Topic: Game design
Greetings!
I decided to write here to summarize recent events for myselves and others.
Main event - Gama frontier. DeV's did really great and difficult work. Of course raw implementation requires some adjustment, but generally it's fine. It would seem the new people should start play, old players renew subscription and so on. But the miracle did not happened...
Q: Why so wonderful game have not good popularity?
To answer this question we should answer on the following:
Q: The game is subscription type. Who can/will pay for it?
A: A man who earns.
Q: How much time he can give the game?
A: He need 8 hours to sleep, 8-10 hours for his work, 4 hours for daily pursuits and family stuff. It's remains 2-3 hours for the game.
Q: This is the MMORPG. The player should play in the team. Who should be his mates in the game?
A: This is should be ppl from his timezone. Their "time for game" should coincide. Else they won't see each other.
Let's take a break and compare with game.
Q: Which zones (islands) is suitable for this people?
A: Alphas more, betas less and gamma - not. The ppl don't want and they will not defend it 24/7.
...So we have a casual players. They - most of all players. They ready to pay the subscription for 2-3 hours. Alphas and Betas suitable for them. It's need to create interesting (not easy) conditions for them.
Now we need back to gamma content. We have 6 alpha islands, 6 betas and 24 terraformable gammas. DeV's spent really a lot of time and money for gamma conent. Of course they interested in colonize of this islands.
Q: How to involve most part of players (include casuals) to gamma?
This is a big question. Here are dilemma:
- The way between islands looks like a travel. But increasing of teleports between islands bad too.
- The people don't want build few days to lose per few hours. But attackers anyway must have ability to destroy it.
- The ppl always will try to close access to their and create safe zones for their treasures. But terraforming intended not for creating the walls. Also each player should be able to have a chance to meet any island, travel etc.
The answer for this question enough simple.
A: Intended things should work very-very well. All another - useless, senseless and uncomfortable for using (but possible). And game design should help to casual players - not to nolifers (like me).
Why the crybabies wins?
Где Ханя - там победа (с)
DEV Zoom: No need to speculate...
