This is probably one of the most useful replies I've read since I created a forum account. This is
exactly the point of view we need. And since real new players won't be on here to explain the difficulties, your situation helps us greatly.
I have several things I want to respond to.
- We definitely should update the character creation process to more accurately display current information. Anything that can be helpful on those screens and is do-able from a technical perspective is welcome for me.
- A thing that concerns me greatly as well is having players guide them in character creation and then boom.. putting them in a realm and there's no guide whatsoever. I am not sure, though, how to fix this. A more elaborate message like the one you proposed is probably a good start. I know Gabanus (Aeneas) is currently proposing an outline for a new Tutorial (because surprise surprise, the old ones are pretty out dated). But from experience I know many of the new players didn't bother to click through this tutorial. I know Gildre has made a wonderful effort of actually recording a video (because yes, I think players are more inclined to watch a video tutorial of 3-4 or even 5 minutes then take the time to click through a text based basic tutorial) for the tutorials. At this moment, they are still a bit too long though. Any input you can offer us on that would be very great: https://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,7627.30.html . This tutorial link, or an inline video tutorial to watch could be a good start on how to proceed with roughly their first day in BM.
- Stagnation and activity: There's very little from technical perspective, I think, we can do about this. The game still is about interaction with each other and if the people simply don't do that, they're doomed to be bored. Same for electing in government officials once and have the same ones on top for years.
- Wiki: I've made it a big TODO to update many wiki pages and bundle the many help pages into something more useful than the current 'Basics', 'Manual', 'Introduction',.. It's not structured well and on top of that very outdated. Problem is time and effort of volounteers here. Anyone with access to wiki may update it where they see fit. The fact that it's separate to BM is a burden indeed, but I do not see how we can incorporate the huge amount of information that's there into BM. There's simply no room or we would be overcrowding things. I've recently made it possible to use links to wiki inline (through the [[ ]] codes) in BM so a direct link can be stashed. You can simply view wiki pages without an account, as long as you're not editing. I've pushed many times to have 1 account for all (BM - Forum (this is already in place I heard) - Bugtracker - Wiki). But I simply have no idea of its technical complications and possibilities.
- As for news papers, this will always be a player-based or manual update. There were some initiatives on the Wiki to have a newspaper in place for DWI know, but such things become rapidly obsolete since it's out of the game and no one cares to look. A great way to start on this could perhaps be the 'World News' link we have under information. I am unsure why that one was ever built, can't say I ever really looked at it. It looks aweful as well. But maybe we can transform this page into a more newspaper 'Herald' like design and appoint someone to update it with news. Problem here is if it's a player, it's prone to bias. If it's run by GM's or devs, the activity or feeling with what's going on will be lower.. Suggestions to elaborate on this topic are welcome.
Many other things came to mind but already forgotten. I'm very interested to take actions on this, since retaining new players is a very important technique of getting your playerbase back up.
