I've been playing World of Tanks a little bit as of late. Why? Because I'm a huge weeaboo who loved
Girls und Panzer and had this nearly unscratchable itch to play around in a
PzKpfw IV. World of Tanks looked to scratch that itch, and I figured "well, why not, it's halfway up the tech tree, can't be too hard to unlock."
Oh man, was I wrong. But, if nothing else, I learned some lessons about what I like and don't like as a new player that hopefully PGI can apply to MWO.
Things start out simple enough. You get a handful of Tier I light tanks that start out their country's respective
tech trees. Germany gets the Leichttractor light tank, which leads then branches out into various light tanks, medium tanks, tank destroyers, and self-propelled guns. To move down the tree, you have to first get enough XP to research the parts to progress, then buy them. The first win of every day in each chassis gets you double experience, and I was lucky enough to have been given some starting currency at SXSW to kick things along. OK, let's roll out in the Leichttra-
Oh? What's this? An actual TUTORIAL? And I get rewards for doing it? Ok, why not?
*five minutes later*
Ok, simple enough. NOW let's roll out in the Leichttractor!
I got my *** handed to me. Again. And again. And again. I'm not bad at these sorts of games and I took to the concepts presented pretty quickly (being a BF3 tank ace has given me a real knack for armored combat). The difficulty came more from the fact that I was facing people with heavily upgraded tier I and tier II tanks. I'd shoot and reload, they'd shoot me three times in the span it took for me to get another shell in the chamber. They'd drive circles around me with upgraded engines and turrets, and hit more often than me because their crews were better trained. Nonetheless, I suffered through the first twenty or so games, scoring a few kills and wins as I learned the maps better and slowly upgraded my lowly tank. A few hours later and I had progressed down the tree to the PzKpfw 38(t) - only two steps to go until I could rock the PzKpfw IV! That's when the REAL game hit me like a sack of bricks.
Game after game, my PzKpfw 38(t) would be dropped against Churchills, StuG IIIs, PzKpfw IVs, M3 Lees, M4 Shermans, etc.,all of which were clearly labeled as one or two tiers above my tank's tech level. I'd frequently move along the borders of the map, trying to avoid contact simply because any shots I -did- hit with would frequently bounce off. The enemy, on the other hand, could fire one shot at my front armor and turn my light tank into a piñata. Game after game I'd lose to swift, blinding death from nowhere, then see in spectator mode that many of these much heavier tanks were frequently not only packing way more firepower than I was, but moving as fast if not faster and with better maneuverability to boot. After my tenth spontaneous explosion for the night at the hands of the PzKpfw IV I so desperately wanted, I realized I was making all of about 90XP per loss. The PzKpfw IV requires
15,000XP to research, and no amount of Gold in the world could buy me one before that. Oh, and I still had to research, buy, and upgrade the PzKpfw 38nA before THAT.
I said "**** this," Alt+F4'd, and jumped on MWO, where I proceeded to faceroll some unsuspecting team in my Ilya Muromets. Will I go back to WoT to get my PzKpfw IV? Probably. Will I put any money into the game? Probably not - I just don't enjoy it that much, mostly due to my experiences as a new player.
So, what's this got to do with MWO? Simply put, it's pretty clear that PGI wants 3rd person (amongst other things) in to help improve the new player experience. By looking at what made me ragequit WoT earlier tonight, we might be able to figure out what isn't working in MWO for the average new player, who usually is lacking a support base or pre-existing MC to play with as most of us had.
Now, don't get me wrong, MWO isn't NEARLY as brutal on new players who go "I want
that!" as WoT is, but there's still room for improvement. Here's what I noticed worked (and didn't) for me as new player in WoT, and how they could apply to MWO. It's a short list, I promise:
- An actual, scripted tutorial. While I understood most of WoT's mechanics because I'm not stupid and pick up on things pretty quickly, the tutorial still gave me a few pointers I otherwise would've missed, like using shift for first person zoom, and hiding from enemy LOS entirely by hiding in bushes (I had no idea you actually didn't RENDER when you were hidden. In comparison, MWO is a far, FAR more complex game, and frankly, YouTube videos are not going to cut it. When you have the incredible array of things you're asked to understand and manage in MWO (spotting, radar, heat management, commander view, ECM, lock-ons, weapon groupings, location-based damage...the list goes on), you HAVE to walk people through it. Learning that your torso and legs move independently of one another is of minimal concern in comparison. Otherwise, they'll end up overwhelmed and leave before they spend a single cent.
- Revise the ENTIRE Trial 'Mech system. I've since realize that the reason I'm so hopelessly outclassed at all times in WoT is because I'm not putting the time into each tank to upgrade it and make it viable because I'm busy tech rushing right to the tank I want. MWO doesn't have this issue since you just buy everything outright, but the Trial 'Mechs present a serious issue. They're very, very rarely competitive in the metagame at all - the Hunchback -4SP and Catapult -K2 having thus far been the sole exceptions. Chances are it would be far better to fully explain how the game and 'MechLab work, have the player play some in 'Mechs that are custom designed to help new players learn the system rather than designed for TT, then give them a free 'Mech of their own to continue tweaking and learning the ropes on - ideally a Hunchback of their choice, since it can easily fill almost any role sans "ECM *******." This way, they'll have an opportunity to learn different playstyles and have something that could actually be rebuilt to stay competitive, as well as start them on the right foot towards whatever ride they eventually decide they really want. Of course, if they like the game enough to want to buy a 'Mech outright with MC, that's fine too - perhaps give them a one-time "new player discount" on a stock (read: non-Hero) 'Mech option instead of the free Hunchback. However, to get them to stay long enough to spend money, they have to actually like the game first, which will be greatly helped by the aforementioned tutorial far more than something like 3PV.
- Don't throw them to the sharks right off the bat. While I haven't played it myself, I understand that League of Legends doesn't actually allow you to play ranked games until you've completed a certain number of games. MWO could benefit from this too, pooling new players under a certain game number together, perhaps along with low ELO players. The important part is to keep them from being tossed in against Cataphract jump snipers and PPC boating Stalkers right off the bat. Nothing kills fun faster than a sense of hopelessness. Frankly, if I hadn't been penned in with the rookies in Tier 1 of World of Tanks, I would've dumped it a long time ago. Nobody likes dying in a few hits to experienced players, especially in games where you're not only just learning the ropes, but it takes forever to actually kill someone in comparison to most modern games.
tl;dr read the whole thing, don't be lazy. MWO, while less grindy than some of it's competitors, is still far from new player friendly. Third person view is ultimately putting a band-aid on a bullet hole - the new player experience needs significant reworking if PGI ever hopes to attract more than the most dedicated players.
If you have similar experiences with other F2P games, I'd love to hear them and how MWO could learn from the successes and mistakes of others.
6
Karl Streiger, on 27 March 2013 - 02:59 AM, said:
