This game's motive? Serious game discussion on the theory of why we are were we are in this stage of NW life.

[Piker]

I agree about the forums. I'm not sure what is the exact reason for this though. I don't know if it's people are meaner to other members on here now or if people have thin skin...

I really think it is the latter, Mr. P.. The only people that get in fights are UK and Z. They can handle themselves. Noone has yelled at a nub on the forums in quite some time. Either they have no idea what people are saying or they take it to heart.

[totte]

abit of both i think

[BeeNo]

maybe its because nobody is picking on noobs, they have no reason to prove otherwise?

[Soviet Russia]

gah gah remember what happened to the UltimateRelik guy. Fortunately we did not rape that newbie, did everything else.

[Max Logan]

I don`t think about`s motive, its about appealing. We need a way to make new players join the community.

A way to socialise them into NW, not just the game,. but forums too, so new players join in the everyday talk. That way, they`ll be motivated to stay

[Rassputtin]

My two cents..

This is how I came to this game. I imagine the same is true for many players current, and that have not come yet.

I was playing planetarion. A phenomenally designed tick based game. They went to strict pay to play so i needed to find another game.

I searched one of the game voting/listing sites. Searched on the term World War II. Cause thats the genre I wanted to play. World at war came up. I read the description and thought sure I'll give it a try.

Signed up, read a bit about how to play and just started playing. No forums, no talking with other players, just logging in and playing.

After 2-3 days i logged in to being attacked, and someone had stolen my land. I though what the hell, i didn't instigate this guy. Why is he attacking me. I'm expanding peacefully and this guy wants war. Well I'll give him war. So I attacked him. Couple of AA's, some standard attacks back and told him, You started this war.

Well he attacked me back. I attacked him back. etc etc. The whole set me and this guy pounded on eachother. It was exhilerating.

Thats what you have to consider. A new player doesn't want to read the forums, learn an unsurmountable amount of unwritten rules and tactics, just to play the game. Nor does he want to have a mentor hand feed him those unwritten rules, and from day one fall into the stale tactics of hoarding infantry and utilizing the same mechanics every set over and over again to try to finish high.

A new player wants to have fun. If someone would have messaged me in my first set and said hey man, this game is based on peacefully attacking and stealing land from eachother so stop using AA or we will kill you, and then killed me. I wouldnt' have played past one set.

The unwritten rules and ettiquete to follow are cumbersome. The tiny tight nit group of players playing the game enforcing them is a turn off for new players. A new player must either abide by and play like the game has been played for the last decade or find another game. Most choose the latter and not the former.

And as I've said a million times the mechanics themselves are flawed and only lend to the burden of the etiquette and unwritten rules. You have to have empathy to be able to see from a nub point of view in order to understand the turn offs.

Come to my house to play a game of risk, and once you get here I'll tell you that we only use the soldier pieces that designate the "1 unit". So put the fives and tens back in the box. You can attack a territory i control but not more than 3 times. etc etc you see where Im going. And then I tell you that if you do not abide by the "house rules" that I have set forth me and my two brothers will team up and take you out of the game. What choice do you have....

A. Not come to my house to play risk.
B. Gather your brothers and bring them with to play risk at my house.

No one has 50 brothers to bring here to change the "house rules"......................

[Mr President]

My two cents..

This is how I came to this game. I imagine the same is true for many players current, and that have not come yet.

I was playing planetarion. A phenomenally designed tick based game. They went to strict pay to play so i needed to find another game.

I searched one of the game voting/listing sites. Searched on the term World War II. Cause thats the genre I wanted to play. World at war came up. I read the description and thought sure I'll give it a try.

Signed up, read a bit about how to play and just started playing. No forums, no talking with other players, just logging in and playing.

After 2-3 days i logged in to being attacked, and someone had stolen my land. I though what the hell, i didn't instigate this guy. Why is he attacking me. I'm expanding peacefully and this guy wants war. Well I'll give him war. So I attacked him. Couple of AA's, some standard attacks back and told him, You started this war.

Well he attacked me back. I attacked him back. etc etc. The whole set me and this guy pounded on eachother. It was exhilerating.

Thats what you have to consider. A new player doesn't want to read the forums, learn an unsurmountable amount of unwritten rules and tactics, just to play the game. Nor does he want to have a mentor hand feed him those unwritten rules, and from day one fall into the stale tactics of hoarding infantry and utilizing the same mechanics every set over and over again to try to finish high.

A new player wants to have fun. If someone would have messaged me in my first set and said hey man, this game is based on peacefully attacking and stealing land from eachother so stop using AA or we will kill you, and then killed me. I wouldnt' have played past one set.

The unwritten rules and ettiquete to follow are cumbersome. The tiny tight nit group of players playing the game enforcing them is a turn off for new players. A new player must either abide by and play like the game has been played for the last decade or find another game. Most choose the latter and not the former.

And as I've said a million times the mechanics themselves are flawed and only lend to the burden of the etiquette and unwritten rules. You have to have empathy to be able to see from a nub point of view in order to understand the turn offs.

Come to my house to play a game of risk, and once you get here I'll tell you that we only use the soldier pieces that designate the "1 unit". So put the fives and tens back in the box. You can attack a territory i control but not more than 3 times. etc etc you see where Im going. And then I tell you that if you do not abide by the "house rules" that I have set forth me and my two brothers will team up and take you out of the game. What choice do you have....

A. Not come to my house to play risk.
B. Gather your brothers and bring them with to play risk at my house.

No one has 50 brothers to bring here to change the "house rules"......................

This is a very good post. The way you described it at the end is very true. Perhaps with us working so hard to quickly train a new member the "right" way, it turns them off. Maybe they would like to be left alone and learn things as they go along.

This is info to think about.

Nice post rass!

[Calvin74]

This is a very good post. The way you described it at the end is very true. Perhaps with us working so hard to quickly train a new member the "right" way, it turns them off. Maybe they would like to be left alone and learn things as they go along.

This is info to think about.

Nice post rass!

i will point out that while everyone hates the house rules if you look at them from a logical standpoint they were put in place and exist to help the newer less skilled players. who could benefit the most from the ability to farm people? the much higher up top 3 people. who would they farm? they guys that aren't as good and just learning the game.
so you are more than welcome to try and change the house rules but in the end think about who it will hurt and if you want to go down that road.

[MAGGIO]

I think the biggest challenge to gaining new members is 1. the best feature and at the same time 2. the achillis heel of this game. NATIONS!

if this was not a team based game it would IMO have a wildly higher member base, but at the same time would the game be any good?

i remember my first go at these rpgs. I tried a few and WOW was one of several I was playing/trying out for the first time. None were nation/team based or at least that I know of. Didnt really come to play with others vs others. But that was when i was a noob.

wonder what the new player retension/sign up would be like if CTF was the main server and Redem was the secondary server or at least laid out that way?

[totte]

I think the biggest challenge to gaining new members is 1. the best feature and at the same time 2. the achillis heel of this game. NATIONS!

if this was not a team based game it would IMO have a wildly higher member base, but at the same time would the game be any good?

well we do have 2 servers these days maybe we should have ctf run more often?