A serious problem... and a solution.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Maya SaintClaire, Aug 13, 2019.

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  1. Maya SaintClaire

    Maya SaintClaire Avatar

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    Admittedly, I am a very new face in SOTA, but today I'm going to dare to take a long walk on a very short pier, regardless the risk of ruffling the feathers of those who might think it's too soon for a newb like me to voice an opinion.

    In "real life" I have developed a pretty solid reputation for problem solving... specifically with nightclubs who can't seem to figure out why they lose patrons as fast as they gain them. What I have found is that invariably there is a common problem that plagues them all. I see that same problem here, in SOTA. I call it the "Attrition to Retention" ratio. In our case here in SOTA this means our attrition rate for new players (the rate at which we lose new players) is as high, if not higher than the rate at which we "retain" them. We lose them as fast as we get them. In other words, no real new growth.

    Most clubs in the real world fail as a result of not making adjustments to resolve this. They always have a relatively small but invested group of "regulars", but can't seem to hold onto the new people who wander in to "check it out". We have the same issue, and it will have to be resolved if all the high hopes, plans, and future development on the table in SOTA will have any chance at success.

    So how do we solve it? What causes new player attrition anyway? What is causing new players to come in, look around, and leave? What would be the overall effect/benefit if we did shrink attrition and increase retention?

    First off.... there would be dozens of positive benefits if we took action and resolved our attrition issue. Lots more players in an ever growing player base, new income to Portalarium, a larger and more diverse dev team, project flow rates dramatically increased, faster turnaround on bugs and fixes, and of course, a stronger economy, and a far more satisfying and less frustrating game for all the old hands here. That's enough incentive to take action. So how do we do this?

    Well, to paraphrase what President Kennedy said. "Ask not what your country can do for you... rather ask what you can do for your country." In other words, this is not an issue that the dev team can solve as readily as we the players can, and frankly, they need our help on this one. The truth is there are a LOT of things we could/can do to stem the loss rate of new players in SOTA, but I won't get into all of them unless there is some serious interest in this post. Instead I will lay out a few simple concepts that are certainly within our ability to implement. If you are still with me at this point, let's get started...

    CAUSES OF PLAYER ATTRITION

    Fact: The need to belong refers to the idea that humans have a fundamental motivation to be accepted into relation-ships with others and to be a part of social groups, a community. This is the key to our problem, and also the solution.

    I know many of you would argue with me on this one but I'll say it anyway. We are the problem. Portalarium is not the cause of our frustrations here, or the issues we have so many complaints about. We are. And, as that is true, we are also the solution.

    Because the game was crowd-funded, and because so many of the regulars here invested tons of money and hopes and desires into this game, and because Portalarium feels the tremendous pressure to satisfy their fiduciary responsibility to that heavily invested and loyal base, the core player base in SOTA has become spoiled, entitled, demanding, unrealistic, argumentative, disillusioned and carrying more than a little "buyers remorse". This creates a viscous cycle in the following sense....

    Without intending to, wanting to, or in most cases even knowing they are doing it, the core player base is running off the new players.... because of the fact that human beings NEED to belong, and without any intention to do so, the players here make it nearly impossible for new players to feel they belong here, could ever really be a vlaued member of this community.... and they leave. In one sense this goes back all the way to what Lord British said about the roll out of UO back in 97. In essence (not a direct quote).... "We built this cool game and the players came in and set about destroying everything we had worked on."

    Before I get bombarded with an avalanche of lawyering, allow me to say... I am NOT saying we do anything to intentionally inhibit the games progress, retention rate, development, or anything else. It's simply a matter of the fact that players and developers/producers look at things entirely differently. And those differences are at odds with each other. Thus our current situation here in SOTA.

    The devs look at the game from a very creative and conceptual place. On the other hand we as players each look at the game from a very practical and results oriented point of view, and that compounded by each of our own individual play-styles and motivations to play. Basically, in a thousand different ways, "we keep score". The result of these two different views is that we are not always on the same page with the devs, and they are not always in tune with us..... and that's ok, as long as we understand that we do things, say things and cause things that are not necessarily in our own best interest, or the games, overall.

