The Newb Effort

[Red_X]

Hi all, I've NEVER posted on tw forums before, but for the first time I'm inspired/compelled to post in order to spread a message.

First off a little background on myself....I started playing SS in 96...infact I actually just found my original CD a couple weeks ago and was so excited when i did (sry...nostalgic geek moment). I started out playing in Alpha East and Alpha West zones, but as i explored other zones i stumbled into TW and was hooked. I've tried the whole "squad thing" and it wasn't really my thing. I'm strictly a pubber at heart and feel very connected to the delicate environment in that arena as its the "source" from which all other arenas can draw from for leagues/events etc.

I'm an IT manager. I help small to mid sized worldwide corporations build/maintain/troubleshoot IT departments and staff within IT. I've recently taken on a new role/position within TW staff as Head of TW Dev. My first task irl situations is to first assess my inherited resources/liabilities/challenges/goals. I've always stayed away from TW forums cause of all the random bad energy that seems to pepper the forum posts, making exceptions when someone links me to a post. I've read some posts that show people's frustrations over lagged efforts regarding web/dev progress. I realized quickly that my team was very deficient in a few key areas and began to reach out to other sysops in hopes of pooling our resources to perhaps gain some web/dev help from our game. I first, reached out to DSB. They were very receptive and we are currently involved in a collaborative effort towards sharing league populations which should boost numbers for both zones (hopefully). My other inherited deficiency is our current state of dwindling newb population. As I looked around in other zones, I noticed all types of localized efforts/attempts to create some type of training similar to what we have in TW. Last night I connected with Hallucination...he is the sysop for Chaos zone. This connection was a turning point in my current direction of focus towards my contribution to this game.

Below is a copy/paste of a post on Subspace.co forums from Nov. 2011:




The Newb Effort

To reverse the trend of the downward spiraling Subspace population, we must create a situation where new players can immediately have FUN and want to discover the depth of our classic and beloved game. How can we do this?

I. Declining Population

Subspace has been losing population for several years now instead of growing. Why?

Failure to retain new players. We get many new players coming in every day but almost none of them stay. Why?

ALL zones are now inhabited exclusively by multi-year vets, so a newb (meaning a *actual* brand new player) goes 1-10 (over and over), and as any sane human would, leaves. Did this always happen? Why is it different than in years past?

Yes. There is no "newb" zone now. In the beginning, everyone was a newb. Alpha was an _enforced by points_ newb zone. Chaos was enforced by points intermediate zone. Later, TW was the newb zone from about 2000-2005-ish, when it had a population of about 600. Since then, TW has gradually transitioned to what I call a "mature club." This is a common pattern -- I've seen it happen in more than one sports club irl. Chaos has been a "mature club" for many years now.

Why do we lose close to 100% of newbs? The problem stems from a lack of separation of skill levels. Once players are 3 skill levels apart in playing ability, NEITHER player will have fun (unless they are in a noncompetitive, teacher-student relationship). These two players in a situation that is supposed to be competitive, the lower player loses constantly (and doesn't really understand why; not enough experience/knowledge), and the upper player wins easily; too easily. In a "mature club" the new player is driven out, and the older, veteran players stay. The vets say they want new players, but their (understandable/rational) behavior drives them away. In the longer run, the vets will sporadically leave also, creating a slowly spiraling downward population where the club slowly dies, or asymtotes down to some static, low activity level. This is where we find ourselves with SS today.

And this is why I say advertising won't help us atm. Any new players coming in will go into the existing zones and die repeatedly to vets and leave. Some vets even relish killing the newbs over and over and driving them out. Before we start to advertise in earnest, we need a place for newbs to go and have fun.

II. Retaining New Players

How can we retain these new players? And when I say new players, I mean *brand* new. If the person has been there a week and/or is playing regularly, they are not new; they are intermediate; they are already captured. We need to focus only on the actual new players; capturing them, and getting them to the point where they can start to compete in the easiest arenas.

In any video game, you get about 1-5 minutes to capture a player. Usually within 1 minute the player is either having fun, or wants to leave.

