Newbie retention proposals

[Chenier]

Most of these have been mentioned elsewhere, here and there, figured it deserved a dedicated thread. Feel free to add your own suggestions or discuss others' proposals.

1) Rethink the character limits

The new character limits give a sense of progression by rewarding loyal players. In that sense, it made sense when it was implemented. However, the very low character limit for newbies prevent them from experimenting any diversity, and increases the odds of them being put in the wrong place at the wrong time, for even the most active realms have some down time. We need newbies to get as vast an experience as possible when they start out, to increase the odds of them finding a spot they like and sticking to it.

As such, I would completely turn things around. Instead of being able to play the fewest characters, I'd have them able to play the most. One noble per continent, including Beluaterra. At least for their first month, then force them to pause a character every week afterwards until they return to normal limits (3-4). And until that is reached, obviously they'd be capped at one character per continent, and not able to dump all 7 in the same one. Different continents have different cultures, different wars, different histories. The broader the net is cast, the greater the chances that they find at least one that suits them enough for them to stick around.

2) Rethink newbie mobility

This wasn't my idea, but I think it's a good one. Changing realms should be made easier for newbies, so that if they land in a dull realm, they can try another realm without taking many weeks to get there. Add a new feature, "get smuggled out", which allows a character from a new family to get moved to a new realm within just a few days. One one hand, it'd allow them to try different realms if they fall on dull ones, and on the other, their increased mobility might incite older players to interact with them more, out of fear they'd move to a rival (instead of just quitting the game or staying by inertia).

3) Bring newbies together

A newbie continent was proposed a few times to help bring newbies together so that they may learn together. It was shot down, and I mostly agree with the reasons. However, a different means could be used for very similar results: allow continent-wide OOC communication between newbies. Allow players who have been in the game for, say, less than two months to write to each other. "Hey, I'm in X realm, and it's dull, what are you all up to?" "Hey, Y realm is awesome, I was put in a senate group and I'm being considered as lord!" "Hey, the king here is totally vicious and badass!" and the like could help newbies make more informed decisions about where to play, by consulting with peers, instead of relying on the old guard's forum propaganda (if on anything at all).

...) More will follow, I'm out of time for now.

[Indirik]

1) Rethink the character limits

As such, I would completely turn things around. Instead of being able to play the fewest characters, I'd have them able to play the most. One noble per continent, including Beluaterra. At least for their first month, then force them to pause a character every week afterwards until they return to normal limits (3-4). And until that is reached, obviously they'd be capped at one character per continent, and not able to dump all 7 in the same one. Different continents have different cultures, different wars, different histories. The broader the net is cast, the greater the chances that they find at least one that suits them enough for them to stick around.

That might be a bit excessive. The forced pausing of characters they had been allowed to start seems pretty harsh. I'd rather start with a sensible character limit from the start.

2) Rethink newbie mobility

This wasn't my idea, but I think it's a good one. Changing realms should be made easier for newbies, so that if they land in a dull realm, they can try another realm without taking many weeks to get there. Add a new feature, "get smuggled out", which allows a character from a new family to get moved to a new realm within just a few days. One one hand, it'd allow them to try different realms if they fall on dull ones, and on the other, their increased mobility might incite older players to interact with them more, out of fear they'd move to a rival (instead of just quitting the game or staying by inertia).

That sounds like it could be a good implementation of that idea. If your account is under a month old, and you have spent more than three days in your realm, an option appears at the top of the Actions menu allowing you instant transport to another capital on that island where you automatically become a member of that realm.

3) Bring newbies together

...allow continent-wide OOC communication between newbies. Allow players who have been in the game for, say, less than two months to write to each other. "Hey, I'm in X realm, and it's dull, what are you all up to?" "Hey, Y realm is awesome, I was put in a senate group and I'm being considered as lord!" "Hey, the king here is totally vicious and badass!" and the like could help newbies make more informed decisions about where to play, by consulting with peers, instead of relying on the old guard's forum propaganda (if on anything at all).

