Guide?

Neziroth · Post by **Neziroth** » October 9, 2003, 7:18 pm

SoE is calling for guides and to my own surprise i'm strongly considering applying to be one. I was wondering what all your input would be?

I mean... it might be kinda fun, right?

Oh and wtf propel web accelerator interferes with posting new topics on VV wtf xou fix it!

Shaerra · Post by **Shaerra** » October 9, 2003, 7:27 pm

It's an annoyance. You volunteer to try to help folks get faster service in EQ, then the GM's act like they own your ass. If you don't put in 10 hours or whatever, they want a note from your doctor or something. Meanwhile you get a free EQ account. So you save the $13 or whatever?

Uber...now I won't have to sell crack.

a_guide · Post by **a_guide** » October 9, 2003, 7:39 pm

My computer died and I'm not a guide anymore

However my Dad used to be a guide and the man in my life is on the verge of quitting (both EQ and guiding). To clarify, you are expected to put in 6 hours a week and some servers are stricter on that than others.

I did enjoy the experience a lot back when we had server GM's (Saiphos kicked ass) and could run quests and get issues solved immediately. It had sort of become an exercise in frustration and redundancy lately.

Guides are all great people though and I made some good friends on Veeshan. Seeing them at Vegas and watching a completely sober Sr. Guide Kylorne dance on the table was the ultimate reward!

Waran · Post by **Waran** » October 9, 2003, 7:40 pm

If you have a lot of patience, a lot of free time, don't mind turning in reports of all your guide activities (i.e. activity logs and petition info), then by all means go for it.

I know they require you to guide a certain amount of hours a week, not sure of that number though.

I applied and was accepted way back when, but after a few nights of writing each and every petition I answered down on paper, then typing it up to send into the GM's, my free time was getting shorter and shorter and I was staying up way too late after I guided doing "paperwork". I have heard that there is a program now that allows you to write things up easier, but it's been a couple years since I was an Apprentice guide so I haven't seen it.

It was a lot of fun regardless though, even if I was only an Apprentice. The guides and GM's above you, at least on my Guide server (i.e. you can't guide on Veeshan if you play there) we're pretty easy going. A guide sponsors you initially and helps you through the process. Mine was excellent.

Anyway, if you have the time, it's worth it. Just be prepared to deal with "So and so is KS'ing me!", "So and so just ninja'd my loot!", etc. and be prepared to give up some play time on your character on Veeshan if you still play.

Llaffer · Post by **Llaffer** » October 9, 2003, 7:58 pm

A friend of mine is a guide.

He says that there is a program that they have that will parse logs for you to generate that report automatically, as long as you use proper tags when you place notes in the log file.

He seems to enjoy it. He's been a guide for over a year now.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » October 9, 2003, 8:09 pm

I applied and was accepted (Year or so ago) but I never showed up for training. I forgot what server it was but it's one I didnt want.

Abelard · Post by **Abelard** » October 9, 2003, 8:53 pm

Nez get LDON it's a lot of fun..our gimps can tear it up good too!

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » October 9, 2003, 9:58 pm

Before the log parser you had to write all petitions down on paper and manually enter them afterwards.

Ennia · Post by **Ennia** » October 10, 2003, 11:46 am

is there anyone they didn't accept?

Taly · Post by **Taly** » October 10, 2003, 12:37 pm

was a guide for a long while and the paperwork did suck. spent more time doing that then playing. iHad a blast though, just the paperwork sucked =(

Mort · Post by **Mort** » October 10, 2003, 1:04 pm

Shaerra wrote:It's an annoyance. You volunteer to try to help folks get faster service in EQ, then the GM's act like they own your ass. If you don't put in 10 hours or whatever, they want a note from your doctor or something. Meanwhile you get a free EQ account. So you save the $13 or whatever?

Uber...now I won't have to sell crack.

Whoa... Welcome back Shaerra!

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » October 10, 2003, 1:17 pm

i applied and got denied like 3 years ago.

i think i was overqualified since i had a howling stones key.

Gurugurumaki · Post by **Gurugurumaki** » October 10, 2003, 1:47 pm

Voronwë wrote:i applied and got denied like 3 years ago.

i think i was overqualified since i had a howling stones key.

Overqualified for being a ranger is more like it.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » October 10, 2003, 2:20 pm

I guided and senior guided for about a year to a year and a half.. it's fun for awhile, but after that it gets to be work. It takes up the time you'd be spending actually playing the game and it removes some of the mystery that the game holds for you.

Over the years (I'd quit and repplied w/different account a year later) it's gotten MUCH more restrictive than it used to be, and thus a lot less fun and more like work. You can thank the bad guides for that, and for the bad players that complained about the good guides that were trying to enhance the game for people.

If you're thinking of it to help people - don't bother. You're not allowed to.

If you're thinking of doing it because you no longer have fun playing the game and want to squeeze that last bit of interest from it - go for it.

And whatever you do, don't, under any circumstances, ever consider being a senior guide. That's the definition of "teh suck". Oh, and don't expect any fringe benefits other than the free monthly account, and if you're really lucky and SOE is feeling really generous, you might get your (self paid for) expansion pack a day before release.

