Losing players?

[Tumaini]

Just a quick idea here, partly borrowed from another game, where it helped to improve player retention and create a closer community:
* Automatically set a "new player" flag on new characters (that can be easily switched off for those older players who create new characters or that is automatically switched off if the account has in game time exceeding a certain amount of hours) that is discretely visible to anyone.
* Set up a mentoring system, where players who mentor new players get some kind of rewards based on how many players they've mentored, but that is not an overpowered item, but rather a symbol of their efforts in helping new players.
* Give new players a tip in the tutorial that they should seek a mentor.
* Integrate the mentoring system in some way into the game world so that it makes sense (or make a good starting point for the player and mentor to come up with a reason).

[Zalya]

Just a quick idea here, partly borrowed from another game, where it helped to improve player retention and create a closer community:
* Automatically set a "new player" flag on new characters (that can be easily switched off for those older players who create new characters or that is automatically switched off if the account has in game time exceeding a certain amount of hours) that is discretely visible to anyone.
* Set up a mentoring system, where players who mentor new players get some kind of rewards based on how many players they've mentored, but that is not an overpowered item, but rather a symbol of their efforts in helping new players.
* Give new players a tip in the tutorial that they should seek a mentor.
* Integrate the mentoring system in some way into the game world so that it makes sense (or make a good starting point for the player and mentor to come up with a reason).

At this point there is the help channel already. The problem with that is that there aren't many advisers on the channel. I have my client set to auto request being an adviser. Maybe just throw a tip in the loading screens that says "We need more advisers in help!" would help.

[gonger]

At this point there is the help channel already. The problem with that is that there aren't many advisers on the channel. I have my client set to auto request being an adviser. Maybe just throw a tip in the loading screens that says "We need more advisers in help!" would help.

Great idea, I will do this, too. Even though PlaneShift still holds many secrets to me, I can certainly assist new players (and am already doing this whenever I meet one).

Gonger Xaraha

[Eardstapa]

* Integrate the mentoring system in some way into the game world so that it makes sense (or make a good starting point for the player and mentor to come up with a reason).

guilds are in a good position to do this: many probably do have a formal or informal mentoring system. but i do have a couple of other suggestions:

• in the days before a suitable guild turns up, just talking in character to a new player is usually welcome interaction - and gives him or her the chance to ask for help without always having to initiate a conversation in a new environment, which can be intimidating. unfriendly sorts, you can figure out a way: when i was new, one character snarled at me then sent me a /tell.
• if someone new is interested, share as much of your character's RP involvement as is natural - likely you would warn someone new in town about a public menace, for instance. i just think it helps let people know that there are things (sort of, sometimes) happening.

[Gharan]

To be honest I've never been a fan of the tutorial being mandatory for every new character. It never even existed when I started and ever since It's implementation I was always wary of making new characters. I started again yesterday after a few years away from PS and was thrown into the tutorial. Luckily I've played before, so I just constantly clicked through endless nonsense that these NPC's throw at you, even doing this shortcut took me 15 minutes to break out of this annoying feature. Their was two of us in this area and I had to explain to the other person what it was, and told him to read what the NPC's were saying so he could learn the basics of the game. He PM'ed me after finally making it past this nonsense (1 hour later I may add) explaining that he learned a thing or two there but nothing he couldn't of learned after 1 hour of being in the actual game. He still seemed frustrated after making it through and needless to say he logged off shortly after.

I could go into detail but I won't. The fact is I PERSONALLY feel this tutorial drives many people away from the game before they even make it through to the game. I was suprised to see it still even existed. I'd love to see some numbers on how many players quit the game before getting past this feature.

I understand It's value of keeping "wtf is this game and wtf do i do" away fro Hydlaa. But It's implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Thankfully wwhen I started in 2006 it didn't exist, or I know for a fact I wouldn;t of made it past the tutorial. Thankfully the first person I met ingame was Farren Kutter who learned me the basics. This scripted tutorial is nonsense.

Also I'd like to give some constructive criticism about the default chat system. Having two chat systems is very confusing to new players, as the one you start with is very limited and doesn't allow you to see or speak in the /1 channel.

