Community Driven Game Longevity

In today's game world, it seems like a revolving door of new games all the time. We are being pushed and herded to new and promising content every time we open Steam, visit a game website for a review, or even just from word of mouth by friends hyping games. I would like to start a discussion on the awareness of this and how can we as a community keep players here. I have two articles that I will link below discussing Longevity in MMO's. Lately there has been a disturbing pattern of people that just play games for a short time then move on to the next.

Why do they do this? Is this because of the game content or the players themselves that do this. Is it because there is such a race to the end when maybe the journey should be enjoyed? We need to ask ourselves do we need to rush? Do we need to slow down? Is there a need to hurry? Is there an endgame we are rushing towards? *Sings a song "I'm in a hurry to get things done" by Alabama.*

Are the communities inviting and open to players? We are on a good path here I think, but there is always room for improvement. Many people have stepped up to this challenge.

What can we do to help them get immersed in to the game? We know there are going to be and are external help websites out there, but maybe hold off on telling new players at least that they are there until they get a chance to try the system before already just knowing it. (let em try to play the game) I know this will not be done by a large percentage but it is wishful thinking on my part.

Are we basically one big generic cartoon skype chatroom the same as what most of all the other games out there are?? Not knocking this but I want it to be more than just that, I want fellow role players to role play. This in itself creates an additional sense of community and helps with longevity.

Is there a sense of accomplishment in gaming anymore and what can we do to challenge players to get the feeling of accomplishment as a community? For example: helping players along a path but not giving them the answers. This enables a sense of accomplishment for deeds that they accomplish themselves. But you are there to help them in the hard spots. (prevent rage quiting)

I have lots more questions but these are a good start.

Here is a blog Written By Tobold Stoutfoot:
"There has been quite a lot of discussion on the quick hype-to-decline cycle of MMORPGs recently, here and elsewhere, after that cycle was again demonstrated for both The Elder Scrolls Online and Wildstar. Even the already derogatory term "three-monther" is sometimes too optimistic. Not many people are still willing to invest years of their lives in a new MMORPG. But is that even surprising?"
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2014/08/longevity-of-games.html

Now I know many of us on the forums have pledged money to the game development. We all have a vested interest in making it work. I know sometimes I go on little rants about how I think things should be and why but I never really go into extensive detail about it. In short, I really really want this game to work, and I want it to possibly be that last major game that I play. Much like Tobald in the article above, I have played few games and the ones I have played I played for a long time. I come from an age group where there where no computers growing up to people that play that have never been without growing up. Its the typical old vs new scenario. My approach to the new scenario is skeptical because partially its unknown to me. Often times I feel rather stupid in conversations with some people, not that they are trying to make me feel this way, its just that I am ignorant of much of the topics discussed. I am wary of some modern ways of using outside media to help with the in game play, currently I think it ruins game play but I really am trying to adjust and "get with the times". Its a rather large pill to swallow though, but I am trying. I digress....

So anyway the next article is about how role play can help longevity in online games. In this article:

"It's a shame, because such an attitude ignores the benefits that roleplaying elements in an MMOPRG extend to all players -- roleplayers or not -- and lately I've started to wonder if this negative perception infects the developers themselves. For all of the advances in storytelling, combat, and dynamic events we've seen over the last couple of years, developers increasingly ignore little touches that enhance the gameplay experience for roleplayers in the apparent belief that nothing matters so much as combat and progression. Everything else, developers seem to say, is mere fluff. That's true to some extent, but if you focus on combat and progression to the exclusion of making your world an immersive place to live in beyond the immediate storyline, you take away meaningful reasons for all players to stick around once the raids, the instances, and the PvP combat are done."
Massivity: How Roleplaying Powers MMO Longevity

In closing: I (and I assume you all do to) want this game to succeed to huge proportions. I know in all honesty It will never be like WoW but I wish it could reach this level of people playing. Please if you want, discuss what you feel we as a community needs to do to help the game and promote the Longevity of the game. Please lets not turn this into a rant about Portalarium. Lets keep it on topic and have a healthy discussion about Positive things we can do as a community.

