How do you respond to beggers?

[Guest]

Just curious. I know we as a guild pride ourselves on helping others, yet there are also reasonable limits and a question of appropriate behaviour. I want to know your feelings on this.

[Leopa Panthera]

Most of the time, I ignore them. That's when there's no one around me and I know they're sending me a tell because they're going through a list of people in the zone to beg from. If they're right in front of me and trying to charm me first ("hee hee, I like your outfit" etc) and IF I have some junk on me that I haven't sold to the vendors like FS weapons or whatever, I'll give them that since it saves me the trouble of selling it back. But I don't go out of my way to give them items, no. I never begged as a newbie for items or buffs -- people should know better than that.

It's hard to decide if you're talking to a kid or a scammer, but begging shouldn't be encouraged either way so my answer is usually either silence or "sorry."

[Lillishiana]

WELL.. I know what is behind this.. and i'd say in your case tell them that they HAVE ENOUGH and to F off.

[Larn Lobos]

My standard answer to someone who comes up and begs me for something is "Not a chance."

If someone does a general /ooc or /shout asking if anyone has anything to give them, I answer back in ooc and say "Yeah, advice...go out, kill things, loot, and EARN your bloody pp like the rest of us did!"

I'm more than willing to help people out as long as they aren't begging for it. I came across a 1st level druid who was playing for the very first time. I spent over two hours educating this newbie on certain aspects of the game, druids in general, etc, and even bought all the first level spells and did some minor twinking.

My experiences with beggars in the game is quite simple: Beggars are people who can't afford to eBay.

[Alermik]

I voted for the first choice, simply because I saved up a whole bunch of my silver pieces in LOIO (about 600 at the time, I think), and when I saw a level 2 Iksar sha(wo)man asking for whatever people could spare in /ooc, I sped over to Cabilis and offered her my 15 stones worth. To me, it was money I would've eventually destroyed simply because the trip to FV makes it not worth the conversion to pp, but I certainly know how much a few pp difference can make in the early game. Then again, I haven't really had to deal with any "true" beggars (I mean persistent, sending you /tells to the point of /ignoring them) yet, so we'll see if this changes as I move along. /shrug

[Hauen]

I'm pretty much with Larn on this one. Beggars I usually say, "Yes, I can give you something." /em gives %t the back of his hand...for others I'll bank bronze or other kinds of lowbie armor (fs or similar weapons too!) until I get a nearly full set, go anon, head to a newbie zone, and when I come across some young Paladin or Cleric actually working for their levels, give them their shiny new armor and/or weapon, a little advice, maybe something to sell or a couple plat so they can get spells, and be on my merry way.

[fieni]

yes,

I prefer to chose my victim by looking at them, and when seeing someone nice and playong well, dump what I have on it.

The worst I saw was beggar-twink... Nice armor and begging money... "But it's a friend who gave it to me..." Reply: Sell it if you need pp!

[Guest]

Lilli, what you are implying is not really what I meant, but it's interesting you should connect the two.

I was mostly interested because I notice that I tend to play my two characters very differently. My paladin, Celedon, who is in the Walkers, is far more likely to contribute to newbies, where as my Druid is more aloof and conservative about giving material things, but generous with buffs and other kinds of aid the paladin can't offer. I find the behavior tendency curious in myself, so I thought I'd bring a related topic up and see what other people's reasoning was in hopes of maybe understanding a bit more about why I might be adjusting my own actions based on the characters I was playing. I wasn't referring to any incidents in particular.

[Mildane]

Shoot i'll beg for buffs anytime =) Sending dumb tells asking people for their money or items though, you deserve to be ignored. Go kill something!

[Larn Lobos]

Ya know, it's kinda funny....

When I was in my early teens I'd buffs people who asked, and get OFFERED payment for it.

Low-to-mid twenties, I'd advertise I was SoWing for donations.

Now, I don't advertise because it's not worth the money to sit in EC tunnel for two hours to make 20pp. BUT, people still come up, ask for SoW's....but now they don't pay you when you do it anymore. ">

First thing I do these days is make them say please. And when I say please, I mean a real "please", not plz. God gave us vowels for a reason. ">

Then, if they haven't offered me any sort of recompense, I tell them I don't have the spell mem'd. Either they turn away or offer something then. Or they just say "Can't you mem it?"

I really hate the attitude peole seem to have about "It's only mana!". ">

[Mildane]

It is only mana.

[Guest]

Buffs don't bother me, since I am always looking for a breeze for my druid and a SoW for my paladin. When I am buffing a room full of people, I know the generosity will often come back to me.

What I don't like is when a warrior who is yellow or red to me expects me to spend all my mana healing them back from 25% health. I can understand it when he got in trouble while traveling, but some of these guys abuse that and want a second rate healer to soak up his downtime so he can solo. That's not right. Still, being a paladin, and I inclined to give this aid whenever I can, but when I am playing my druid I am a little less inclined to do so.

[Elnrik]

My honest opinion is that those persistant and rude beggars should be flayed, dipped in vinegar and hung out to dry. /shrug

[Guest]

Just out of further curosity, any of the guys with evil begger tricks brave enough to say what they are? Some of them are quite amusing I imagine.

[Larn Lobos]

Never actually done this, but I've always wanted to get the beggar to group with me "so I can buff you", then port his ass to Emerald Jungle.