Granted I don't play much, but I tend to favor session-based games which are over quickly (so multiple matches can be played). If I have to build a character up over multiple sessions in order to have fun then I won't bother playing at all... I'm not sure that many others share this view.

1. I like variety. Being forced to do the same thing over and over for hours turns a game into a job for me.

If I'm going to reach level 100 in a game (not necessarily a RPG), it would be absolutely awesome if I could level in a different way every 20 levels.

Aside from that, I like games that require thinking and/or reflexes. Just because it's a game doesn't mean that your brain has to stop working. This is the reason why RTS is my favorite genre/sub genre.

2. I'll continue to play a game, depending on the things in this order:

-The community is good.

-The owner is active in development and is a part of the community.

-The controls and UI aren't confusing or hard to learn.

-The graphics are eye-catching. Yes, graphics do make or brake a game.

-The game has original ideas and doesn't just try to copy the ideas of more popular games.

-There is some kind of long term reward/bragging rights, even outside of RPGs.

I will NOT continue to play a game if:

-The game requires no thinking and/or reflexes at all.

-Older players have any advantage other than a skill advantage.

-The game just copies the "good" ideas of more popular games.

Merciless Warrior wrote:

1. I like variety. Being forced to do the same thing over and over for hours turns a game into a job for me.

If I'm going to reach level 100 in a game (not necessarily a RPG), it would be absolutely awesome if I could level in a different way every 20 levels.

This intrigues me. When you say doing different things do you mean different as in, maybe kill some monsters, do some quests, maybe a bit of PVP, maybe a bit of exploring and puzzle solving and so on. Basically each one is fairly different, not just the same thing but altered.
Or do you mean different as in going to one dungeon for a few levels, then another slightly harder one, and then one harder after than and so on. What these dungeons have is not too important, killing enemies, doing quests, solving puzzels, fighting bosses. They would all have these, but the enemies, quests, puzzels and bosses would be different.

Which or these do you mean, or do you mean something totally different?

Aside from that, I like games that require thinking and/or reflexes. Just because it's a game doesn't mean that your brain has to stop working. This is the reason why RTS is my favorite genre/sub genre.

What level of thinking do you like exactly?
Is something like preparing a head of time (take fire defence to a fire dungeon), knowing what to use, on who and when to use it, and possibly knowing how to work with a group of other players enough for you? Or do you require more?

2. I'll continue to play a game, depending on the things in this order:

-The controls and UI aren't confusing or hard to learn.

For this one, just how do you like to learn the controls?
Do you prefer some sort of tutorial that has you use commands to prove you can use them? Or maybe just a simple list of commands, and what they do?
Or maybe something else (or mix of both)?

Also, do you mind if these kind of things are forced on you?
Well, maybe not forced on you. But maybe when you login your first time you get a message saying "do the tutorial/read the helpfile before asking stupid questions" or something to that extent.
Is this sort of thing acceptable, or would you rather just do the tutorial/look at the help file on your own (apparently, some people are too stupid to even know how to use a help file without asking for help).

-Older players have any advantage other than a skill advantage.

I would say that in some games it is only natural for people who have been playing for a longer time would have advantages over newer players.
If the game is a RPG, a long time player would naturally be stronger, have better items and stuff than a new player. They would also have more knowledge of the game, how to play it, and where to find stuff, how to do stuff and what not.
Are these acceptable to you, or not?

-The game just copies the "good" ideas of more popular games.

Where do you draw the line between copying good ideas, and using something because it is a good idea (even if other games may have used it)?

IcewarriorX wrote:

You get no players for a few reasons...

1. Your hub isn't flashy at all, it's just like a product, you won't try a soda if the soda has a blank label on it. Anything is better than nothing.

I'm not an artist, and am not good at making stuff look flashy :[
I even tried to hire an artist, AND offered to pay money for someone to do a job like this. Apparently no one is interested.

2. I tried your game, there was an option to skip the tutorial, I would take that out, seeing as how I chose to skip it and then didn't know what to do. I would force them to do the tutorial, and then spice it up, maybe throw them into some kindof mini-story off the bat.

Apparently some people just don't like doing tutorials. It takes like 20 seconds to do, and you actually do get rewards for completing it (only minimal, but they are the sort of rewards that will help a new player out).
But people just don't want to do a tutorial for some reason :[

3. I played your game for a short time, but nothing caught my attention, you need to thrust the player into combat or have some type of monster nearby, I didn't really see any dungeons or monsters in the immediate area. <----This is a must, if a player doesn't see a monster, or at least try out fighting, giving up is imminent.

Following the tutorial basically leads players to the first dungeon in the game, which is where most new players (for now) should go anyway.

I cannot just thrust players into the action unfortunetly.
The game world is small (a single 200x200 map), and players are actually never far from action. This single map at the moment links to 6 dungeons, most within a 10-20 second walk, and in the future will link to even more.
The problem I am having is letting players know of these locations. How can I do it in a way that will indicate roughly where the dungeon is, is relatively easy to find and can be easily referenced again in the future for whatever reason?
At the moment all players in the game are given a book, which has a map with all important locations in the town they start in. I was thinking of adding another map to this book with "dangerous" places located on it. But the problem with this is even though players are told they have a map, and told to read this book they are still asking where this or that building is. (The starting quest literally tells people about 8 times to look at the damn map already!)

4. Like all games, you need hype, Generiquest just doesn't sound like a name of an RPG someone wants to play, if the owner doesn't want the game to be taken seriously, how can he expect the players to take it seriously?

The game is a spoof of the generic RPG :[ It is suppose to contain light hearted humor while still being serious enough that people could play it for a period of time. Hence the name is a fusion of the words Generic and Quest.

What sort of name should the game have exactly? The more popular games on BYOND have... Really bad names actually. It is almost like when people were naming the games they just randomly hit the keyboard a few times and said "Thats the name of this game!"
Maybe I should rename the game to Astorgaragax instead :[

Also, a lot of other BYOND RPGs have generic names too, and use a generic format.
"The [generic word for the player] of [generic word for legend/adventure" or something similarly as generic.
Maybe I should rename my game The Heros of then Legend of the Crystals of the Demon Lords Adventure?
It is about as generic as most RPG names on BYOND to tell you the truth.
I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of these games basically used http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=rpgnamer that to generate the name for their RPG.

5. Guilds <--- Major part of any game. If your game has tons of guild features that can be seen at a glance then it will be successful.

This is a planned feature to be added in the future. At the moment I am more bothered about adding stuff for people to actually do in the game.
What is the point in adding guilds, when there is nothing for these people in the guild to do?
Hopefully once guilds are added they will be able to partake in glorious 20 man battles against ancient demon lords that last for long periods of time (more than 10 minutes).