I'm seriously worried about the new player experience

[BlueSmiley]

Definitely. I was mostly running around by myself in the middle of the desert when the beta started. I didn't know where to go, what to do and how to find some teammates when I was not in the warpgate. It took me around ten hours before I knew what to do...

I noticed the tutorials the last few days/weeks, but I don't think they will help the new players much. SOE needs to adress this as fast as possible or they will lose alot of potential addicts/income.

[NEWSKIS]

I think it definitely needs something to explain a lot of not so straight forward game mechanics. The two most important ones being capture and spawn mechanics with the cert system shortly after.

Regardless of whether or not they improve the tutorial, the biggest thing for new players will be vets teaching them and answering questions in game. If people don't bother helping or worse are constantly bashing new players, they wont stick around. The more everyone helps new players, the faster they pick up the game and the longer they will stay. The community needs to make it so new players arent afraid to ask questions about how to play.

[Schalla]

Just to give you the view of a newb, a total newb:

The first time I joined the game was "aha alright here I am."

What a fraction is, was sure. They give you some lore and you decide which philosophy you mostly agree with.

After that - Check out the classes! The classes are normal. A Sniper, A Light Assault, A Heavy, A Medic... Nothing where you gonna get stucked.

The first expierences ingame are like "Whoah! What a big battle!" and you don't feel lost, because you don't have the time todo so. After some time I got into it, because you just get familar to the GUI and Stuff.

I wouldn't say that new players have to worry, I feeled just a bit overwhelmed, but not negative.

[Sunrock]

TBH I think anyone that have played any MMORPG from SOE, Blizzard or any of EA's dev houses won't have a problem understanding the game flow after looking at the map for 30 sec. I also think that anyone that have played BF2, BF3 or BF;BC2 will not have any problem understanding what is going on either.

Only worry is the casual players that play farmville on facebook but then again it's not like you can't ask some one in game what is going on...

[Spoof]

Originally Posted by Rolfski

You end up in a fire fight around some base and you hear messages like "SCU, compromised" but you have no idea what it means (what the heck is a SCU?)...

As a PS vet who played beta from tech test, I can heartily state that I don't have a clue what an SCU is either.

[Crator]

We don't need anything in-game to help with this issue. People can just go to forums and YouTube!

[Knocky]

Originally Posted by Spoof

As a PS vet who played beta from tech test, I can heartily state that I don't have a clue what an SCU is either.

To be honest I don't know what it is other then apparently you want to blow it up when you are trying to take a base.

[PoisonTaco]

The new player experience sucks right now (well as of the end of beta). It gets in the way of helping your friends get into the game. I mentioned this on the Squad Beacon and whenever I got new people into Planetside 2 after they added that tutorial, they were even more lost and confused. They'd start the game, sit through the briefing only to have the game put them into a random squad and drop them into a random hotspot on the map. They'd die, have no idea where or how to spawn.

For these new players they couldn't immediately get into our outfit squads because they're in some random squad without any idea of how to get out of it. Not to mention being thrown head first into the game and they are trying to figure everything out all at once. It's too overwhelming, too confusing and ultimately got in the way of us trying to get them into the game.

If folks from SOE are reading this you need to know that while it's important to get people to learn the game, you also need to give them some breathing room. When someone first loads into a game, especially a PC game, they usually like to mess around with the settings. Find what video options work, mess around with the controls and what have you. You should always start people at the warpgate this way friends can help each other out immediately. If the first thing that happens to someone after loading into Planetside is being dropped in the middle of a fight and dying, they're probably going to lose patience.

From a design standpoint, I'm not sure how to handle a new player experience. Maybe it is something that should be left to the community and for players to teach each other. It's definitely tough, but trying different things doesn't hurt.

[Stadulator]

The only problem PS2 will present to new players, is with players that need to be hand held and bottle fed. ADD kids will hurt this game more than anything.

There's a HUGE amount of resources available, in game and on the web. And given the fact that NOBODY has seen the finished product complete with in game tutorial.

If you're new and confused, ASK! Look on the web, make an effort to come to grips with the fact that this is a BIG game and you're probably not going to pick up all the nuances in a week, let alone a month.

[PoisonTaco]

So long as they don't spoon feed players it will be fine Stadulator. Do League of Legends and Dota 2 hold players hands? They have plenty of resources available for people to play those games and they're immensely popular. Minecraft relied on nothing but youtube and wiki's to help new players.

I think most players are willing to learn if they know where to look.

[Bear]

There's a lot that veteran players and outfits can do to help new players along in game. Simply answering their questions is probably the best assist you can give anyone that's new. If someone is yelling "How do I...." take 10 seconds and answer them. Once they find the battle the rest of the game follows.

Let's not act like PS2 is Eve. There's nothing in this game that is that difficult to figure out.

[Jonny]

I know this isn't constructive, but ill do that post when i'm less tired.

I really laughed when after watching the hastily put together, rather cheesy (maby I find it more cheesy because i'm british) TR video about getting ready for the fight, they then drop me above a tower to fall to my death. Actually cracked me up, like I was just pushed out of an aircraft.

I'm guessing they ran out of drop pods, but I at least hope new players won't have that happen to them.

[rTekku]

Originally Posted by SturmovikDrakon

I'm still confused as to how someone could be so lost. If you've played Battlefield and you see capture points, it should click in your head immediately on where you should be going

But anyway

While I like that they've made the tutorial videos, I feel like the entire message was rushed.

Many people haven't played a Battlefield game believe it or not. There will be a lot of people who've played very little or no FPS games before.

[BigpermCML]

I'm really not worried about it. People who are more likely to stick with a game tend to check things like keybinds right off the bat, or do research on a game.

Those who get too frustrated and bail, would probably be gone as soon as the next BF or CoD game shows up anyways.

[Rolfski]

Originally Posted by elfailo

All terrible ideas apart from letting newbs squad with you, which doesn't really need to be said either way. This is the kind of thinking that belongs in the previous decade.


I'd rather watch xfactor's video's, if only to see if he still has that sweater.

Well thanks for the constructive feedback and thanks for letting us know what's so bad about them...

I assume you can enlighten us with tons of your superior ideas.

Btw you do know how brainstorms work, right? In case you don't, its about sharing, not judging, as many ideas as possible and only afterwards picking out the best ideas.