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Making new players stay

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Corporal Ravioli:
I can attest to having a good dozen-plus friends who have joined and left this game because they grew tired of the social bullshit inherent to dealing with experienced players "literally not wanting us here." They were unlucky and rolled the temperamental pilots and opponents that opted to scream and insult instead of support and educate new players, and because of that initial experience, opted out forever.

I can't imagine how many new kids have left this way.

Yes, this game favors the persistent - trick is you have to be /literally lucky/ to even maintain the energy to be such. It's such a social gamble and it's one of the reasons that I, even five years later, still log right the hell out once my emotional stamina wears thin.

HamsterIV:
This game does have limited appeal to the general public. Our core mechanic is having 4 stranger share the same health bar. Given the state of trolling in online games, this is a terrible idea. Even Left 4 Dead, IMO the best team based game prior to GOIO didn't have the guts to implement a mechanic like this. How GOIO has managed to keep a viable community for 6 years I attribute to it being able to scratch an itch in some players that no other game can reach.

Main stream gaming has been pushing an empowerment fantasy for some time now. Be the hero, get the highest kill/death ratio on the server, order thousands of soldiers to their doom on a whim. Yet GOIO is essentially a dis-empowerment game. To be a good gunner or engineer you have to stick to a roll assigned to you by another player. Even as the captain you have to accept that winning or loosing will depend as much on your crews ability as it will on your knowledge of the meta and ship handling skill. It is a tough pill for some players to swallow and once the novelty of 3d gas bag pew pew runs out, it is understandable they will leave GOIO for the next novel experience in their steam library.

As for my own rambling post, I wanted to show an alternate lobby/match making system that would benefit my style of play while possibly hindering other people's style of play. I would love if muse implemented it, but I acknowledge I am not the "average player." So catering to my own likes and dislikes will probably not do much to help the game towards universal appeal.

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