    In order to get new players to want to stay here and play long term, we will have to change the basic dynamic of how we act, react, engage each other, with Portalarium and with new players. We will have to give them far more than the lip service of "welcome". We will have to "include" them as full fledged members of the player community in ways that make them feel they have too much here to leave.

    Now some might want to argue that we already do that, and I would hate to have to argue that we don't. The fact is, there is next to zero focus on new players here in SOTA. Before the arguments roll in about this statement, please allow me to say, there are a very few players here who do genuinely make an effort to not just welcome newbies but to make them feel a part of it all, help them to feel at home, and take ownership of the game on a personal level. A very few who are willing to have a real social relationship with players who are not at their own skill or investment level. I cant stress this enough.... if we dont find ways to engage in much more meaningful and fulfilling connections with our new players then this game cannot grow.

    If we, the existing player base, do not make a concerted effort to include, befriend, socialize with, encourage, motivate, applaud, congratulate, laugh with, laugh at, nourish, care for and elevate new players, we will eventually lose this game, as old core players slowly peel off and "cut their losses". This games primary problem is NOT all the technical fixes there's so much talk about on the forums. It's a lack of focus on the most urgent, most pressing and most important "bug" we have.... New Player Neglect.

    To Summarize: The game was crowd funded. It took off prematurely and with good intentions tried to be accommodating to the investment players. The team was too small for the task of keeping the invested players happy and tending to the needs of the new FTP players. The pledge players rightfully expected things to be how they felt they were promised. For lots of reasons some players (both invested and not) became disillusioned and left or "took a break" to wait and see. SOTA ended up to be a small player base and small dev team that are at odds with each other in key ways and consequently focus very little on the new player experience. Attrition rate of new players is as high as, or higher than retention rate. Invested players demand all the attention of a small team of devs who could not possibly satisfy them, much less facility new players in a concerted and dedicated manner. The end result is a predictable and measurable decline in player population as old core players slowly depart.

    SOLUTIONS

    So, here's what we can do, and fair warning... this would require a substantial number of the core players in SOTA to adopt a completely new paradigm. Less focus on what WE want or feel we need to be satisfied, and more focus on what NEW PLAYERS need and must have in order to stay. They need us. Period.

    1 - Create a Players Council: The primary function would be to implement player run programs designed to carry new players safely through the "checking it out" phase and well into the "habitual/regular" player phase. (Please please please don't quote this and comment that the Hospitallers already do this. They don't.)

    2 - Enlist a Large Corps of Volunteer Players: to implement programs designed and facilitated by the Player Council. This dedicated and effective new force of volunteers would need titles (other than Hospitaller please, newbies aren't sick, they are lost). Remember, the Counselors, Seers and Companions of UO? Good programs. We could add Ambassadors, Guild Liasons, Mentors, Masters, Big Brothers and Sisters, Quest Leaders, Hunt Leaders, Dungeon Masters, Event Coordinators, and a slew of Maesters/Teachers in each proficiency to teach specific skills, and all of the effort aimed directly toward new players.

    3 - Change Our Behavior: Be conscious of and dedicated to modifying all aspects of what we say, what we do, and how we engage new players in-game, on the forums and in universal chat. Everything we do and say is seen and absorbed by new players. Before you post, chat or log-in, ask yourself, "will this help to keep them or run them away?" Is dominating/smothering Universal Chat and the forums making new players feel a part of this game or making them feel left out, apart, afraid to say something dumb or ask a newbie question?

    4 - Dedicate a Portion of Our Time to New Players: Go where they are, engage them, befriend them, encourage them, compliment them, offer them some better gear, let them know you value their friendship and are always just a whisper away when they need help. Remember, this means you would actually have to go where new players are.

    5 - Get a Tutorial Team Together: This game is sadly lacking proper, easy to follow, intuitive and enjoyable media to bring new players along the path. These need to be short, single subject and easy to understand, and most importantly accessible in-game at the appropriate moment they are needed. This could be accomplished with some "Open Browser" devices in-game at appropriate and intuitive locations. Lets face it, this is a highly complex game in many, many ways and its not the kind of thing new players are prone to picking up intuitively. At least not the ones still in the "check it out" phase.

    6 - Relieve The Pressure on Portalarium to satisfy US and let them know we would like to see them concentrate on what will best move the game forward into an ever expanding and popular MMO. And NOT push them into rolling out new programs until the games core functionality is intact.

