New Player Feedback Methodology

[racefan12]

I'm basically just going to egopost this thread for now because I don't have the time to make a proper response to everything now.

One thing I will say now though, is that I still think the best way for newbies to get accustomed to the Survivor experience is to spectate a game before they play in one. Yeah, I was disappointed initially when I wasn't chosen to be a player in LoL, but I immersed myself in the game as a spectator and gained invaluable insight in the way the game worked. Even though my first game was non-anon (and with my only experience being that and Medevac/One World, I still haven't played in a "traditional" game of Survivor), there was still a lot that transferred over and I was definitely a leg up on what to expect compared to where I would have been without that experience.

[racefan12]

I think newbies should join the Clubhouse Skype chat and/or add veterans/repeat game mods on Skype because people love to talk about past games there and they are more than happy to tell you what happened and why it was important without having to wade through all the fluff

Because yeah no one has time for that

[racefan12]

On the whole, I honestly think that this community is pretty newbie-friendly, especially compared to other sites I've been a part of. The mods and players are all quite active and more than happy to answer any questions a newbie might have... they just have to ask.

And that's the thing: Ultimately, newbies have to put forth some effort to integrate themselves within the community. Everyone else can certainly help facilitate that process. But the problem comes when a newbie is just thrown into a game without knowing anything about the community.

Like I know all large social games now have at least one mod guarantees to not be playing in that game. That's the person who should be communicating first with new players about questions not related to procedural/community meta questions, preferably before a player's first game gets underway.

Something like "Hey, I saw you're a new player who applied for Survivor: Blahblahblah. I'm a mod of the large social game forum and I'm here to answer any questions you may have about the community you just became a part of!"

Well something less cheesy that that, but yeah. Basically new players have to learn about and integrate into the community. We can tell them who to ask, but we can't make them put in the effort to do it.

[racefan12]

With respect to retention of players... literally the only reason I'm not playing anymore is lack of time. However, I suspect others are turned off by the frequent arguments and heavy emotioms that always seen to come out at the end of these games.

New players are far more likely than others to look at the games just as a fun thing to do. Most aren't going to care about ELO or Crazy's scores or other stuff like that until they become veterans themselves, if at all.

People play games to distract themselves from the stresses of life, not to add to them. If Survivor causes more stress than it provides a fun diversion, people aren't going to play.

Being competitive and taking the games seriously drives some people to play better; I'm not saying to take that away by any means. But Survivor isn't life or death, and whatever happens in a game should stay in the game. Moreover, even within a game, people are still human. They still deserve respect, even if they've betrayed you or you're about to betray them.

[racefan12]

I didn't necessarily mean to imply that drama extends to newbies directly, but at least in my opinion, that distinction doesn't matter, because even seeing what happens with other players can turn me off to playing again... because next time I could be involved.

It isn't fun to me to see others fighting.

[racefan12]

I personally am not really good at providing unsolicited feedback during a game because I'm not really sure what you're looking for... Well that, and because I'm using all my time and energy on actually playing the game.

But if you give me specific questions to answer, I'll be happy to answer them. I liked the format of Medevac where we got like 5-10 questions per round to answer.