[Karna]

To be honest I've never been a fan of the tutorial being mandatory for every new character. It never even existed when I started and ever since It's implementation I was always wary of making new characters. I started again yesterday after a few years away from PS and was thrown into the tutorial. Luckily I've played before, so I just constantly clicked through endless nonsense that these NPC's throw at you, even doing this shortcut took me 15 minutes to break out of this annoying feature. Their was two of us in this area and I had to explain to the other person what it was, and told him to read what the NPC's were saying so he could learn the basics of the game. He PM'ed me after finally making it past this nonsense (1 hour later I may add) explaining that he learned a thing or two there but nothing he couldn't of learned after 1 hour of being in the actual game. He still seemed frustrated after making it through and needless to say he logged off shortly after.

I could go into detail but I won't. The fact is I PERSONALLY feel this tutorial drives many people away from the game before they even make it through to the game. I was suprised to see it still even existed. I'd love to see some numbers on how many players quit the game before getting past this feature.

I understand It's value of keeping "wtf is this game and wtf do i do" away fro Hydlaa. But It's implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Thankfully wwhen I started in 2006 it didn't exist, or I know for a fact I wouldn;t of made it past the tutorial. Thankfully the first person I met ingame was Farren Kutter who learned me the basics. This scripted tutorial is nonsense.

Also I'd like to give some constructive criticism about the default chat system. Having two chat systems is very confusing to new players, as the one you start with is very limited and doesn't allow you to see or speak in the /1 channel.

^^^
This.

If I can put my finger on an event after which new players drastically reduced, this will be it. Ever since the tutorial has been introduced new players have sort of become blue moon.

I feel there is no need to make the tutorial mandatory. Instead after a player creates a new character, a pop-up can be shown asking them if they'd like to go through the tutorial. If the choose to, well and good. If they want to explore the world on their own, they should have the choice to do so.

The endless clicking to get to the actual game is probably the biggest turnoff for new players.

[Bonifarzia]

I feel there is no need to make the tutorial mandatory.
...
If they want to explore the world on their own, they should have the choice to do so.

The option to skip the tutorial has been available for quite a while (half a year?), along with a few other improvements, such as new starter items (friend's letter etc).

[Aramara Meibi]

I feel there is no need to make the tutorial mandatory.
...
If they want to explore the world on their own, they should have the choice to do so.

The option to skip the tutorial has been available for quite a while (half a year?), along with a few other improvements, such as new starter items (friend's letter etc).

i'm not sure you get those starter items if you don't do the tutorial. also, the friend's letter and map are both rather useless, now that the map has changed and NPCs move around haphazardly.

[miadon]

I remember the days when Harnquist's was ALWAYS busy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuA5TlJPTXI

[Knightspark9]

People like solid ground. As it stands, people have this idea of judging a book by it's cover, so they think of P.S. as a shoddy game. If we could implement more items for role-play, ie clothing, then it would be absolutely wonderful. The problem is the lack of devs. I'm sure that if we got more art devs, then we could help keep some players in. It's one of those visual aspects that people feel. If that were to be fixed? Well, then I'm sure we'd have an increase of overall population, given enough time.

[Karna]

The dev team should prioritize and get the male and female models of all races ready. With only a handful of selectable models, the first impression of anyone joining becomes unimpressive.

Sad but true.

[Karna]

I feel there is no need to make the tutorial mandatory.
...
If they want to explore the world on their own, they should have the choice to do so.

The option to skip the tutorial has been available for quite a while (half a year?), along with a few other improvements, such as new starter items (friend's letter etc).

I haven't been playing lately (~3.5 years). If I'm not mistaken the tutorial was introduced back in 2007/08? Its quite a long time to get rid of the buggy tutorial.. if not at least  the bugs.

[Tlok]

I guess I qualify as a lost player. I haven't logged on in about 6 months, and don't feel any urge to do so. But I am impressed with the PlaneShift project, and would like to see it succeed even if it isn't in a form that engages me as a player. So with that in mind, here is what did (and what didn't) contribute to my departure. No one thing was "the killer", just the negatives outweighed the positive. Please forgive the size of the post, I felt to include just one or two things would give them undue weight.

