After a week of forcing myself slowly, piece by piece through this code, I finally managed to boot in player customization on character create. I don't know if it's just me being in a coding funk for a week or not, but it seemed abnormally hard to get this done and installed.
The upshot is that we now have basic character customization for new players. They get to pick a handful of obvious traits, from which a generic long description is created. This will hopefully solve two problems:
1) The long description problem, which is that most players seem utterly incapable of generating proper long descriptions. Those who are capable don't want to take the time. Everyone now has a sane long by default.
2) Far more important is the issue of player investment. Specifically, new players are insufficiently invested in their character to return after their initial playing session. The hope is that customization will pay off in the long run, as the people who do take the time to customize will be more likely to return. I should be able to verify this over the next few months by tracking stats.
There's still a lot of work that needs to be done here, including ways (other than long descs) to see your features, and ways to change them. Changing them is actually going to be more interesting than I expected - as was pointed out to me, age is technically quested for via the fountain of youth, why not quest for most of the other attributes as well?
Things like changing hair length or style are clearly easy to do (got some scissors?), but other things might be interesting for players. Changing skin color for example, could be a pretty involved process.
Now that this is done, there's a whole raft of low level changes on my todo list. Lack of player investment is only one part of the problem; the remainder is that the game just isn't as fun as it should be for low levels. I have several more quests to add, as well as a couple more shopkeepers and more utility items. There are also some structural additions to be made, but those can wait for a while.
4 comments:
1.) the section where you customize you characters appearance is a little buggy, some of the sub catagories allow you to pick the letter of your option or type your option out(how it should work) while other sub catagories like the complexion one dosent work like it should.
2.) after a nub enters the word "new" in response to the first question the next question should be "Would you like start playing immediately or would you like to go through the character customization process?(note: you may do this later)" if they select the option to play the game immediately let them pick their name and then automatically set all their other preferences including a gender of neuter and plop them down in sloe.
3.) the newbie prompt looks like crap, suggest you change it back to the green color with the parenthesises around in like it used to be long ago.
4.) instead of evil imps being the first
mob that you kill it should be bunny rabbits. RPGs associate G-rated mobiles with newbies for a reason. It's a psychological thing.
Speaking of all things psychological, instead of "You now have enough experience to level!" something like "Whoa rock on dude, you have enough xp to level now!" might be a more effective way to make those feel-good neurotransmitters fire off in the brain of a newbie. Maybe a shopkeeper whispering to you "good purchace buddy" after buy a high priced item. Any thing to make the game feel less wooden and more like it's giving you a hug each time you accomplish something. NLP stuff you know. it might sound stupid to some people but it can go a long way.
The best way to set the hook into these lonely nubs is to have one-on-one newbie-helpers to give them love and encouragement in person.
Perhaps one of the only advantages a MUD has over a grahpic online game is its ability to create a unique kind of intimiacy. If we don't foster that then we don't have anything.
I think this is a cool change, probably long overdue. Good idea though. I think it is important for a player to be able to visualize their character in some way, this allows them to visualize battles and various scenes in the game. I think this adds a dimension of depth for new players that should cause them to be more involved and have more fun. Even thought it is just text, being able to choose a characters appearance makes your new character more than just a default little warrior, and allows the player to connect to their character in a way. maybe. anyways i think its cool.
When someone tries to quit the game without having leveled you should force them into an editor with a message telling them to leave their comments and feelings on why they left the game. and make sure it automatically saves everything they type even if they dont end with a @.
In additon to that, at some point on sloe maybe after they've reached level 5(or whereever you feel this information would be most useful)they should recieve a send that gives them an editor where they can express their comments/feelings about what they think of the game so far and obstacles they are running into that would compel them to leave. In return for their comments offer them 5k gold.
Or you could turn it into a quest where they learn how to write on a board and what they write on the board would be the same as what i just mentioned above, and then reward them for completing the quest as you would normally.
The above ideas would give you a great way to get into the minds of the newbies instead of relying soley on your "data".
To anonymous number 1:
I didn't see any obvious problems with the customization process. Can you point out specific weirdness so I can take a look?
I for the most part disagree with your 'drop them into the game immediately' idea. I'm beginning to think that a little bit of setup time will probably pay for itself. Lots of people like setup; it attaches them to their character.
To anonymous #2:
It might be worthwhile to have them fill out a survey around level 5, but earlier than that (or when they're trying to quit) seems like a very bad idea. A lot of newbies just stop and click the 'X' on the client to destroy it; getting them to do anything more at that point is likely only going to piss them off.
That said, I can gather a lot of information from the playing patterns in the newbie logfiles. It's usually pretty clear where they're having issues.
Post a Comment