Log in via google, facebook, twitter...

[Chewett]

If you were looking to join an online game and instead of taking the time to register it let you log in via google/facebook/twitter/etc would you use that login instead of creating an account.

The idea for MD would be you "login" via your account and then when registering pick a playername. Then instead of logging in via the MD password you would login via your account and that would log you into your playername.

The only thing MD would use from the account would be just to verify who you were. We wouldn't use it to post/etc.

Would you (if you were a new player) opt for this type of login or do you prefer a normal login type thing  (aka what MD currently has)?

I'm mainly asking since many many sites now run off login via X. I personally don't like those systems so never really considered putting one in MD but if people like it and it lets people join easier then it might actually be important.

[Azull]

I don't like it either, so prefer the "old" way. But as you say, it's very common, so might be important to consider.

...........................................................................................................................testing

Edited January 12, 2018 by Azull

[Muratus del Mur]

When i test out an other game i prefer to use such a login system usually, its faster and i forget my logins anyway if it wouldn't be for such a thing. However i use it because i don't actually intend to play one or the other game, so i don't know if this opinion matters.

Ideally, i envision a login where one could just hit play and enter the game directly, but be asked to register a playername (regardless if using facebook/google/etc) at a key point if they wish to continue. This practice i saw on several games and i found it very useful for the lazy/"just curious" type of players.

Sadly, with so many games designed just for this type of players (easy getting in, highly addictive, minimal gameplay) i think we should adapt and use such methods too if we intend to increase player retention at all. I do realize how difficult this might be to implement and that it loses something i thought to be 'useful' at first. It only makes sense if the entire registration process is skipped and replaced with a easy first time login, otherwise no.

New players that come in via such a fast login could have temporary names assigned to them from a random, funny, list, or just Guest1 Guest2 whatever.

 

Just a thought

 

[dst]

I forget logins but I HATE having to log in using my fb account but heh...I am old fashioned.

 

[Eon]

15 hours ago, Chewett said:

If you were looking to join an online game and instead of taking the time to register it let you log in via google/facebook/twitter/etc would you use that login instead of creating an account.

Nope, I'd never play a game that wanted my social media linked to it. If it's optional I don't mind.

[Chewett]

19 hours ago, Azull said:

I don't like it either, so prefer the "old" way. But as you say, it's very common, so might be important to consider.

Thats part of why I thought I would raise it. I dont like it either but I was talking to some pokemon go friends and they all seemed to love games that let you do that so...

19 hours ago, Muratus del Mur said:

When i test out an other game i prefer to use such a login system usually, its faster and i forget my logins anyway if it wouldn't be for such a thing. However i use it because i don't actually intend to play one or the other game, so i don't know if this opinion matters.

Ideally, i envision a login where one could just hit play and enter the game directly, but be asked to register a playername (regardless if using facebook/google/etc) at a key point if they wish to continue. This practice i saw on several games and i found it very useful for the lazy/"just curious" type of players.

Sadly, with so many games designed just for this type of players (easy getting in, highly addictive, minimal gameplay) i think we should adapt and use such methods too if we intend to increase player retention at all. I do realize how difficult this might be to implement and that it loses something i thought to be 'useful' at first. It only makes sense if the entire registration process is skipped and replaced with a easy first time login, otherwise no.

New players that come in via such a fast login could have temporary names assigned to them from a random, funny, list, or just Guest1 Guest2 whatever.

 

Just a thought

 

16

Hitting the play and go sounds like a nice idea, maybe I will think towards that.

11 hours ago, dst said:

I forget logins but I HATE having to log in using my fb account but heh...I am old fashioned.

 

 

5 hours ago, Eon said:

Nope, I'd never play a game that wanted my social media linked to it. If it's optional I don't mind.

Oh yeah it would be 100% optional. The main idea would be that if you dont want to create another password you log in via google/whatever and that manages your instead of doing all the account verification and such.

[Ivorak]

As an optional method I think this would definitely be useful in increasing sign ups. I often use social signups when I'm not sure of long term interest at time of signup. It's a big timesaver.

It can, however, be annoying later if I'm not sure if I signed up with Twitter or Facebook or something else. This is typically alleviated by syncing accounts using the same email (for example, if I sign up with a Twitter account that is setup with ivorak@example.com and then later try to login with a Facebook account that is also linked to ivorak@example.com, that should log me into the same MagicDuel player account).

When implementing it, it's also important that a player should still be able to log in if they later decide to delete or deactivate their Facebook (or other social login) account. One possible way to do this without requiring a password at signup time is to save the user email from Facebook and send a one-time password change link upon request. I'm sure you can think of other methods.

As for player names, I think Guest<playerIDnumber> works well (I'd prefer not to see any funny names) but I would prefer that even that should be changed to a custom name before the player gains access to the mainlands. Part of the award for getting off Gateway Island could be a name of the player's choosing.

[dst]

2 hours ago, Ivorak said:

 Part of the award for getting off Gateway Island could be a name of the player's choosing.

I love the idea! That would be indeed something VERY original. And very interesting for players :D. Imagine the struggle.

[MRAlyon]

I think the same of Eon

[Aeoshattr]

Thought:

Do we know that the problem with our playerbase is because of the login/early gameplay? Have we looked into this? It seems that a lot of work is being put into this part of the game, yet over the past 2-3 years the player base kept decreasing (or at least it feels like it has). It would be useful to have some numbers to illustrate when players leave, at what stage, etc - these numbers might be there, I am unaware and I don't think they've ever been made public.

