What causes most new players to leave?

minigun · Post by **minigun** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:21 am

Were hanging in there...thIs is a 13 year old game with a cult following like no other game. No matter what we do noobies will slowly join. Its the cult people that have to stay and keep it running.

raumvogel · Post by **raumvogel** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:08 am

people who give up online gaming

NightRychune · Post by **NightRychune** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 9:50 am

it's not that the game needs to fundamentally change, but there are a great many things that can be streamlined in the cores themselves

it's that you overcomplicate the game; it's really not that complex when it comes down to it

1) deny enemy resources by attacking miners and constructors, and protect your resources by defending yours

2) deploy intel network (probes) to see what your enemy is doing

those are the only things you need to emphasize with new players - aside from making sure they can get an adequate control scheme quickly, if they can perform one or both of those things they will be able to get into the game, feel like they're making a meaningful contribution to their team, and probably be more inclined to pick up all of the other knowledge that makes players successful because it will always relate to one of those two points

Idanmel · Post by **Idanmel** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 11:21 am

I think it's more about the basics...

We were the only really good free game around, so people who searched for a free to play game found us. Now we are a 20 year old free game, when there are new free games. People just don't bother to start playing.

I don't know how to solve this, but I'll be happy to help.

Spunkmeyer · Post by **Spunkmeyer** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:06 pm

We can't win with the free game angle. We can win with the extended space battle between teams under the leadership of a commander angle. That's still fairly unique.

Adept · Post by **Adept** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:10 pm

Spunkmeyer wrote:QUOTE (Spunkmeyer @ Jun 1 2012, 01:28 AM) Well, you won't save Allegiance by retaining more players when the real issue is the number of signups crashing.

But that aside:
1-Reducing complexity without dumbing the game down - very tricky but there is some doable stuff, mainly by exposing more information to the interface. In-game context-sensitive help (such as pop ups) would also help a lot. We can also do a few core-side things such as reducing damage/armor classes but that's not going to help much on its own. Finally a better command interface, maybe a mission interface will add more structure to the games and give the newbies the answer to "what do I do now".

2-Ensuring more balanced games. There is guaranteed to be some work on this post-ACSS.

3-Reducing down-time between games. One idea is a facility to pre-schedule games as we discussed which will probably happen, the other, which ties is with #2 is a commander election + team-pick interface built into the game.

Spunky's primary point is the most important one. Alleigance, like any game requires a continued infusion of fresh blood. Currently only a trickle is getting through even to try the game. That is the primary thing to fix.

The other stuff is good as well. If we can create a PuG variant of the game that doesn't require a commander, and let's people focus on flying and more spontaneous cooperation, that would help bring the game into 2012. I recommend getting familiar with DOTA2 / HON / LOL gameplay, and especially that of World of Tanks. Those games have a very good casual game formula.

I'm not saying we would get rid of the classic, commander, cooperation and economy driven Allegiance games. Those are great, but they require a large competetive player base. To train an maintain that base, we would benefit form having a fast-paced PuG gametype.

Duckwarrior · Post by **Duckwarrior** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:02 am

We have no coherent strategy. In business, you work out why your competitors are rinsing you. You identify what is wrong with your product. You work out how you can revamp and re-position it with your available budget, then management knocks some heads together, makes some oblique threats, and then you meet again in a month to see if the threats need to become more specific.

We just seem to decide to continue doing what we have always done and then discuss it ad infinitum.

Being a newb in Allegiance is like going to a bar where you are repeatedly insulted and beaten up by the local n'er-do-wells, then taken to one side and given a term paper on Theoretical Taekwondo.

SgtMajor · Post by **SgtMajor** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 5:02 am

I loved how people would stack vs me today, when I had my 3 (#s) I lost respect for some fellow squad members at this point, and their incorrigible lack of common courtesy. But who am I to judge, I only anti stack ever $#@!ing chance I get.

Good day~~

DonKarnage · Post by **DonKarnage** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:18 am

If you guys want to see what Allegiance would be like with every iota of skill and organized teamwork removed from it, but with a bunch of fancy graphics slapped on, go try out Moon Breakers

The game has one thing going for it, though. You'll be blowing @#(! up left and right within 20 seconds of starting the game, with nearly no down time.

aptest · Post by **aptest** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:13 am

DonKarnage wrote:QUOTE (DonKarnage @ Jun 12 2012, 11:18 PM) The game has one thing going for it, though. You'll be blowing @#(! up left and right within 20 seconds of starting the game, with nearly no down time.

The graphics do look fancy though.

QUOTE it's that you overcomplicate the game; it's really not that complex when it comes down to it[/quote]

This game is less complex than the community would like to believe. Moreover, there are today numerous games which work on similar core principles. The way I see it, this is a good thing as the potential audience (dota players) will be more receptive to this game type.

I do think however that the "go read the wiki, scoot!" approach to new players is not conductive.

The way I see it the no.1 reason why new people don't stick around is empty servers and long wait time in NOAT. I.E. the "dead game" perception a new player can get when he comes in for the first time and has to wait 15 minutes before anything resembling a new game appears, if it appears.

Every other game like this has a "me want game give me game NOW!!!" button which is impossible to do in this game at the moment and the lack of it is probably a large barrier to player retention.