Hooking the new players

Suggestions
#1

Hello,
I am one of the new players to this game (started 2 weeks ago) and I decided to show what impresion this game gave me at the start. From what I gathered, it looks like a lot of people that try the game for the first time decide that it is not a game that they would enjoy. And I believe it is because the start is confusing and a bit overwhelming.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually like the game a lot, but to be honest I did not get a good impresion from it at the start and I almost gave up on it after the first hour. And I think that is what DEVs should focus on if they want to hook the interest of a new player, the first one hour determines if the player will stay. Because most of the people will not give it a second try like me and try to push through the hard start to see the wonderful game behind it.

Let’s be honest, most of the people nowadays are new to VR (like me) and do not know what to expect. From the start, I was left to a strange, big world in which I had no idea how to navigate. You may laugh at this, but it actually took me some time to figure out that there is a downstairs to the city and that my quest NPC is down there (I quit the game before I got there the first time). When people are left to fend for themselves right from the start, they will get lost easily.

Now I do not think overall the game should be made simpler, that is not true. Complexity can actually stay the same, but I think the game should start to show its features simpler, for example on an island that is small and has all the NPCs you would require together close to them. Afterwards the player gets to know all the important NPCs and what they provide to the player, he will know what to look for in the “bigger world”. As for the tutorial, I think if each NPC gave a simple mission of their type (Darius wants you to kill stuff), it would be more than enough.

This is actually what other MMOs are doing, they are showing the important mechanics to the player gradually, so the starting area is very simple and the next one is a bit more complex with more/harder quests to do. And then the other one after that is bigger and has more missions to do etc…
This ensures that the player gets into the important action right from the start and does not get confused along the way.

I have seen several people just rushing to fight without knowing why, because they were simply looking for action but did not even know if they should be killing the monsters at that point. Because I think a lot of people (including me) and looking for quick action prefferably right from the start of the game. Because that is why we are here, to fight some big bad guys.

I hope this point of view from a new player helps, I hope to see the game grow in the future.

7 Likes
#2

Yep, first Impressions are really important, pretty sure the playerbase would be at least twice as big if the tutorial was good.
The devs should look through this video extra credits did on tutorials its got some solid tips for making good and fun tutorials.

1 Like
#3

Makes me think though, would the community be alot of different if there was a better tutorial? Certain type of players don’t get past that tutorial and if they did would the cummunity as it is now be alot different? Like more ppl with short attention spans and maybe a less ‘nice’ community :thinking: but more ppl for sure.

Current tutorial is bad though.

#4

I actually agree. It would make sense that people which are willing to give a try to a game that is not easy to approach from the start tend to be the kind of people who are calm and patient/tolerant. If these people approach other people (players) the same way they handle the game, I believe that is what could be one of the key points for the current community.

The thing is that if we want to see this game grow, we need more people. I would not make the tutorial as “dumb and easy” as possible, but any improvement to the tutorial would mean more players.

More players -> More money for DEVs -> Bigger game budget -> Possibility to hire more DEVs -> More manpower to work on ingame content

#5

Hi, welcome to the game! We’re glad you stuck with it after the first impression.
Tutorials have been a weird balance for Orbus - I think this is technically the third or fourth incarnation of the tutorial at this point.

We used to have a segregated area to introduce you to fighting monsters and things like that but people kept remarking that it was too slow, handholdy and boring and didn’t help you feel like in an MMO as you wouldn’t see other players. Many people simply skipped it altogether and were then confused after. A similar issue to what you’re talking about though. Same with all the locomotion settings, we put that in at the very beginning since players would miss that there were choices and not try the game again.

What sort of information do you think you would’ve liked to see earlier? Or what led it to be overwhelming for you?

1 Like
#6

Hello, thank you for the reply.

As for what I can remember, getting straight into the big city made me overwhelmed pretty quick. I got to see so many distracting things along the way which I had no idea how they work. That is something that is fairly well explained in the video Asmund linked above. Too much information at once and a lot of distractions that I did not need at that very moment.

Like I wrote, I got lost pretty quick. Even if I hate to admit it, I am one of the guys that do not read carefully the text that I am presented with. I figured out that I am supposed to use the compass, but I did not notice that there is a downstairs to the city. All of this combined with the scale of the city made me just take a break and try a different game (which I can image is the stopping point of most people).

I think it does not need to be handheld or too slow, just showing only the important stuff to the player and send him off as soon as possible. But I agree that there is nothing worse than a tedious and slow tutorial. A tutorial should be fun and have just the right amount of time required to finish it. I think the starting zones in World of Warcraft are a good example. You get to see your basic abilities, do some basic, fun quests and can interract with other players while doing it.

For me personally, I think the current tutorial would not be bad if the starting zone would be much smaller with all the NPCs close to each other. All of them would give me a single starting mission to do, which would allow me to see the point and be ready to what is to come. Also one quest which would be class specific, to show the basics of the class to the player. I think it could be done in about 30 minutes and if it is fairly fun, the player can be easily hooked. I think it really is important that it is only a tutorial and does not become a whole questing area from which you will get out at around level 5 or something.

