17 replies to this topic

[Homeless Bill]

Edit: Added a Community-Run Websites section because the Community page is sad and out-of-date.

As always, each section has a summary at the bottom to speed things up if you don't care about the finer points.

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beyond the Basics

With Steam release imminent, there is one final hurdle in terms of accessibility that will inevitably hurt retention and reviews, and that is the lack of easy access to information and advanced resources. Though the improved trial ‘mechs and surprisingly solid tutorial have vastly improved the new player experience, it does little beyond move players past the basics. And let’s be honest: the website is painfully out-of-date.

This game is immensely complex compared to most other shooters, and things like Kanajashi’s tutorial series, a list of MWO streamers, and links to resources like the hitboxes thread can fill in gaps where the website doesn’t and tutorials can’t.

I’ve seen too many players complain about wasting their cadet bonus on a ‘mech that wasn’t for them or struggle to succeed because their build was terrible. Don’t leave these people on their own in the Mechlab - it’s the other half of the game. The official forums are great and all, but PGI should be preemptively directing players to all the great resources floating around.

TL;DR: The website is way out-of-date and none of the great community resources are easily accessible.

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know there’s only a week, but here are my recommendations - most of which could be done extremely quickly:

Community Resources Page

There should be a page of links organized into categories. It would include the following:

Tutorials

• Kanajashi’s Video Tutorials - They’re informed, organized, well-produced, and he’s got a good voice for it.
  
• Kin3ticX’s Comprehensive Guide - Another phenomenal resource that’s incredibly detailed.

Mech Building

• The Mechlabs - Smurfy’s Mechlab, Li Song’s Mechlab, and aweMech.
  
• Snafet’s Quirk List - A great way to view all quirk information.
  
• Metamechs and Mechspecs - Metamechs in particular is a great place for players to start getting ideas for a range of builds that play to 'mechs' strengths.

Community Warfare

• The Big List of Community Warfare Apps - Lots of really cool stuff for people that care (and PGI should want people to care since they’ve pumped this much effort into it).
  
• Community Warfare Map - Pick your favorite map from the app list above and give players an easy way to see it when they’re outside the game. PGI is never going to make one, so why not link something that just works?

Units, Leagues, and Streamers

• Recruitment Forum - I know they can find it through the forums, but this is very much a team game. Push people towards units; it benefits everyone.
  
• Voice Comms Directory - Much like Outreach’s, it’s absolutely essential that players have quick access to *the* way to play this game and participate with a unit. Or, if PGI doesn’t want to make a list, just link to ours.
  
• League List - Links to MRBC, RHoD, etc.
  
• Highlighted Streamers List - Reward players that frequently stream MWO by featuring a link to their stream. Ideally it would be broken into categories or have the focus listed (casual or hardcore).

Community-Run Websites

• No Guts No Galaxy - Obviously.
  
• /r/OutreachHPG - No conflict of interest here. Seriously though, if PGI doesn't direct redditors there, they'll find /r/mwo where many users are practically climaxing at the thought of leaving ****** reviews.
  
• Rak's Armory - A great hodgepodge of 'mech reviews, guides, videos, and editorials on a regular basis makes this website a diverse resource of high quality.
  
• Church of Skill - A competitive-focused resource with news, match analysis, editorial content, and a new player training program that takes place on Sunday.

TL;DR: Make a webpage with all this stuff on it.

Home Page / In-Game Visibility

While that page would a powerful resource, it doesn’t really matter if it’s buried somewhere. Something on the home page should link to it (ideally prominently), and an in-game mention in the tutorial or a one-time dialog box would be the best ever.

Tragically, I don’t expect this to happen, but this - like letting the community fix trial ‘mechs - is a total no-brainer in my mind. I have never understood and continue to be baffled by PGI’s resistance to utilizing this community. Making your players feel valued while outsourcing the kind of work that the community is better at anyways is a win-win.

