Just had a chat with a brand new Player - was amazing!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Steevodeevo, Sep 27, 2019.

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  1. Steevodeevo

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    Hi folks,

    I was /Whispered by a new player who had just joined us in the last couple of days with his partner and they were sparring to learn SOTA combat - a good start I thought!

    The conversation evolved and it was an eye opener, for me as well.

    Firstly they whispered me as they needed help but were so new they didn't have an Orb to chat in Universe. I'm not sure they even knew what one was! would they? I appreciate avoiding spam and abuse in Universe chat is critical, but this is a tough call Devs! ...Aaanyway..

    It started with a question from the new player about selling Loot - should they sell to NPCs or should they sell to players? Clearly these folks were MMO vets but new to SOTA. This led to a discussion about 'junk' loot (for gold), gathering, materials/crafting, then to rares and artefacts...

    Following this it led to Vendors (avoiding town NPC vendors), which led to Player Vendors which led to player housing which led to POTs. owning your own home and its benefits economically, but then cosmetics and art: Deco, crafting, ... on it went...

    We went on to Specialist crafting towns, player driven economy, player written books, getting a house, the 3 x virtue quest lines, and the best approach to them, approaching the final story and the free Lot! Which took us into exp points, managing the pool, exp use vs skill learning...

    The new player was pretty blown away.... As was I. What a deep, complex and rich game we are playing we both clearly thought. I didn't even melt his/her brain with Episode 2, the heavens, the seasons, farming, masterworking.....

    at two points he/she said : "this game is really neat!" and "this game has so many layers!"

    It does, they are right. It reminded me again of this, and how much better it keeps getting all the time.
     
  2. Belladonna Rose

    Belladonna Rose Bug Hunter

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    There is hope for us all after all. I love to see /hear the excitement in new players when they are learning . Good job Steevo. You were kind and generous in your chat with them. That is what makes this community thrive. Cudos and awesome job
     
  3. Steevodeevo

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    ... thanks a lot Bella. But it wasn't an effort. I found myself getting drawn in by this experienced MMo couple, who clearly knew their stuff, but didn't know SOTA. They were birthed 24 hours ago wet and crying in Novia, but clearly amazed by it. but not phased by it. They revived this feeling in me - put my griping and carping for new stuff and polish into perspective and made me realise what we have.. right now. Something unique and rare in MMO cookie cutter world.
     
  4. Fenrus MacRath

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    It would be interesting to follow up with those guys in 2 weeks and see if they are still playing.
     
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  5. Steevodeevo

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    I'll check chat logs and let you know. But the main point was sota doesn't necessarily make a bad first impression.
     
  6. jschoice

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    Thanks for making this post. Those of us who have played for years, often focud on bugs and issues we have discovered and forget all the amazing things in Shroud.

    Crafting is a perfect example, although the system is far from perfect but compared to other games out there I can't think of another crafting system I would prefer to have. In fact, I hated crafting in pretty much every other game I played which has been many.

    This Dev team is very talented, and I stand by my opinion that the biggest issue with the game is the team size and funding. These devs are juggling so many things that systems come out as half done. Player dungeons are a great concept but clearly has been put to the back burner due to team size. The same can be said about so many systems in the game.

    Back when there were 3 pairs of people working solely on adventure scenes we have some great places to explore. The other day I randomly went into a scene that I never been to before and it was so cool and unique but at my level it was stupidly easy.

    I am not sure what the answer is to increasing funding for the project. But 5 to 10 more devs would help.

    Finding information on this game is also hard to find for a new player. There are some decent player made guides and videos but some have not been updated and a lot of the videos are not well edited and end up being more annoying to watch then learn from. I do applaud everyone who streams, create guides, and videos for doing something good to help the community. We just need more or updates to what we have.
     
  7. oplek

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    That's the elephant in the room. The answer was - make a successful game. They had both the funding and the team size. They had their shot. We're not even on the "second chance" here.. it's more like the 4th or 5th chance, they've had to right this boat. At what point are we just pumping more money into a clearly lost cause? Better games have died. This has "sunk cost fallacy" written all over it.

