ABM Topic O' Day Twinking?

[Ludes]

*orders triple cappucino, wet and a everything bagel with lox and cream cheese*

So.. This close friend of mine mentioned she was kinda bored lately and I happened to mention something that just might fill up some empty hours in her life. An online game some of you may have heard of..

So this person does the fourteen day thing and decides she likes it.

Since this person just happens to be on my shard.. (somebody mentioned it to her I think)

I helped her out with some gold.. a spot I knew of for a house.. etc..

OTHER PEOPLE... who I won't name but are the PvP side of my guild.. say this is called "twinking".

Really? there's a name for that? I just want her to get off to a good start and enjoy the game.. Why is this considered a bad thing?

 

[Petra Fyde]

There is nothing wrong with helping a new player learn their way in Sosaria - provided you don't help them so much you leave them nothing to achieve for themselves.

And I'll have a coffee with cream and sugar and a donut please.

 

[Siteswap]

Yes, twinking is the correct term. A "twink" is a low level character that has been boosted beyond their current abilities by being furnished with weapons, armour, gold etc that they couldnt have gotten themselves at their current level.

I think most of us have twinked our own characters havent we? I certainly have when ive started of a new one, ive grabbed gold weapons etc from my other characters on that shard.

I think its a fine balance and theres nothing particularly wrong with giving new players a little headstart if it helps them maintain their interest and gets them sucked into the game. If you go too far however it can have a negative effect when a player doesnt earn anything themselves and lose that sense of achievement.

 

[Lady Tia]

What's funny is that term has been around since at least 2000, as my best friend "twinked" me when she drug me to this horrible game. and I'm still here LOL

 

[MalagAste]

Well as I see it new players are at a heavy disadvantage in some instances but on the same token they also have it FAR easier than we ever did. Whether you began at the beginning with 100 gp in your purse or you began in the age of Trammel with 1000 gp in your purse.

Now new players have no tutorial to speak of .... the one at the beginning isn't all that great... but they have the advantage of quick skill gains. Though once they are done they have next to no gold and anything they might desire or need to help them will cost them more than they will ever be able to attain themselves.

Decent armor will be out of their reach, a good set of slayers out of their reach.

If you think of it... anything sold by players and not readily available in-game will be nearly impossible to acquire. Without something to kill monsters with they won't be going anywhere that has good gold for a long time. In a suit that has less than 40 resists with a newb weapon that does little damage they will be left killing small game so to speak. With expenses of things like bandages, reagents, and repairs... the likelyhood of a newb actually "making it" in the game without some assistance from a vet player is very slim. Frustration will set in very quickly.

Offering a new player a suit and a decent weapon even if not a slayer is the least you can do. I'll often give a new player a suit that will give them at least 60's resist and a weapon that will do some decent damage but still they have room to improve. Mages I will offer them a 100% lrc suit .... but the resists won't be great and it won't be super on MR or anything .... but enough to take the sting off of training.

You can help new players without handing them the world.

And by the way I want a OJ, banana bread or a muffin, and an eggs and bacon on a english muffin please.

 

[RueTor]

My two cents….

A) Twinking is a bad thing when game balance is impacted. Example…. When I played the original Diablo game (limited higher level players from playing or pvping with lower level players via game instances), a twinked player would obtain highest level gear and spells from another guild-mate or alternate character for their level, then proceed to dominate (i.e. pking) all the other lower level characters that entered their game instance. Then…. Bragged about it on the boards or in chat about how skilled they were.

*They get no breakfast*

B) Twinking in UO does not matter. Low level players play within the same realm as everyone else. MalagAste comments are valid.

*Orders French Toast with lots of butter*

C) Come to think about it… Since this is largely an item based game today, how “Twinked” are the character's gear in the PvP guilds across the shards? Most are closet "twinkers"

*Orders new suit and a few power scrolls*

 

[DevilsOwn]

The History of the ABM


and the poem


coffee, please, and a toasted corn muffin, the way Sol at the corner store made them


I've always thought the stuff they have in New Haven gives the new players a pretty good start... can do those escorts endlessly, all the skills represented

sure beats my first night in Sosaria.... logged in, had no idea what the world was all about, no clue where I was or what I was supposed to do, hollering to a buddy (also brand new) on AIM describing what each of us was seeing..... when we finally found each other, on one of the bridges in the maze of Vesper, had no idea how to talk...... my phone rings and a voice hollers "what the **** are we doing on this bridge?!?!!"

 

[Larisa]

*Laughs* Devils...sounds like my first time in Sosaria..at least you had a friend to be totally lost with you.

*Orders her coffee, light cream and sugar*

I think the New Haven New Players experiance is amazing. I recently started a 14 day free trial. The only thing I think should happen, that didn't and I was quite surprised, is that I had the option to start at any city...REAL new players should ONLY have the option to start in New Haven. When I started, I don't remember what town I chose, but lost is NOT the word for what I was. I died so many times, had no clue what a moongate was, no clue how to get around...it was a mess. Thankfully I ran into a very helpful person who helped me. Frank N Furter...if anyone remembers that name...from Napa, that's where I started. The first time he cast a moongate I stood there in awe lol. WOW THAT WAS SOOOO COOL!

