My (Long)Open Letter to Muse

[Spud Nick]

Do you often play pub matches spud nick? Do you often have brand new players on your crew who won't take loadout, or do you prefer to play with friends? Has anyone ever joined your ship mid match that you did not invite or know?

I have had my fair share of players who won't accept my loadouts or join as a second gunner. I understand how annoying it is when your ship can't preform at it's best because of one crew member. I also know how hard it is to play against vets with a new player as your ally. Instead of asking Muse to give me a better game I formed a team of experienced players I liked hanging out with and started playing in competitive events.

Why don't you enjoy the game? Not enough players? Too many trolls? Toxic community? Or is it because you have reached a point where you don't want to train new players how to play every time you log in.

[Solidusbucket]

is it because you have reached a point where you don't want to train new players how to play every time you log in.

I reached this point in December. Stopped playing for a bit. Then, realized I was being a little bitch. Started joining mid match pubs in January. I would quit if the match took too long. Now, I'm back to my loving of GOIO. Also, I am not teaching them unless they want to learn. I specifically ask if they want me to backseat captain; some say no, others say yes, many do not respond. I simply enjoy the game.

Then again, I have over 1700 hours in this game and only paid 5 dollars for it.

I love the challenge of a new player or a player that sits on a gun. Frustrating? of course. Challenging - totally. Do I want it everytime I play? Of course not. How often does it happen? Once every 30 matches (if that). Do I always play with clanmates - nah...SkBo is slacking on the stacks. We need new members to stack with us.


SkBo now recruiting.

Edit: i'm drunking again.
Double edit: My grammar is pretty good considering my tanked level, eh. . .?

[Narayan]

Why don't you enjoy the game? Not enough players? Too many trolls? Toxic community? Or is it because you have reached a point where you don't want to train new players how to play every time you log in.

Now Im certain you didnt read the full post as this was all covered in it.

[Kira Wa Nai]

A couple of weeks ago I tried to give a Russian newbie some advice on how to become better and have fun in the game.
He called me a faggot and told me to fuck off. I tried to fuck off, but there were no other lobbies for me to go to, so I stomped him. A couple of level 45s joined mid-match and told me that I'm a bad CA because I stack matches and don't teach newbies.
This was the final straw, and after three years of the same treatment I uninstalled the game.

Teaching is fun and I do it with great joy. Most of the time, though, an honest and polite attempt to help is met with either total ignorance or "im only here 4 fun so go away))))))".

Being a teacher and moral authority without any tools to enforce your judgements is tiring and gets on your nerves rather quickly. Bundle this with being treated like shit by the ones that are supposed to understand how it feels, throw in the stale meta and lack of content and voila - you get inactive people.

CA/Mod system needs to be rethought completely. At least give them more tools to actually do something besides giving up.

Also lol@giving votekick to L45. Never saw them complain about somebody daring to play a metamydion? Never saw them go nuclear at someone who made an honest mistake? Do you really believe that people are not gonna abuse it beyond any reasonable limit and then some?

[Aethelfrith]

I agree with nearly everything you said Narayan, with the exception of having 50% of the lobby vote to kick a player. Until we can ensure that vote kick can't be abused, it should be more like 80%. Nothing wrong with an additional safety net until the new system is fully tested.

[NyarIathotep]

@raging: I do not think I know you. But: It is possible to teach. But you indeed need to ask them first if they want to learn. Then all is easy.
You can of course also sneak in and give them unrequested advice, but you need to limit that to 1-2 things said or written in a non-patronizing, by-the-way style. That works most of the times. Sometimes they then want more. It also works fine to join Novice matches as a spectator and praise correct behavior of one ship. "Ship Xyz, good use of the gatling gun to break their armor!" The rest usually follows the example since they experience the effect of working gun combos. And they feel clever for "stealing" this piece of knowledge from their enemies. Writing "Ship Abc, use your gatling guns!" works only half as well. Like I wrote in my first post which seemed to go largely unnoticed, maybe due to being no community member, it is no easy task. But it gets much easier if the teaching is done in a certain way. And even more when done in a certain environment where they experience immediate positive reinforcement. Aka novice matches. I also learned key words like shooting, repairing, red hit markers in a few languages Helps a lot with helping e.g. russian players who react sometimes aggressively because they simply do not understand what you want. They know rude words from dota etc, so they often seem more competent in english than they actually are. At least as long as they are swearing.

My point is: More help in the novice matches would be more effective. Also non-misleading game advertisement. That would make people expect the steep learning curve instead of only big explosions.