    The end result of all this (and more things this insanely smart community could come up with) would be that the game would immediately move into a much more positive direction. Attrition would shrink, retention would grow. Portalarium income would grow, the dev team would grow, the game would grow.

    Well, that's more than enough to stimulate conversation, or launch a wave of lawyering. I sincerely hope its the former and not the latter. I realize how comfy and routine the status quo is for a lot of people. I get that it's hard to change, to look at things from a fresh perspective.... to change our behavior.... to accept responsibility. In this case, it may be too late to change gears and activate the player base into a pro-active, effective part of the overall team.

    This is a unique set of circumstances. This is not World of Warcraft, not Ultima Online, not at all the situation faced by any of the other "A" games out there. SOTA will need a core player base willing to jump in and help make the game the success we all want it to be, or it just wont. We can't go back and change how the game was funded, or the unique situation that choice has caused. We can make a clear decision to accept where we are and join together to move forward in a more productive and satisfying way.

    I came here with my Dad in the hopes of reliving that amazing time we had in UO, and even bringing back some of our dear friends from RKB in Great Lakes to share the experience all over again. We're making great friends here too! We are spending money and investing in the game in a variety of ways. I absolutely love so many things about this game and its community of players.... But I have to be honest and say I see why it isnt bigger and more established than it is. As a new player myself, I can say with some authority, this game is hard on new players. Too hard. And, it does leave us newbs with the frequent desire to log out and keep looking. I won't though. I do have a great support team in some of the core players here who have reached out and offered me the encouragement and assistance I needed to get me through to where I feel like I belong here. I'm home.

    That's my 2 cents.

    Ciao for now!
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
  2. Bedawyn

    Bedawyn Avatar

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    I'm also a new-ish player (came in the spring to offline, early summer to online), and I feel the exact opposite. The devs have already spent the past few months focusing on the NUE, and while I think more could be done (like bringing back choice), the problems don't come from neglect, on the devs' part or the players. On the contrary, I've found the players' to be very welcoming -- in fact, TOO welcoming. (I was just complaining on stream about having friend requests from strangers before I'd even finished rezzing properly -- I swear, I'm going to start replying with a boilerplate: THIS PLAYER IS IN PRIVATE MODE. LEAVE HER THE F---- ALONE.)

    I think there's a couple problems with your analysis:

    (A) A nightclub is an inherently social place. An RPG is not. Some people come here for the social aspects, others don't, and any solution that assumes everyone is here for the social is going to backfire. Even for those that are here for the social, there's a lot of other factors coming into play. After all, I doubt your nightclubs are going to retain anyone if they have leaking roofs.

    (B) Although you briefly mention it, I don't think you're giving enough importance to the other aspect of retention: existing players. You're not going to have a stable playerbase if older players are leaving as fast as new ones are coming in. Even if new players are coming in faster, they're going to hear about older players leaving and it will give them a bad impression of the health of the game. They've got to stop bleeding out their established fans who wanted to support the game before they can ever really succeed at converting enough new players.

    I'd say retention is not the problem, it's a symptom. The problem is confusion about the identity of the game, what kind of game it's trying to be, and a structured long-term plan to get there (I'm not talking about quarterlies, I'm talking about "how does ep 1 content work in the context of a 5-ep series?"), combined with serious performance and usability issues (that are slowly improving but still problematic). As long as those things exist, retention is going to stay a problem, no matter how much you court new players. And, under those circumstances, I think courting new players is ethically dubious. I understand that they need new funds, but you don't try to sell a broken product. You fix it FIRST, then seek new customers.
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
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  3. Maya SaintClaire

    Maya SaintClaire Avatar

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    Very good points Bedawyn. I would have to respectfully disagree with RPG's not being inherently social places though.... by their very nature they are. Role play itself requires a high degree of social interaction. MMO's on the other hand can be a lot less social as many players come to play solo in both PVE and PVP. BUT! You are correct in the sense that SOTA hasnt really decided which they are :) I would call it a hybrid I guess. Part RPG, part MMO. However, I understand that each player, new or established has their own agenda, priorities, play-style and response to social intercourse.

