New Player Retention

[MAjesty]

It has been said before, but it keeps coming up. This game loses so many new players because of the slow start up, not just players in general, the players who Want to find a place for themselves in this game are the ones most discouraged by watching their turns burn up and be gone like a match or something.

Basic suggestion, players should be on double turns until they have spent x amount of turns. This is just spit-balling though. My point is that something needs to be done to improve this, as the measures already in place are woefully inadequate.

[Loki]

It was and still is the intention of SSTG to try and get the players into here for a better heads up than what the game provides and then let them move to other guilds, once they have nailed the basics. The instructions and retention rate are not good as you have said MAjesty an I agree it needs a lot more work, it is a great game but it takes time to get established and it is not easy.

I would welcome anything that helps improve this

[TheLoveTiger]

It has been said before, but it keeps coming up. This game loses so many new players because of the slow start up, not just players in general, the players who Want to find a place for themselves in this game are the ones most discouraged by watching their turns burn up and be gone like a match or something.

Basic suggestion, players should be on double turns until they have spent x amount of turns. This is just spit-balling though. My point is that something needs to be done to improve this, as the measures already in place are woefully inadequate.

+1 I could agree to giving more turns to new players to try and get themselves a better footing. I was very similar at different games where if I went through the introduction and see I had "X" turns left and would have to wait for more than 6 hours or so before I could be back being productive I often quit the game. To keep new players there has to be feeling of being productive and accomplishing something. I agree that after they spend "x" turns to stop the double turns, as long as "X" is the peak point in that feeling of being productive.

[Captain Jack]

It's hard to blame the turns for this. The game is difficult and there are people that cannot understand it.

Take for example Mafia Wars (if I get the name correctly) or cityville,farmville etc. A click-click-click (pointless,guided,mindless click) where the player with most clicks wins (true story,at least Cityville I tried, the rank was based ONLY on number of clicks - hard for 95% of players to discern, easy for the rest 5%). Still,these games scored like 40million people. Obviously, they did something good; they were user friendly. But they were easy too.

It is easy to be user friendly,when the game is easy. Take chess for example; it is confusing for an absurd big percentage of people. People get discouraged into learning that there are 6 different units in the game, each with their own moves and with battle rules. Well, Pirates Glory is a WHOLE LOT WORSE as it has more units, more battle rules, a sh!tload of more things to do, etc etc.

Simply, this game, does not appeal to everyone. We appeal to a small percentage of the gamers. The gamers we want first need to be intelligent and like strategy. Some fantasy likeness also helps but not a requirement.

Of course, there are ways to help, many ways. We know most of them I believe, they are just not so easily doable. Giving them extra turns is already happening for example; once the newcomer spends his first 200 turns (out of 400) he gets some new turns (he finds a treasure!). Not a big deal but turns is not their big deal anyway.

We know which their biggest problem is and we know what we need to do to increase the retention rate. Believe it or NOT, we actually CODE right now for the LONG term players which are MORE important for us than the newcomers.

Remember, we have players here that play since day 1 of this game, this means we got a long lasting gaming experience here for some people. After all,how important is it to hook a ton of players then lose them after a short time?

[MAjesty]

I think you're missing something very important in what I'm trying to share. It's the new players that Are enthusiastic about the game that are burning out. This game routinely has players that fall in love with the game, start complaining that they don't have enough turns, and then go inactive a day later. I've heard it so many times, and it just seems like it's flushing future "long term players" away before they have a chance to learn enough about the game to decide if they want to play it or not.

This quote at the very end "After all,how important is it to hook a ton of players then lose them after a short time?" sums up what is happening routinely in this game quite perfectly.

It's not a 0-sum experience. New players can be retained with very small adjustments, and it is something that should be approached.

[Sir Colchian Niveus]

Since i am a new player i'll tell you that.. turns is not the problem.. if you like pirates and strategy games you like this game too.. The sad of the story for a new player is not the fact that he can't be prodactive.. right now after 2 months i think that i've been playing maybe less.. i can make some money by myself.. new players need lot of help from guilds.. something i already got and i'm greatfull for that.. As i said the sad part of the story is the knowledge that i can't reach and compite a player that has been playing since day 1! i have like 150 voodoo cards when they have like 12.000 xD that keeps me away from plundering and even if i trade all day long in one year from now that i might be a conciderable player i still wont have a chance against those "monster" players... this is the reason why people that like the game might quit.. if someone strong attack me and totally destroy me i'll just quit the game.. and there is nothing to protect me from that! start think ways to keep those that like the game and not ways to bring everyone.. As Captain Jack said :Simply, this game, does not appeal to everyone. We appeal to a small percentage of the gamers. The gamers we want first need to be intelligent and like strategy.

[Sir Colchian Niveus]

my idea.. give to every new player couple mindbars and maybe create a card that erase every voodoo and prevent others from attacking them.. give them a shield and maybe decrease the power that old and strong players has.. that would be a solution for new comers that like the game!

Happy sailing!

[Shaydo]

I think the only real thing that a vet has is Captains, Admirals and Merchants. If you don't buy credits then even after years the only way to have a voodoo stockpile is never use it, vet pirates use all there attack voodoo and wait for more or buy it (Pirates correct me if i'm wrong). Eventually anyone can get up to the same level, the big traders get hit frequently, it just takes time to build up but the growth in exponential and eventually the traders cap out and stop getting bigger because it just isn't fiscally worth growing any more.

I only started a couple years back and then i never thought i'd get up to the level of the then vets, but it just takes time and dedication.

[Stan Rogers]

Aye Shaydo... the price of officers becomes the big equalizer. Also the price of warehouse expansion.
The 2 real investments that are game equalizers.

To have the necessary resources immediately available to develop all the ships and officers and warehouses would take a large chunk of the strategy away.

The voodoo itself, if the ability to purchase credits/voodoo was taken away, there would be a situation where the server would have to operate on advertisements popping up to support it's operation and no future development within the game.

I have spoken with many new players and helped them get a good start and they still do not become a regular player. Quite a few have come out and said,,, It's not the game I am looking for. If you get 10% to hang around, that is a good average.

[Captain Jack]

At the point we are now, we really need to finish hideout (banks included) and then Ships specialization. There will be many small improvements in between too. Once we are done with these two great features, we can dedicate some more time to help newcomers with some features. Still,we will have a lot of other great features pressing in line (ie, bounties) therefore we cannot dedicate much time to them yet. We feel like we have fallen behind with the features schedule, especially for the vets.

So, we got a big enemy (old one) which is time. Till we are ready to help them with the features they need (trust me,we know what they need) this burden falls into the players. I can see that there are already some training guilds and this is a bless. We need more of them. Also, if you got friends that play similar games, lure them in...