It was fun however as a senior guide, turning entire raids into gnomes during corpse recoveries to try to entertain and lighten people's moods. Course, don't ever get caught..

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » October 10, 2003, 2:23 pm

Gurugurumaki wrote:
Voronwë wrote:i applied and got denied like 3 years ago.

i think i was overqualified since i had a howling stones key.
Overqualified for being a ranger is more like it.

yeah probably druids only

Neziroth · Post by **Neziroth** » October 10, 2003, 2:42 pm

If you're thinking of doing it because you no longer have fun playing the game and want to squeeze that last bit of interest from it - go for it.

lol you nailed it.

I kinda hit a dead end in EQ since my connection doesnt allow for large raids, so my raid life pretty much died after Velious.

I just thought being a guide would be something new to try, still pondering it, though submitting reports, automated or not, is a turn off. I always figured they gave you rules and set you free to help as you see fit while following rules. Oh well.

oh and Abe, you should log on more when I'm on I still wanna tear shit up with our n00bs!

Deward · Post by **Deward** » October 10, 2003, 3:17 pm

I was a guide for three months after the games inital release. It pretty much sucked. Back then we could still go anywhere we wanted regardless of level. Once they started requiring 10 hours a week and logs then it just wasn't worth it anymore.

It also sucked having to listen to complaints all the time and you not being able to do anything about it. I hated watching scammers get away with things and all I could was say that I'll report it.

It was fun doing to the events though. Once, three of us became orcs in permafrost and proceeded to terrorize the local noob populace. That was really early on when only a few people were higher than 25th level. I joined to participate in events like that and SOE ended up putting so many roadblocks in front of us that the guides stopped doing it. That killed the fun for me and I quit soon after.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » October 10, 2003, 5:27 pm

I guided for a year or so. It was fun until we lost our server GM that used to turn us into whatever we wanted and go on rampages like daily. After he left to go to another server we got some fucking jackass who worked on the server like 30 minutes a day and used internet shortcuts (i m looking at ur pet now but i dont c a prob) and I promptly quit after a week of that shithead.

The head of customer service at verant at the time thanked me for my 1 year and probably 1000+ hours of guiding by promptly suspending my whole account for 6 days until the guy that deleted guide characters came back from vacation, even though I deleted it myself.

emmer · Post by **emmer** » October 12, 2003, 6:19 am

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I can't for the life of me picture kyoukan as a guide. Nothing screams THERE IS A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE like the following sentence:

kyoukan wrote: hello this is guide kyoukan how can i help you dudes today?

Drustwyn · Post by **Drustwyn** » October 12, 2003, 11:35 am

I was a guide for a year and a half. It was fun at first.. then turned to shit. I do not recommend it.

It's sort of like a real job in a few regards: You get along with some people, you have issues with others. People scream at you, kiss your ass. The server GM turnover was horrible though.

The only real benefit that I got from it was that I learned how to petition more effectively to get shit done.

Vannoth · Post by **Vannoth** » October 12, 2003, 1:52 pm

I can speak fairly authoritatively on this one.

Basically it takes a certain kind of person to Guide or even be a GM.

You have to be able to withstand a lot of crap from players, because they're going to generally not be nice to you whether you like it or not, because you'll be an authority figure.

On the other hand you do get to help the player base, and the CS team, and you get to see the underbelly of EverQuest from a GM/Guide Point of view. Not to mention do quests and kill players.

Peekay!

Having a good server GM helps a lot, too.

Think of it as "community service" don't go into it expecting to have a lot of fun. Even though you will sometimes.

Also, most people don't think of this, but being a guide is a really good stepping stone towards becoming employed as a GM if you're interested in that sort of thing.

-V

Abelard · Post by **Abelard** » October 12, 2003, 1:58 pm

gm vannoths word is law!

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » October 12, 2003, 5:07 pm

emmer wrote:Please don't take this the wrong way, but I can't for the life of me picture kyoukan as a guide. Nothing screams THERE IS A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE like the following sentence:

kyoukan wrote: hello this is guide kyoukan how can i help you dudes today?

I was curious how Verant's CS worked. I actually didn't plan on staying in the program for more than a month or two but it was fun enough to stick around.

I actually did get talked up a few times by the GM for sassing players. Usually the ones that somehow have managed to rationalize that their 10 bux a month means that they get to demand to speak to a paid Verant GM instantly and whenever they had a problem.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » October 14, 2003, 9:22 am

becoming employed as a GM if you're interested in that sort of thing

Last I knew, they made $10 an hour to start (in CA where $10 an hour is less than the street corner bums make) and had to deal with king dick asshole Jeff Butler at the time. Now they just have to deal with his manic depressant wife Michelle. Unless things have changed seriously since Jeff left and SOE took over, you wouldn't want the job.

As for only guiding for a month or two.. it'll take you that long to get out of being an apprentice (ie: no special abilities) and get flagged as a full guide thus getting your seperate guide account.

And yeah, the GM turnover was horrible at best. And there's so very few good ones to work with.