    I agree with you that retention loss is a symptom and not the original or predominate problem, but attrition and retention have to be addressed or all the rest is moot. That puts it front and center regardless of whether its a symptom or the cause. Unless its addressed, the inevitable will occur, and none of this will matter. Leaking roofs can't be fixed if there's no money to fix them with. Kind of like Climate Change. We have tons of problems in the world today, terrible problems, but they won't matter if we don't address climate change.

    Thanks so much for responding... and great to hear from a fellow newb! Weeeee!
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
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  4. DavidDC

    DavidDC Programmer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    What i hate the most when starting a game, is someone that come to me and give me everything i need to start with and help me out start the game. I feel like im missing alot of discovery and it leave no place to my imagination knowing what i can do day 1. I like challenge, i like to discover stuff by myself, and i think players that stick in soltown and taking 2-3 hours to speak to new player to help them out actually kill their first feeling of the game. And that common line that always come back "we are the greatest community ever" feel like this game is softcore to the bone. Do i want to play a game like this? Or go try that other rpg or action game that no one give a damn about you and is more challenging... I know that point differ from many people opinion but i think that the vast majority of players are like me and would probably quit the game fast if i were helped out like this.

    I also seen alot of players get pass the point of being "newb" and actually getting into the game, its after that point that they leave.
    1 cause people helped them so much they already feel like they got everything.
    and 2 cause there is no game mechanic and the game is only grinding

    Id focus more on mechanic than 1 whole year trying to make the new user experience a better thing. Its already good, dont need the be perfect, the rest is really bad tought, that need work.
     
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  5. Bayard

    Bayard Avatar

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    Maya,

    Thank you for your suggestions and new arrival opinions are welcome (or should be). I agree that your suggestions would help except most of them have been tried or in place for a long time but perhaps they haven't been advertised well. For example, the Hospitallers are always available to help new arrivals but this isn't communicated very well in game. There are also many community members who are very active in new player support. In fact, this is one of the most supportive and friendly communities I've been involved in. Perhaps you haven't bumped into those folks yet or seen their offers to new arrivals in chat or Discord.

    As far as getting involved to help Portalarium...sigh...many of us have tried offering various things to help Portalarium but our offers go unanswered. This has been a persistent problem in my observation for years so it's not a result of a smaller staff. I don't know what to recommend here but you are welcome to offer your assistance to see if your results are different.

    Regardless, I enjoy my time in SotA and built the Outlander Welcome Center to provide help for newer arrivals in an immersive way. If you have any suggestions to make the OWC better, I'd be happy to hear them.

    Thank you again for your time to provide suggestions and I look forward to meeting you!

    P.S. I'm like devilcult, the fact that I had to learn everything on my own is one of the things I enjoyed most about my early days in SotA. However, we seem to be in the minority of players.
     
  6. Maya SaintClaire

    Maya SaintClaire Avatar

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    Heya @devilcult! Actually, I couldn't agree with you more! For a player like yourself, there is no reason to get involved in your path other than to make sure it's actually "possible" for you to find your way on your own. I would never condone forcing players to accept any sort of help, be it in person, or by way of tutorials or carefully placed clues and cues. But not all players are as independent as you are, and some do need and want more guidance and materials available. But I do believe that even for players such as yourself there has to be a a lot of effort put into how you might get from "this to that". If my post made it seem that I wanted to force-feed help down the throats of players who don't want or need it, I can assure you that was not my intention. Thanks a heep for responding! And for lending testimony to the fact that we are all indeed unique and different in our play-styles and what we want from a game.
     
  7. Maya SaintClaire

    Maya SaintClaire Avatar

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    Hi @Bayard ! Thank you so much for responding. I couldn't agree with you more that this is one of the friendliest communities out there. Not sure I can agree with the most "supportive" though. Granted, it is true that you can get pretty much any question answered on Universal, but I'm pretty sure there are a LOT of new players who won't ask there because its completely dominated by established players who are having conversations that by and large new players don't feel they are a part of. It has the feel of a private chat channel for a very few of the same players day after day. That's not a complaint, it's an observation, and one I have heard from more than one new player about why they don't want to ask questions there.

    As far as the Hospitallers go, I know they have great intentions and are volunteering, and I applaud that. As far as their effectiveness, that's another story. As you stated, their existence, their purpose, who they are, how they might help you and how you would contact one is NOT "communicated very well", or at all. I found out about the Hospitallers long after I would have appreciated a few questions being answered.

