Converting new players into long term members of Excelsior

[Aghorra]

Personally, I love the UO experience, and I greatly enjoy Excelsior and this interpretation of UO. I feel there is good balance here, and the stat/skill/content bundle is great. Sure, there are some things that could be tweaked, but Excelsior is far and away one of the best non-OSI shards I've experienced (and I've experience a good many through the years).

I watch some 25-30 new players enter Excelsior daily (when I'm on); yet, I continue to see the same number of people online at any given point (relative to whatever that time frame be). My point is that there is no real growth that I'm seeing, and I feel that needs to change. I feel that with growth, this shard might just regain some of life that others say it once had, and it now lacks.

It seems people may make an account, log in, and for whatever reason, log out to never be seen again. Why is that? I expect one reason may be that Ultima Online is NOT an easy game to learn, and they find very early that it's not like other games they frequent and may quit before they truly find out just how fun it can be. Too, here at Excelsior, there are specific things you should do... a path you should take to maximize your time as a "young" player. And, if they don't know UO, they surely won't enjoy this understanding.


So, I want to suggest something to help in this regard - to see if we can convert these "lost" players into committed additions that will help reinvigorate the atmosphere here in Excelsior. I would like to suggest that all "young" players be directed to a veteran player - someone that clearly knows UO and also knows Excelsior fully. This vet player could help brand new players to UO to enjoy a team type experience early on, and one that is greatly enhanced by a veteran player that can provide incentives and such to the newer players, to follow a fun and rewarding path. A veteran player might provide a newbie book that serves as a "FAQ", freeing the vet to perform more helpful functions, like showing them the rat quest and the newb champ, as well as the donation area, Youth Center, etc. The veteran player could also lead dungeon crawls, and motivate players to otherwise explore their world around them.

Overall, I think this might provide a cool function for a veteran player that may have become bored with their uber existence on Excelsior, while passing on some of their very valuable knowledge of life here. It would also serve to convert those that might otherwise leave due to the difficult learning curve of UO, and keep them as valuable additions to a growing player-base here. This would require careful selection of the veteran player to serve in this function, and might also allow another veteran or two if new players exceed certain numbers, or the primary vet won't be around for a period of time. So many opportunities could be worked within this sort of "hands on" approach, and I truly think the numbers of people enjoying Excelsior could swell over time.

Also, with all due respect, we don't need hidden or other messages of religeous or other controversial topics. Please allow people to be themselves without off-putting messages.

I feel this would be of great benefit to the ongoing success of Excelsior, the current player-base, and the new players that want to give UO and Excelsior a spin. Thoughts?

Peace,
Agh

[Nelapsi]

I nominate you for the job.

[Nakkasu]

I nominate you for the job.

^ This, Just what everyone wants to do.... Babysit ! hooorah yayaya lets jump on it.

Honestly ex isn't dead by any means and a lot of people love it. If they didn't there would be no one online. Granted it would be nice to get more gamers in and stay around but other things need tweaking in order for that to happen and continue its fun like more space for hunting and guild towns. It's already tough enough to find a fun hunting spot that isn't crowded by 2-3 people recall leveling their weapons or being camped by a group of gamers or a guild in shifts.

^ Also part of the reason i do bods and resource gathering more so than hunting is because hunting spots are crowded and require a border line masochist to do any form of meaningful hunting.

On top of that a lot of new players refuse to read anything and ask excessive amounts of redundant questions and they're not even trolling........

Keep in mind this isn't negativity, simply another PoV for you to add to your data base to consider what route of action would be best to help the novice gamer. I promse you though no one wants to babysit. Proof, look at Nelapsi's response and i agree with him.

[Aghorra]

I would happily be some part of something like this, but I don't know all I need to of this shard. I would have no problem showing the ropes though and teaching some of the mechanics of the game, and teaching survival and budgeting stuff along the way.

Much of this stuff I already knew when I got here, and I suspect others coming here, and then leaving may not.

*votes for Nelapsi*

[Melkor]

Maybe you should talk with Jack Penny at the Youth Centre, roll it into one of their services, and get more help with your idea.

[Starion]

Hi Aghorra,

Amora and I at the Youth Centre do something pretty much like what you mention, we give Young Players a starter kit and a tour of Excelsior, we also have a small team that help with tours as well, covering all of the places you mentioned, but from reading your post, what you are talking about is for us, after the tour to hand them over to a mentor, that can take them on some of the basic quests we have here.

The amount of Young Players we get I believe this would be too much for one single mentor, perhaps a team of them would be a good idea, but as you know, us vets cannot enter the Young Dungeon and help with the quest, and some Young Players just want to get out there , some cannot even wait for the end of the tour to explore, but we to tell them that if they fall into difficulties to pm us and we will try and help, we also inform them that if we are not available, to ask in public chat, plenty of people are willing to assist, thats what makes our shard one of the best

[Aghorra]

Starion,

That's awesome. I wonder if they could make it so a new player would begin life on the shard there then. I just want to look at this intuitively. It needs to be set up so on the worst day, the newest player could come and feel like they're being taken care of, questions answered, and have a place to go when they just don't know where to turn.