I've tried a number of things to get players to stick it out in Chaos until they are competitive (which is approx 2-3 months of daily play; 1 month for the exceptionally talented - historically Chaos only gets players who 'graduate' from other zones). I've tried spending hours with a new player over a series of days, showing them the skills, getting them to understand energy management, etc. Doesn't work. I can get a very few to stick around for a week or three, but that's it. Most still leave within 5 mins after dying a few times.

I've thought extensively about a handicapping system for chaos/svs. I have some very interesting/cool ideas, but every handicapping system I've seen irl has sucked and can be gamed -- and I think we have even more challenges making one work within an anonymous video game. My handicapping system is more suited to a new zone, not to a legacy SVS zone.

Several of the zones already have a "newb arena" of one sort or another. All failures... This is not an easy thing to 'get right' -- a newb does not want to read text, or just fly aimlessly around. They want to get in and play, understand what's going on, and feel in control.

The only thing I've seen work is for a new player to be brought in by a friend who holds their hand for those dozens of playing hours while they learn. But that is extremely rare. I tried to revive this team oriented behavior by recreating squad stats and Reset Winners in Chaos hoping that would spur squad leaders and members to recruit and train people. Hasn't happened in 1.5 yrs -- not nearly enough anyway.

The solution is for the club operators (the sysops) to enforce a separation of skill levels -- at first at least. Allow the vet players to be teachers if they want (most don't, really). How can we do this?

We need an Alpha again. A zone/arena where newbs are _forced_ to go at first, so they can:
1) play other similarly skilled newbs (only!)
2) get training from helpful vets
3) have fun, feel powerful and in control immediately!

III. Why Do Newbs Stay?

What do newbs want when they come in?

1) They want to have FUN, feel in control, and ideally, powerful
2) They want to understand the basics of what's going on; it's ok to die if they understand why it happened
3) They want to "win" which usually means "kill someone" early on. If they can't win, they should feel like they could if they play a little better -- AND they understand what the 'little better' means.

IV. How to Give Newbs this Fun

How can we supply this?

Side note: Vets understandably don't recall what it's like when they first entered the game. It is absolutely overwhelming for newbs -- explosions, the chat, walls, bombs, ships flying around, the spam, the bewildering array of icons and controls.... What's important?!?!? Energy? wtf is that? 90% of the time, newbs won't talk to me _at all_ which is mostly because they don't even realize someone is trying to talk to them -- what is green text anyway?!?!?

We need to make sure that only a minimal set of 'important stuff' (aka the stuff they want to do) is assailing the newb when they first come in. A relatively empty/quiet arena is an advantage here.

There are a number of ways to go here, and we need user testing (I'm big on actual data, not what ppl imagine new players will do) to see what works best. One way is to have a series of arenas with tasks to help the newb learn the minimal basic skill set. Another way is to have it all within one arena (can it be separated sufficiently?) We'll need to do some creative thinking and testing here to find what works for most newbs. Again, actual interaction/play is CRITICAL. Reading or listening to a vet describe what to do is not good enough. They need to start 'doing stuff' right away (#1 2 and 3 above).

V. SS Skill Set

What is the minimum SS skill set?

Here is a task analysis of the ss skill set. Please comment about it -- I'm sure it can be improved.

1) Where am I? Identify your own ship. Put all newbs in the wb at first
2) How to fly? Arrow keys
3) How to start to control flight? Pick up greens or flags or fly through openings.
--this marks the first minute -- newb should have picked stuff up within the first minute

4) What is a wall? What happens when I hit it? e.g. Navigate some passage.
--some players will be happy to fly around and get a feel for controls at this point. But many will not. They will want to start to try and kill stuff.

5) How do I shoot? ctrl to fire bullets; tab for bombs;
--now a player could go against another new player, or a bot, or a sacrificial lamb of some sort.

6) Why did I die? The concept of energy management.
--here is a critical juncture in the learning process. In one shot kill zones, the answer is obvious because the game design has been simplified. In the more advanced zones, where it takes concerted dmg to kill someone, it is not so obvious, but completely critical. The answer is actually the same -- your energy went below 0.

I've had some success training newbs in this by giving them energy view in a dueling box. Then having them shoot and watch their energy go down. Then close bomb a wall and see what happens to their energy (critical for zones with prox bombs). Then shoot another player and watch their energy go down until they die.

