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Newbie Help (Start Here) / Re: How to help Newbies. Some thoughts and ideas.
« Last post by Damola on September 08, 2023, 05:40:42 am »Greetings Gonger, greetings everyone.
I thought about this for a while after the discussion in last dev Q&A.
I also chose to come online several times in the evenings, CEST time zone, for several hours and typed "/who" command frequently. However I did not find any new player online during that times. Of course this not representative in any way, however I am not sure whether we loose as many newbies at the moment as you fear. Of course loosing just one new player or a few new players is bad given the current state of affairs. During these challenging times however I find it difficult to be online every evening just to see whether a new player logs in. I find myself needing a lot of time to recover from the sheer insanity happening in our world today. I believe this is headed into a good direction considering all what is happening and the meaning behind it, but at times this is not easy to see.
Some ideas I had about helping new players along:
1) Hint newbies at the GM events on Saturday in a prominent place and also to the market on Sundays. Cause there are at least some long time players online during that time. I am sure Uadjet would be fine for us all taking some time to help a new player along during the event. For me the GM events are rewarding experiences of game play and role play within the game. My hope would be that this could be similar for new players. Also it is a great opportunity for chars and players to make friendship with one another and maybe make an appointment for playing together during the week.
2) Maybe additionally it would be an option to agree on a time for newbies each week. A time were long time players can agree on aiming to be online each week. Maybe an hour before the event or an hour before the market. Or between market and dev q&a - that would be nice, cause at the market things tend to be quite quiet anyway these times and there is plenty of opportunity to help a new player along. And of course Gova has everything in store a new player could ever want and if not Damola can help along.
- Damola looking at her immense collection of glyphs and all the other stuff she collected. - At least those are times I could make often enough. Thing is, I cannot afford to look out for new players 24/7, I simply cannot and do not want to afford this, but during certain times, that would be doable for me.
3) Make it possible for chars of long time players to enter the tutorial area to directly help there. This could be locked by a quest that can only be accessed after a reasonable amount of other quests completed or a reasonable amount of time in the game or a combination there of. I really would like that. Not telling a new player everything straight away and thus spoil the fun, but maybe Damola could give a hint in the labyrinth or the tutorial every now and then. I can do a wish report about this if not already done.
4) I wondered whether to make Dryken plane, Labyrinth and tutorial area easier than they are now. However I also see the value of some effort to be made to enter the game as a new player. Why? What PlaneShift needs are players who engage on a regular base for a longer time. If someone is not willing to make some effort, then that someone may not be genuinely interested in playing the game anyway. Of course this is a difficult balance. Even someone who would be genuinely interested could loose motivation in case they face a frustrating obstacle during early game play. I played through the tutorial once with a new char and it was pretty much straight forward for me. Except for me not understanding that the new char did not yet do everything required to talk to the last NPC in there in order to leave the tutorial area. My issue was that the last NPC did not say anything at all before the quest requirements were met. Also part of the issue was that I did not get how to enter the second tower with the mage in the basement initially. I was running around with the new char back and forth until I eventually recognized what part was still missing and how to arrive the place to complete it. I'd prefer that NPC giving a hint on what is still missing. But aside from that I found the labyrinth and tutorial area reasonable enough. I may open a bug report about last NPC giving a hint, but I forgot the name of that confident Klyros NPC already.
Does any of these ideas make sense to you? What other ideas do you have?
I thought about this for a while after the discussion in last dev Q&A.
I also chose to come online several times in the evenings, CEST time zone, for several hours and typed "/who" command frequently. However I did not find any new player online during that times. Of course this not representative in any way, however I am not sure whether we loose as many newbies at the moment as you fear. Of course loosing just one new player or a few new players is bad given the current state of affairs. During these challenging times however I find it difficult to be online every evening just to see whether a new player logs in. I find myself needing a lot of time to recover from the sheer insanity happening in our world today. I believe this is headed into a good direction considering all what is happening and the meaning behind it, but at times this is not easy to see.
Some ideas I had about helping new players along:
1) Hint newbies at the GM events on Saturday in a prominent place and also to the market on Sundays. Cause there are at least some long time players online during that time. I am sure Uadjet would be fine for us all taking some time to help a new player along during the event. For me the GM events are rewarding experiences of game play and role play within the game. My hope would be that this could be similar for new players. Also it is a great opportunity for chars and players to make friendship with one another and maybe make an appointment for playing together during the week.
2) Maybe additionally it would be an option to agree on a time for newbies each week. A time were long time players can agree on aiming to be online each week. Maybe an hour before the event or an hour before the market. Or between market and dev q&a - that would be nice, cause at the market things tend to be quite quiet anyway these times and there is plenty of opportunity to help a new player along. And of course Gova has everything in store a new player could ever want and if not Damola can help along.
- Damola looking at her immense collection of glyphs and all the other stuff she collected. - At least those are times I could make often enough. Thing is, I cannot afford to look out for new players 24/7, I simply cannot and do not want to afford this, but during certain times, that would be doable for me.3) Make it possible for chars of long time players to enter the tutorial area to directly help there. This could be locked by a quest that can only be accessed after a reasonable amount of other quests completed or a reasonable amount of time in the game or a combination there of. I really would like that. Not telling a new player everything straight away and thus spoil the fun, but maybe Damola could give a hint in the labyrinth or the tutorial every now and then. I can do a wish report about this if not already done.
4) I wondered whether to make Dryken plane, Labyrinth and tutorial area easier than they are now. However I also see the value of some effort to be made to enter the game as a new player. Why? What PlaneShift needs are players who engage on a regular base for a longer time. If someone is not willing to make some effort, then that someone may not be genuinely interested in playing the game anyway. Of course this is a difficult balance. Even someone who would be genuinely interested could loose motivation in case they face a frustrating obstacle during early game play. I played through the tutorial once with a new char and it was pretty much straight forward for me. Except for me not understanding that the new char did not yet do everything required to talk to the last NPC in there in order to leave the tutorial area. My issue was that the last NPC did not say anything at all before the quest requirements were met. Also part of the issue was that I did not get how to enter the second tower with the mage in the basement initially. I was running around with the new char back and forth until I eventually recognized what part was still missing and how to arrive the place to complete it. I'd prefer that NPC giving a hint on what is still missing. But aside from that I found the labyrinth and tutorial area reasonable enough. I may open a bug report about last NPC giving a hint, but I forgot the name of that confident Klyros NPC already.
Does any of these ideas make sense to you? What other ideas do you have?