1 Like
#7

@Petr_B Welcome,
I am not a dev, but I am glad to see a newer players perspective. What you said here:

Is something that was discussed at the very beginning of the launch of Reborn. The devs have made great improvements to the tutorial system but I agree that the information presented at the beginning can seem overwhelming to many, especially with individuals new to VR not just the game itself. Are the red arrows that point you to the next “objective” helpful? Are you looking for more of a tutorial for specific class abilities “more hand hold’y” or just a better tutorial on where the information can be found for you to read when / if you wish “less hand hold’y but more effort / time learning?”
There was once discussion of having people start in the player house or in their own instance so as to not get bombarded with distraction or people talking. Would having the starting position moved inside of Highsteep so there are more “leveled” players to ask for help or should a better visual / explicit explanation of the visual be used to point you to the next objective?

#8

Perhaps a training session in the house basement? We have dummies there already. It would be out for those who wish to train and it would be private. Just would need a more guided approach to the mechanics, at least the basics.

In training, you’d be asked to preform certain things related to the class. If you do it right, you’d be indicated that you succeed. A step by step instruction for those that seek it out.

The player book provided enough information for me to get a general idea of how classes worked.

Oh you meant getting started, I picked up on it just fine. Just reading carefully

#9

I understand. But I think the average starting player is fairly easy to satisfy. Getting the player into the combat and showing him his class should be number one priority I believe.

For example if I remember correctly in the tutorial I was introduced to a fisherman, harvester, dragon keeper, Darius (“kill them all” guy) and the Major lady (event lady). Since I really wanted to get to know my class, I naturally started casting spells and engaging the mobs (and I still see a lot of new people doing the same when I go through the town).

I think that is going to be the same for most of the players. So in the beginning, all I really needed was Darius. I got to start using fishing at around level 11 (but only because I always liked fishing) or something like that, I started dismantling my gear when my bags were starting to get too crowded and started gathering quite later on. I do not think the rest of the NPCs were useless to me, but I really needed them much later in the game and did not really need to know about them in the beginning (I actually forgot about them by the time I needed them).

I think on the start Darius and the Major lady were the most important, since combat with mobs and events are the first things the new player is going to engage in (at least with the current system). Brewing potions happens quite later in the game and while healing potions help, I do not think new player is going to care too much about them (from what I saw). It is good to know about these features, but it puts the gathering and fishing pretty far in the “need to know” list I believe.

I really think that it does not get down to leading the player to where he should be. But rather make him feel like he is going on his own while only showing him the important stuff. Sort of a set path with exactly the right NPCs along the way and the features he needs to see.

#10

What I think would really help is to have a new npc in the beginner area that gives you a basic quest of each quest type; I was the most lost when I went into highsteppe. So maybe that npc can guide the player into how to start questing and how to find specific quest givers in highsteppe.

#11

The only thing not clear for me was were to find the NPCS. Have the mission NPCs highlighted on the map so you can simply go to the highlighted area.

I didn’t have much problems with the tutorial, pretty straight forward to me once I understood the area. Understanding combat is a different story but the book gives a very basic idea.

#12

Main response:
Class trainers & class quests to learn and unlock your new abilities always made sense to me rather than getting them all for free up front. Gives you something to be excited about when progressing. You can give the players a tease maybe by somehow in the tutorial showcasing everything the class unlocks & at what levels. Though for rune mages I can’t advise locking them into fireball/frost or even starting them with “cast these two level 1 spells”. At least rank 2 spells.

Side Rant:
The questlines are also weird imo. Hard to get involved. The first story wasn’t like mind blowing but it was continuous and made sense. It set you on a path, and players knew it would take you to near max level or at least the zones you needed to be in (dailies and events ruining that aside now :P). The current story makes little sense( or none at all ) to non-preborn players and tbh not even that much to me as a preborn player lol. I’d heavily tweak them personally. Reborn should have just “had the heroes (of preborn)” be long gone/dead/missing. Any surviving cast members can have some kind of bs made for them “this guy became immortal!” or just totally forget that they existed at all and treat them as brand new introductions to your new player character. Quests could have been about unlocking things about the old heroes rather than this huge memory-loss/recovery confusing plot where secrets and blank spots are unknown at every step of the way. It’s like a D&D campaign that uses memory wiping & homonculi vs high deception enemies w/ disguises & the actor feat and you have no leads whatsoever or any idea about what is happening.

3 Likes
#13

Careful reborn police will get ya!

#14

and the sirens went Wee Woo Wee Woo.

#15

I can understand the fear of creating a game that holds your hand and spoon-feeds you the content, but that is really not what I am suggesting.

All I suggested was to cut on the content that is displayed in the beginning and only focus on the reason why the player downloaded the game - learning his class and trying it out in a real battle.

Not saying that nobody will come to this game mainly because of fishing, dragon racing etc… But majority will want the action. You have to keep in mind that you really have only minutes before the player decides if he wants to keep playing the game or not.

It actually scares me a little how close I was to giving up on this game in the start, because I really like it right now (as I hit level 30 today). So you can imagine that there were a lot of people that fit in the community, but were unable to get through the start.

3 Likes
#16

When I first played orbus it was in the old town that looked alot like a carnival camp. I stayed because I had fun talking to the people who were by the player house one shooting redtails.

#17

It is a bit of a bore doing tutorial missions but hey, I didn’t follow the instructions and went off to fight first time I started - got my butt kicked too. Play it however you want, I ended up learning the game without missions. (Then forced myself though those missions).

#18

In my opinion the classes and how their combat works is the strongest/most fun part of the content of this game.

2 Likes
#19

which is why that especially should be shown a bit more in the tutorial, to get players a better feel for the game, something the current tutorial does very badly.

#20

Well to be honest, for the current game: leveling up to 30 is not mainly combat and your class. So it is an accurate thing to show for pre-end game content.