I'd like to give newbs energy view at this point, but we have to make sure that wiley vets can't abuse this to get energy view in a 'real' arena inside the hosting zone.

7) How do I kill? Energy management again.
--If we deal with #5 well, this is a non-factor -- they already know the answer. At this point conveying to them that vets are _very_ good at this, is important. This helps the newb understand why they died but the vet did not.

At this point, the newb is fully ready for combat against similarly skilled players. They may wish to return to the basics to figure things out further; ask questions of the vet/teachers. Have them do many duels now.

Side note: We want the vet/teachers to have prestige; certainly within the newb arena, but also within SS. Other vets should be thanking them for their time. Maybe giving them the title of Sensei? Ideas here?

8) How to repel? shift ctrl
--this is the most powerful, and powerful-feeling toy going.

Now, we're post Newb.1, and into Newb.2 - if they are still around, they are having some fun and can be captured as long as they're not dumped into the 'deep end of the pool' for a while.

9) What is the square in the lower right? Radar.
--how to get the bigger picture. At this point the question of screen resolution comes up. The Sensei should help them get the best resolution (bigger is better in general).

10) How to attach/turret? F7
--this is a critical thing to learn early. It gives the newb a sense of team, and can help a new player learn how to aim and shoot, and conserve energy without worrying about flying.

That is the minimal set. Now I'll list the remainder of abilities/toys in approximate order of importance (def needs improvement):

11) Thors

12) Rockets -- powerful!

13) Bursts

14) Portals

15) Antiwarp

16) Greening -- maybe this should come earlier.

17) ?status -- relate it back to greening

18) Cloaking

19) Xradar

20) Bricks

21) Bouncing Bullets

22) Prox

23) Flags -- remember that newbs won't be up to flagging for a while, so this can come later.

24) Bounty

25) Decoys

26) Concept of bomb and bullet levels

27) Balls and passing; Goal scoring.

That about covers the entirety of SVS sans bot cmds. I am not trying to address in-game tactics (yet).

VI. How do the Newbs get to the Right Place?

How can we get the newbs to the Newb-Only arena?

Every zone will need a bot to identify new players, and quickly (~5-10 seconds) *sendto them to the newb arena.

How does the bot NOT send vet players there?

Several things can be done to not send vets there:
1) If the nick has never been seen before by the bot (or is marked as a Newb in the DB), they might be a new player.
2) The bot will have a command: !vet which will prevent the bot from sending the new player, and permanently mark that name as a vet. Vets will learn this command very quickly.
3) If the player does a ?go quickly, they must be a vet -- mark them as such.
4) If the nick has >50 hrs usage, they are a vet.
5) If the player belongs to a squad, they are a vet.

#2 above is the ultimate fall back for vets to not be bothered.

What happens if a vet goes to the Newb-Only arena? A bot there should do similar tests to those above to prevent malicious vets from chasing off newbs. If a player comes in, and immediately starts fighting and killing the other newbs, they are a vet. Spec them. The Sensei's should be able to ID vets from their play and *spec them and such.

VII. Newb Arena Staffing and Location

All SS zones should try to provide Sensei's to staff the newb-only arena. We do not want this to be a single zone effort. I view this as an SS-wide effort that can help us all. I do not want to own this, or be in sole charge of it. I will do what I can to help get it off the ground, but I think it absolutely needs a person completely dedicated to this effort (which I cannot do -- I have too many other irons in the fire).

It makes the most sense to me to house this inside TW. I understand some people's reluctance to do that, but TW is under new management, and I think is more open minded about the health of the game in general. To me, if I see 600 ppl in TW again, I'm going to be seeing 100+ in Chaos again too. I don't want people having a zero-sum mindset about this effort (i.e. your zone gains a player, means my zone loses a player -- a negative and false way to view most of the world's systems). We must all agree and be sure that it is not just a training area for TW play alone. If we can all get hooked up on the arena sharing system, then it doesn't really matter where the newb-only zone is hosted. All active arenas will be easily, and equally accessible.

VIII. Promotion and Advertising

Once we have the newb-only arena up and going and having some success, we can start to advertise and have it make a difference -- the new players that come in will have a much greater likelihood of having fun and sticking around.