    Yes, the "unresponsiveness" of the dev team seems of be a really popular topic lately. I am not standing there with them looking over their shoulders, or listening in to their conversations but I would venture to say that it goes back to what I said in my post. But honestly, I was not asking the devs for their help or their attention. This is a player issue and that's who I am addressing.

    I didn't post to see if there were any good plans to address our player attrition, I already know there are not. I posted to see if this core player base can get past their habitual behavior that is driving new players away from SOTA as fast as they arrive to check us out, or not.

    As far as "most of them have been tried before or are in place".... well, I have been here for about 3 months I guess. Haven't seen those and I don't think I live under a rock. I guess I have to say that if new players like myself don't know about those programs.... then they don't really exist. None of this changes the fact that if something isn't done about new player attrition, none of this will matter anyway. I'm starting to feel like Chicken Little :(

    Thanks for responding Bavard!
     
  8. Forum Name

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    Thank you for the thoughts here. It is appreciated.

    But I would side with the thought that this is about the most welcoming and helpful group of players I have seen, by far, in 20+ years of online games. If anything, players have done too much such that really basic fixes are not tackled by Port because “the players fill that void”. Existing players? Not the issue. At all.

    In my opinion, We don’t get or keep enough new players because -

    1. Despite numerous efforts and overhauls, the NUE for Shroud just isn’t good by any modern standard. Players see it and quit before really diving in more. I don’t know how this really gets fixed without major core system overhauls and resources.

    2. Most new players have decided they don’t like the game - it could be quests, combat, UI, bugs, or some combination of these and more. Before we go down the “well, the backers pushed the systems we have now”, at the end of the day Port controls everything about this game and if they really have made mistakes by straying from their vision, that’s on them. Bending to players is a dev problem. To address this, see item 1 - core overhauls needed.

    3. Non-existent marketing. Been discussed a hundred times here, so I won’t belabor it. But no advertising means no meaningful way to draw large numbers of new people.
     
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  9. Brass Knuckles

    Brass Knuckles Avatar

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    That’s the kitchen sink version not the 2 cent version ;) nice post..... nooo excellent post.

    Don’t be surprised if people attack you, they love to do that if you offer anything they see as criticism.

    With that said I think portal has much more to do to help In “retention” of the game. This launched to persistents 3 years ago and we still have retention issues.

    Players don’t stick because they can’t find reasons to dive deeper. The skills system is an great sink for many but it’s not enough. Crafting is cool down the road new players are excluded from it due to difficult to acquire crafting components or lack of understanding because it’s a confusing system for a new player.
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
  10. Maya SaintClaire

    Maya SaintClaire Avatar

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    Hey @AlmostGivenUp ! You might be surprised to know that I agree with you on almost everything you said. The dev team didn't have to go down the rabbit hole, that's a fact, and yes.... it's on them. In fact I would say the player base is acting and reacting exactly according to stimulus. You could be right about your assessment of why new players don't stick around too.... some very valid points. I can't help but think though that the tech problems are not really the whole thing. During my journey through the new player part of the game I did talk to a lot of other new players along the way. You may have noticed I am a gab lol... I would say this post is primarily the result of those conversations, and from my own experience. Granted, I am certain there are tons more new players with completely different reasons for not sticking around, but I honestly don't know. I do know this.... there is a serious problem with player attrition, and it needs to get fixed, no matter how much trial and error and discussion we have to do. The alternative is not acceptable.

    Thanks so much for reading my huge diatribe lol.... and thanks for responding!
     
  11. Maya SaintClaire

    Maya SaintClaire Avatar

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    Hi @Brass Knuckles ! It might be the whole kitchen! lol
    Can't thank you enough for the kind words and the heads up. Yeah, goes with the territory on forums I guess. I honestly don't mean this as a criticism of anyone, but I do realize that it can easily be perceived that way. Again, thanks for taking the time to read this, and for responding :)
     
  12. CarlNZ

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    So..... You advise nightclubs to get their customers to fix their problems too?
     
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  13. Maya SaintClaire

    Maya SaintClaire Avatar

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    lol.... I wasnt going to dignify that with a response but I am a sucker for punishment so I will.

    No.
     
