Have an idea to make MD grow?

[Soothing Sands]

If we really wanted to, we could all conspire to have new players meet everyone and get introduced to new things. There could be a list of everyone who joined this week, when they were seen, and who they've met. And then we log on at their usual time and make MD look like a really active place lol. 

 

Is there a list somewhere of how long people usually choose to meditate in story mode? Or how many people quit before/during/after story mode? That would be interesting.

[Aquellia]

I am a new player and look like to share my findings.

I understand that MD is designed for people to go out and comunicate with other to attain knowledge and delelop within the realm. Although I find that some things would not be apropriate to ask and are too difficult to find for something that I feel should be readily availble.

An example of such would be how items work. In particular the ones you can pick up from certain locations. I have little to no understanding of how they work and it would not be appropriate for me to ask someone to tell me the mechanics of them. This is something that should be written down and easily found. There is no benifit to having to work out something like this.

How is it that if say I picked up an item to find out what it does, can I put said item back? The descriptions of the items are unclear and although they have stats there is nothing to explain what the stats are.
 

Other game mechanics are also either poorly explained or not at all. The times in which it would be apropriate to have to inestgate/ask/search for the answer to something would be; how do I get to this area? where can I find this item? I'm loosing fights, how do I improve? etc rather than whats the game mechanics on holding/trading/using/gathering/regen/fighting.

Some game mechanics should be withheld yes, ones such as how to obtain such spell, but not how to use such spell. In regards to the combat what determins a victory should be explained, but how to obtain a victory should be withheld. I still am only guessing what defines a victory and what defines a loss when fighting in MP3. In what kind of fight do you win and not know why?

In addition I made this forum account only yesturday. If anything is going to be offputting to a new player it's the significance of the forums. Most of the game should be in game, not on the forums. Without using the forums most of MD is empty lost and uneventful. A notice board and/or quest board should be easily availible in game and well displayed.

This is very crudely written by hopefully will allow you to see what kind of things make MD inaccessable. I was tempted several times to give up trying to work out how things work. But I'm stubbon and arrogant.

Aquellia.

[DARK DEMON]

In addition I made this forum account only yesturday. If anything is going to be offputting to a new player it's the significance of the forums. Most of the game should be in game, not on the forums. Without using the forums most of MD is empty lost and uneventful. A notice board and/or quest board should be easily availible in game and well displayed.

 

THIS.

 

This is the reason. And people are even moving away from forums because of trolls and like Menhir points out: loss/loss situations which just waste time.

 

By further promoting things like killing, or spending lots of time on something which only one or two people use... I don't think there will be any increase in-game either.

[Chewett]

 

THIS.

 

This is the reason. And people are even moving away from forums because of trolls and like Menhir points out: loss/loss situations which just waste time.

 

By further promoting things like killing, or spending lots of time on something which only one or two people use... I don't think there will be any increase in-game either.

You sound like a stuck record sir. I guess i need to make a post about one of those points...

[Dragual]

Well, one thing that helped me out a lot was Mya's newbie quest. Perhaps someone could revamp that quest and get continued sponsorship to solve the issue of "confused newbies." Since it is, after all, a roleplay based game. Perhaps a particular player from each land. Not a monarch, since the role of a king would logically be that they are "too busy with more important matters".  But perhaps the monarchs could hire someone to do this... Someone like a tutor. So you would see yet another new role. Necrovion Tutor, Lorerootian Tutor, etc. 

 

So make an in-game tutorial specifically for mechanics. Add the tutors to handle a quest as to how the game works beyond the mechanics. 

Edited August 9, 2013 by Dragual

[Aquellia]

Well, one thing that helped me out a lot was Mya's newbie quest. Perhaps someone could revamp that quest and get continued sponsorship to solve the issue of "confused newbies." Since it is, after all, a roleplay based game. Perhaps a particular player from each land. Not a monarch, since the role of a king would logically be that they are "too busy with more important matters".  But perhaps the monarchs could hire someone to do this... Someone like a tutor. So you would see yet another new role. Necrovion Tutor, Lorerootian Tutor, etc. 

