Just joined Photics yesterday and got over my first post jitters.

I am squeeky-clean brand new at CORPG; bought Factions last Friday night, and I am still bleary-eyed (little sleep, and my WM is still only at Level 13...):o . This is all great fun, but as an older geek, I get tired easily, and just want to sit and talk/chat sometimes.

All my quests/missions so far have been solo with NPC Henchmen (I have crushes on Taya and Kisai, but they won't even look at me! ). However, I am an old retired GI, and would really like to do a cooperative mission with a live team, but I'm too chicken to just dive in and join up with just anybody at the Outposts/Towns/Monastery. (Too afraid of not being able to keep up with young geeks/geekettes with lightning-like reflexes.) I am old, slow and methodical (would I make a good Tank?), but live by the adage "Youthful Exuberance can always be overcome by Old Age and Treachery" .

I joined Photics (and hope to be accepted in TC) with the hope of finding some folks like me, who would like to go through a team-building training process, to enhance and enjoy cooperative missions. As I mentioned earlier, I am an old GI, and it seems to me that much if not all of squad tactics would apply directly to GW quests and missions. I would love to work with some folks to develop and test out a team training program that would enable TC to bring in newbies like myself, and introduce them to live team quests/missions in a low-pressure, friendly learning environment. (It sure would help me!)

What are y'alls thoughts?

Regards,
Auld Engineer

Welcome to the forum.

Your experience and attitude will serve you well in learning the game.

Regarding training, The Crusaders tends to be geared towards mature, highly experienced Guild Wars players. Having said that we do have a few new players as well as experienced players developing new characters in Cantha. We don't have a formalised traing program though as we tend to learn through asking questions, reading the forums and playing the game.

Please feel free to PM an officer in-game to discuss your interests in TC further.

Tiltowait,

many thanks for the welcome (Auld Engineer bows).

I will follow up with a PM to a TC Officer (once I figure out how to PM in-game ).

If any newer members of this Forum are reading this post, I would like to continue discussing the possibility of forming a newbie "dojo" under the auspices of TC, where cooperative team skills (communications, tactics and individual roles) could be learned (through Forum posts and in-game practice missions).

For example, as a start, two-person teams could go into Sunqua Vale and practice taking turns whacking Mantids (one whacking, the other healing and supporting) farming Gold and Faction (?) for the Guild at the same time. Do a few of these, get comfortable with each other, then swap partners with another two-person team and do it some more. Go back to the Guild Hall, knock back a few pints of Ale, and have a debrief on what each person learned, and what could be done better next time. Document the Lessons Learned as a Post on this Forum. Move on to bigger four-person teams, rinse and repeat. Move into the high snowpasses and hunt Yeti, go South to the Penninsula (?) and beat up on Red Skull Pirates, go East and squash Naga, y'all get the picture. The training program would have a posted schedule, so that everybody would know when to show up in-game, and where.

Against all my old GI instincts (Mama taught me to NEVER volunteer), I would volunteer to coordinate such a program. It would be a blast for me, and I think I would meet a lot of nice folks in the process.

Regards,
Auld Engineer

Not to sound offensive to you, but learning tactics, communication and how to better play the game can be learned by just playing the game, reading the manual (do ppl really do that?) and also just browsing Guild Wars forums for threads that are interesting you to. And if you need more help you can always make some freinds in game and ask them for help, or just ask you guild if you have one.

And about a training schedle if might be hard to find other new players who are willing to go thourgh all of what you said since they will most likely just want to keep playing the missions and be doing the story line. Although it does sound very well thought out and orginized.

It took me a couple months to finish prophecies on my first character, but then again I like to explore. Also factions you gain levels much quicker and its much shorter. I didnt really read any forums then, I just played the game. I dont think many people would go into a team building process in PvE ( Player vs Enviroment) because PuGs (Pick up groups) are pretty easy to find and for the most part, can complete missions/quests. However if you organized some PvP (Player vs Player) team building, I'm sure people would be more willing. But PvP is quite fast paced, not sure if thats something you'd like or not.

Well, best of luck! Whisper me in game if you need any help.

Tseng,

thanks for the reply. As I continue to read through all the posts, I can see that TC and it's allied Guilds are fairly strongly focused on goals which differ from mine. I am not so competition-driven as many other younger players seem to be.

At my age, I enjoy the beauty and mastery of the programming in GW, and I want to experience the community-enabling aspects that are also built-in. (Hail, Ah kin remember typin' LOOK on my Klienschmidt and waiting for the GE 625 at Valley Forge running Hunt The Wumpus to reply "ka-clunka-clunka-clunka", as the little font cylinder slowly danced across the paper, listing the contents of the room I was "in"). I did my time in the trenches in the real world, and now I want to relax after a fun quest or mission with virtual pint of ale, and watch a pretty Ele or Rt dance for me, and engage in some "witty repartee". Finding the repartee seems to be the hard part. As huge as the GW "universe " is, I can't believe there aren't some folks out there who feel the same way I do. Perhaps there are Guilds out there that have more social goals in mind. In the meantime, I hope y'all don't mind me staying here on this Forum and gleaning as much as I can. I do find I like to write a little fantasy in my dotage, so maybe I can help y'all out on Photics.com with some content (after I get more of the Storyline, characters and beastiary assimilated).

Regards,
Auld Engineer

Welcome to the game, Auld! And any fantasy you choose to write would be welcome; I'm sure you could post it here. Guild Wars fanfics are few, far between, and often poor. A shame, really, since there's really so much to work with. Heck, we never even got to see what was left of Orr in Prophesies, and the massive city-scape of Kaineng has a ton of possibilities....

Well there are some guilds who are very social, you can probably find them in the guild of the week section on the Gw offical site. Which is http://guildwars.com/

I think you will find TC a good community. We have clamped down the requirements several times over the last few months, and now is a pretty good time to join TC. Most of the faction farms have moved on, so you might find TC a lot of fun.

Enjoy the ride...

It almost sounds as though you may be into more RPing? If that is the case there are definatly RP guilds, however WoW may be more up your ally as there are entire servers dedicated to RP.