You might think you are helping….

[GhostRiderGrey]

WP’s best asset has always been our players. For the vast majority, they are friendly and helpful towards the newer players on the shard. We appreciate that, and wish that spirit to continue… There is a point, however, when that spirit of helping is taken too far. There has been a trend as of late to give new players tons (sometimes millions) of gold, and equip them with very high end armor and weapons. While we know this is done with the best intentions, it is actually counter productive. You are removing game content from those players. They won’t experience the content later, because they have already been given the items available from that content. Dark Rose gear comes immediately to mind, among others. The staff has worked hard to create progressive challenges to keep players busy here for quite a while. When that process is short-circuited, those players no longer have a vested interest in working towards our challenges and staying with us in the Pines. We are not saying to stop helping new players, rather just to tone down the generosity. Give player made gear instead of the uber drops perhaps, reduce gold handed out, etc. As stated in the Philosophy Tab, we are not a gimmie-gimmie shard. We have challenges and long term goals, and these help to foster a connection between players and the shard.

While we are on the subject of uber gear, let us discuss the Thunder Wyrm Soul Crossbow. This bow was always intended to be an advanced weapon for vets. Lately, one and two week old players are being taken to the wyrm and acquiring the crossbow. At this point, they have one of the most powerful bows on the shard, and are uninterested in any other type of bow. All of the other bow content has been removed for them. In the interest of correcting this, as of today the new wyrm crossbows will have additional usage requirements that will have to be met before the bow can be equipped. Wyrm crossbows already on the shard will now bond to their owners, but are otherwise unchanged.

Gold has also been far too easy to farm up, so in the coming time we will be looking at additional ways to reduce the available gold on the shard.

You are welcome to make comments below.

- The Staff of WP

[Crawdad]

Something that I have seen done on other shards for this issue (and possibly worth considering) is to have the staff run an occasional auction. This would give players something worthwhile to save up their gold and tokens for.

Some of the items would be auctioned off for gold. Others for tokens.

Some of the types of things auctioned off were rare or unique decorator items, BOD of choice scroll, unique pets, rare armor/weps and even staff customized houses with +1 house deed.

Something that would be welcomed by me at such an auction would be +5 fletching clothing and/or ancient fletching hammers.

[Cream]

auction sounds fun, as does +fletching/tinkering/etc gear!

[Patty Lee]

There is an Auction house here on this shard, TFC built it but it has never been used as of yet

[Folgers]

auction:

i too have seen and tooken part in auctions. some even for cash donation like staff made estates and such to help bring in cash to help with server cost.

[Gashara]

I do appreciate this thread. There have been shards I've joined that were almost instantly ruined because the players gave me all the high end stuff. Most of the fun is getting the stuff.

[Brontu]

This is very true.

The first time I played this shard a couple years ago, someone gave me so much gear within the first week of the game. I think I had an amazing set of gear before I even hit 120 meditation! Within a couple weeks I was wondering what I should be doing... I had gear to easily handle any spawn, solo chuck and tame as many steeds as I wanted... I was a High Priest within a month of creating my account!

This time around I've decided to take an entirely different approach. I've been offered a LOT by someone (Sparkle, you're awesome!) and turned down most of it. I'm enjoying playing with a crappy LRC suit and farming up my own gear. Playing the slow grind this time should make my WP much more satisfying.

HOWEVER, the part I feel is still really helpful is people showing me the way. I'll freely admit that I forgot pretty much everything from the last time I played here. Sparkle and someone (here I go forgetting the name again) showed me a couple quests that will help with acquiring runic kits. That's HUGE because getting that first set of farming gear and weps from runics will be amazing!

Long story short, guide someone by showing them how to acquire some gear but don't just give it to them! A lot of the gear here is low droprate so they'll still earn the items without having it given to them.

[MOJO]

a player gave me a full spellbook and 2 runebooks hardly think that's OTT