Leaving a player to get frustrated by confusing concepts, waste C-Bills, or struggle because of the positioning and team aspects when they were starting to enjoy the game mechanically is a total waste. Just like PGI pushes people to the in-game tutorial, they should be funneled to advanced tutorials, streams, and ‘mech-building stuff.

TL;DR: Link the hell out of that new webpage by featuring it prominently on the front page and even in-game.

Kanajashi’s Video Tutorials and Metamechs

Aside from just linking Kanajashi’s tutorials, I would take it a step further. I think PGI ought to have him expand his series, pump out more videos on more subjects, and make them the official videos in the Training Grounds. Even if they dont want to pay him to make more, PGI should at least use what he has now to replace the current Training Grounds videos - many of which are so hopelessly outdated (UI 1.0!). Advanced concepts are better articulated and more easily digested in video form, and Kanajashi has always produced rock-solid tutorials.

Similarly, I’d like to see PGI prominently display Metamechs on the main page or as links on in-game tooltips since builds are such an essential part of the game. Gman does a thorough job of analyzing every ‘mech, updating the tier lists regularly, and forging a wide variety of builds. Funneling players there will give them a great starting point to work from on any build.

Again, my gut feeling is that there’s no way PGI will do this, and I have no idea why.

TL;DR: Partner up with / prominently display Kanajashi's tutorials and Metamechs.

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just Link Stuff

I’m really not asking for much here. The website is woefully inadequate on the information front, the community is prepared to fill in every single gap, and we’ve literally been asking for some light resource aggregation for years. It’s apparent that PGI has neither the time nor the inclination to maintain the website with up-to-date information, and there’s frankly no need if they’d just outsource it; why must we fight so hard to help other players?

Please PGI: Do yourselves a favor, take eight hours of someone's time, make a webpage with the information I listed above, link it in a few places, swap out Youtube videos on the Training Grounds, and think about future in-game visibility and community partnerships. I know you guys love NGNG, but don't leave everyone else out in the cold.

TL;DR: Just link stuff.

Edited by Homeless Bill, 03 December 2015 - 01:37 PM.

[old man odin]

+1, great post man. There's nothing I disagree with there. Get it done PGI.

Edited by Odins Steed, 03 December 2015 - 05:06 AM.

[Nightshade24]

Yes, improving the website would help greatly as well as put information such as this.

Atm people only ever use the site just to look at their events/ stats/ forum/ new events or news and that's it.... well, also redeam MC, support, but besides that there is not much else to work with and most of the other features are out of date, redundant, or both... or have weird characters in random areas like random AE:oT letters randomly in old pages for say "battlemech 20" or what ever.

[Daelen Rottiger]

Completely agreed!

Hope they have the resources ready for those ideas

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Interestingly Steam doesn't appear to list Mechwarrior Online as an upcoming game.

[jay35]

Good post, Bill.

One reason they may not prominently link to Metamechs is GMan isn't always "family-friendly" with his language and sometimes strongly opinionated about paid content.

But his Tier lists speak for themselves and those should be linked.

Also, Rak's Armory is a good resource. http://raksarmory.blogspot.com/

[old man odin]

jay35, on 03 December 2015 - 06:04 AM, said:

Good post, Bill.

One reason they may not prominently link to Metamechs is GMan isn't always "family-friendly" with his language and sometimes strongly opinionated about paid content.

But his Tier lists speak for themselves and those should be linked.

Also, Rak's Armory is a good resource. http://raksarmory.blogspot.com/

'Family friendly' is a piss poor excuse for ignoring helpful content. Especially when a simple advisory warning would stop the likes of [some groups not appreciating it]

Edited by Marvyn Dodgers, 03 December 2015 - 04:00 PM.
Unconstructive/name and shame

[Felbombling]

Thanks Bill. Another in a long line of excellent posts on your part. +1

[Sarlic]

Alot of people have been asking for this. Such as the outdated website. I for once dont bother asking it. Perhaps they will listen to you, no idea.

Personally i wouldnt take Metamechs with it. But that's my opinion.

I would rather see some more good guides (for example i made one about the Atlas) and let them fiddle with builds and then look further to optimise it. Build, ask questions later.

