I'm so tired of teaching in this game. Because I actually CARE about this game, I'm compelled to teach new players whenever they're willing to listen... no matter how god damn awful and ignorant they are... but the problem is I AM TEACHING THEM THE MOST BASIC AND RUDIMENTARY MECHANICS OF THIS GAME OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I am tired of it! Where are the tutorials, Muse! Where!? I'm at my wit's end. Seriously. I am tired of losing games over and over again as I try to foster and improve the player base when, to me, it appears that Muse barely cares about expanding and growing and maintaining the community. The player base should be the absolute priority in this game... and I increasingly am asking myself why I care to help this game when others, including the developers, care so much less, if at all.
Please let me be the first to say: Welcome to the life of a vet.
This. <3
I was so proud to watch Kamoba grow from naive idealist CA to a true man; a sarky, bitter vet. Now we can welcome truejedi as a member of our fucked-up patchwork family.
inb4 you are literally Hitler becuase you don't want to teach players, you don't care about the game, yadda yadda yadda, lgbt, yadda yadda, gluten, yadda, elitist shitlord. Yadda.
I have very mixed feelings. Because on one hand, devs are great, you can talk to them during fireside, you can mail them and discuss the game and even you can kick their asses in their own game if you manage. They are very nice people with, in some ways at least, very good approach. On the other hand I think they have overestimated their capabilities and resources and taking care of Alliance and Skirmnish (also remembering about the money) is just too much for them; it ends up with neglecting Skirmnish. I feel that just because there is very crystalised hardcore vet community of people who will simply play GOIO (almost) no matter what - devs take vets (and players) for granted. As if they don't feel the need to lure in some new players; if some people will stay after sales - good, if not - meh, we still have vet community.
There is also a great ideological division, I'd say. There is "vets should help new players" camp and there is "fuck off and let me play like a regular player" camp.
To leave the domain of my feelings and enter the domain of meritoric discussion, this is no easy problem to solve. Becuase for now it's just vicious circle:
0. Playerbase is low
1. New players enter the game
2. They learn based on bad tutorials, or they don't learn at all
3. Because of point 0 they end up playing with vets
4. Vets are pissed
5. Noobs are pissed
6. Some vets leave
7. Most noobs leave
8. Sale, go back to the point 0.
And this is of course the tip of the iceberg which is the gameplay problem of players not wanting to stay for longer than those 500 matches (this is very loose border, some could argue that this may be even 400 or 300 matches). And no, this cannot be argued by the "oh well, goio just isn't for everyone" or "well we're so indie". No, every sale we see big players influx (up to 4k simultaniously playing in one sale) and than gradual decline of playerbase back to the veteran backbone. You can ask many dedicated players and many of them will give you various answers for why it may be happening - some will point out small amount of content, some the optimalisation issues (playing on 20fps is a huge turn-off, I know what I'm talking about, and funny thing is devs don't seem to care, hence "800x600 20fps = playable, also 2015" joke), some the small tactical variety (8 ammo types but every gun has 1-2 valid options), some the dull gameplay (because hitting things with mallet isn't that exciting for most of people) and some other problems which I may not have included here. The problem of noobs is the problem of vets being forced to play with noobs over and over and over again, because most of them leave anyway, so the teaching and the frustration of both sides starts again. Teaching noobs is Sisyphus's work. There are many who tried to actually dedicate their time to teach new players (the most notable example would be nanoduckling I think, and some if not most CA's/teachers) - and they soon enough reach their limit and snap. All I've written in this post is common knowledge among vets, I think, but perhaps not among the devs.
So, to sum up somehow, we're in stalemate. Devs don't have the will and/or resources to make the game better in significant enough way. They are trying, yes, but there is only so much they can do. And we, vets, will keep playing, making our way through for SOME pleasant experience, through the power of Block and Report.
Edit: I understand that devs have decided on a crazy gambit, that their new game is going to be so WOW, so exciting, so great that all of the current fanbase will buy it immediately and new people will appear in both Alliance and Skirmnish. Sorry to put it that way but wasn't GOIO supposed to be such a good game too? When Alliance is going to be released, 2018? 2019? Is there going to be enough playerbase left to actually care? Or is it some kind of darwinist nightmare, weak individuals must perish and the Brave New World of GOIO Alliance will be born?
Will some of us be the Moseses of GOIO - we will see the Promised Land but not enter it?
The point is - will the remaining playerbase survive until Alliance is released and, hopefully, save this game?
