Role of CAs in training?

[Calico Jack]

Just asking for a clarification - what is expected of CAs regarding taking part in training sessions?

[Keon]

Probably more than we are doing.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

"A Community Ambassador is an outstanding community member, a teacher, a helper, and an evangelist for Guns of Icarus Online. CAs are passionate about the game and eager to share that passion, welcoming members into the community and helping new players get started.

CAs are helpful guides when in-game, sharing their knowledge and helping other players on their way. CAs are the people other players look to when they have questions; if they don’t know the answer, they’ll get in touch with someone at Muse who can help. CAs also help maintain a safe and pleasant environment by modeling good manners and sportsmanship, as well as keeping an eye out and reporting any bugs or instances of behavior that’s out of line with our community standards.

CAs may be asked to help spread the word with promotional efforts and running special events, like tournaments and contests. CAs and other experienced players are also sometimes invited to help the developers with things like small-group balance testing or tracking down bugs.

Most importantly, CAs are community leaders and role models. CAs are frequent contributors and drive discussion on the forums, Steam group, and wherever GoIO fans congregate. They also act as ambassadors, reaching out to other communities and spreading the word about the game."

Taken from http://gunsoficarus.com/community-ambassadors/, about what a CA is and does.



On my behalf, I don't see many CAs teaching at least a few players, but I think that's ok as long as they are helpful in the lobby, forum or otherwise. CA title doesn't come with the duty to teach new players all the time. You should be helpful in any way though.

I can understand some CAs not taking part in any kind of teaching though, since it's generally chaos and only helps a few players of those being taught. There is no common basic guide to provide every new player in training with the same qualified knowledge nor is there a common basis of knowledge by all those new players attending.

They expect the teachers/CAs in those events to show them everything they need and I honstly don't think we're ready to provide them with that yet.

[Calico Jack]

I can understand some CAs not taking part in any kind of teaching though, since it's generally chaos and only helps a few players of those being taught. There is no common basic guide to provide every new player in training with the same qualified knowledge nor is there a common basis of knowledge by all those new players attending.

From an organisational view point I use the Form Crew function for starting a session as this pre-filters the players in the crews, "gogogoredyupffs"ers will quickly leave and it's easy to get everyone on the same page without the risk of anyone readying up before that occurs. Once in the game lobby however it just takes one joiner who is ill disposed to follow verbal/text requests to waste huge chunks of everyone's time, and this often causes people to leave - being able to do more than chat with those players would help a lot, but currently there is  no other way to deal with them in-game.

There is no common basic guide to provide every new player in training with the same qualified knowledge nor is there a common basis of knowledge by all those new players attending.

There are guides around, just no way to link them into the game, just as it's not possible to pre-annouce training sessions in a way that it will reach the eyes/ears of a player who doesn't read here or the Steam hub, you average first time player basically.

They expect the teachers/CAs in those events to show them everything they need and I honstly don't think we're ready to provide them with that yet.

If you take each individual session as the one and only chance to teach every player everything, I'd agree. Training sessions are like matches - you need to be fluid with your priorities.  1 trainer per lobby isn't the best of ways to do things, but if that's all you've got to go with it's better than nothing. 1 trainer per team is better than 1 trainer per lobby but best is 1 trainer per ship. There are however physical limits to the size of lobbies and clearly the availability of trainers, for this reason I try to run multiple weekly sessions.

Multiple weekly sessions however require the problem of burn out to be factored in - and in my time slot I rely on the good nature of veteran players a lot.

[Skrimskraw]

sadly most CA's do not resign when they go inactive, or when they don't want or have the time to fullfill their duties.

This also means that the stats of the ca program tells us that there are more than enough ca's on active duty. However this is a guess but i'd say maybe 25% at largest is active ca's not just in playing the game, but also helping. That number is far lower than active community members who are doing the job that they should be doing.

Now if 25% is the active part, then 75% is not and should resign or be removed, leaving room for 75% new and active players who wants to help.
The way a ca' is chosen is through these criterias:
active player:
helpfull:
part of the community:

a vote is then made and the players chosen by keyvias becomes ca's. Keyvias does not choose ca's through the most voted on format, but also checks backgrounds, and a good way for him to choose ca's is if they have signed up for the program twice, showing dedication.

the choosing system is pretty solid at this point, but if we can get more active ca's that would be awesome.

We tried for a long time to run the training sessions, and we have maybe gotten 6-10 permanent helpers through the time we have been doing it, now I am not pointing fingers, because I am not part of it anymore. But I dedicated a good amount of my vacation time to be a ca and a trainer. And I feel that in those 3 or so months I was able to do more than the 75% inactive ca's have been doing in maybe 6 months time? And I don't even feel like it was a problem giving 1-4 hours a week to this.

so In the end I think the ca' title is just for showoff, whereas 25% of the guys actually deserve to call themselves ca's wether it be from forum modding or ingame training.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

The problem is that you can't who will become a good CA one day - and if he/she will stay a good CA.

Having a few good CAs and many many mediocre CAs still helps more than only a few good CAs. Even if those inactive CAs made place for new ones - who says they won't be inactive?

[Calico Jack]

I did happen to catch an EU training session and was surprised at the number of yellow tagged trainers, I post follow ups to the training posts I make for each session with thankyous to the players who helped out in each session, the majority of whom are regular players.

I also remember an incident where I'd pm'd a CA to ask for help, who did infact then follow through, but didn't reply to my pm that he was definitely coming, so I'd already filled his slot. I can understand he was irked, but I'm more used to the lack of clear replies meaning the opposite, that the person in question isn't coming, and waiting really isn't an option.

For me I'm doing what I do because I see it as the only way to grow the playerbase, and I'm putting my game time where my mouth is. What I really don't understand, and this echoes some of Skrimshaw's sentiment, is that there are people who do things like joining the training group but never seem to have time to go to a training session - if you don't have time that's cool I can get that - but resign from the commitment you clearly intended to make but are no longer able to.

[ramjamslam]

If that was me Jack I am sorry (I can't remember ever being irked though, sounds uncomfortable).  Anywho, I try to help out when I can and also try to promote the training matches when I meet new players.

Perhaps I might try changing the common CA global chat message from  "Does anyone have any questions about the game?" to "Remember to join the 'GOIO Training' steam group to be notified of upcoming Training matches".

I have just come out of some Beginner lobbies promoting Training with no real reply (using both voice and global/match chat).  Maybe if I can get people to join the group so they get notifications, we might improve turnouts.

[Calico Jack]

If that was me Jack I am sorry (I can't remember ever being irked though, sounds uncomfortable).  Anywho, I try to help out when I can and also try to promote the training matches when I meet new players.

I have nothing but praise for you sir, and it wasn't you wearing the irked hat in that anecdote.

Perhaps I might try changing the common CA global chat message from  "Does anyone have any questions about the game?" to "Remember to join the 'GOIO Training' steam group to be notified of upcoming Training matches".

I have just come out of some Beginner lobbies promoting Training with no real reply (using both voice and global/match chat).  Maybe if I can get people to join the group so they get notifications, we might improve turnouts.

That sounds like a plan - I've been encouraging interested parties to join the group as well, lets see what comes of it.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

I usually only write global-match messages in matches with many new/unexperienced players about the Training group.
Since a few days, I write them whenever I ask for questions, problems, wishes, thoughts.