hehe I don't mean to be mean or anything...
But when I host my game (which I do want to do just so those people who enjoy it can play it) it sometimes ends up being a full day job.
I swear no one wants to learn a game anymore by themselves, I must have had almost every person that joined my game in the last couple of days ask me a question like right as they entered. Why dont' people just play the game anymore?
Then they get all mad because no one's answering their questions and start screaming and aahhhhh...
anyone else having this problem? :)
I don't mind answering questions, but I keep the game up so they can play it while I code :)
I know i can make GM commands for this, I would have put it #1 on my list of things to do if I knew it was going to be this bad :)
Of course though then there's the 6-7 people who are really cool and you actually want them to stay, which makes up for the people unwilling to learn, in the long run... I guess :)
So, I guess my question is... When did gaming turn into just abunch of numbers and rules and regulations?
Why isn't it just a game you play because it's fun anymore?
Maybe it still is to some, In fact I'm sure most people on this forum still see games as games and not numbers and being the most powerful and such, but to me it looks like the old "Game" perspective is dieing to the rest of the world.
Well this is babble ( as you can see ) and I look forward to the replies :)
ID:274427
 Feb 1 2002, 10:12 pm
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Feb 1 2002, 10:24 pm
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Nadrew
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Make a help file, and use that...
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The best way to avoid the Newbie Plague is to lock yourself in a basement with a 30-year supply of SPAM and toilet paper.
The second best way is to make the resources to learn the game at the individual's fingertips -- if the individual wants to learn how to play, the individual must refer to them manually. This means, however, that you need to totally and entirely squelch any global communication verbs. This also means that you need to have constant references in the game itself that refer to the documentation. And, you need to get players who can actually read. =P [edit] The last line would sound too inflammatory against blind or otherwise impaired persons, so I changed the wording to be slightly less impacting. | |
hehe, I did do that, it didn't work at the beginning (Maybe because I was too easy on them, I figured they'd know what the "Recruit Men" verb does.)
I guess you're right though, I should take 30-60mins out and just totally type up a help menu.... sigh :) | |
Regarding questions about how to play the game, I think it depends on a few things--#1 being what kind of game it is and who it attracts. But after that, questions tend to expose shortcomings in the game design or how well it's documented to the players.
I discovered in my recent tests of Incursion that a lot of the questions I got (especially the ones I got repeatedly) helped highlight flaws in my documentation of commands, or pointed out how badly certain temporary features needed replacing. Questions I got a lot:
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Jon Snow wrote:
anyone else having this problem? :) Whenever I hosted my game, actually. This is one of the reasons I stopped hosting it to test something in multiplayer, and just run a few copies of DS on my machine with my key and Guest. I don't mind answering questions, but I keep the game up so they can play it while I code :) Pssh. You can chat and code at the same time, yes, but I've noticed my code always comes out sort of.. bad.. when I do so. So, I guess my question is... When did gaming turn into just abunch of numbers and rules and regulations? It didn't, but some did. You, however, could try to change this by coming up with your own ideas and working with them.. who knows? You could come up with something great. Why isn't it just a game you play because it's fun anymore? if(game!=fun) Tarmas.stop_playing(game) Well this is babble ( as you can see ) and I look forward to the replies :) . . . About those questions.. If I don't understand the point of the game or the interface, I start asking stupid questions about it. Try having a nice FAQ appear in the browser when you connect. (Note: Make sure it looks half-decent. An awful 700k mass of animated gifs does not an informative web page make) Have the interface be sort of.. intuitive. have helpful hints appear when you do certain things. Just make it clear (without insulting the player's intelligence. Have an option to turn it off..) what you just did, and what you should do now. --Tarmas. | |
Tarmas wrote:
Jon Snow wrote: My Battle for Solaris route is rather clever, I think. When the main menu appears when you have not yet played the game (in other words, you haven't created a squadron yet), there are blinkers that point to the Help menu item, which in turn leads to a submenu, where blinkers point to a FAQ menu item. That way, people who are truly inclined to do so may simply ignore the FAQ. | |
You've reached Phase 1. Phase 2 is when people start coming into your game, and instead of demanding that you hold your hand and walk them through playing it, they demand you hold their hand and walk them through coding their own game. Heck, some of them will even demand you give them your entire game code.