 

Oh thank you Ravicus for posting this thinking. Sure it's a 'wall of text' as some say, but it should be read and discussed. So I totally think of what will keep us in this game and I agree community can and does make a huge difference, but I also think there is more to it. What about the person
who is such a loner and wants to solo the game and says 'please leave me alone', I just want to play by myself'. What would keep that type of player. So besides the community here are other thoughts I have and you've probably heard me mention them here and there or similar.

ok so examples that I feel SOTA should strive to include in this game................................

Example
***You are adventuring the land and "Oh what is that item I see hiding in the embers of that campfire" reaches down & picks up item, and all of the sudden your body is jerking and you're vomiting, and losing strength. Oh no You've been cursed, and what is this, you spy a letter warning you 'do not touch',
well too late, you are definityely cursed, but the letter contains one name, and that could be your clue to ending this curse. You wonder will I die, or can this person help me?

*** One of the lovely things about UO was the amazing ability you had to experience as a player. One of these things was the ability to actually learn to make poison or posion cure by actually drinking it, then you would get better at it, and sometimes even die from it

***I had an idea about thieves a while ago because I have a friend who was so missing how a thief/begger was in UO. So just a quick recap. So for a thief/beggar harmless type of character they could steal from another player or npc but only a pittance or occasionally something
decent and they could get caught. If upon being caught the victim demands penance and you pay that or you comply to their request which could be that you gather so much of a resouce for them such as leather or timber, or you could talk your way out of it somehow.

***Fishing and treasure hunting is also very much on my mind as examples. Fishing up a message in a bottle, a dead body or body part with a clue like a hand with a ring on it *yikes* lol, the ring of course has initials on it and a mystery to solve. I see this for both treasure hunting
and fishing, they need surprises for the player.

***Now one thing that has been mentioned by the development team is that the map and hex system allows them to drop in content fairly easily to change up content. So hopefully this will be utilized regularly to give us exciting new adventures on a regular basis. I do think random
encounters are meant to do that also , like encountering a satyre mage who speaks to you and asks for your help, in return he will give you something special. I posted a video earlier with an example, you could even kill him to get the item, but with a hit to your virtues I'm sure.

Ok sorry this is also a wall of text, but part of the missing pieces that I do not want to see this game be made without. Other games do not pull you in like all of what has been mentioned on this thread. They are quick fixes and 3 months is about right for most

 

Thank you Majoria70 for this detailed answer. There are a few more things off the top of my head that I can mention, and I recall some one talking about one of them recently.

One good thing might be a "New Guild" idea that would be located in a starting area. They could help the fresh avatars with some simple directions and possibly first month housing of some sort. I have thought that the barons benefactor house would be a great hotel for new players. Give them a limited stay duration and a chest in their room to put some resources in. (off topic I hope that when they put in room permissions that they put adjustable lighting and item limits per room) Then philanthropic players can donate to the new guild or even the new guild could take them on gathering missions for a self perpetual resource cycle. In addition at the end of the month cycle the new guild could hold a meet and greet for new and old players to meet, and guild introductions could be made if they have not been approached.

The other could be like a "big brother program" that would take in new players individually (not as a whole such as the new guild would) and escort them until they can walk on their own two legs.

Simply seeing new players even and informing them of events that happen. Introduce them to the community calendars and to avatars radio. If we all took the time to help the one person, we could eliminate this: no one would talk to me argument, which is very true at this stage in the game. PS I want fishing too!

 

Captain Jack wonders how you will defeat the game's fractured nature come release time? You won't typically be on a shard with new incoming players, unless you invest your time in harvesting them yourself and bring them into the game where they are added into your social media friendy thing which is then suppose to connect them to you in SotA or something? Captain Jack hasn't heard much on this feature in a while.

Then you have the a really cool feature which Captain Jack hopes he will see, and that is to have your character start in a town based on some good old story lore.

The community comes into play, but usually only after someone enters a game and finds value in it after. Captain Jack would never just go and play a game because of a community, but if he enjoyed the game he would look further into the community. Captain Jack thinks that the game has to be first and foremost interesting and creative.

