Don't get excited. The N00B I'm referring to is me. It might seem strange that a veteran of one whole day of Vampires would be writing a guide, but sometimes only a N00B will know that seemingly obvious things might be a problem. I hope this is one of those times.

First, in case you are reading this somewhere other than the Whole Ed MySpaceBlog, Vampires is an old-school MMPORG from zynga games, playable on MySpace, Facebook, and possibly other social networking sites. It's very addictive. Stop playing and the other vamps will steal your blood -- but I'm getting ahead of the story.

Installing the app -- Nothing is installed on your computer, so don't worry about that. Apps are "installed" on your MySpace homepage, right there on the MySpace server. Simple. Painless. Safe. Follow the directions, should be pretty straightforward. The app uses Adobe Flash, so you may have to install or upgrade that. I think there may be some Java involved, too -- but I had no problem there, and I'm not sure.

Getting Help -- Of course you want to dive right into the game, that's why you installed it. There is actually a lot of help available beyond the FAQ. Click on the HELP tab, then (hiding in the navigation bar near the top) Forum. This is where you'll find answers to questions you didn't know you wanted to ask -- and you should do it right at the beginning. Pretty soon you'll be too busy to read the instructions.

Clans within the Vampires game aren't extended families or tribes like traditional Scottish clans. They are groups made up of one-on-one alliances. Alliances might have been a more descriptive word, in fact. If player 1 has clan members A, B, & C and player 2 has clan members X, Y, & Z and player 1 invites player 2 to join his clan all that happens (if player 2 accepts) is that players 1 and 2 are added to each others' clans. Other clan members (A, B, C, X, Y, Z) aren't affected.

So there's no reason to agonize over which clan would be the most advantageous to join. You're not joining a group -- you're building your own from scratch. Invite everybody. All they can do is pass on joining. Higher level players tend to understand that "there's no such thing as bad publicity," and you'll be amazed at the advanced items and advice you may receive from your new clan members.

New players frequently have problems with the mechanism for adding clan members. This is accomplished in part outside the game app through your MySpace (or FaceBook) page. Therefore, you have to have your MySpace e-mail and viewing permissions set up properly to allow new people to contact you. I'm no expert on this subject, but it's covered in more detail in the MySpace Clan Recruiting Guide.

If you prefer to use your MySpace page to share things with a small group of real-life friends, this may be a problem for you. I'm very new to Myspace, too so I'm not sure if they allow multiple accounts, but if people can't send you mail, they can't invite you into their clan. Be sure to post your details in the current Add Me thread.

There are a lot of useful (and not so useful) posts in the Community Created Guides thread. The Ones marked "Sticky" by the administrators always stay at the top. I found these three by Amalia especially useful. YMMV.