I see this being the precursor, and also dovetailing with the SSBR effort, which is one version of the PR side to revive the game.

IX. Conclusion

Ok that is the core of the idea. I'm sure there are many improvements and refinements we can make. Perhaps some of this unworkable. I've probably forgotten some major items.

My sole concern is to get more ppl playing this great game in all its myriad forms. Thanks for participating. Open for comments!!!

--hallu

[stark]

I was excited, I thought you wrote a mad-long post. Disappointed that the majority of it was copied and pasted. Anyway, as graphics and such continue to get better, the people who download and start this game, then want to continue, is significantly diminished. People don't start their free trial of WOW and quit because they aren't as good as the level 73's (or whatever is good, never played the game). My point is, the long-standing players are the only thing keeping this game alive. If everyone who has played this game for more than three years quit today, this game would cease to exist by next month.

[Demonic]

wow is a different style of game, for example pve where you are fighting things at your level not so many lvl's higher. PVP zones potentially could be similar, but even then its so big that its unlikely a max lvl player will be sitting killing lvl 1/2's. Players get time to get hooked, we dont have that luxury in SS.

[Riverside]

Great idea. This is probably the best way of helping TW, and the general population of subspace. Can't advertise a product not worth advertising.

[vaped]

I like this .... continuum in general needs to come together in order to properly hook newbies. We get plenty of new players incoming, but keeping them interested is so hard.

I feel like I found some sort of "newbie" type arena somewhere when I found the game a few years ago ... but I cannot remember where it was or what exactly it entailed for the life of me.

[MegamanEXE]

I had the same principles in mind when I wrote my essay about Spacebux. The problem isn't really the system itself, but the fact that TW staff attempted to "appeal to newbies" by making a system that is inherently biased against new players in many ways. As the essay in the OP notes, new players will have a hell of a time just trying to figure out what's going on in the game in the first place.

I started playing in 03. Probably the reason why I stuck around is because of the community, which was much more sympathetic to new players. TW ended up being a way to learn how to play the game: learning how to pilot and dogfight in pub, learning how to base and work together with teammates in pub, and playing events for fresh perspectives on piloting and objectives. All this within a thriving, happy community filled with people just like me, learning how to play.

It's pretty obvious that today's TW community is nothing like the old community. Apparently the main focus of TW now is the e-penis measuring contests that are leagues. Focusing on leagues isn't bad in itself, but there is no way for new players to even reach the leagues. Pub is nothing like leagues: there's all kind of crap like Spacebux, Killothon, superlevs, etc. whipping around Pub like a mosquito buzzing around a new player's head. It's hard enough for a new player to learn how to fight and pilot in the first place without getting superlev'd or spawned, how the hell do people think they can reach a league?

I support this idea, we have to make this game work for new players.

[Vatican Assassin]

I think megaman is right, if I had played tw for the first time today in the new arena with all the crap going on all the time I might not have gotten into it. The first 3 months I played TW i aws in a wb hiding in the bottom right corner of the base. I twas my corner, it was simple, and I played all night long. On weed. Point is, bring new players into the simple, old map perhaps?

[Supreme]

Let's face it, the biggest problem that new players face is the controls. Up-down makes sense, control/tab for shooting too.

Escape Q to quit, really? Escape A to see all the arenas? Escape 1 to 8 to change ships? After 5 changes I DC?

We cant change the game to look more appealing but at least make it more easy to play Every time (the few times) I got someone else to play it took half an hour to explain what the controls were and, considering the looks of the game, away went the interest. It's just not intuitive.

Thus far my contribution

[angry.chair]

ummm.... "The vets say they want new players, but their (understandable/rational) behavior drives them away"

LOL

Vets don't want new players. Been in pub lately? If you aren't automatically pro you get "ez" spammed for days. Just look at Izor and his kill macros, something about owning pub and everyone being trash/ez, then multiply that by 10 for all the wannabe Izor clones. Then, God forbid, a newbie tries out elim or wbduel. If said newbie gets owned by vets in wbduel he won't get picked, why would he stay? On the other hand, if said newbie owns the vets they flood him with "OMG NOOB KEEPS KILLING ME" (as seen by Kthx, and everyone in Paladen, and every other "Pro" for that matter, which in turn makes me wonder why said vet claims to be a vet but at the same time admits to dying to noobs and crying about it... but I digress).

