancellations; who knows, I’ll leave that one up to Mike B
Krzysztof Kotarba

Imo I don’t think this is needed… Most low lv players are mostly alts… Find totally new player is hard, I leveled 10 chars and 99% of low lv already had 80 or 85 lv toon.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Totally new players are going to be turned off by the starter version limitations and quit from boredom and loneliness before they hit the level 20 cap.
  
  Blizzard would do better by making the vanilla version free and reducing the free player restrictions.
MMO_Doubter

It says something profound that guilds in an MMO need to be bribed to take on new players.

Most guilds I joined in my six years of playing ignored lowbies.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Quinn/504633100 Jason Quinn

Thing is the amount of new players who will even hear about this or seek it out is no doubt going to be small, not to mention the low amount of people just discovering WoW for the first time anyways.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Blizzard should make this program known to EVERYONE playing the starter version of the game – and allow players of the starter version to join guilds.
  
  How are people supposed to see what MMOs are like when they can’t communicate with other players? I know the limitations are to fight commercial spamming, but they do more harm than good for new players.
http://twitter.com/FishBaitism Fish Bait

What a surprise, the EU is left out as usual.
If they want to do things guild wise, surely removing losing your rep when changing guilds would not only help newblets, but long time players too..
- Rinaxas
  
  I need to correct that, Europe is being included. I snagged a blue from the European forums. I’ll get it sorted out and include the EU realms.
Justin O’Reilly

My girlfriend just got back into WoW and this would be very beneficial for her. Sure everyone has valid points as to why this idea isn’t very good. But I can see where they are going with this, specially with an expansion around the corner.

If it turns out not to be successful I’m sure they will stop. But I do think its a nice addition for those that happen to actually be new to the game, or are returning and don’t really remember a lot or aren’t use to the new changes. I hope it goes over well.
DoctorOverlord

Clever move on Blizzard’s part. One effective way to keep people paying subs is the social pressure if they become part of a guild, particularly a raiding guild. I’ve heard some WoW players complain they don’t really want to keep playing but they feel like they’ll let down the friends in their guild if they quit. Making it easier for new players to get pulled into that situation makes sense for Blizzard’s profits all while providing a helpful community service. Whatever you think of WoW you have to admit Blizzard knows how to do the business of games.
- http://www.facebook.com/FireravenHollowheart John Fireraven Barnett
  
  That’s true on a drastic level. I spent about two years with a raiding guild, did some raid leading for them and helped achieve a lot of goals while I was unemployed and looking for work. When I finally got a job and the hours prevented me from raiding and farming mats half of the month the guild leadership turned on me and hounded me every day insulting and nit picking me until I quit the game. It’s like a drug addict’s mind set in some ways. People are all friendly with you while you’re actively doing it, but the second you slow down because other parts of life need you to they all turn on you and treat you as if you’ve stabbed their mum in the face or something.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    That is uncalled for behavior. Situations change, there is no reason to hound a person that can no longer raid.
  - DoctorOverlord
    
    Yipes. That is bad. And that isn’t the only time I’ve heard about that kind of thing. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard of guild leaders who quit under much less unpleasant circumstances simply because of the ridiuclous ‘drama’ and drain of their time.
    
    And this is the kind of gameplay that people really want to see continue in MMOs? /shrug
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      Not me, but that is what you get when end game is all about gearing up your own character, rather than any mutual goals.

Blizzard unveils the Guild Mentoring Program

Patch 5.3 Release Date Confirmed

Patch 5.3: Purely Pandaria Profession Leveling!

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