The New Player Experience - Finding where to improve!

Got it for the 81st post.

Maybe you can code in some sort of question system that the new starter player can answer. It would have questions with things in the books, and depending on how many the get right, they get a cool prize, kind of like the tutorial, but better prizes. Like diamonds or something. Just a suggestion.

I don't think giving more books is the answer. If they just skim through the first one I doubt they would pay much attention to a second book. I think the tutorial should actually help new players with EMC exclusive commands so they know how to do what they want to do. I'm not sure if EMC still does this but when I first joined a tip was sent to me about every 15 minutes. If this got taken out since then I think it would be helpful to restart that and at the end of every message it could say "For more helpful tips, do /help"

I remember as a new player there was none of these cool soul bound items or assistance the person who helped me was my friend because he has been playing dmc for a bit before i joined but having him there as a guide helped me throughout so i strongly advise for us as the players to help our fellow new players out i know they may be confusing at times but in the end its all worth it

I like the ideas set forth about a more in-depth tutorial. Some good points have been made regarding different players' age, attention span, and short-term memory. I think I recall that the planned expanded tutorial sections would be somewhat compartmentalized? I think it's a good idea to let players complete one small bit of learning at a time. Allow them to get the very basics, then get out there and do something. Then they can come back to learn more.

When I have gone to greet new players, they seem to reading the signs on their res, which is good. Perhaps some of those signs could be made clickable, to provide a little more info in the chat window?

Also, an idea for expanded tutorial. Would it be possible to give rewards (as others have suggested) for completing some simple tasks? This could even be a good way to introduce tokens to new players. They could be asked, for example, to take some rupees they were given and go buy something from a player shop, instructing them how to find one. Upon returning, they would click the sign, receive their reward, and move on to the next task. If they grew bored, they could leave and come back later to resume. Obviously what can be done here may be limited by the requirements of coding something like that, but there's the basic idea.

As a note for already established players...
I try to greet new players and offer help if I'm in town and not too busy. If I'm engrossed in something then I must admit I don't always pop over to greet them. If I'm a little busy I'll probably still drop in, offer to help in any simple way I can and tell them they can ask on Town chat for assistance if they need it. But, here's a tip. Please be careful about how you speak to new players. One time a new player had a question. I knew the answer was included in the guide for new players, so I directed them to it. Obviously this was too blunt for them, ad their response was basically "This _____ server sucks, we're going to find someplace else..." Now, who knows if they were impatient, or lacked maturity, or would have even liked EMC if they took the time to get to know what it offered. But I learned something from that experience. I try to be a little more helpful in my replies and answer questions if I can, even if it seems like something a new player should be able to figure out on their own.

Now here's an example of how we shouldn't respond to new players. I've removed the established player's name, because I'm not trying to embarrass them, plus they may have been well-intentioned but just didn't express themselves the best that they could have, and the new player didn't seem to take offense. But I thought this was a good example of a response that might not help a new player to form a good opinion of EMC.



"I can get you stuff but need to give me r," isn't really what we should be saying to a new player in the first few minutes of their time here on EMC.

Offering to help, giving them a boost with some supplies or accompanying them on a wild sojourn are good ways to give them a good first impression of our community.

My impression of having designated "Helpers" is that we should all be helpers when we can. If you want to be a helper, all you have to do is keep an eye out for new players. The only suggestions I have in this area are 1) to make notifications of new players joining be cross-server, maybe even available to those in the waste and Frontier, so that they have the option to come back to town and greet them if they are so inclined, and 2) create a "/ask" command for new players that will send their message to any Staff connected to any server, and if no Staff are connected, route their question to all servers' Town Chat so that anyone can try to assist them.

Edit:

Very well said, messages about players joining and completing tutorial are already seen in the wild and waste though.