Main > Gameplay
Concerning Player Retention and Realism
Schwerbelastung:
--- Quote from: Crafeksterty on April 05, 2014, 07:16:31 pm ---I shouldnt have scrolled down.
I was like "Yeah, got my snack, screen, full and ready to read but then i scrolled down out of curiosity and im like "sun of a betch".
So, what i have to say is not from EVERYthing you have said.
Most of what you are talking about, or part of it is the feeling in reaction and player inputt.
There is not much that the game rewards the player with. There is, but it is never confirmed. You have to go to the progress, then rewards section and see what you have been rewarded for playing the game. Not only reward, there really isnt a grand confirmation about what you are doing ingame. For example, kills and destruction is mostly set on the top left corner. So if i stole a kill, yeah it feels good. Doesnt matter, but it feels good. And there is nothing to tell me that my ship got the kill, just the upper left corner.
Same goes for when you win or loose a match. The VICTORY or DEFEAT text isnt as celebrated as it should be for the viewpoint of a player. The music is understating the victory or the defeat. I mean ive learnt to identify which song is what but its not impactfull enough for a DEFEAT or VICTORY to notice it correctly.
In Titanfall, when you win, you get a Victory but on loss you get a muted Defeat
While here in Goio it is colorless and doesnt really make sure you know exactly what just happened.
Im not saying Goio should have this, it is just an example.
Another thing is Tool use, which they are actually trying to apply to the game. Tool use in the future will show some kind of sign of it being used (As seen once in the dev app). Because right now, the engineers on the ship dont exactly have any idea why the baloon or engines are getting damaged. Maybe it is best not to know and just repair, but it is just another example on how impactless the game feels for players.
I want to revert back to music as i feel like that is the best form of impact they can deliver to the game without making it too gamey.
A dynamic song on kill, or on death can make them dramatic enough for everyone to notice. Engaging players that something is wrong, or Success!
When the ship gets impact damage (Ship collision, terrain, mines), the music can start to haze itself in a way that it evokes the emotion of no control.
If the ship has ALOT of fire, an intense song starts to give the player an understanding that your in deep shit.
Or a harpoon latching onto your ship gives a warning soundclip of lets say a horror violin scare.
Explosive weapons from your ship hitting an enemy ship on their armor down can have small musical impact on each impactfull hit.
Or when your hull health is down and your screen is going red, a song may also signify the danger by slowly muting everything for a high pitched sound (Like Flash bang from counterstrike) the more damaged you are.
This is something you have alot of in Dota, or League of Legends with more gamey sound effects and voice overs.
Counter Strike Global offencive has music that indicates exactly what is going on.
Goio can rely on music which further makes the experience both cinematic, fun or engaging, gamey in some sense without touching the realism.
What GOIO is doing right in these terms is some bits of music with the drums. And how the guns shoot. So each ammo has different effects and sound. Along with when they hit, they show if it was a bad shot under arming time. You know, the hit markers getting red or not etc.
--- End quote ---
That's a pretty good point, with the colour of the victory/defeat texts and the sound. This is actually as far as I know the very reason that slot machines function the way they do - a lot of people are drawn to the immediate audiovisual feedback they get when they win. The bigger the win, the more prominent the DINGDINGDINGs and the flashing lights.
If slot machines also needed you to check the "Games left/Wins" display (or whatever it's called in English) every time you won or lost, not nearly as much people would be playing them. :)
As you put it, it's the feeling in reaction and player input. Feelings are a very, very powerful thing, and people may not always even realize when their feelings are being manipulated - for the lack of a less sinister word - when it comes to media, games, or even slot machines.
Maybe it would be a good idea to add some music, as Crafeksterty suggested, at least to victories and defeats, and maybe even some more subtle audio cues on kills and deaths or something similar? And although it could be hilarious to hear this (disclaimer: 4 sec screen capture of a screaming girl apparently from the movie Psycho, with the violin horror effect) every time I get harpooned, I believe there are a lot of people here who wouldn't necessarily like too much change, so maybe start with baby steps. :)
Mattilald Anguisad:
We'll I for one don't think Muse should worry with player retention untill existing player retention makes servers too slow.
Queso:
Regarding retention in Counter Strike, the only reason I play it now is because of matchmaking. I can guarantee getting in a decently good game fairly quickly with friends. I could never do that before unless I found a really good server and stuck with the community. Right now GoIO is like the dedicated server, but there is only so much you can do under that model. If the game wants to grow it needs something more flexible.
Schwerbelastung:
--- Quote from: Mattilald Anguisad on April 07, 2014, 06:38:47 am ---We'll I for one don't think Muse should worry with player retention untill existing player retention makes servers too slow.
--- End quote ---
I'm not really sure what to make of this. I'm curious as to why you think this way? I feel like player retention is a very important aspect to any game developer - and especially to an indie developer without a widely established playerbase - that wants to be successful.
Mattilald Anguisad:
Yes but high amount of players is making servers go slow or have large lag issues. Thus far the solution was to wait for the number of players to drop aftehr the sales - witch is counterintuiative if you actualy want to keep the players. I don't know is it server issue, or data center issue of the issue of the ISP providing internet to the data center, but it's a serious issue that detracts from the enjoyment of the game.
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