How to get to the game to that point seems to be up to great debate going by the forum here...

 

That is a very good question Capt Jack. I might have overlooked that, and another thing in addition to it. There will be a story to complete first. So theoretically the player will have some idea coming out of the storyline. This would create his personal disposition and group him with like minded people theoretically. Maybe to get around this might take some dev intervention and make sure that there might be a tool tip enabled if something was established like this. Possibly make it so that the person running the new guild would be seen to all? Maybe just a developer message on game start up with a name of a person or persons they could friend to find the new guild. Hrm, it will be interesting if some one takes this on.

 

I agree Captain Jack as I stated in my post, community will not be something that holds people to a game who are not social and do not want to be social. There has to be more. When I started to play Final Fantasy 14 I was not interested in being forced to group and I left
the game, not totally because of that, but it definitely felt like a force. To 'play' with others isn't something that can be forced. To play a game where interaction is natural and choice is a beautiful thing. Like someone saying 'would you repair my armor', or 'would you complete
this work order for me'?or for example or 'could I have this dance', well in a possitive case . It's so wonderful to have a great community. Some people will still stand back and avoid being with others at all costs. The game has to be able to hold its' own with what it offers, which would
be to have special features that entice and enroll, as I've hinted at, and so many others way before me have mentioned in posts since the beginning of this project. Heres to the success of Shroud of the Avatar.

 

Oh I agree with you and Jack. I just want to know what we can do in addition to this. I also played UO and there were always many community events going on. It might have been a poetry reading in the inn in Britain, or Role Play wars Between Yew and Cove on Europa. Later on UO had the New Guild. Goodman Had the Public Rune Library for everyone to use. People did in fact do things to help the community. I want to see that more here. It has some really good starts to it already. I just do not want to lose players do to lack of community. You are right about the game having to be able to stand on its own, but that was not the point of this thread. The point of the thread is Longevity and Community.

 

Yes I know what you are intending and I'm sorry if I derailed a bit. I don't want to devalue the point you are making, I very much agree with what you say, I just knew that community could not be the only draw as you know, of course Special incentives to join guilds would perhaps also be great.

So in remembering UO this is when I discovered role play and that was magical and memorable. To see another side of yourself come out from role playing without fear is amazing. I hope as you say to see guilds and the community welcome and help new players, that will make a huge difference to their game experience. I love what Portalarium has provided so far for the game as a community, the stages and podiums and ability to read books and to write stories. I hope we get an event board that is mixed in with our work order board, well as I picture it.

 

I definitely think that one of the things that keeps a player base long term is a complete unquantifiable element. I played DDO for years, partly because my friends did and partly because I like D&D (yes its a horrid perversion of the tabletop game... I know) even though it is literally nothing but a grind fest, which I detest with a passion. There was no RP and other than guild chat and the occasional raid there wasn't much interaction outside of the immediate party I was in.

Making good friends in here, regardless of play style, is probably the best way to keep longevity. I love the idea of the newbie guild and would be thrilled if there was something like the dev orb chat item that was given to all new characters and expired after a month (or 50 hours of total account game time or whatever to prevent it becoming an in game global chat work around that spams out the newbies) that allowed those in the newbie guild (or those that have a non-expiring version which can be restricted and policed by those in the guild) to get a message from someone with a question. This would help make up for a lack of global chat (my bread and butter in most games) and allow people to know that hey we have a newbie to try to draw them in, even if only by answering a random question here or there.

I'd also love to implement a mail box system to communicate with people, or spam out invitations to such and such an event, so that people who aren't on and don't know the websites won't feel left out (or a community board or something in game).

I don't necessarily know that there is anything we can do beyond being friendly and open for people to join events (one of the things I love here is the community events and constant openness for making people feel welcome).

