RE: Cherek and Problems

[Cherek]

I dont understand why it has to be covered by a RP reason?
The turkeysaurus all players teamed up against. evils, goodies, friends and foes. No questions were asked, just plain fun and a lot of players that wanted to bring it down.

It doesn't HAVE TO, but I personally like when there is some type of story behind things. Imbues for example, they could have been just added to the game, but instead Gorboth created a cool backstory to go with it. I like that.

[Cherek]

I agree when things are permanently implemented.

Something's underway. No promises on when and where of course. That would just come back and haunt me.

[Ody]

A lot of things in game work. There are some rough edges if you really really look for them, but mostly the games fine. I think the main problem to focus on would be expanding the amount of players. At the same time a lot of focus should be on getting old players back active and into the mix.

[Cherek]

A lot of things in game work. There are some rough edges if you really really look for them, but mostly the games fine. I think the main problem to focus on would be expanding the amount of players. At the same time a lot of focus should be on getting old players back active and into the mix.

Nice to hear from a fairly new player. I agree that more players should be our number one priority. And thanks the the web client and Chrome Store success we have a serious shot at that.

Of course everything can always be improved, but a lot of things would also improve on its own with more players, more interaction, and more filled up guilds. Of course, in order to get players we need to provide a fun game to begin with, especially a fun experience for new players. This is a very important area I think we can improve a lot in. We're currently working on improving the tutorial, but we also need to provide more stuff for beginner-adventurer level players in the "real" world as well I think.

What was you experience when getting out of the tutorial Ody? Did you find things to kill, quests, ways to grow, etc?

[Ody]

The first time I was totally uninterested in the tutorial. It wasn't actual game play that put me off it was the story. Please do not get me wrong the story's good and interactive especially with the twist choice you make at the end (help of kill the vampire). It just wasn't interesting I wasn't there more then an hour when I hopped into the portal and left. I later went back and played with alts and found it was a lot better, but that was only because by then I knew what I was doing and how the game was played.

The tutorial probably drives away more players then it creates. A way to improve on this could be multiple tutorials based on different themes. Or making the story longer/more interesting. The very beginning of the tutorial was the hardest. It wasn't obvious that there was a mini tutorial that explained the commands and santax. I never knew this even existed until my third tutorial play through when i was looking for the signs. The tutorial should be more then just a place to learn it should also be a (forgive the term) trap. It should grab the new player with a story right away. You should feel a little sad to leave the tutorial rather then feeling relieved it's over.

I'm not trying to offend whoever came up for the story and designed the tutorial. It's good and a lot of people who joined at the same time love it, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

[Ody]

What was you experience when getting out of the tutorial Ody? Did you find things to kill, quests, ways to grow, etc?

Sorry I didn't notice you said "out" of the tutorial. My last post was in regards to "in" the tutorial. I didn't read my apologies.

I'm probably not the best person to ask. I skipped the tutorial as Ody so I was completely at a loss and didn't know there were consequences. With alts I already had friends to help me so I was never the "true newbie". I'll give my experiences as Ody anyway. Right out of the tutorial I had experienced players show me the ropes. It was because of existing players that I didn't quit right away. The Sparkle orc dungeons we're a great place to learn and hunt and there was a interesting story to go along with it. I didn't know how the boat system works so I didn't leave sparkle for a few days.

When I did I wasn't able to find anywhere else to hunt. Focus should be put on creating new all-newbie areas. The Grey Havens, and Krynn would be great places for these.

This post turned out to be mostly word soup and I'm sorry it's not very organized. But those are my thoughts.

[Cherek]

Ody: Thanks for your feedback. Tedare is working on improving the tutorial, for example we've just recently made it so new players get thrown into the quest story quicker. Which I suppose is a bad thing if you do not like the particular story, but otherwise a good thing. I personally think the story works, and each a day I see a bunch of newbies running around trying to defeat the vampire. But regardless of which story we choose there's always those who wont like it of course. I do not see us making a change to the overall story anytime soon. That would mean redoing the whole thing.

But other changes to the tutorial is also underway to make it a little more exciting, and a place you may want to stay a little longer in. I also agree that the first introduction to game commands that you encounter can be improved. It used to be non-optional, but we noticed that a lot of players quit before completing it, therefore we made a temporary solution of moving it to where it is today, inside a portal. But we need a better way of introducing it to players, so it can't be missed. And possibly streamline the thing a little so it's quicker.

As for areas for newbies in the real game. Yes, we definitely need more of those. We moved the small orc camp in Bree so it's easier to access, and a new area in Krynn is also being worked on. But we need more, and bigger, areas for smaller players. No doubt. We simply need more wizard manpower to tackle such things.

[Egwene]

Ody: Thanks for your feedback. Tedare is working on improving the tutorial, for example we've just recently made it so new players get thrown into the quest story quicker. Which I suppose is a bad thing if you do not like the particular story, but otherwise a good thing. I personally think the story works, and each a day I see a bunch of newbies running around trying to defeat the vampire. But regardless of which story we choose there's always those who wont like it of course. I do not see us making a change to the overall story anytime soon. That would mean redoing the whole thing.

But other changes to the tutorial is also underway to make it a little more exciting, and a place you may want to stay a little longer in. I also agree that the first introduction to game commands that you encounter can be improved. It used to be non-optional, but we noticed that a lot of players quit before completing it, therefore we made a temporary solution of moving it to where it is today, inside a portal. But we need a better way of introducing it to players, so it can't be missed. And possibly streamline the thing a little so it's quicker.

As for areas for newbies in the real game. Yes, we definitely need more of those. We moved the small orc camp in Bree so it's easier to access, and a new area in Krynn is also being worked on. But we need more, and bigger, areas for smaller players. No doubt. We simply need more wizard manpower to tackle such things.

just to be a devil's advocate for Ody here - I really liked the tutorial. I'd never even seen a MUD before starting and it really helped me understand what the heck was going on. If you had just dropped me in sparkle at the beginning I probably would have quit because it was so overwhelming.

Maybe there could be a way for there to be a more in-depth tutorial for true newbies like me? And then people that don't want to spend the time learning what "obvious exits" means like I needed to could bypass that to get to the story line.

[Cherek]

Egwene: Nice to hear that! You already can bypass both the super-basic "learn to know what a MUD is", and bypass the whole tutorial too at any time.

As for more tutorial, Tedare is working to add more stuff to the current one, giving it some more things to do, and teaching you about some more game concepts.