 

So make an in-game tutorial specifically for mechanics. Add the tutors to handle a quest as to how the game works beyond the mechanics. 

 

This sounds like a great idea. Make sure to let it include things like regen, items, shared items, advancing, timed effects etc.

When I very first came to MD there was a group who were helping the various newbies and it was amazing to wander around and talk to them. Unfortuantly I've not really seen anything since.

Obviously people have to have time to do such things so maybe an arraged gathering every now and then for new players or early leaning players. Something that can be put in the annoucment so new players will definatly see it, rather than needed to search for it?

 

Aquellia.

[rikstar]

isnt this something the lhos are supposed to do? Not to insult them, but I would love to see them more actively helping newbies. Also there is a live help button, but make it more obvious for a beginner that there are lho for them to get information from. I dont know how this is arranged by the various lhos, but I would love to see something to happen. :)

edit:
In happen I mean setting up various events for beginning players. I saw once a teaparty in which cauldrons where explained something like that is great.

Edited August 9, 2013 by rikstar

[Aquellia]

In happen I mean setting up various events for beginning players. I saw once a teaparty in which cauldrons where explained something like that is great.

 

I would love to go to a tea party and it's precisely the kind of thing I mean.

 

In an offtopic note, do you think someone will be willing to arrange this? I think the community garden would be a good location.

[rikstar]

I am willing to do this right today, but I am on vacation and have only a phone availeble to go on internet, so it wont work for me now with arranging to get certain tools. But this is a bit offtopic so this could be better be spoken about in an other topic.

Also about improving MD, is kickstarter something fot It? It would end the money crisis and it could get some more attention and thus more players.

Edited August 9, 2013 by rikstar

[biermann]

So, I am a fairly new player. And I read the article on massively just now. A lot of it resembles some of my initial feelings.

Having a game being hard is not bad. But there's one of those sayings, easy to learn, hard to master. That first step might be a bit lacking. The tutorial in progress should help (volunteering to try and remember my initial game experience for test runs when it comes that far).

 

But there's still a few points that occurred to me. Some thoughts I remember of having.

 

thought 1: There's nothing to do!

 

The tutorial was fun enough in keeping me occupied, but once over .... well, now what. What the heck is there to do?

In the end, some person pointed me to the forums.

 

There's player created quest...oh that's nice! These should be found in game. Some welcoming drawn figure that tells you about them. A nice sign post to check out with acceptable quests posted there. Forums tend to serve as background information, they are not the initial source when entering a game you go look for gameplay for.

 

Above someone mentioned Mya's quest. I know I enjoyed Maebius' one. There have been other nice ones, darkraptors cookie quest comes to mind as a simple but clever one.  These coded quests that don't need too much human interference (like judging drawings and such), can we maybe seek for a way to keep this alive permanently? Add some automated reward (an ap boost, a creature, maybe some candy), maybe write some season atmosphere out them to make them apply-able all year long. I'm sure I missed many of these quests. It's a shame. Maybe keeping them alive for a long time will also add incentive to make more of them.

Maybe the quest vote system can be used to decide every 6 months/year which quests get to be permanently added. Because it seems a waste to let all the effort just go to waste after running for 2 weeks.

 

Also ensure it can be finished at mp3. Or break it in two parts and offer some reward after the first part. Was it Rhaegar's one? I forgot, I enjoyed it...but then you get send to loreroot. That's pretty much thus the end of the quest for most mp3's unless you get special help. And a heat requirement. All fair, but thus a blockade for mp3.

 

And then you check out the fighting, because you advised to go to mp4...which you really shouldn't but eh. but there are some folks who do know what they are doing and attack you. And again. It feels like you're getting clobbered from every side. Pummelled. And while you try to make sense of the fights, all it means is you keep losing, keep running out of ve, keep hiding in some sanctuary.

But this could probably be solved by the tutorial. Other solutions would include a better combat tutorial or perhaps some mutual consent to attack. 'X wishes to attack you, do you accept?' in the park or such. And that's sounds a bit like too much enforcing rules..and well, annoying to make.

