Oh, and by the way... the first new player that opens PM with me stating " The Community Adviser at the gateway told me I could earn free money by sweating or picking up poo... where do I go to get rich?" will initiate my first support case against the community adviser program.
It seems to be a common misconception that guiding is at all similar to mentoring.
90% of the questions that I get on the gateway are related to the controls. How to run instead of walk. How to jump. How to change from first person to third. How to hotkey the gun.
The other ten percent are related to the missions on the gateway itself. Where is Dr Melinda Clark? Where is the veteran? I found one person who was stuck on the gateway for two days looking for the hunting official.
The typical conversation on the gateway consists of one question and one answer. Most often, it is very boring, and thankless as well. But it is rewarding in its own way if that is what you enjoy doing.
Will there be some shiny reward at the end of it? I don't know. It was never discussed. I don't really care either. If there is a certificate that says "I was a Community Adviser, 2010" it would be just as good to me as if there was a set of Shadow Armor. Because let me just put it really simple. If it was about the ped value of a reward, I'd just work a couple hours overtime on my job and deposit the money. It would be a lot less hassle. Just the hours I've spent in the gateway in the last two days would pay 10k ped if I did the same number of hours on my job. I'm sure that by the time the program is complete, I could have gotten a very nice land area for the amount of hours spent. It is sooo not about the reward at the end of the program (if any).
Some people have talked about gaining an unfair advantage by having second avatars on the gateway. I want to say that nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, it puts me at a disadvantage, due to the fact that I now have less hours available on the planet with my normal ava. And while I still consider myself a noob in the game, I have put in some time, money, and effort to develop my ava over the years. I feel that being a Community Adviser is more of a sacrifice than a reward. And that is putting it mildly. When I am logged in as Community Adviser Fishface, I don't have the benefit of all of the attributes, gear, and extensive FL that I've built up over the years. I am limited in what I am allowed to do. There isn't even a TT on the gateway. I'm not allowed to "play" the game with that ava. No sweating, skilling, or even trading is allowed.
Oh, and by the way, even though my main ava is involved with numerous groups/organizations on the planet, such as Atlas Haven Radio, Entropia Tour Agency, etc. I do NOT inform any of the new players of any of the groups or organizations. Even if someone were to ask me specifically. I would refrain. That is not my purpose for going there.
If someone wants to pick apart the Community Adviser Program, I'm sure it is very easy to come up with things that could be done better. I have my fair share of suggestions on how it could be improved, too. I'm also dissatisfied that the Mentor Program has not been reimplemented. I also think that loot sucks. And I want beacons back. But I'm just a player, same as everyone else, and I don't have any control over any of it. I can only do what I can do to help the game. I was given a chance to try to help on the gateway. I agreed. I don't know why I was chosen when another wasn't. I don't see it as saying that I am somehow more valuable. For all I know they looked at the number of hours I spend in the game (over 4k hours per year) and that was the deciding factor. It doesn't make me any better than any other player. Maybe I was just in the right place at the right time. I don't know. I don't care.