    Their attempts to optimize their cash flow maybe stabilize them into a long, slow burn, in the long run. Props to them, if they succeed. But some of the steps they've been taking have been very anti-consumer, if not unethical.
     
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  8. jschoice

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    I disagreed because 20 million to start a game is nothing and most AAA games are already 3 to 5 years into development before we the consumer even know about it. Game development is way harder then we the players can comprehend which is why do many games fail.
     
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  9. eli

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    Keep in mind, 2 people who enjoys playing games together can enjoy themselves for a time in basically anything.

    Community is probably the strongest thing keeping this game going.

    It would be a little naive to attribute this solely to the merits of the game or take it as a sign of mass viability.
     
  10. Steevodeevo

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    Well we are a cheery lot in here aren't we.
     
  11. kaeshiva

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    I had similar feedback from a new player a while back, who went through the same sort of progression of question & answer you did.
    His comment was "Its like thinking its a lake and then realizing its an ocean."
     
  12. Barugon

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    There are always those who want to turn any conversation negative.
     
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  13. eli

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    Sorry my dudes.

    Continue to be blown away.
     
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  14. oplek

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    I didn't realize this was a AAA game. And apparently the devs didn't realize that either, when they first requested funding. Odd. It's like saying that it's impossible for small businesses to be successful... just look at companies like Microsoft, and how large they are!

    $20M+ isn't needed to create a successful game. Particularly 18 months out from official launch. Particularly when they've not been great on how those resources are spent. Remember the Obsidian trials? How many resource were put into that? Or the tenant system, that barely sees any use, and now deeds are given away for free upon finishing starter quests, effectively eliminating the original purpose of the tenant system? They don't have a good track record on ROI for the funds they get. Legends of Aria had %5.5 the initial funding as SOTA, and yet, it has almost triple the Steam numbers, which also has had its own launcher straight along, which many people use.

    The notion that successful games require hundreds of millions is ludicrous. No, the problem is that they didn't know how to live within their means (and to understand game design, instead of constantly trying to go against the grain). They still don't. Instead of the lead programmer working on critical systems to help the game appeal to a wider audience, he's making adventure zones. That's valuable developer time wasted. More adventure zones makes the ocean wider, not deeper.

    Unfortunately, "getting more funding" is to trick new people into a bad investment. This is project has been a black hole for awhile.
     
  15. Brass Knuckles

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    As a guild leader for what 3 large guilds now /smirk I’ve had this conversation over a hundred times with people I’d bet there are only a handful of them still playing.

    It’s sota’s problem it’s unique enough to get short bursts of interest from people but not sticky enough for most of them to stay and dive deep. Imop this game gets better the deeper you dive into it.
     
  16. jschoice

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    Clearly you missed my point. As for Legends of Aria, I played that game for about an hour and came right back to Shroud. Games are a personal taste and for me LoA was not it.
     
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  17. Boris Mondragon

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    Brother; I agree on the fact that it can make a great initial impression “But” after a while you wonder why to put so much time and effort into a character without an “End Game” with contested territory, large battles, politics, drama.

    Ask most of the ones that left and I believe a majority of them got bored of killing the next high level mob that Portalarium creates or its next dungeon.

    Now give them an “End Game” where they can feel a valuable contributor and things change. Maybe @Chris , @DarkStarr and @Lord British will one day soon open their eyes and see this, who knows.

    R/Boris/El Pirata.
     
  18. Steevodeevo

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    I agree me' hearty, but my point in this threads (before it was lost) was the initial impression for new players of SOTA has taken a radical turn. Remember when first impressions were really REALLY bad? Not that long ago as it happens. Now it seems at least some new players get a really good first impression. That is progress in my book.
     
  19. Sulaene Moon

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    That someone finally liked the NUE and starting zone?
     
  20. Adam Crow

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    They must be doing something right if the unhappy players are still here to try and rain on any positive thread. Makes me chuckle a bit when you try to comprehend how much time those disgruntled players have spent on this game and in the forums! :D

    Most games that are so "doomed to fail" as they say, wouldn't have such a group that is still showing interest in it. If those players can't even leave, that gives me a lot of faith in the project and the players like myself who still enjoy the game each day I log in.
     
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