The last OOC chat had some discussion around new players, guilds, etc. that had a lot of salient points and varying perspectives. I'd like to add mine, with some concrete suggestions and experiences both recent and old.
Some background: I have played this game all the way up the ladder to GL and beyond, liquidated, and came back with a couple of cyans and a lot less time as a working adult with a software engineering job. I was very fumbling but very persistent and played for many hours, so some very nice players somehow considered me exceptional enough to loop me into some cool plots and generally made me feel special and appreciated and useful to the community at large. If you are one of these players you know who you are and you are awesome.
However, not every player is going to be persistent, not every player is going to be considered exceptional, and not every player is going to have a job or situation where hours of online time are possible. I believe that we need to do better for those players.
I believe that we can hook a lot more players into our game and it means understanding that our MUD's game structure creates our culture as much as it does the other way around.
I am going to put my suggestions into followup posts because this intro is already long enough.
Guilds, Intrigue, & the "New Player Experience"
Guilds
Guilds are a big draw of the game and a huge newbie hook. Done right they turn into non-Tavern RP and interesting day-to-day activities for the player to do. Done wrong they feel like secret clubhouses you aren't invited to and are stuck when you're shut out of.
-As a new player character, I want to be able to painlessly join a Guild. Please, automate seeking and joining somehow. It takes two weeks and several hours of RP just to find out whether or not you'll get to join the Guild you want to join. For new players, the Guild is often going to be hugely core to the character's ideal 'role.'
I did not like constantly interviewing seekers as a GL and I struggle to find merit in this gatekeeping aspect other than having IC and OOC power over other players. Even when I played all the time and wanted my Guild to be The Biggest Ever and had an active 2GL we still had players straight up slide off the game due to this.
This is not "please make every character an R3 Reeve with rights to arrest people" or "make every character an R3 Troubadour with op and jail pass." It is just smoothing the NPE for something that is slow but mostly inevitable anyway. If a Guild gets an R1 player who's ICly and OOCly a jerk, you have more power than ever as a GL to just give them the boot anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This leads to my next ask:
-Please standardize the onboarding and ranking system for all Guilds. As a new player I want to know:
1) Where the heck is my Guildhall? This is the social and resource hub for all guilds. Tell players where they can find the GH and what resources they can access there as newbies and where they definitely shouldn't be as many guilds have secret/private/locked areas.
2) What I should I learn? Not just skills but lore, techniques, commands, etc. Are there other helpfiles where I can start thinking about my character's future? Does your Guild have a library where I can start reading lore or techniques and maybe toggle RP to try and find other guildmembers to talk shop?
3) What do I do now? This can be anything from activities to drive RP and benefit the Guild ("go gather some influence or supporters to up our favorite metric!") to something the player can do during downtime to benefit their RP ("here are skills we might expect you to have and ways to practice them, or project ideas that can count toward your advancement and don't need GL micromanagement.") This doesn't guarantee or obligate advancement, it just gives players who can't reach their GL something to do.
4) How can I advance? What kinds of advancement paths are in this guild? We do the best here but sometimes the criteria are very vague and sometimes it just boils down to 'your boss likes you enough'. IMO we should have clear standards all the way up to rank 3, where characters finally become "real" members of their guild.
IMO we should start a game-wide initiative to update all of these things in the Guild help systems because they are essential to the health of the game.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally:
-Please drop 'mentor' requirements from Guilds. This is more of a plea from a former GL to present GL's. Expecting low ranking members to be 'assigned' to GL3+ members doesn't work with our current pbase. The spontaneity of the grid is our greatest asset. Having to line up timezones and schedule scenes and so on is troublesome and it means players are just going to go find a tabletop RPG group where the kind of RP they want happens from 'go.' It also meant I needed a spreadsheet to know who was hanging out with who even in a 'medium' sized Guild and my biggest regret is not simply abolishing the system and letting GL3+ characters act more as general newbie helpers.
Guilds are a big draw of the game and a huge newbie hook. Done right they turn into non-Tavern RP and interesting day-to-day activities for the player to do. Done wrong they feel like secret clubhouses you aren't invited to and are stuck when you're shut out of.
-As a new player character, I want to be able to painlessly join a Guild. Please, automate seeking and joining somehow. It takes two weeks and several hours of RP just to find out whether or not you'll get to join the Guild you want to join. For new players, the Guild is often going to be hugely core to the character's ideal 'role.'
I did not like constantly interviewing seekers as a GL and I struggle to find merit in this gatekeeping aspect other than having IC and OOC power over other players. Even when I played all the time and wanted my Guild to be The Biggest Ever and had an active 2GL we still had players straight up slide off the game due to this.
This is not "please make every character an R3 Reeve with rights to arrest people" or "make every character an R3 Troubadour with op and jail pass." It is just smoothing the NPE for something that is slow but mostly inevitable anyway. If a Guild gets an R1 player who's ICly and OOCly a jerk, you have more power than ever as a GL to just give them the boot anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This leads to my next ask:
-Please standardize the onboarding and ranking system for all Guilds. As a new player I want to know:
1) Where the heck is my Guildhall? This is the social and resource hub for all guilds. Tell players where they can find the GH and what resources they can access there as newbies and where they definitely shouldn't be as many guilds have secret/private/locked areas.
2) What I should I learn? Not just skills but lore, techniques, commands, etc. Are there other helpfiles where I can start thinking about my character's future? Does your Guild have a library where I can start reading lore or techniques and maybe toggle RP to try and find other guildmembers to talk shop?