Let me say this: My experience here, I didn't find the YC until about my 2nd week on the shard. I didn't know about the donation room until a couple days in, and didn't know about the rats quest until my 2nd week and the newb champ until the 3rd week. And, I know UO very well.


All I'm saying is that if we want to keep people and grow the good population here, we need to look at things from the perspective of a new player, and maybe even the perspective of someone that's never played UO. The server population you see when you log on tells the story. I don't see growth here. I see it about the same at various points of the day, from day to day.

I do what I can to grab a "youth" player and show them the basics, but there's no telling what direction they'll head once they spawn. I'm just asking either change the spawn point or make the spawn point more informational... Maybe a GM should shadow a "young" player or two and see where they go, what they do. I just look at it and see it's not working as well as it could. I'm not saying people aren't doing their jobs, just that we might be able to do even better

Peace,
Agh

[Aghorra]

I nominate you for the job.

^ This, Just what everyone wants to do.... Babysit ! hooorah yayaya lets jump on it.

Honestly ex isn't dead by any means and a lot of people love it. If they didn't there would be no one online. Granted it would be nice to get more gamers in and stay around but other things need tweaking in order for that to happen and continue its fun like more space for hunting and guild towns. It's already tough enough to find a fun hunting spot that isn't crowded by 2-3 people recall leveling their weapons or being camped by a group of gamers or a guild in shifts.

^ Also part of the reason i do bods and resource gathering more so than hunting is because hunting spots are crowded and require a border line masochist to do any form of meaningful hunting.

On top of that a lot of new players refuse to read anything and ask excessive amounts of redundant questions and they're not even trolling........

Keep in mind this isn't negativity, simply another PoV for you to add to your data base to consider what route of action would be best to help the novice gamer. I promse you though no one wants to babysit. Proof, look at Nelapsi's response and i agree with him.

Nakkasu,

I appreciate your thoughts on this. I agree with what you say, too. I just want to see growth if it's possible. And, I look from my own perspective of what I saw when I came here - luckily, it's only been just over 2 months for me, so it's fairly fresh in my mind. Thanks for the input!

Peace,
Agh

[Larsa]

Aghorra,

Welcome to EX, while I agree and disagree with what you said here are my 2 cents. Some newer players come for a day or two and then disappear because most new players find it difficult and boring to raise skills. I have been playing in many private shards and to me EX is pretty balance. In other shards I could be up and running in 2 days maxing all skill to GM.

I do not mind helping newer players (if I know the answer) but you must understand that helping and handing them stuff are two different things. Once you babysit one, laziness will kick in and if they do not get what they want they will be leaving as well. Before coming to EX I knew the UO experience so it was a smooth transition. There is a lot of help in game and off game, I read the wiki very often as well as the forums and it has been stressed more than often. If you spent 6 months in EX you will understand what most vets and regular players say when they refer to redundant questions. And there's a lot of vets that have helped me along the way. There are a lot of people here that are very knowledgeable and are very open to help.

Then there's the youth center which is always open to help the newer players and I wish I knew when I started here. Enough said there is a lot of ways to get help. But what is more required in this game... specially in EX is patience, interest, and ready to work hard. Sure there are lot of people leaving, the new and the old players alike.... there are a million reasons why they are leaving which you and I will never understand.

[Aghorra]

Larsa,

Thank you for your input. I agree with much of what you say. I agree that there are many questions that come that can become mind numbing. The thought is, a "FAQ" book that may even be a starting item in a newb's pack; would go a long way to tempering some of those questions - not all, but less questions is good.

Too, I'm not sure why exactly people turn and run... I guess I'm simply wanting to give them the benefit and get them ready with some info right as they spawn.

Finally, I didn't say anything about handing them anything. But, showing them areas that they may otherwise not find prior to just losing interest and leaving... can be a good thing.


I'm just providing a little alternative perspective on an issue that many have been looking at for years. I believe in fresh ideas and thoughts to improve in ways and hope it adds to the experience here of people like yourself, and in the end, benefit the Staff with additional players that may translate into more donations. I call that a "Win Win" situation. I'm just tossing it out there. If people want to simply to keep up with the same ole, and resist change; fine by me. It's nothing in my pocket to help this shard or the people that want to have a good time here. Have a nice day!

Peace,
Agh

[Cygnus]

My point is that there is no real growth that I'm seeing, and I feel that needs to change. I feel that with growth, this shard might just regain some of life that others say it once had, and it now lacks.