 

thought 2: Ehm, I am not quite sure how to do x

 

Part of the charm is figuring things out. But the no spoilers policy is also incredibly daunting. Some people will explain a few things, this was part of my salvation that kept me around. Asking for help can already feel like well, defeat. Idle players without answers, stuck. And a fair chance your first 5 questions will be answered with 'this is a spoiler'. So now you feel clueless, ignored and dumb. The next 5 questions you have you will not even bother asking. (I still have this to a certain degree, a fear of asking, above this post someone mentioned cauldrons...never heard of it, never asked, assumed it was spoilers). So perhaps a bit more accommodating to new players. No need to literally guide them step by step but a few more hints here and there (which you might end up hearing anyways, I know I learned stuff from other people). And the less people there are, the less likely you will encounter someone...and thus the less likely new players will stick around.

 

And I know the LHO are there to help with these things, but there's a wee bit of an issue. That button, Live help. I might just be alone in this, I never polled it, but I never press it on any site. Not on my mobile providers website, not on any software site. It feels daunting, like calling a help desk. You only do so when something goes wrong. Often you want to figure things out in game. a helpdesk sort of feels like stepping to the admins. Maybe an approach that is more reaching towards new players then them reaching towards us. Some sort of mentoring.

Yes that sounds a bit like adepts...but the one issue I have with that, is that the dual purpose works counter productive. You need more adepts to become mp6...but more adepts means less time for them. I'd be more inclined to have 1 or 2 at best and maybe get a little reward for that as tutor (aside from the satisfaction of watching your pupils grow).

 

Thought 3 So I need to go to this MDA land, cool!

 

Or not cool. I think we all know the problem with the MDA. People send you there for quests, for your papers, fun things. And then you set off from the well travelled and thus low viscos roads for Marind Bell. Not knowing that at the gates you can turn around again and go back disappointed. And when someone spoils you with the concept of pickles, back you go and get through the gate, unknowing that this will take hours with your low AP. Each room ties you down for another 10 or 20 minutes. One wrong turn in the MDA..ha, that's nearly an hour. You're effectively punishing people who want to explore or just get their papers by 'jailing' them for a hour because they took 1 wrong turn. (I haven't been in the mda for a while so maybe it has changed (I don't want to waste my only pickle to get past the gate)). It's the MDA but it feels like Hotel California.

So either lower the viscosity or stop sending people to MDA.

(and here too, the less people there are, the more viscos remains high, the less folks will stay)

 

Thought 4 Oh..I can draw avatars here?!

That was what kept me here. Drawing. It also opened doors for me, drew me into the community. Thus I stayed. So perhaps that too should be displayed more in ads. Player created artwork! And quests!

And I missed the whole quest to add something to the scenery, I was busy for 6 months with work, and I am quite sad that I did. You help create the looks, that is among one of the unique features of this game. Warcraft players reach heaven when their name appears in game. here your artwork is in the game!

So I would suggest continuing with adding things, perhaps even working on adding some new scene? (I have no clue how hard this is....but at a guess I'm thinking very hard, or a lot of work)

 

Summary:

A quest board in game.

More player quests kept active.

A more lenient spoiler policy

More approaching then approachable help

Mentors maybe

MDA is an issue

More outward display of the art

Perhaps more inward contribution of art

 

And my final note:

This all is written with myself in my mind. Foggy memories of a year ago even. It is also written without trying to lay blame to anyone. But it's long enough as it is without me trying to nuance everything. They are just simply things I noticed and now have written down with me being an interaction designer/software developer.

[Rophs]

Before we try and get more players we should figure out how to teach the newbies.

 

The tutorial doesn't teach newbies much. Remaking the MD University and the Dojo would definitely be a good place to start.

 

We should get a list of goals for this and figure out an order to do them in.