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  14. Aetrion

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    Hmm, I don't really agree that new players are neglected. The new player experience has received a ton of attention in the game, and there are a lot of helpful players in this game that are willing to spend their time helping new players. I think you do have kind of a point though.

    Overall the biggest problem SOTA has is that the moment to moment adventuring gameplay just isn't all that fun for several reasons.

    The glyph system is unintuitive and awkward. It is never brought up as a selling point for this game, but it's in your face every second of actually adventuring in it. It's also the clearest case of only listening to a tiny core community and ignoring the market at large. The system was never actually fixed. It never delivered on the promise of a more tactical and cerebral TCG style way of deploying abilities. Effectively what we have is an awkward early 2000s action RPG where you can set part of your hotbar to shuffle. The fact that nobody complains about this anymore just means a ton of people have given up and walked away.

    The general balance of the game is also just not very good, which shoehorns people into using the same few alpha builds and abilities over and over. That hurts one of the biggest strengths of the game, which is the openness of character building. A huge part of what gets people excited to play a game like SOTA is the promise of endless possibilities to create characters. You really have to just use what works though, and especially the magic system is a total mess because you can mix and match so freely that many things are too weak to ever use on their own just because the possibility of a strong combo exists, so everyone has to use it. Summons had to be balanced to be used at the same time as all other spells, so actual summoner builds that use summons instead of spells just aren't possible. Most damage spells are weak because they have to be balanced for being cast on enemies who are also standing in a ring of fire. The way these abilities interact kill a huge number of possibilities.

    The combat itself tends to be visually confusing. It's often hard to tell what's going on and what's hitting you. Generally the controls aren't overly responsive. Health bars seem to lag a second behind everything that happens. There just isn't a lot of "juice", no satisfying thwack when you crit, no whoosh when you miss. Especially in group fights it's often extremely difficult to tell who's attacking what and so on. I'm not entirely sure why some games seem to have no difficulty being comprehensible in a fight but this one isn't. I like to be able to point to specific causes, but I haven't thought about it enough, I just know I can't follow the action on screen very easily in SOTA.


    This kind of stuff is IMO the really big issue with keeping players in the game, because all of the strengths this game has have to fight against these issues at all times. The vast majority of the potential audience for a game like this has played things like Guild Wars 2, Elderscrolls Online, Neverwinter, TERA, Black Desert Online, so make a sales pitch for SOTA to these people. It goes something like: "SOTA is an open world game that has a ton of features to support community events, great player housing with player towns, is a strong roleplay platform, has a classless character system, and a really in depth crafting system" and then they will inevitably ask you what the problems with it are and you have to answer something like "Awkward combat system, lots of grind, high commitment, literal ingame taxes, heavy upkeep on gear and consumables, bad balance, and a very expensive cash shop."
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2019
  15. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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  16. Superbitsandbob

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    I really like all of your ideas and while I think there is some responsibility there, first and foremost Port need to create a compelling game. I enjoy some of it, but unless you are really into deco's, crafting and housing, other content is weak for a game that has been in development for so long.

    This is a game with niche written all over it. Not a bad thing per se until you hit that wall of players who are willing to buy into your ideas.

    Take crafting and loot. Most people like a bit of crafting, everyone likes loot. What people seem to like less is a system based solely around crafting. Having to run around towns looking on endless rows of vendors to find an upgrade is just not what the majority want to do. Add in to that the fact that crafted items have so many variables, it just becomes tedious. People want to fight the dragon with their friends and hold aloft the Sword of Awesomeness +5 with the dragon lying at their feet. Not click on the 30th vendor that day to see if a sword is a bit better than the one they saw 30mins ago. It's a fundamental gameplay loop of RPG's basically missing. You have artifacts but really, it's not currently up to snuff. The crafting system is also very unapproachable if you just wanted to use it casually to make your own equipment.

    Housing and deco's are also something that most people like and will dip in and out of in any game I have played, but again it is a system that would be considered niche. This game looks like it has some of the best housing systems of any game and yet there is not a flock of people coming into the game for it.