3) What do I do now? This can be anything from activities to drive RP and benefit the Guild ("go gather some influence or supporters to up our favorite metric!") to something the player can do during downtime to benefit their RP ("here are skills we might expect you to have and ways to practice them, or project ideas that can count toward your advancement and don't need GL micromanagement.") This doesn't guarantee or obligate advancement, it just gives players who can't reach their GL something to do.
4) How can I advance? What kinds of advancement paths are in this guild? We do the best here but sometimes the criteria are very vague and sometimes it just boils down to 'your boss likes you enough'. IMO we should have clear standards all the way up to rank 3, where characters finally become "real" members of their guild.
IMO we should start a game-wide initiative to update all of these things in the Guild help systems because they are essential to the health of the game.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally:
-Please drop 'mentor' requirements from Guilds. This is more of a plea from a former GL to present GL's. Expecting low ranking members to be 'assigned' to GL3+ members doesn't work with our current pbase. The spontaneity of the grid is our greatest asset. Having to line up timezones and schedule scenes and so on is troublesome and it means players are just going to go find a tabletop RPG group where the kind of RP they want happens from 'go.' It also meant I needed a spreadsheet to know who was hanging out with who even in a 'medium' sized Guild and my biggest regret is not simply abolishing the system and letting GL3+ characters act more as general newbie helpers.
Around sometimes. Contact: galaxgal#6174
In general:
Finally, I think there is a salient point made from the last OOC meeting where our philosophy often circles around 'trickle down' RP. Tons of resources like gold, XP, IP, and QP accumulate at the top-end of the game, more than any players would ever need, and more than enough to achieve their goals with minimal interaction with low rank players.
Staff event plot hooks also often target org leaders, with the expectation that they are skilled and creative enough to find ways to delegate tasks all the way down to unemployed Freeman characters.
The IP, QP, and gold we get more often than not goes into the Plot system or circles around Council because what they need isn't from players who have no money or Support slots, it's from other guild leaders, nobles, and VNPC's in Plots, or on-demand summonable retainers that do all the RP and even some code functions a freeman manservant could offer.
This is not a call-out on any particular player or group of players, it is merely me highlighting the natural play patterns that flow from the design of these systems. When I was part of Council, everyone was doing their best to be inclusive and engaging, even in ways I couldn't keep up with and considered borderline saintly of them.
And on the other hand, expecting everyone who lucks into a noble or GL assignment to be doing 24/7 roleplay charity for newbies is... it's tiring, and it burnt me out. I don't think any player who ranks up ingame does so with the intent of becoming a pseudo-GM for other players isn't fair, and there are way more things we can fix that aren't vague and nebulous 'culture' that can start here.
Easing the curve on player resource distribution in general is a first step to that. What comes next, I'm not sure, but at the very least it would be a start to give newbies access to thinks like slightly-better assets, some IP, etc.
Finally, I think there is a salient point made from the last OOC meeting where our philosophy often circles around 'trickle down' RP. Tons of resources like gold, XP, IP, and QP accumulate at the top-end of the game, more than any players would ever need, and more than enough to achieve their goals with minimal interaction with low rank players.
Staff event plot hooks also often target org leaders, with the expectation that they are skilled and creative enough to find ways to delegate tasks all the way down to unemployed Freeman characters.
The IP, QP, and gold we get more often than not goes into the Plot system or circles around Council because what they need isn't from players who have no money or Support slots, it's from other guild leaders, nobles, and VNPC's in Plots, or on-demand summonable retainers that do all the RP and even some code functions a freeman manservant could offer.
This is not a call-out on any particular player or group of players, it is merely me highlighting the natural play patterns that flow from the design of these systems. When I was part of Council, everyone was doing their best to be inclusive and engaging, even in ways I couldn't keep up with and considered borderline saintly of them.
And on the other hand, expecting everyone who lucks into a noble or GL assignment to be doing 24/7 roleplay charity for newbies is... it's tiring, and it burnt me out. I don't think any player who ranks up ingame does so with the intent of becoming a pseudo-GM for other players isn't fair, and there are way more things we can fix that aren't vague and nebulous 'culture' that can start here.
Easing the curve on player resource distribution in general is a first step to that. What comes next, I'm not sure, but at the very least it would be a start to give newbies access to thinks like slightly-better assets, some IP, etc.
Around sometimes. Contact: galaxgal#6174
I think there is a lot of value in this post, thank you. As a result, we have requested Viridis take over making sure some of this is implemented, particularly the Guildinfo Standards that should be direct help files to onboard new guild members.
Historically, GLs and players have come out strongly against allowing new players to just 'buy into' low guild ranks. I think this is misguided and agree wholeheartedly with this post, thus I've put the item on Staff Talking Points again.
The other items are also common sense. Thank you for raising them. On the whole, I can't speak about the apprentice system in practice because I have little personal experience with it, but for guilds where having a master is 'thematic', I think I've seen it done with success with an NPC, but there seems to be weird pressure for people to keep things to PCs even when the system is not functioning well. I'd like to encourage people to think 'is this working' and look for other potential solutions than just doing whatever was done before because change is okay. Also, please consider potentially raising problems to staff if someone needs ideas or support.
Historically, GLs and players have come out strongly against allowing new players to just 'buy into' low guild ranks. I think this is misguided and agree wholeheartedly with this post, thus I've put the item on Staff Talking Points again.
The other items are also common sense. Thank you for raising them. On the whole, I can't speak about the apprentice system in practice because I have little personal experience with it, but for guilds where having a master is 'thematic', I think I've seen it done with success with an NPC, but there seems to be weird pressure for people to keep things to PCs even when the system is not functioning well. I'd like to encourage people to think 'is this working' and look for other potential solutions than just doing whatever was done before because change is okay. Also, please consider potentially raising problems to staff if someone needs ideas or support.
-
- Information
-
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests