The free weekend gave ame a good chance to improve my commanding. With none of the new players wanting to do it I simply hopped in and did my thing. It was a good opportunity for exsisting players also in my opinion
Yep, I did the same. Got a few alien commands in which was helpful.
Not too hopeful about the conversion rate myself. Almost every game I've played in since the free weekend started has been an absolute mess. Maybe some of the new people will enjoy that kind of thing though I suppose.
UWE, I think you need to pay particular attention to this post! I totally agree with this statement. The veterans tried our best to make the games fun but its so hard with such total noobs! I think next time you do a free weekend, if you really want to capture these people and get them to buy it you need to find a way to give them a glimpse of what the game is REALLY meant to be like. I think very few noobs got to see this side of the game, and the awesomeness that lies within a properly matched game. I think if everyone got to see that, a lot more people would have bought the game.
In the future, I'm not sure what could be done, but an idea I had would be something like making it so noobs were stuck in "rookie" mode for at least 1 hour of gameplay. And while in rookie mode, they are forced to auto-connect to very specific servers where the game environment is a little more scripted. Possibly make it so if the commander is doing absolutely nothing, the game will step in and help him out a little - like drop a few res nodes and auto-instruct other players to go build them, auto-drop important structures but have a voiceover explain why it did that and why it is important. Sort of like a live tutorial.
And for the standard marines / skulks, it should be more interactive with helping them understand what is happening around them. If the commander drops something, it should pop up a little clip explaining what to do, and if they don't do it, temporarily take control of their character to show them how to do it once.
Also we need to make sure the rookies arent getting steamrolled by veteran players! I'm not sure you guys understand how crippling and demoralizing to a new player. I personally saw dozens of noobs get stomped again and again by a few veterans until they just rage quit. About 25% of them even typed in or spoke on their mic something to the extent of "this game is terrible, I just die instantly" and they rage quit with a record of 0 & 25 and probably never came back. I think it would be critical to force players to stay in these rookie servers for an hour or 2 so that they can learn to play with other rookies and not get steam rolled so badly. Maybe even throw in a couple bots on each team that would roam the map and do constructive things like build structures and gorge up areas but not really be that effective at killing anybody - but they would at least allow the game to progress somewhat normally in the absence of any veterans.
Staying in rookie only servers would prevent them from encountering helpful players who can show them the ropes. Your two goals seem to be conflicting here - playing with all rookies doesn't show them anything about the "real" NS2. I agree there could be better tutorial prompts, but I think the fact of the matter is that NS2 does have a steep learning curve, and in order to succeed in the game you have to be willing to commit yourself to learning it for a little while. If someone is going to get frustrated and give up after an hour or two because they're not doing well, this game probably isn't for them. The fact that the game has landed solidly in the Top 10 after the end of the free weekend shows that there are plenty of people willing to do that.
Just because the free weekend brought in a lot of sales, does not mean it couldn't have done better. I personally encountered players - some who were long time gamers- who got too frustrated with the game, said theres no way they will buy it, and rage quit. You can't expect every player in the world to have Zen-like patience who will be willing to get obliterated for hours on end by veterans. Its just not fun and you know it.
Personally when I was learning in NS1 I had to join server after server until I found people of lower skill levels so that I could stay alive for more than 5 seconds to actually learn how to play. But during this free weekend, I think many players did not get that chance, they were thrown into the meat grinder, chewed up and spit out never to return.
I'm inclined to believe this is more to do with the current crop of gamers than any fault of the game. While I agree the game could do more (a lot more) to help train newbies; it is my experience that today's gamers also have less patience to actually learn a game or take their lumps in the process of learning.
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Yep, I did the same. Got a few alien commands in which was helpful.
I'm inclined to believe this is more to do with the current crop of gamers than any fault of the game. While I agree the game could do more (a lot more) to help train newbies; it is my experience that today's gamers also have less patience to actually learn a game or take their lumps in the process of learning.