You are now officially halfway to understanding why BYOND is full of "mean elitists" like myself. You will soon have to start making the difficult choices that we've been making all along... is it worth it to spend 80% of my time coding admin commands (a never-ending job of plugging up the leaks and work-arounds that enterprising trolls find... thank Dantom for pager banning and the newer hosting options!) now in the hopes that in the future it will enable me to spend more of my time coding the actual game? If I answer a few simple questions, will that make these people go away so that the people actually here to play can have a chance to play in peace? And so on. You will be harassed. You will be annoyed. You will be threatened. You will be cajoled. You will be spammed until your server crashes. Enjoy. And welcome to the club. | |
Yeah man.. I get both Hate and Like post all the time on my game... I laugh at it most the time, and soon understand how stupid most those who blurt out insult are as they more than likely never make it out of the 1st map. Or if they check my game out after awhile, they look around the immediate area see nothing new going on, and suppose there are no updates. My game "Kemet" is going to be so huge and expandsive that it should take at least 30 real game hours to travel from one end of the over map sectors in the Lower Kingdom -> the last sector map in the Upper Kingdom. Also I'm laying down the foundation and code structure right now, that should allow me to start letting other people help me out in certain areas, like object creation etc. But so far while working 12 hour shifts in the real world, I've slaved away at my game all by myself, everything SoundFXs. Graphics, Code, even the MIDI music was custom written by me!
So I understand your beef, and just say go with that flow of respected fans who actually like your game, and even I have a Ban list thats growing ;). LJR | |
Well, Jon the best way to combat these people asking for help continually is to ban them, or just do a invisble host and invite people you want to come.
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I was thinking of adding a filter... so that whenever someone mentions a command that is in the game, or most common questions, it takes them to the help :)
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Spuzzum wrote:
The best way to avoid the Newbie Plague is to lock yourself in a basement with a 30-year supply of SPAM and toilet paper. THE TOILET PAPER...I KNeW I FORGOT SOMETHING!!!!!! Stealth2k... | |
I don't think there's anyway to fix this. Whenever people ask stupid questions I know is in the help file, I just say "RTFM!"... I've said it so much, I've thought about making an RTFM verb, and giving it to all the regulars in the game (it would say "RTFM " in different colors, bolded, then give the URL to the manual again :p)... Besides that, just ignore them. I've found that listning and answering everyone wears you down fast. Instead, I told them if they have a problem, email me, if they bug me in-game (and it's not something severe like not being able to move), they will get kicked. That allows me to read my email at leisure when I have time to fix the problems, instead of being demanded to fix them. And I also warned them that sending an email that had lots of spelling errors, no punctuation, weird colors, etc, will usuially result in me just deleting the thing, since I really don't feel like getting a headache trying to read the damn thing... Well that's what I do anyway!
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I tried your game, and I got lost. For the most part, that was caused by a few major reasons:
- There was no story, so I didn't understand what was going on. Why are people telling me not to attack them? What else am I supposed to do when all I have is a town to defend and a little soldier? Why can't I attack certain other players? - There was no obvious point. I was just told to make a town and train slaves. Why? What are they good for? - Shouldn't there be a help file somewhere? I see all these buttons, but I don't know what they do! I click this, but all it says is that I don't have enough money. How do I get money? Basically, your game leaves a lot of questions unanswered that shouldn't be left that way. You need to answer a player's initial questions before they can start to enjoy the game, unless by chance the manage to learn the answers on their own. And keep in mind, that answering their questions usually means making the instructions VERY obvious to players, who enjoy an unusual amount of ignorance when playing new games. The better your instructions are, the less annoying question-askers you'll have to put up with.
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Well someone offered to do the help guide and website for me! woohoo!!
Well on the side I've also been working on GM commands, with a icon that is a fiend on fire. Maybe I'll call it the Terminator... hmmm | |
Jon Snow wrote:
Well someone offered to do the help guide and website for me! woohoo!!Hehe you know what would be cooler!?? Add some fun to the aspect of Banning kicking someone. If your game uses icons and maps, Create a non-destructable NPC MOB, Make an GM command called Terminate(who). Where the who is the name of the person to die. What happens is the MOB appears within 6-10 icons from the offender, is able to ghost thru density items, and says some view area only taunts of their destruction as they beat and kill the offender to a pulp! Then world wide broadcast of so and so has been Terminated by, the Terminator! Also banning the person after they are killed. Add more of a game like experience to it and have some fun. LJR | |