May be useful, I guess. A prominent option at the top of the Messages page. It would probably need suitable language to point out that its an OOC channel for sharing game experiences, and not for sharing IC information/plans/etc.


I also still like the option of the island-wide OOC channel for mentoring.

[Chenier]

That might be a bit excessive. The forced pausing of characters they had been allowed to start seems pretty harsh. I'd rather start with a sensible character limit from the start.

What's harsh about it if they know in advance? They aren't forced to create more characters than they'll end up being able to play. Besides, what are the odds that they like seven realms equally? There comes a point where characters in duller places just distracts one from the more interactive places.

May be useful, I guess. A prominent option at the top of the Messages page. It would probably need suitable language to point out that its an OOC channel for sharing game experiences, and not for sharing IC information/plans/etc.

I also still like the option of the island-wide OOC channel for mentoring.

Yes, it'd have to be stressed that it's for OOC only. But newbies are unlikely to want to game this extra communications channel, in my opinion, because they don't have any contacts to leak it to, nor any reason to betray their realm.

Newbies could have a "contact all new players / contact all new players and mentors" link, while mentors could have a "contact all new players". I don't really see a point to putting mentors in contact with each other.

[Jens Namtrah]

    2) Rethink newbie mobility

    This wasn't my idea, but I think it's a good one. Changing realms should be made easier for newbies, so that if they land in a dull realm, they can try another realm without taking many weeks to get there. Add a new feature, "get smuggled out", which allows a character from a new family to get moved to a new realm within just a few days. One one hand, it'd allow them to try different realms if they fall on dull ones, and on the other, their increased mobility might incite older players to interact with them more, out of fear they'd move to a rival (instead of just quitting the game or staying by inertia).

That sounds like it could be a good implementation of that idea. If your account is under a month old, and you have spent more than three days in your realm, an option appears at the top of the Actions menu allowing you instant transport to another capital on that island where you automatically become a member of that realm.

A very good idea, but with a slightly different implementation:

1) When they join, send them a letter saying they will be receiving this opportunity in 3 days, so they can be expecting it.

2) After three days, send them another showing them where it is  and explaining it again.

Talk to them directly and tell them what their options are; they'll miss a simple menu item.

[Constantine]

Do we have some stats showing that newbies tend to leave after playing for several months?
Because being a newbie myself I'm not seeing that. Newbies love it here.
What I see is old players leaving because of OOC drama and devs' awkward attempts to control population density. So maybe we should concentrate on veteran retention strategies.

To comment on the actual ideas, #1 and #2 seem to be interesting, but you don't want to implement both of them. Imagine a newbie finding 7 awesome realms on 7 different continents and then being forced to pause 5 of his characters just when he started having fun. A major bummer.
But greater mobility might be a good idea considering how many stagnant realms there are.
#3 is just redundant because this kind of interaction can be easily done via the forums.

[Chenier]

Do we have some stats showing that newbies tend to leave after playing for several months?
Because being a newbie myself I'm not seeing that. Newbies love it here.
What I see is old players leaving because of OOC drama and devs' awkward attempts to control population density. So maybe we should concentrate on veteran retention strategies.

To comment on the actual ideas, #1 and #2 seem to be interesting, but you don't want to implement both of them. Imagine a newbie finding 7 awesome realms on 7 different continents and then being forced to pause 5 of his characters just when he started having fun. A major bummer.
But greater mobility might be a good idea considering how many stagnant realms there are.
#3 is just redundant because this kind of interaction can be easily done via the forums.

As for the comments on the suggestions:

I still think it'd be good to allow them to try *all* of the continents. Can anyone think of a way to do this, without the issues raised? If the character limit is lower, perhaps new characters could be allowed to be "smuggled" out not only to another realm of the same continent, but even to a different continent?

As for #3, I disagree. We just don't see it happening. Newbies tend to be public-shy, they rarely speak negatively about their experience unless they don't intend to return. They could go on IRC too, but scarcely do so. A dedicated message group would shield them from the reactions of older players who might not agree with what they say. If one finds that his new realm sucks, and says so on the forums, he would likely be met with hostility by other forum members who have been there for a while and loves it. I also find that all realm advertisements on the forums tend to be misleading.