I think the biggest problem for me was the frustration. It seemed that I couldn't just play, I had to keep asking a guild mate or a stranger how to do something that I thought I should be able to figure out on my own. I know some people claim a "no spoiler" atmosphere forces interaction and in theory builds long term ties, but for me it drove me off.

I don't mind asking for advice occasionally, or if I'm in a chatty or curious mood holding an in depth conversation where I ask how to do stuff. But sometimes I want to just play and the fastest way is to look on-line for a quick answer to my stumbling block so I can get on with it already. As Lehjr said "New players aren't going to stick around if they can't even figure out how to play the game." I couldn't so I didn't.

I also really took exception to the idea that someone else had to tell me how I'd enjoy something most. I'll enjoy it most if I have to learn it all the hard way? I'll enjoy it most if I start out a lackey, running errands for change, and have to work my way up to first class citizen? No. Plenty of other games manage to be fun having first level characters be heroes. And second level. And third level. And up to 100th level. I know that's not for everybody, but Heroism is one of the things that makes a Heroic Fantasy game fun for me.

Derula said "Many of the 'spoilers' should be information publicly available before even joining the game" and I agree but would take it even further, I'd enjoy it more if all of the spoilers were publicly available but some behind "Spoiler Alert" masks. For the people who enjoy the discovery don't read it, and those that enjoy knowing all the facts and looking for interesting ways to combine them can read them. Who's to say jigsaw puzzles are a "better" form of entertainment than Sudoku? Yet PlaneShift could easily be both if everything were public with spoilers clearly marked as such.

Roleplaying *required* - one of the things that drew me was roleplaying *encouraged*, but oddly enough rolplaying *required* made me uncomfortable once I was here. I was afraid to speak out for fear of wrecking somebody else's fun or causing a scene. I don't want to be nervous about playing a game.

The Grind - Wow, the game is grindy, and in a way very unfriendly to new players. To spend hours for a few dozen ore, and then not be able to get forge space to refine it (because somebody running a bot came in after me and could fill the forge before I could place a single ore) and all for a few skill ranks out of 100? or 400? I don't even know, after months of playing I don't think I had anything over 20.

People minding other people's business - This thread has been fairly civil, but some other forum discussions have been a real turn off. The forums are the most public view a potential player has for the game, and since PlaneShift I've read big chunks of forum chat before joining a game. To see people arguing that limits should be put in place so new players can't get X and Y and Z but have to choose one, for example, is the sign of a real problem. It's a video game, it doesn't hurt you if somebody has cool things or awesome abilities unless that enables them to beat you up and take your stuff. If they enjoy collecting it, let them. That doesn't affect me personally because that's not what I play for, but trying to keep someone else from getting something is a sign of an attitude I'd prefer to see left in the real world.

So what didn't bother me?

Well, I didn't mind the graphics - I read books and the graphics there are worse. At least in the books I read. I don't care if the graphics in PlaneShift aren't State-of-the-Art, they are recognizable and my imagination can take it from there.

I didn't mind the tutorial. In fact, I thought it was mostly helpful and if anything would have liked it to provide more information, though I would have liked the rate of information to be much faster - let me click a button to advance to the next paragraph, don't make me wait through long pauses and slow voice.

Bugs - Yeah, I encountered many, but it says it's beta, they didn't bother me. Restart, continue.

Illysia said "I told myself I would stop doing forum dissertations here but oh well. Even if I don't play the game anymore, I still seem to care about it." and that's true for me too. I'm not trying to rant or insult anyone, I'm trying to provide some honest feedback from a perspective I think is difficult to collect data from.

I'd love to see PlaneShift prosper, I admire your hard work and determination.

[Cairn]

To the gentleman above me, there are wonderful sites that provide spoilers, behind masks of course 

[lehjr]

I'd have to say that judging by the some of the comments, some people have forgotten what it's like starting out in the game as a newcommer rather than just a veteran player starting a new character. The thing is, if you can't maintain a certain number of newcomers, you will run out of players.