Which i dont want to offend or attack the author by any means but i personally dont think that's the right flavour to go. He's going good, but i would reserve it for more experienced users.

However Smurfy and Snafu's are excellent and have been from the start.

Not to mention the NPE should be expanded. Which is very basic part of the game right now and and insufficient to handle new player to a first time experience.

Edited by Sarlic, 03 December 2015 - 07:19 AM.

[old man odin]

Sarlic, on 03 December 2015 - 06:56 AM, said:

I would rather see some more good guides (for example i made one about the Atlas)

You said good guides m8.

On a more serious note, who the hell uses their own body of work as the standard for quality material? Man that requires some ego.

Edited by Odins Steed, 03 December 2015 - 07:48 AM.

[Scout Derek]

Odins Steed, on 03 December 2015 - 07:47 AM, said:

You said good guides m8.

On a more serious note, who the hell uses their own body of work as the standard for quality material? Man that requires some ego.

they're actually really good, and Sarlic is considered one of the topmost Atlas pilots out there.

[Cion]

EPIC post Bill!!

Quick! someone Tweet this to Russ. I would much rather Russ spend time reading a post like this than wasting time with QQ Clanners complaining about nerfs (what he's doing now on Twitter).

[Sarlic]

Odins Steed, on 03 December 2015 - 07:47 AM, said:

You said good guides m8.

On a more serious note, who the hell uses their own body of work as the standard for quality material? Man that requires some ego.

I never said that i put a quality medal on anything. You seem to miss the point and only want to drop a line to bash. Mind you?

Well hard to explain, Metamechs have good stuff on board but to me it feels a little bit forced and all. Which does not have much room to play around.

It's like browse website X, put loadout X on your mech and then 'learn the game'.

Which isnt learning at all because you basically skip crucial experience to introduce yourself to the game. Everyone have had in their first matches bad loadouts. Sure, we have several subs under Guides people asking what loadout fits best for what mech -usually- AFTER they have tried something on their own.

See where i am going?

Not saying its a bad website which is certainly not, but i feel you shouldnt expose it for absolutely new players. The only thing i like and happen to agree on is what mech is best for what role. What mech is usually picked and what mechs are not very good.

Because if anything i have seen in the 'higher' tiers which i dont like to speak about is that it's flawed just by running people loadouts copy pasted from X.

Edit: I don't want to derail the thread any longer. Thanks for your discussion though. I prefer to go on-topic.

Edited by Sarlic, 03 December 2015 - 09:01 AM.

[Kalam Mehkar]

Can't like this topic enough. This is work that needs to be done to help new players coming into the game and to engage all players, new and experienced alike. Make some form of this happen ASAP.

Also, longer term, host an official wiki à la GW2 as suggested by Kanajashi over on the reddit thread, and let the community contribute and manage the content (sorry K, just wanted this suggestion to be seen over here as well )

[Homeless Bill]

Daelen Rottiger, on 03 December 2015 - 05:11 AM, said:

Hope they have the resources ready for those ideas

The whole idea of this post is something painfully simple they can do to accomplish a lot. Making a new, basic webpage with a list of links should not take long. It took me two hours to compile, write, and proofread this article, which is longer than the webpage in question needs to be. Eight hours of a web guy's time could massively improve accessibility.

jay35, on 03 December 2015 - 06:04 AM, said:

One reason they may not prominently link to Metamechs is GMan isn't always "family-friendly" with his language and sometimes strongly opinionated about paid content.

Also, Rak's Armory is a good resource. http://raksarmory.blogspot.com/

It's true, but it's spineless. I feel like the reason they won't use any community resources or do what I'm suggesting here is that they're ultra-paranoid because of all the rage they've seen. They think every user is a potential bittervet, and they keep everyone at an arm's length as a result. I could be totally wrong, but I can't think of another explanation.

