The unfortunate truth is that very few new players are coming in and sticking around. Moreso, we have a lot of people who prefer to pick on the new players as soon as they come into the forums, flexing their e-muscles, rather than giving them a warm welcome. This is causing a select few to stick around for any noteworthy amount of time.
Don't get me wrong, some people will mail ingame to say hello, ask if they have any questions, etc, but the big problem is the overall hostility of the enviroment. Yes the game is a game of crime and back stabbing. The forums are not. They are a common place to put out an opinion, and for the love of god, some noob running his mouth at level 2, who doesn't know any better... gets hosped and then goes and plays utopia or earth 2025 or some vampire text RPG.... yeah, set that learning curve early, agree with whoever has a bigger gun than you, or pay the consequences.
Cheetah, repsectfully, you are a perfect example. Deathwing, you are too. Conrad, you used to, not so much anymore. To what purpose do you each individually serve by putting up a noob in the hosp for 300 minutes at a time. And at your level, is it really worth it? To what purpose does it serve to do that? And don't give me a darwinian theory here, please.
What is the turn over rate of new sign-ups. Out of 10 sign-ups, what, 1 is a multi and gets banned immediately... 8-9 lose interest shortly thereafter, due to being overwhelmed by what to do. The few that do make it have to deal with a combat and training system that is difficult to understand, and not well explained. In your first few clicks, if you didn't have someone explaining it to you, what happened? You were like wtf?
Which brings me to the whole point of this thread.
This is half suggestion, half discussion, but I would prefer it to stay here.
Have a walkthrough guide for the newbies on how and what to do. Make it so that learn the combat system, get given noob-level starter equipment, and spoonfeed it if you need to. Look at the majority of game's today, fallen earth is a great example of one. The newbie tutorial can take a person who is playing their first computer game and make them understand what they are trying to accomplish.
Leveling, builds, what to train, make them pick what they would like to be, and show them what to train. Teach them the importance of Specialization. Yes, it may be cool to be a shotgun and SMG wielding spray and prayer who is Lawrence Fishbourne(The Matrix Reloaded) with a katana, but it isn't practical. Better off specializing in one weapon.
Give them basic but thorough understanding of the game.Quests is a good idea, and let them get Tier One items, IE, the most basic of weapons. Allow them to earn the lowest items. Certain items, like Axes, and Shotguns, they would get new beginning items, like Remington or a Mossberg, or a Fire Axe for a starter Axe. All these items would be not be allowed to be traded to other players, it would bind to the account, and it would only be able to be sold to an NPC for $1 or something.
This would include battling NPC's for XP, join an NPC gang, complete a war against a "rival npc" gang, How careers make you more CP in the long run if you level them instead of using them for stats. Get asked some questions about what kind of battle you prefer, so you can pick SBM for a sneaky assasin, LBM for a graceful slasher, Shotgun for a red neck with an attitude problem, Submachine gun for Mafia sprayer, Rifle for that sniper, Blunt for the TF2 style Heavy grunt, or Axes for the muscular crowd. Give them something to work with, so they get the taste in there mouth and want more. If you never had a taste of the Donator Status, would you really want to try it as much?
As for houses. The players cand o fun crimes, like defrauding financial assistance for first time home buyers, allowing them to go from a cardboard box up to the mobile home. Give them the ability to get a boost, but also make it so they have to work for it.
To keep in line, this would make all new characters start at level 0, and these crimes and "quests" would get them to level one, with a few extra development points, armor, weapons, etc etc.
Cardboard Box.... $0 100
Squatter Hovel..... $983 110
Trailer................ $4,424 125
Shack................. $9,830 150
Mobile Home....... $34,405 200
I love this game, and I know it can do a lot better. |
~
state of the game (long speech)