New Player Retention - how do we engage their interest?

[Foxglove]

As a community, I think we should discuss what ideas we can generate to make the entire game more interesting for new players, working within the existing gameplay. This thread isn't for suggesting changes to game mechanics or new features - it's about working with what we have.

My initial thoughts are that a personal IC letter to a new player offering advice or help if they want it is good start. If possible, suggesting locations of vacant estates will help ease their start in the game.

When I have a character with some sort of authority I also try to have new players released from prison immediately if their character is captured. Allowing them to sit in a dungeon for 7 days doesn't help retention, and I have seen new players have a character captured within their first few turns and quit the game a day or two later. Any Judge can take a quick look at a prisoner's background and check they haven't just started playing.

Other ideas to improve the game experience for them in the first few weeks?

[Buffalkill]

Capital idea, Foxglove. I'm relatively new (almost 6 months) but when I have a newer player move into my region, I try to treat them like a protegé, at least until they get comfortable. I send them a welcome message and I encourage them to contact me if they need any assistance or advice, and I check on them once or twice after that. I also give them a cut of the food sales.

[Anaris]

In general, this is good—this is exactly what we need. We devs are working on making things better, but, of course, our work takes time. For the players to do more to make the game better for newbies takes only as long as it takes to come up with a good idea and resolve to follow through with it.

If possible, suggesting locations of vacant estates will help ease their start in the game.

This particular part, I wanted to note, will soon become unnecessary. Very soon, I will be replacing the current new noble creation process with one that will allow new nobles to be created already holding a (previously) vacant estate.

[Kai]

Newbs need to be given something clear, obvious and interesting to do. I don't think level of mentoring or supports matters that much beyond some minimum that makes sure they have some idea of whats going on.

I don't think moving to some region to get an estate is very interesting. Newbs have no idea of what gold per week is normal, or of what the lords and regions are like. There are no interesting decisions to make.

Recruit a unit and go to front line is much better. Recruiting a unit has a lot of interesting decisions and things to learn, like eq quality, training, range, money. Following orders gives the newb a reason to read messages, learn message types, and move every turn. Moving to an estate 4-5 turns away... is just too long with no decisions other than "next destination".

[pcw27]

I think as important as teaching game mechanics is it's equally important to teach newbies the culture of their new realm.

Players should invite newbies to join their guilds and religions. They should tell them some gossip about other nobles maybe try and get them on their side for ongoing feudes. They should speak with pride about their realm's history. They should explain why they're at war and why the enemy is the most hated foe imaginable. Or conversely they should explain why they're at peace when they should instead be waging war with their hated former foe.

Seasoned political players should see new nobles as soft malleable clay they can mold into something useful. Manipulation and indoctrination should start at day one.

[Lacedaemon]

Some realms are just terrible at absorbing newbies, others have better leadership. Sometimes more fractious realms or those with fiercer internal competition are less welcoming. That's just part of life in BM. Of course, the clueless newbie suffers for it.

[vonGenf]

Sometimes more fractious realms or those with fiercer internal competition are less welcoming. That's just part of life in BM. Of course, the clueless newbie suffers for it.

I disagree. Realms with strong internal competition can be places where people in power have a strong incentive to welcome new characters to quickly win them to their cause and increase their numbers. Realms where everyone gets along can be pretty silent and give nothing to the knight but an endless stream of scout reports.

[Jaden]

I think having more low level positions like Steward can also help newer players to be more involved. They dont even need to show up in titles. Lieges and leaders should really play their role though, I always try to pay extra attention to new players by sending them a welcome letter to the realm and sending them an personal OOC letter

[Ketchum]

I think having more low level positions like Steward can also help newer players to be more involved. They dont even need to show up in titles. Lieges and leaders should really play their role though, I always try to pay extra attention to new players by sending them a welcome letter to the realm and sending them an personal OOC letter

Same here. My character first ever title hold is Steward, it is ranked pretty low in lot of region lords priorities but a region can be starving in lord absence and steward is around to handle them. As a return to the game, when my characters are Region Lords, I make my knights as Stewards

[Lacedaemon]

My first Lord serenaded me with promises of flowers, rose gardens and honourable service...

Roleplay makes things interesting. Without it we have this data driven text game where we push buttons on a screen.

[Tom]

Positions are not the answer. We had better player retention back when realms were full of people and getting even a simple lordship was years in the future for most new players.

But they had something to do: War.

[Tom]

One major reason for closing the war islands was that they took war out of the rest of the game. Sadly, it didn't return afterwards. Some paths are hard to reverse. But there was a time when people who wanted more war were literally told to immigrate to the war islands.

We really need to make up/down cycles more interesting then flatlines.

[Gustav Kuriga]

One major reason for closing the war islands was that they took war out of the rest of the game. Sadly, it didn't return afterwards. Some paths are hard to reverse. But there was a time when people who wanted more war were literally told to immigrate to the war islands.

We really need to make up/down cycles more interesting then flatlines.

Perhaps the reason it didn't return afterwards has less to do with the War Islands themselves and more to do with the subsequent loss of players from said action?

[Tom]

Perhaps the reason it didn't return afterwards has less to do with the War Islands themselves and more to do with the subsequent loss of players from said action?

Doesn't pass a fact check. We had no noticeable drop in player numbers when the war islands were closed.

[Geronus]

Doesn't pass a fact check. We had no noticeable drop in player numbers when the war islands were closed.

I was not around for long before the war islands were closed, so the status quo seems relatively normal to me in terms of the number of wars going on. Was it really much more intense before?