I believe we do. Not sure where to find these any more, though. They don't tend to come to the forums to say why they are leaving, however. If I recall correctly, a lot of players leave after very little time in game.

[Anaris]

Do we have some stats showing that newbies tend to leave after playing for several months?
Because being a newbie myself I'm not seeing that. Newbies love it here.
What I see is old players leaving because of OOC drama and devs' awkward attempts to control population density. So maybe we should concentrate on veteran retention strategies.

I'm sorry, but this is laughably wrong.

As a matter of fact, we do keep stats on how long a player has been here when he leaves. Well over half of the 35,000-odd records we have (there were some periods when the stats collection on leave wasn't working) are of people who left after trying the game out for less than 2 days.

Of the remainder, the average amount of time in game is between 6 and 7 months. Less than 7% stayed in the game for longer than a year before quitting. (And among those who did, the average amount of time played was around 3 years.)

So our #1 problem is, and always has been, keeping the interest of newbies. That's not trivial for a game like this, but if we could increase newbie retention by, say, 20%, that would go a long way towards solving the decline in the player base.

And, as an aside, if we could get 10% of the players who ever left this game to come back and stay...we'd more than triple our player base.

[Renodin]

Would it be an idea to send out a massed mail to all players who left the game, reminding hem and trying to entice them to return?

Like a short overview of what's been happening on the continents as to spark their interest?

Perhaps people that left before now have time again and all they need is a little reminder that this game is still around, alive and kicking.

[Thehatter]

E-mail letters? .... That is if humans still use such a thing.

[Eldargard]

Would it be an idea to send out a massed mail to all players who left the game, reminding hem and trying to entice them to return?

Like a short overview of what's been happening on the continents as to spark their interest?

Perhaps people that left before now have time again and all they need is a little reminder that this game is still around, alive and kicking.

I know that I would likely be irritated to receive an email from a game I quit. If something like this was implemented, great care should be taken...

[vonGenf]

That sounds like it could be a good implementation of that idea. If your account is under a month old, and you have spent more than three days in your realm, an option appears at the top of the Actions menu allowing you instant transport to another capital on that island where you automatically become a member of that realm.

Why tie it to account age? I'd be interested in that feature too. You can allow it for all characters that were created in the last month, or even tie it to an IC age (all characters under 20 years old or something).

[Indirik]

Well, sure, it'd be great to be able to just teleport your character wherever you wanted, and freely swap realms on a whim until you could maybe find that perfect realm. But as an experienced player, you're expected to know that "your mileage may vary", and that it may take a few attempts to find a realm that suits you. That process of finding that realm is part of your character experience and story. You should be able to handle it without relying on an OOC crutch intended to help new players get adjusted to the game.

[Chenier]

Why tie it to account age? I'd be interested in that feature too. You can allow it for all characters that were created in the last month, or even tie it to an IC age (all characters under 20 years old or something).

The odds of people trying to game this increase with account age. Newbies have no incentives to hop realms other than to find a realm they enjoy more. Older more established players could use this to try and spy on enemy realms, with a guaranteed safe and quick escape route.

[vonGenf]

The odds of people trying to game this increase with account age. Newbies have no incentives to hop realms other than to find a realm they enjoy more. Older more established players could use this to try and spy on enemy realms, with a guaranteed safe and quick escape route.

That's OOC spying, it is wrong, and it is currently easily achieved by deleting the character once caught. If it's a character you created as an OOC spy, you won't need to hop from one realm to another because you won't care about the character's history.

But, hey, it was just an idea. The proposal works fine without it. If it can be created for newbies only I'd be all for it also.

[Anaris]

That's OOC spying, it is wrong, and it is currently easily achieved by deleting the character once caught. If it's a character you created as an OOC spy, you won't need to hop from one realm to another because you won't care about the character's history.

It's not just that it would be used to run away if you got caught. It's that it would be used to actually get into realms that you want to spy on.