If I were new I would leave because of the nerds, not the controls.

[Money]

ppl have been getting illl macros and called ez newbs since this game started a real vet doesnt talk shit in pub... those are pubbbers who think they r good... u new to this game or what? and wtf suprememe the controls are the easiest out of any game out so supreme... ur telling me ur soo retarded it took u a hour to explain controls to some otehr retard? here ill help u with that so when it happens next time: PRESS F1 AND READ

[vaped]

PRESS F1 AND READ

Would be great except some genius took that out of the pub F1 menu over a year ago. They've done lots of work and I can understand it being overlooked for a bit, but the fact that it's STILL not part of the pub F1 menu is stupid.

[Trasher]

The game has always been hard and it is even harder now in 2012 since people have had over ten years to practice. Add to this the trash talkers and whiners and general negative attitude that seems to dominate public chats and it's no wonder that newbies don't find this game very appealing.

I agree on simplifying the pub gameplay to make it more newbie friendly. I don't think even TW can support 2 pubs anymore, so that means bye bye fancy buying settings and stuff. Not much can be done about the community though, freedom of speech and all that crap.

Eventually TW will be the last zone left and it can just change it's name to subspace. Just natural evolution since the other zones die out and the vets who don't want to quit the game as their zone dies will move on. My suggestion is to combine all the zones into one now, but this won't happen for various reasons (some valid, some not). I'm sure people have argued about this in the past already and rejected it.

TL;DR
-game is hard
-community is a bunch of asses
-make pub simple
-combine zones and call it subspace. Or continuum. Or ricko's fantasy. Who cares.
-gg

edit: one more thing: people refusing to play against newbies after beeping even when they're the only available opponents / berating them in zones without blue out / not wanting to play with newbies on their team - falls under the community is a bunch of asses category. If you keep preaching about wanting the game to be more active that means you need more players and that means that the newbies must play. If you refuse to play them or drive them out with your behavior, well, gg again.

[Dexter]

GL trying to revive the game..

whoever brings this zone back to old times, deserves a ...hmm..
hmm...

pfft.

[paradise!]

Let's face it, the biggest problem that new players face is the controls. Up-down makes sense, control/tab for shooting too.

Escape Q to quit, really? Escape A to see all the arenas? Escape 1 to 8 to change ships? After 5 changes I DC?

We cant change the game to look more appealing but at least make it more easy to play Every time (the few times) I got someone else to play it took half an hour to explain what the controls were and, considering the looks of the game, away went the interest. It's just not intuitive.

Thus far my contribution

I must agree with this post. The idea of a "turret" and "attaching" didn't really make sense to me. I see this green spam on the bottom talking about the up and down arrow keys, but what I really want is to attach. I'm not trying to read a book about how to do basic things.

We again do need to be more realistic. Changing our Thor graphic isn't going to keep people playing. Realize that this is still a 2-D game. Our target audience is going to be someone with a relatively long attention span and someone unimpressed by flashy graphics.

Leave the pubbers to their kill macros. It's always been like that. Who doesn't remember chasing J-12 Burst around bottom safe because of "%killed just got fkn OBLITERATED come to %coord and SPIT on his grave" ...guy needs to relax.

I say the best thing we can do is make it as easy as possible to start the game and join a squad, the rest is just fluff.

[Spock!]

Hmm. I started like a year or so ago. I didn't quit, despite my lack of skill. (that I still have)

This just proves that society is turning into a bunch of lame asses that can't take a couple hits to their ego.

BUT, because there are so many lame asses out there today, a newbie arena does seem like a good Idea. To give the nubs a little training. Also, simplified controls would be groovy too. All that :TW-Pub1:!Buy crap can be confusing and cumbersome to use.

Also, since people love to be unique, maybe being able to buy new ship colors would help ad a bit a spice N' Spruce to the game.

And, my macros are hardly insulting. I rarely ever say EZ.(only if I am in a bad mood or really really pissed at someone.)