 

edit: Lowering visc at MDA would be really nice. A short while after the party-in-a-box cube at Sanctuary's view opened the visc leading up the the MDA gates was at -80 all of the time. I loved this and made frequent visits to Awiiya, now that viscosity is back up to +40 most of the time I can't enter without pickles or blue candies.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Rophs

[rikstar]

A quest system is a good idea and it ia something I am working on. But I have not told anybody about it. When i am getting back from vacation this is what I will be working on. If anyone wants to help me or is interested pm me.
about MDA that is something that wont be changed in the long term I guess, I could be wrong. A lot of people think its also some game aspect including me; patience. Ofcourse this patience idea turns newer players away. But in MD are a lot of things that only work in the longterm. I agree that newer players think there is nothing to do in MD, I had the same when I just started. Hopefully autumn 2050 will. jange this. And maybe some easier distribution of some shared tools, LR is not easy reachable for them. But we also dont want hoarding of those shared ones. Maybe somebody else has a good idea about something small that adds more to do for beginning players?
I agree that the communication between newer players and lhos needs to change, maybe a live chat only accesible for players below a certain AD and lhos? But that is something for the lhos to discuss in my opinion.

[Chewett]

Also about improving MD, is kickstarter something fot It? It would end the money crisis and it could get some more attention and thus more players.

Not really. Md needs code more than anything at the moment and money buys random people, not ones trusted by Mur to code.

I would quite people properly but on phone so hard to, sorry

bierman: you are hired! I will pm you details when I get home.

Quest board is good. I think I'm going to make that a clickable.

Rophs: tutorials is in work. See autumn2050

Rik: I'm going to do the idea of permanent quests in md. it's good.

I'm also working with Lho'S to try and improve their interactions (who by the way we want more people for, so contact Grido now!) and some other stuff people mentioned.

[rikstar]

I know that there are lots of people willing to code including myself, isnt there anything we could do? I was also thinking of programming an application outside of md which generates mdscript so that more people can make quests who cant code, is anyone interested in that? Sething like that should not be that hard to make. :)

Edited August 9, 2013 by rikstar

[Chewett]

I know that there are lots of people willing to code including myself, isnt there anything we could do? I was also thinking of programming an application outside of md which generates mdscript so that more people can make quests who cant code, is anyone interested in that? Sething like that should not be that hard to make. :)

project omega will involve making some of this easier. But for the moment things are way too tightly coupled to easily give out code for people to work with without fully trusting them.

[Jubaris]

To influence people outside of MD, offer them something we found here but something that is 'universal'. For instance research documents, some MD archives site articles... 

To advertise the game mechanics, make short video clips on youtube on most eye-appealing parts of the realm - combat simulations, alliance crests, avatars, etc.

 

People should get a glimpse of what we have here to do.

[BFH]

An example of such would be how items work. In particular the ones you can pick up from certain locations. I have little to no understanding of how they work and it would not be appropriate for me to ask someone to tell me the mechanics of them. This is something that should be written down and easily found. There is no benifit to having to work out something like this.

How is it that if say I picked up an item to find out what it does, can I put said item back? The descriptions of the items are unclear and although they have stats there is nothing to explain what the stats are.
 

 

I will ask admins if we can work this out, maybe as new help pages.

 

Other game mechanics are also either poorly explained or not at all. The times in which it would be apropriate to have to inestgate/ask/search for the answer to something would be; how do I get to this area? where can I find this item? I'm loosing fights, how do I improve? etc rather than whats the game mechanics on holding/trading/using/gathering/regen/fighting.

Some game mechanics should be withheld yes, ones such as how to obtain such spell, but not how to use such spell. In regards to the combat what determins a victory should be explained, but how to obtain a victory should be withheld. I still am only guessing what defines a victory and what defines a loss when fighting in MP3. In what kind of fight do you win and not know why?

 

I agree that there are many help pages to add. I believe we should certainly work on more FAQS. Chew are there plans from council to do so??

 

 

In addition I made this forum account only yesturday. If anything is going to be offputting to a new player it's the significance of the forums. Most of the game should be in game, not on the forums. Without using the forums most of MD is empty lost and uneventful. A notice board and/or quest board should be easily availible in game and well displayed.
 

 

Certainly quest area is one of the things we should look to improve because player made quests are an essential part of MD. Chew any plans for this as well??

 

 

isnt this something the lhos are supposed to do? Not to insult them, but I would love to see them more actively helping newbies. Also there is a live help button, but make it more obvious for a beginner that there are lho for them to get information from. I dont know how this is arranged by the various lhos, but I would love to see something to happen. :)

edit:
In happen I mean setting up various events for beginning players. I saw once a teaparty in which cauldrons where explained something like that is great.