From my perspective (one who has been here since the shard was only averaging 12 players), I think that the reason the daily average does not go up even though new players enter constantly, is that the shard is saturated for what it offers. Until, more areas are installed that cater to the medium level players, some of the bod issues fixed and more events aimed at the mid-level players, new players are just going to get discouraged and end up leaving. You hear new players ask how to get better and how to acquire the cool stuff that many veteran players have and the answers are usually around something like this: "Easy, just get your dex to this level, grab some imp pets or a maxed bio, and add some relayered 100 level weps to your wardrobe and you will be good to go." When the new player looks into to what that really entails; the cost of gold, eds and donations, I can see that really putting them off.
So, for those who can't donate, the best they will ever get to, with maxed mules lets say, will be to do the balron run. And that run, like a lot of other high gold yielding places are saturated with players. 90% of my hunting is done solo and it is very hard for me to find any area that is not already being used. And if I do, it is not long before someone else arrives.

Basically, what I am saying is that many players either quit due to cost or due to overcrowding, not because they have to train or don't know how. I don't think there is anything anyone can do to remedy that other than expanding the opportunities for newer to mid-level players.

BTW, I feel the shard still has plenty of "Life"; It is just evolving as all shards do.

[Styx]

solely towards the OP - i dont think people leave because they fail to understand, this is not a difficult game to pick up and play imo. this shards freedom of skills ect is hard to muck up, i think people leave after logging in once because its not the server they want. they may want a stygian running server or a server customised to hell and back, or maybe the idea of donations puts them off anyhows my point is i dont think its down to learning the game that makes them run.

There are alot harder games to pickup and play, like for example i had issues with rift at the start, trying to get my head around the class system took a while. i actually enjoy the feeling of being lost in a game not knowing so much about it ;p

If someone else already wrote this i apologise, i didnt read anything but the OP, cause i r ignorant!

Styx.

[Nakkasu]

Ultimately like everyone has said, we need new content and more hunting zones. Everything is tapped out and over used. We've been beating a dead horse for a while now.

Lets be honest.

Balron Runs - Nelapsi and Yoda have these on lock, maybe one or two others.

Level weapons - Lich / High Spawn Spots , a few guilds have these on lock 24/7

Doom - I quit running that place when i ran into 10 people just chain spawning non stop which makes sense but 10 people is a bit overkill.

Destard - there's quite a bit of traffic here with all the new gamers but where do you go after here?

around dread horn... oh man this place has people camping for 8-12 hour shifts. getting a spawn there is like the coming of your religious or atheist figure.

Resource Gathering - All the top end resources you'll run into others recall gathering or hunting elementals.

Alot of good hunting zones in ilsh or other places are tapped out too.

The only other option is to hunt in fel, i do sometimes but it stinks not being able to recall / sacred around the map so it's normally just a brief visit until i cant carry anymore. More popular spots like mel/netopir during peak hours have a waiting line.

Time investments to do some things can be several hours and some times you dont get a turn. some gamers just want to hunt and would rather play on another server so they can have the spawns all to themself and pretend they're a god on a 20 man server where 15 people hide in town scared of being pk'd.

Some gamers would rather play well another game where you don't have to wait to hunt or do something fun and there's less maintenance or things required to get to the good times.

So many things to take into consideration, ultimately we need more for our moderate to young gamers to hunt and do. However keep in mind this will also cause inflation on cost of items which i don't mind.

Something that would be nice is if new gamers would quit buying garbage armor though and start buying useful stuff from merchants like myself. Runic crafted plat or leather armor. Good jewelry and the sort. It's annoying watching people run around in bad gear because they refuse to purchase already cheap and good equipment.

[Nakkasu]

. If people want to simply to keep up with the same ole, and resist change; fine by me. It's nothing in my pocket to help this shard or the people that want to have a good time here. Have a nice day!

Peace,
Agh

Didn't feel like editing my last response so i went up and quoted soz. This statement here has me questioning your motives. If you want to run around with a stick in your butt instead of getting something you asked for then do it but dont impose your attitude on others in a post where you asked for input. This isn't a good way to get support for your cause. Harsh, Brutal, Direct, or other doesn't matter. We're giving you what you asked for.

On that note, I agree change would be nice.

and here i go editing a post......... For the novice gamer keep in mind there are tours. a lot of veteran or other newer gamers can give a tour and collect ed for it too ! not to mention we have a novice room with donations from the veterans. There's a novice champ and teleporters everywhere in the game, aaaand a ton of veterans or well established gamers give a loooot of stuff away.

[Nelapsi]

Lets be honest.

Balron Runs - Nelapsi and Yoda have these on lock, maybe one or two others.

I do them a lot, sure but let me state this. For every 300 minutes I do it, I might see 1 or 2 players and it has been this way since day one. I have nothing locked down, I simple use something that is hardly ever used. On the rare moment when it does get busy which happens on some weekends, I have a dozen other places I can go wander off to.