Starting new players in New Haven gives them most of the tools they need to get started. Being a returning player, I knew what to kill and where to go to get the most gold, got myself a nice almost all 70's resist mana regen all that good stuff suit for 50k gold off some wonderful luna vendor in just under 5 days, but for a true *New* player, all they really need is New Haven. The quests are very straight forward..you want to train magery? Go East, cast fireballs at bad guys until you hit 50, come back to me and I'll give you cool armor that you wont' lose when you die.

The only thing that I ever had issues with when I first started was getting around. Even now I forgot that they had moved the moongate in New Haven and I ran to where it USED to be and immediatly got owned by 20 brigands, which made me laugh and remember OH YEAH THEY MOVED IT! Derp moment but funny as it brought back the memories of when Haven got utterly destroyed and the shock and amazement when it started re-appearing in bits and pieces.

So..as far as Twinks go....if you give a new player full rares and uber weapons yeah...that's a bit too far...but helping them out with semi-decent gear and enough gold to get them started...I wouldnt' consider that *Twinking*

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

*Pulls fresh flagon of Kona*
*sniffs and sipsss*
Ah!
*blinks*
*winks AT Larisa ... *Grins* *


Twinking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is not a UO specific term.
and the "Fairness" of its use has long been debated, adapted and modified.

Personally, I never held that an accounts character set was "technically" twinking any other character of that account, by providing resources from the >accounts pool of resources< ... that was typically referred to as "muleing" (my mule supplies my main with bandies etc. ... )
And through extension, my mule provides gear for my Alt templates.

Its when interacting with OTHER accounts that "twinking" reveals its imprecision as a "term/word"
IF one of my alts, is a Femchar, and is used primarily for gathering "resources" for the mule to convert(embuing/enhancing) for another alt ...
depending on the others "targeted" (vet/noob) the "proper term/word" for >her< ...
ranges from RPing(high order "play") to plain old scamming(low order "play") ...

Now ...

IF >you think< you are "twinking" my FemChar ... are ya?
Heh!

Factions provide "some" protections, in that >an accounts< character set can't(normally) join an opposing faction (alt posing)
That Guilds do not (same account can create an alt ... and "join" same/opposing Guild and "be Twinked" )
Some cases refer to both activities (faction/guild joining) as RPing "Spying"(high order "play") to plain old scamming"cheating"(low order "play")

Which fairly makes my point about
Its when interacting with OTHER accounts that "twinking" reveals its imprecision as a "term/word"

class is thus ended.

*Pulls fresh flagon of Kona*
*sniffs and sipsss*
Ah!
*blinks*
*Drops a small piece of blackrock ... *Grins* *

 

[Elric_Soban]

There is nothing wrong with helping a new player learn their way in Sosaria - provided you don't help them so much you leave them nothing to achieve for themselves.

Thats they key right there, and i think alot of people who try and "help" new players do exactly that. Set them up with a house, a maxed out imbued suit, arties, powerscrolls, blues, pinks, etc. And the newbie is left sitting there thinking 'ok, now what do i do' ?

I dont have a problem with giving new players advice and a small helping hand, but in my opinion 99.999999999% of people go WAY overboard.

 

[Raptor85]

Not to mention when you fully outfit a new player, they tend to skip the basics (this happens in every game) since they don't start from the bottom and generally get "trained" to do only a specific thing those that are helping them do. The worst is when someone supplies a brand new player with a golem and a poison wep, sure it's easier, but when they're a new player (and not just a returning one) it takes away a good portion of the "learning to fight" you generally do on lower level creatures, and generally only learn to specialize one one specific thing (which is bad for two reasons, because when that player then goes to try to do something on their own, they don't know how and need to constantly ask about everything, and it generally makes the game very boring, starting with everything given to you)

 

[Larisa]

Fayled you devil!

*eyes start to glow and hone in on said 'conveniently' dropped peice of blackrock...smoke envelopes her shrouded form as she casts a firtive glance at her arch nemesis*

Agreed with Fayled that such gathering of resources on a *mule* could justify twinking in some cases....as such I don't believe so but to each his own.

My friend the blacksmith back on napa *made* me fill bods for him when I was training smithy....I was an unwilling slave at first..until I realized he was teaching me the much needed skill AND patience required to be a crafter, then I bugged him every day...*Got more bods for me to fill?*

Not handing me a poison weapon and golem...but helping me to train my skill in a way that was in style with the game...master and apprentice style...very cool.

*Eyes glow smoky ember, winking slightly at Fayled as her gnarled hands reach for the blackrock...my precioussss....*

 

[Tinsil]

There's nothing wrong with giving a new player a basic suit for their type of character and 100k gold, and explaining insurance.

It's probably better to not do more than that immediately though.

Basic being for a warrior, ancient samurai helm, leggings of embers, heart of lion, and a soul seeker/pixie swatter, etc.

Basic for mage being 60s-70s 100 LRC.

 

[Ludes]

I do agree that going too far with it would ruin part of the game for someone. I always try to be careful not to cross that line. I do want people to learn how to play the game.

And she loves the game.. one more subscription.