 

LHO's are just players, even if they are required to go escort newbies, help them or whatever, many wouldn't simply reach the player before they leave because of our game mechanics. I've proposed many times a live chat area for LHO's to provide help. That way we reach players faster, help them in real time, and we keep many players that would leave because of the waiting times to get a response. Yet as I explained my ideas that try to cover commercial part of md, went rejected because we have to save "MD style". Kind of stupid, yes but well what can I do...

 

I will keep replying to other posts as soon as I get some time

[Chewett]

quest creation/listing ingame, planning, thinking of

improving help pages, needs discussion with grido and his soon to be appointed second in command

[rikstar]

As a quest list will going to get sort of implemented then I will present my idea about it.
In my opinion we need more permanent quests, not be done for rewards but dor lore I would say. When a quest is completed one will earn questpoints. Those questposts would act sort of as wishpoints. There will be a general distribution point in which you can buy vanity tools with your points. These items will be similar like dices and alcoholic drinks, I dont have an idea for more of such items, but Iam sure more players could figure something out. The same as with shared items they will respawn every week. When that happens you will also get all your points back to your maximum. This system lets questmakers make small yet enjoyable quests and they dont have to worry about reward distribution. What do you think?

[DarkRaptor]

Add a "Breaking News" (or whatever term is better for this) after the login screen and acessible by a link on the daily progress.
This would have the current ongoing quests or events as well as the planned upcomming ones.. (sort of a evolution from the current existing system)

[url=http://s1285.photobucket.com/user/darkraptormd/media/PosLogonInfo_project_zps7915485a.jpg.html][/URL]

I think this can be very usefull to prevent the common newcommer question: "What else can i do here?"

As usual this could be implemented the easy way.. or in a more elaborated very nice way.. I've created a thread to discuss/improve the idea here.
 

 

ps: i was preparing this for some days.. and it comes out by the last post that Rik also have the same idea :-)

[The Great Pashweetie]

My idea is: get a famous youtuber to play this game. Some youtubers get millions of views daily, if we were able to get this out to someone like pewdiepie(although this is not his type of game) we could get a massive increase in traffic.

 

The best way would be to bribe them with something though and make it look unique from all the other sponsorships they may or may not have.

[Jubaris]

What if they dont like it and they troll us because of newbie confusion? :D

[Dragual]

My idea is: get a famous youtuber to play this game. Some youtubers get millions of views daily, if we were able to get this out to someone like pewdiepie(although this is not his type of game) we could get a massive increase in traffic.

 

The best way would be to bribe them with something though and make it look unique from all the other sponsorships they may or may not have.

 PewDiePie! :D 

[Maebius]

(there are some newbie-friendly quests, one very inspired by Mya's) 

 

Otherwise, I have nothing to add, except to Second teh idea of Facebook, or YouTube, or other "advertising" to initially snag new player's attention, and a friendly environment in-game to keep them.   How to do that, is "In Progress" currently, so I am jsut looking forward to "Soon".  :)

[Zyrxae]

It's been said before, but some of MD's most dedicated players haven't been 'traditional' gamers.* To attract more artists, try promoting MD on deviantart-like sites you're already on. Writers, coders, and people who don't fit into "-ers" often are known on other sites; emphasizing the respectively attractive parts of the realm (Story Night & other quests, coding your own clickables..) to different groups, or having some of the banners already available to paste into your signatures on those sites adjusted to specifically emphasize the features of MD that would appeal to those groups, might also bring in more people.

 

*BFH/others: What about a survey of how people got to MD? Would be more informative if it's not anonymous, could include a questions like "What do you usually do in MD?" with checkboxes for fighting, RP, solving quests, making quests, art.., along with the usual "when did you come", "did you leave, if so about how long", etc.

 

More ambitious, long-term, mp8: Imagine finding a flyer in your local coffee shop that led you scavenger-hunting around town, and the final destination was MD itself...

Could be made many times easier if a group here designs the 'quest' and fine-tunes it for their respective hometowns.