    If you look at the release notes every month the majority of it is taken up with these systems with very little new PvE gameplay/combat/new scenes/revamped dead scenes etc improvements or systems. There is PvE/combat gameplay and content but it is under-developed. The new Tartarus dungeon for example is unfinished and the dev creating it, when I have seen streams recently, talks mostly about working on guess what? Deco's!! :)

    A wiser man than me once said that Port have developed themselves into a corner and you touched upon it above. They are so reliant on the money from the minority who are spending lots on deco's, housing and fishing etc that it is where the majority of development time and money is spent.

    Mannequins!! I watched the stream when they were introduced and they said they were so happy to be introducing them as everyone was asking for them. Who!? That same minority keeping the game afloat I imagine? If you advertised "The Game Now Has Mannequins" who would really care? A nice addition for sure but it's not going to get people into the game.

    I think the streams have made things worse also. I watched the most recent one where the questions for Chris, the lead dev, were about how rain was falling on a roof and can mannequins be examinable. They were all like this. It's the same people every stream asking the same questions.

    The above is not just random thoughts plucked out of the air btw but some of the things mentioned by people I know and others I didn't know as reasons for leaving the game. People running around making newbies feel welcome was not something that came up but it's a good idea. At this point I think what we have is what the devs want to a certain extent. It's a fantasy life sim first, and everything else second. I don't see things changing though as right or wrong the systems the game prioritises doesn't seem to be what the larger RPG/MMO base want.

    Anyway apologies as that turned into a bit of a rant albeit a well intentioned one. :)
     
  17. Rowell

    Rowell Avatar

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    My personal experience is that the player base is very friendly, social and receptive to new players. Players with questions ask in /zone or the global channel, and receive answers pretty quick. I see lots of instances where an experienced player is helping a new player, by answering questions or showing them around. i don't think the social attitude of the player base is what causes the attrition of players.

    Personally, I think the loss of players is due to the lack of longevity in the game. By this, I mean...if you play SOTA for a week or two...then you've seen pretty much everything. You've seen all the mobs in the game (the human bandits, the kobolds, the undead, etc). The treasure stays pretty constant. There's really no advancement beyond gaining higher levels in skills, and fighting the same critters with higher health values. Basically, most people get bored and move on.

    Now, don't get me wrong...the Housing/Property system in Sota is second to none. The crafting system is pretty great. The fact that players can have their own vendors and shops...that's great too (except that one needs to go vendor to vendor to search through thousands of items just to find what they're looking for...not so great). But, at the core of it, the content of the game if you're into PVE fighting/adventuring, gets stale pretty quick.
     
  18. Gorthyn

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    I also agree that the community is very friendly and helpful. It's not the players that are the problem but the ongoing issues and weaknesses of the game itself which run much deeper than any new player experience.

    So many of those issues have been raised again and again over the years but sadly few if any have been adequately addressed, if at all.

    They weren't addressed when the Dev team was far bigger than it is now, so quite what the chances for change are these days I have my doubts.

    That's a shame as the game has a decent amount of good stuff too and certainly plenty of potential but not enough of that has ever been realised. Hence the population is where it is today.
     
  19. Boris Mondragon

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    Hmm; Noble gesture and with a lot of thought @Maya SaintClaire .

    Unfortunately you missed what I think will draw in new patrons and keep them. Maybe because you are fairly new and probably missed the large scale event that started the potential success of SOTA a while back, you don’t see what is really needed.

    SOTA needs an end game. Why level a character and grind for years only to kill the next content Portalarium gives us which gets old quick? Why try to get the next Uber weapon or armor?.

    They can’t or won’t even do something as simple as giving the avatars new appearance options (hairstyles and body shapes), in short we all look alike. @Chris had started on creating “Raid Groups” (party group size increase from 8 to 24) for large PVP battles which we started back on 3 December 2017 with the first “Battle of Dragomir” and followed this year with the battles of “New Heaven”, Dragomir part 2 and “Luna City”. They even had Travian Games host a month long event which culminated in the Battle of Aerie. Over a hundred players participated in that PVE/PVP event.

    These player and Portalarium hosted event if held monthly will bring and keep players interested yet they look the other way until one day the lights go out and people go to another “Club”.

    Someone let this pirate know when this game becomes fun and exciting again.

    R/Boris/El Pirata/Black Sails Forever
     
  20. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    This
    and this
    don't work together well.

    This community is friendly as long as you don't tumble into a "minefield" topic.
     
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