Dock Steward, on 12 October 2014 - 02:44 PM, said:
The players in this community taking an active role in helping new players is working, though slowly and only for a few people. I'm trying to come up with ideas that will take the community's role in the matter further. It's fine if you don't have any ideas as to how to do this, or if you don't think the suggested ideas will work or are feasible, but let's be clear about something:
This is the opposite of the "easy way out."
This is a way in which a big chunk of the community is asked to do more than ever before. The harder way, as it were.
The new player experience, has been, pretty much exclusively, in the hands of the community, since just after closed beta.
PGI was even like "Hey guys, create videos for us, K THX!" and then took off to make more mechs, and pretty much never looked back.
If there was to be something put into the game that links to tutorial video's... How do you decide WHO's tutorial video's get linked? Who has better video's, who decides this?
It's yet another layer to the process that shouldn't even be there, and should be taken care of IN GAME WITH AN IN GAME SYSTEM FOR EXPLAINING THESE THINGS.
I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall with you in trying to explain this Dock. It's been this way, for 3 ******* years now. And the NPE is just as bad now, as it was then.
Part of what you're not understanding is how "new player" minds work.
A new player downloads the game, probably after seeing an Ad, or having a friend recommend the game. Now, you would THINK... that since they have to come to the website to download the client, and create an account, they would know about the forums.
But one thing you have to understand, from the position of a devloper, is that your players "ARE DUMB AS ROCKS."
Now I know that seems insulting, and yeah, it kinda is. but the point is, if you're making a game, and you are expecting new players to come in, you have to look at it this way, because that new player that just downloaded your game, and made an account, is not very likely to visit the forums. [which to many of us who have been playing, and who are active here, we take for granted that we come here. to us, it's the "no brainer" thing, Go to the forums, research a topic, ect ect. The "Average" player, WILL NOT DO THIS.]
With MWO, we don't exactly seperate these new players, from the old guard. This is both good, and bad. It's good, because old guard can then see a new player and take them under their wing. [should the new player be willing.] It's bad, because this places the new player in a hardcore live environment from day 1. [which hurts retention.]
So, the solution to the problem of retention is 2 part.
1)Mandatory tutorials that train the player in all the "how to's" of Mechwarrior Online.
2)"Cadet" Que, as long as a player has their cadet matches, and are using trial mechs, they are left in the Cadet Que to play against lower tiered opponents.
now, clearly, part 2 of that may be impossible, as we are not aware of how many new players are coming into the game in a given day. but Part 1 is entirely possible, and something that should have been a core part of the experience from Day1 of release.
"Leave it to the community." can go a long way, and in fact, it already has. But it's also proven to not be as good for retention as having the basic foundation of a solid tutorial system in place.
Because how many people do you think this game looses daily, who downloaded the game, hopped in, got their ass blown to bits, then walked away without even checking the "Community" ? I'd almost guarente those numbers are staggering.
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