I really dig Rak's armory, and no disrespect meant. I view his site as great but hard to pin down - it has videos, guides, reviews, editorials, and a mishmash of content. I think sites like his and http://www.churchofskill.com/, are great and they should be linked on the Community page (preferably a re-done and categorized Community page). I wouldn't fight against them on the resources page, but as I argue in my reply to Sarlic below, I'm all about concise and high-impact. Rak's Armory is great, but it doesn't comprehensively serve a single purpose.

Sarlic, on 03 December 2015 - 06:56 AM, said:

Personally i wouldnt take Metamechs with it. But that's my opinion.

I would rather see some more good guides (for example i made one about the Atlas) and let them fiddle with builds and then look further to optimise it. Build, ask questions later.

As for Metamechs, I think it's an invaluable resources because people don't know where to start with builds. Looking at several of his builds gives players some ideas about armor distribution, weapon placement, quirk/chassis synergy, and slot/tonnage management. Having a solid build as a starting point and tweaking it into your own is far easier for new players than building something successful from the ground up.

In terms of guides, I know there are a lot of great guides out there, but I don't want to overwhelm people with an information / choice overload. If they show up on this page and see hundreds of links, it might as well not be there. I wouldn't be against having a comprehensive guide listing page, but I wouldn't want to see more than two or three guides listed right out. And in my opinion, Kanajashi and Kin3ticX have nailed it.

Cion, on 03 December 2015 - 08:34 AM, said:

Quick! someone Tweet this to Russ. I would much rather Russ spend time reading a post like this than wasting time with QQ Clanners complaining about nerfs (what he's doing now on Twitter).

I did, but I can always use a retweet: https://twitter.com/...519561237815296

[Deathlike]

Bill, when you get the chance... could you at least fix the Kurita TS info on the coms directory in Outreach?

HouseKurita.tserverhq.com is the current one.

I always feel like that this game's potential is considered Lostech. That in itself is a problem. You would think easy community info or access would be a primary objective, but.. we can't seem to have nice things.

[Kin3ticX]

jay35, on 03 December 2015 - 06:04 AM, said:

Good post, Bill.

One reason they may not prominently link to Metamechs is GMan isn't always "family-friendly" with his language and sometimes strongly opinionated about paid content.

But his Tier lists speak for themselves and those should be linked.

Also, Rak's Armory is a good resource. http://raksarmory.blogspot.com/

Exactly on spot

Its impossible to write a good guide without having left an imprint of the writers anecdotal experience and opinions. Community guides, even the best ones, may or may not reflect the internal views of PGI. For example, in my stuff I seldom mention and never link to any 'mechs that are premium content. Its a good policy because I shouldn't write about something I don't have.

Edited by Kin3ticX, 03 December 2015 - 05:05 PM.

[SCHLIMMER BESTIMMER XXX]

IMO people dont need metamechs in the front end.Why is everybody so obsessed for blueprinted mechs? Experimenting with loadouts on your own is huge fun and worth the time.Copy pasting by all the availible possivilitys is kinda lame, but maybie i am just different.....

The training videos on the other hand really need to be updated
to cover the important aspects of the game:

-weapon systems and their charakteristics
-Heat
-Introduction how UAV/NARC/TAG works
-introduction of ECM modes
-Mechlab basics (creation of a simple mech loadout that covers all 3 aspects (Loadout/Upgrades/Modules) in short

The truth is a newbie dont reads through multiple text walls or googles tutorial videos from "just users"
when he is not even sure if he gives the game a try or not.
PGI needs to implement tutorials into the front end that are clearly a linked to PGI.
Cause the game itself shoud explain important things with some kind of data base easily accessable for everyone at anytime.
I am sure enough people skipping "playable tutorials" or get them finished asap, cause its kinda annoying
when you just want to test the game and see if its worth putting any effort into it.
I personally woudnt start work myself through a **** ton of text walls and hours of you tube clips for a game i maybie
enjoy in the end.Its much easier to say "screw it at all" for me in such cases cause i dont have a connection to such a game
or know its value.

Edited by shr84, 05 December 2015 - 10:05 AM.