 

Thank you for the detailed reply! It is good to see encouragement. I would disagree with the noble chat and the mailbox. However a NEW guild would take the place of that with guild chat. I do not like mailboxes because of the idea of sending items through the mail. Possibly a pigeon in game could send a letter? Semantics I know but it would cut down on the exploit of sending items. I also like the in game bulletin board, Possibly even a town crier that would bark out events. In addition Avatars Radio can help with new people and social gatherings.

 

Whats wrong with mail? The first postal systems known date back to 2400 BC when the Pharaohs used couriers to send out their decrees. So it certainly fits the times (unlike the Tesla coil reactors that power the windmills...)

 

Spam and sending items in the mail that would disrupt regional markets. But that is off topic and there are multiple threads on that already.

 

Yeah I wasn't even thinking of the item mailing aspect, I was just thinking straight messages.

Would the NEW guild concept be an auto-join guild? If not, then it can still limit a true newb's ability to get help at the very start.

 

I am not sure about auto join. Some people might get put off by it. I would hope that there might be enough volunteers to be around the starting areas. I think that would be a good location for a NEW guild house. I remember in UO having recruiting drives. Maybe a daily message could be put in game to announce its presence and where its located? Lots of things to think about.

 

Yeah I could see the auto join idea being a major put off (I'd hate it personally as I hate joining official guilds without much deliberation... I'm a loner social person). I could see if it got big enough to have lots of people always in the guild houses it could be a success. Not sure I'd do the daily message though as that would get old for the majority of players (you can only be a newbie for so long).

Instead of that, I'd love an advert scroll given as part of the initial character creation. Newbie area NPC sees you and says, "I notice you look confused, take this and contact one of our chapter houses." or some such more immersive way to broach it. Those that are experienced or don't want the help can just toss the paper away (if you REALLY wanted to encourage people to hit the NEW guild houses there could be a coupon aspect of give this to someone in the NEW guild for some helpful starter stuff and advice on basic mechanics, blah blah blah).

 

It could be segmented in 3 areas. one for pvp, one for pve, and one for crafting/gathering. Would be nice to have some one on a weekly basis do some field runs and some crafting tutorials. I do agree that there should be a time limit in the guild as a new player also as to not end up being a mooch lol. But there should be an option to stay on board as a helper.

 

"I would like to start a discussion on the awareness of this and how can we as a community keep players here."

I really cant speak to why most players start or stop playing games. Thinking back on why I do is interesting. (to me anyway) Games have always been important to me and at a deeper level I think it has been important to me to be part of a larger community of gamers. I started with the red box in the early 80s and gamed every spare moment of my teenage years. When UO came out my friends and I were getting settled into early adulthood and had competing responsibilities that kept us from spending weekends gaming. UO came along at exactly a time where my gaming community (and identity) was changing.

Also, in the same way that it was obvious to early RPG players that we were onto something special, UO had the whiff of the revolutionary; Snow Crash, Neuromancer, Middle Earth, the Web- it all came together into something compelling enough to put a lot of time into. Membership in this larger community- really a movement more than a community- was worth the time. I never really got especially social with other players- I was only ever just barely involved with a guild and spent most of my playtime as an Anti Pk/Merchant. Working and starting a family meant I really needed to budget my time and so my play style was built around playing in short bursts of an hour or two four or five times a week.

Eventually competing priorities came in, I fully explored the game, and I was no longer interested in spending 10 hours a week. Also, the UO "community" was mostly pretty toxic (I am including EA in this)

Later I had other (shorter) times playing SwG and WoW but they did not hold my attention like UO. I should note that I continued paying for two subscriptions for four years after I quit UO because I did not want to let it go.

So, for me playing these games requires that:

• They are fun
• They have enough content to keep me interested
• They can be played around my schedule
• They do not conflict with my RL priorities
• They they make me feel like I am part of something interesting and worthwhile
• That the other players are generally healthy and pleasant (or if not, that I can make a game of killing them)
• That they are not run by some soul sucking evil corporation (Man, for a video game company EA really suck at games)

If they hit these points I will stick around.