I don't think that MD's problem is that it's too difficult to register or that it takes too long to go through the tutorial, etc, thus I don't think that making a login via facebook would help. It could be neat, sure, a one-click way to login, but I doubt it would actually help. In other words, I don't think that players leave in the early 0-2 days stage, I think they leave in the middle phase (a few days into the game, before they reach 'end-game')... and that's an entirely different problem altogether. 

[Chewett]

On 8/31/2017 at 9:38 PM, Ivorak said:

One possible way to do this without requiring a password at signup time is to save the user email from Facebook and send a one-time password change link upon request. I'm sure you can think of other methods.

The main thing with this is that I would first need to investigate what we are allowed to store after allowing a user to login with such a method. I wouldn't want to store a users email if they don't want that.

But I do expect that if a user initially created a facebook/twitter/etc account we would allow them to migrate to a "full" MD account.

On 8/31/2017 at 9:38 PM, Ivorak said:

Part of the award for getting off Gateway Island could be a name of the player's choosing.

Like dst said, I like this idea.

 

On 9/3/2017 at 5:19 PM, Aeoshattr said:

Do we know that the problem with our playerbase is because of the login/early gameplay?

We know it isnt. Im not sure what you point is here, can you clarify?

On 9/3/2017 at 5:19 PM, Aeoshattr said:

It seems that a lot of work is being put into this part of the game, yet over the past 2-3 years the player base kept decreasing (or at least it feels like it has).

Actually, at least from my point of view, not much work has been put into the game. Mur has spent a decent chunk of time but actually most of my work has been on the backend and doing work to prepare for MD. Actually I have spent a decent number of weekends sitting in bed with a cup of tea and a notepad. Maybe I will scan some of it someday

On 9/3/2017 at 5:19 PM, Aeoshattr said:

It would be useful to have some numbers to illustrate when players leave, at what stage, etc - these numbers might be there, I am unaware and I don't think they've ever been made public.

We don't, or at least I don't, have numerical figures but I think it's quite easy to see what happens by watching. I spent a good couple months invisible watching. Perhaps slightly voyeuristically but the old saying of, you observe it and it changes.

From what I saw, the point where we lost many players is the point after they had done most of the intro, story and started to fight a bit. It takes a certain person to be able to continue from what we have given (very little) and direct themselves.

This was originally one of the filters but is something that we both (Murry and I) feel needs to change. This isn't because of anything that has changed in MD, but RL. Mur and I cannot fund the continual advertising that was originally powering the stream of players into the game. Since there were so many players coming through the number that stayed because of the continual stream to fight and battle and talk with. Since we have turned off the stream it dwindles and the "stream" stopped. So instead of getting new players come and go into the alliances we didnt.

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I wrote a massive post here but the forum has eaten it 

Edited September 4, 2017 by Chewett

[Chewett]

This is mostly the post I wrote, minus some  finesse

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On 9/3/2017 at 5:19 PM, Aeoshattr said:
don't think that players leave in the early 0-2 days stage, I think they leave in the middle phase (a few days into the game, before they reach 'end-game')... and that's an entirely different problem altogether. 

I am happy that you are concerned about us wasting time, primarily becuase it means you care.

The reason I am asking these questions is not to know what I should implement asap, but to know what the current players of MD think. Originally this idea came to me while I was playing another game that offering google login and their standard. Talking to people many many many of them opted for google login over the games standard login.

Part of this was the ease of login, but others gave me reasons along the lines of not having to remember many passwords as they just use their google account and it all links in. While I personally dont like this idea, as I have previously had issues with un-merging accounts, I understand others may enjoy such a facility.

To speak technically, I am in the requirements gathernig and prototyping phase of development in MD. This means that I, in part, sit around in bed with a cup of tea, a sketch book and lots of paper. Drawing and planning out what needs to be done, at some point.

The primary focus of this at the moment is a three part rework of the base of MD. The first, as currently announced, is to remove flash completely. Its archaic and slow and people dont like it. The second is a boring rework of the internals to make sure we can continue to develop over the next 10 years. The reason behind this is that web technologies change and we need to make sure that our code isnt going to just be deprecated.

The third is something I have talked about least, and is a rework of MD's UI. The primary aim is this is to increase the horizontal real estate of MD. Since it was originally desinged screens have gotten larger and have a much higher pixel density. This is important since we have a massive vertical scroll which is annoying.

The current horizontal resolution I am working to is both 1280 and 1366. The first being a "new" size square screen and the latter being the standard for 15 inch laptops (also the size of my 6 year old laptop I code on). This is actually a big change from originally being 800 pixels wide.

By asking about these technologies that have recently come about (specifically in this case the login via X services). We are looking forward to future users and peolpe who havent yet joined. Not to mention the potential future of MD. It is important not to design MD in s way that potentially would prohibit such a technology that might be important. Therefore in this stage I am asking lots of questions about what peolpe would expect from a site. We probably wouldnt implement something like two factor auth, but if people expected it perhaps we need to?

Lots has changed, and lots will change. We just need to accept that these things do change and that we need to be aware of some of them. Technologies rise and fall and fads come and go. But MD, MD is here for the future.

Hopefully you dont see me asking these questions as something that I will immediately implement. But merely as sounding the group to see what is something we might eventually add.