Shattered Kingdoms

There will be multiple polls to help prioritize ideas. In this batch, there will be two polls: one about acquiring/exciting new players and another about retaining/exciting existing players.

This poll is the first: Please vote for any/all ideas from this list that will help to acquire and excite NEW players.

Feel free to discuss / ask questions about items on this list or add your write-in candidate.


EDIT:
Final results by popularity:

Which options are best for acquiring and exciting NEW players?
Poll ended at 22 Dec 2013 10:16

1. Official info sharing (Wiki and/or Guide Forums) 18% [ 43 ] (DONE)
2. Revamp quests for transparency (better hinting, quest chains) 18% [ 43 ]
3. Tradeskills (forging, dyeing, mining, etc) 18% [ 42 ]
4. Make the game more interesting before Master (methods to be discussed) 13% [ 31 ]
5. Make the game less difficult/more casual (methods to be discussed) 13% [ 31 ]
6. Out of game communication (Ex: CB/TB Channels on FB messenger, note boards via forums, email notifications for game events) 7% [ 17 ]
7. Decrease number of starting cities (easier to find and meet players) 7% [ 16 ]
8. Native clients for Facebook and/or Mobile 6% [ 14 ] (PARTIAL - FB Web Client Available)

Total votes : 237

To clarify the out of game communication option: This would not take the place of existing channels and/or note boards. It would integrate/mirror the existing in-game communication with out-of-game methods.

Boards could be mirrored on the forums and you could read/post to them from either in-game or the forums.

A cabal/tribunal channel would be mirrored on one or more messaging clients, so you would see the channel chatter show up in your FB window or phone client and be able to respond to it (and that response be seen in game as if your character was online).

If a Global RP or CRS raid or some other event were to start, you'd get an email reminder. (Would be opt-in after registering your email.)

I haven't investigated how hard it would be to do all of these things, but all of them ought to be theoretically possible.

I think re-vamping and/or adding more quests goes hand-in-hand with making the game more interesting before reaching master, so I picked both of those options. It is not terribly hard as a veteran to make master, but as a new player it could be daunting.

I think we need an OOC newbie channel. Lots of other MUDs have this. It should be highly policed, to avoid dangerous amounts of OOC information. When creating a character, it should do automatic announcements to help guide players along. Toggle on and off. Paragons should have no choice but to keep this enabled. Answering 'No" in the creation halls to: Are you new to SK? will toggle it off.

For example, an automatic announcement at level 5 that says "You must move beyond the newbie school now, and find new and more difficult monsters to train on. Also, if you haven't already, it's time to set your adjective and write a description. See help: description adjective train level"

In addition to periodic hints.

Just for clarification and a discussion point, this option did not get my vote because it seems counter-productive. Based on my reading, which could be incorrect, this would provide alternatives to logging in... which would in fact lead to people NOT logging in for certain tasks. That seems extremely counter-productive.

I would rather advocate more in-game, asynchronous methods of communication.

I have beaten some other issues to death in other threads, so I think it'd be best to leave them be. My position is known on the items I voted for.

Dulrik already commented on that in the other thread, which is why it is not an option in this poll:



The description of SK on TMS is not ambiguous either - no new player is going to come to SK and be surprised there is no newbie channel. Or at least they shouldn't be surprised based on the game's advertising:

Where Roleplay and Tactics Collide! Roleplay required, roleplay rewarded. Unique quests, enormous map and one-of-a-kind areas. No global channels. Free to play for 15 years. Website help and forums available.

Yes. And I think this is a deterrent.

I voted for casual gaming, quest upgrades, OOC communication, trade skills, and info sharing.

Casual gaming I answer in the previous thread, but the short and sweet of it is that it can only be better if it's more accessible to a broader demographic of players.

Quest upgrading speaks for itself, I think.

Trade skills are attractive in many other games, and there's no reason it can't be so in this one too. Trade skills also provide a certain level of personalization so that GMSorx1 is potentially different from GMSorx2, and personalization of characters mechanically is something a lot of players like having the choice of doing.

Info sharing shortens the learning curve for those players without the time/inclination/gamer type to search out every obscure corner of every obscure map room (and SK's maps are, in many cases, way too big to randomly discover some of the more obscure things), and that can only benefit. Again, appealing to broader demographics makes the game more attractive to more people, which should automatically increase the number of people who at least TRY the game. The more people that sample, the more that will buy at the end of the day.

The OOC communications channels that you mention and describe in this thread, Dulrik, are a good idea. A lot of games provide offline communication options, and to be able to participate in those ICly is a really hawt idea.

I think quest revamp would be benifitial to lower level players.
Quests also incentify continued play. Have you ever tried to walk away from skyrim?

I didn't vote for the wiki site and sites like it. The discovery and exploration is a big part of sk for me. We should come up with ways, ic, to explain the same info.

I don't like the idea of tb/cb chat via fb messenger. You should need to be logged in order to see the convos. I think it would lead to more ooc info sharing. Someone bounces between characters and shares the info on each tb chat? Naw dude.
But I do think it would be cool to have a "tweet" command. Let's say someone finally tags that sorc that's always ethereal and invis. Tweet it and watch people log in to share the glory and give congrats. Any thoughts on that?

I forget what my other selected choice(s) was/were. But I really like Dulrik being interested in the opinion of the people. Thanks for hearing us and keep up the good work!

After coming back to the game from a long hiatus, I suggest making the Oracle a tad easier so low levels characters who haven't got IC connections yet can gain life a little easier instead of begging the Gods through the prayer command.