 

I agree with every point.
I believe in fun!
I also agree that in todays society generally time is a hard commodity. There will always be those that min/max but I hope this game does not have a huge gap to overcome between levels.
I think and hope that more multinational players play this game so the population will be diverse enough in time zones that there will be people on at all hours of the day. This will enable people to fit more comfortably in their RL priorities list. That with the ability to have scheduled events that are routine in nature and posted well in advance.
This is the need for a a slower paced game style, one that you can choose to not use all the external applications and websites as a spoiler. I feel like much of the content and immersion of the games now days get lost in the ability to google instead of think things through and use your brain power lol. People want to rush to the end for some reason, and get bored when they get there.
So far with a few exceptions, I have found almost everyone at least tolerable, and mostly friendly in general. It helps that we have a player base that is a little more mature in age on the average.
I hope to God that Portalarium never sells its soul out to one of these game ending corporations that do not care about people, just dollar signs. From the few interactions I have had with Richard, I have not been able to talk much with the others, I have noticed that he is genuinely just like us. He is down to earth and wants to make a good product for us. He has his whole reputation staked on this game in a sense and we all are in this together. I think this is the reason he went to Kickstarter to avoid going through a publisher. So he can make a game that is not dictated by the publisher.

 

I agree.

Must be fun, must keep me interested. The play around schedule OMG you hit it on the nose, I quit most games because I do not have time to do the grind that it makes you feel like you HAVE to do just to stay up. So far in Shroud I have found that I can shut my computer down and go to sleep, go to work, come back and still have a good time for the few hours I have left in the day. So far there is no raid requirement situations where like in WoW I HAD to attend or be kicked from my raiding guild which meant I would not get a shot at any phat lewt.

The part of something interesting in worthwhile I think Shroud still needs, but perhaps when the single player quests are done and more story is developed that will come into play. With shroud we have a big community of UO players, which means older more mature players, so a pleasant experience with them is fairly standard.

I will not comment on the last point, all games turn into that once they get enough money that they do not care about player retention anymore. If you recall Blizzard's original motto was "For gamers by gamers" yeah see how that stands now.

The big problem I am having with shroud right now is lack of community. Perhaps a guild would fix that, but it seems to me like everyone is in solo mode to craft unless there is some big event going on. Also nobody ever talks in local chat. So I feel like I am playing a single player game. The random encounters that remind me of pre 1996 rpg video games (where you walk back and forth to get an encounter to level up) do nothing but annoy me and make me feel like I am not playing an MMO at all.

 

Very good thoughts. I remember the first MMOs were people have spent years of playing, mostly on a daily basis were Meridian59, Everquest1 and DAOC.
Indeed there were mostly Roleplayers and the guilds were having Real Life Gatherings etc. And it was not due to the fact, there were not much choice.

Also as times have changed, i still managed to have fun for long times in games wihtout that kind of comunity.
I found out, that there are two big aspects besides comunity that ruin todays games - or say - long term playability:

1. The two extreems: No Story line and Quests and Only Story Line and Quests. Both do harm to long time playing. The first does not give you the feeling of belonging to a meaningfull world, the latter will make you run from one quest to the next until endgame. Having a Story Line Quest evolving over years, some meaingfull quests here and there but also the classical CAMPS, where you can hunt alone, but also with friends to gain XP and loot, will give you chioce.

Good example here was DAOC. Each "Level" provided quests, but they did not get you to the next. You had to do something else. And you found out, its fun.
Because Camps, waiting for respawn, greatly promote comunity because there is not much to do else then chatting in between.

2. Progression and quick wins, also complexity is continusly beeing stripped away. I call it the WOW effect. Everyone want to be as successfull as WOW and true, one of the factors to get the masses was, its simple. But hey, the herd already HAVE their games, devs wont succeed getting the heard by providing the same.
Innovation is to gather oll the lost Old-Schoolers. Makee it COMPLEX, and make it SLOW. Sure, nice if you progress fast in the first levels. But keep people loooong in the midst and make it very long term to reach the last 10%. If devs think, people will flee the game because its to complex or to slow to progress, i have news for you: If its fast, they are gone even quicker

Greetings
Atlantur