6.16.3 Applying to be a Guide.

Being a guide is a job in which you are paid for. It is not 'playing' Achaea. If you think it's going to be fun, you're either wrong, or you like helping newbies a lot more than most people do. Helping newbies can be very frustrating at times. As an adventurer, it might be ok to say, "Read such and such help scroll." but as a Guide, it is not. You will often wind up explaining the same things over and over to newbies. That is totally OK. You've got to do it cheerfully. If you don't think you can, then please don't be a Guide. 

Guide Duties
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1. Assist newbies.

Assist any newbie that asks for help. Always watch the newbie channel and, depending on the needs of the newbie, responding appropriately. You may answer on the NEWBIE channel, or you may go to the newbie personally, or you may answer privately via tells. Newbies might contact you directly too.

Give newbies as much assistance as possible, and if no newbie is currently asking for any, try asking some of the younger ones if they need to know anything or could use any help (of the sort you can give).

Try to help newbies to be as well informed as possible about _how_ to do things in Achaea. Do not give them step-by-step directions to quests, except for perhaps the ones in Minia/Lodi with regard to giving corpses to a certain denizen.

Your primary goal is to assist newbies to understand the breadth and depth of Achaea. Much of a newbie's life may revolve around hunting denizens. This doesn't show off our world particularly well. So it's up to you to try to broaden that exposure. Show them more. Inspire them with the possibilities. Give them another approach. If you can succeed in this, then they'll be more likely to stick around.

2. Maintain your knowledge and activity

Maintain and update your knowledge of Achaea. Know the help scrolls. Know which ones are best for which problems. It's always good to  mention what help scroll is relevant after you've answered a newbie's question. Do NOT just refer newbies to a help scroll in response to a question.

You must also be playing Achaea enough to maintain active eligibility for organisation credits/election voting. If you are not this active then you are not able to guide others to play Achaea, as you are not doing so yourself.


What is not your duty
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To be a messenger between mortals and the gods. Gently direct people to use the ISSUE ME command if they need help.

It is also not your duty to answer all questions just because a newbie asks them. Take note! Answer questions from newbies about newbie-related things. How does the elections system work? What are the proper commands to set up a library? 

How do I operate the Winery? These are all interesting questions for which you can give encouragement and general direction, and then stop.

The Rules
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1) You must completely separate your Guide from your other character(s). This means no OOC chatting _at all_ with adventurers while you are a Guide. Do not under any circumstance communicate with other adventurers/friends while you are a Guide - If you want to chat, go back to your mortal character. This also means no becoming a Guide just to escape combat, or to do anything that has any real affect on your character.
 
2) You must _always_ be polite and professional to adventurers while remaining in character. Even if an adventurer gets rude or abusive, you are absolutely, under no circumstances, to be rude or abusive back.
 
3) Minimum service time is 5 hours per week. Use ISSUE ME if circumstances may prevent this for short periods. If you don't do enough Guide work for two weeks, your Guide status will probably be revoked. We are looking for consistent work.

4) Everything you do will be logged. Yes, everything! You may be watched at any time as well, so if you go AFK or start getting bad-tempered, we will know about it.

5) Guides must guide from the Nexus client,

If you cannot abide by the rules here, or fear that you would get bored as a Guide, then please do not apply to become one. For most people, this isn't a fun job. If you're one of the people who enjoy helping newbies, then this is for you.


How To Apply
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To be eligible to become a guide your applying character must: Be over level 80 and have over 300 hours played in Achaea.

To apply, please ISSUE ME with the following information:
- Character name
- Real life name
- Real life age
- Times that you are usually online in GMT
- A short paragraph about why you think you would make a good guide.