Goonhub
03-28-2019, 05:50 PM
I do not think that this is a good idea and, quite frankly, I think that adding such a system to goonstation would be taking the culture and community in the wrong direction in general.
This seems like a fairly intrusive way to add what is just an avenue to teach new players about the game. We already have other avenues for that which people do use. We have mentorhelp. People can just ask for help from coworkers in-game to teach them about a job and frequently do. I've waked at least a dozen people through the basics of genetics or medicine simply because we were both doctors and they either asked for help or they were struggling in silence. And there many many others who have taught jobs to new players as well. If you know a job and how to do it well, you don't need to see a "trainee" tag on a player to tell that they are new so you can help them; you can just offer advice or help at your leisure.
Having players walking around a normal round with "trainee" or "tutor" tags on them would change overall plot of rounds to being a sort of classroom instead of a game with murder, danger, and intrigue. That is not to say I don't like or appreciate when players decide to run lessons about mechanics in rounds, I do. But this would system would turn the very act of teaching new players into a core gameplay mechanic. The game involves a good deal of learning, it's true, but the game isn't about learning how to play the game with someone holding your hand the whole time until you're ready to actually play the game; it's about playing the game.
For "trainees" I think that it would paint a target on their backs or cause people to more easily discriminate against them. Some people might be more prone to ignore "trainee" players so as not to slow themselves down, or target them more for antag shenanigans, or leave them out of gimmicks. OMJ had a decent addition to this where these labels are only viewable by mentors/admins to prevent any discrimination, but that has a problem too in that mentors are already pretty amenable to helping new people no matter the context.
Regarding adding an "experienced" or "tutor" tag that can be seen by all, that sounds like a way of ooc mentorhelp encroaching on actual gameplay or RP. And it has the added con of enabling a culture of elitism; do you really need an explicit reward to display your skill for knowing how to do a job well from the game? Though if job rewards and experience were an actual thing, I wouldn't be at all opposed to having a similar sort of "experienced" tag for someone who gets some ridiculous amount of EXP in that job. Because that's more of a harmless joke/brag item, but you're not really bragging about skills, just about time played which is fine.
This seems like a fairly intrusive way to add what is just an avenue to teach new players about the game. We already have other avenues for that which people do use. We have mentorhelp. People can just ask for help from coworkers in-game to teach them about a job and frequently do. I've waked at least a dozen people through the basics of genetics or medicine simply because we were both doctors and they either asked for help or they were struggling in silence. And there many many others who have taught jobs to new players as well. If you know a job and how to do it well, you don't need to see a "trainee" tag on a player to tell that they are new so you can help them; you can just offer advice or help at your leisure.
Having players walking around a normal round with "trainee" or "tutor" tags on them would change overall plot of rounds to being a sort of classroom instead of a game with murder, danger, and intrigue. That is not to say I don't like or appreciate when players decide to run lessons about mechanics in rounds, I do. But this would system would turn the very act of teaching new players into a core gameplay mechanic. The game involves a good deal of learning, it's true, but the game isn't about learning how to play the game with someone holding your hand the whole time until you're ready to actually play the game; it's about playing the game.
For "trainees" I think that it would paint a target on their backs or cause people to more easily discriminate against them. Some people might be more prone to ignore "trainee" players so as not to slow themselves down, or target them more for antag shenanigans, or leave them out of gimmicks. OMJ had a decent addition to this where these labels are only viewable by mentors/admins to prevent any discrimination, but that has a problem too in that mentors are already pretty amenable to helping new people no matter the context.
Regarding adding an "experienced" or "tutor" tag that can be seen by all, that sounds like a way of ooc mentorhelp encroaching on actual gameplay or RP. And it has the added con of enabling a culture of elitism; do you really need an explicit reward to display your skill for knowing how to do a job well from the game? Though if job rewards and experience were an actual thing, I wouldn't be at all opposed to having a similar sort of "experienced" tag for someone who gets some ridiculous amount of EXP in that job. Because that's more of a harmless joke/brag item, but you're not really bragging about skills, just about time played which is fine.