Topic
Interesting research -- almost 90% of players who try an online game play less than 24 hours before quitting
We all know that Glitch is special but still these statistics are worth thinking about:
venturebeat.com/2012/10/18/...
I really enjoyed Glitch's new improved player tutorial, which I made an alt to try out (a couple of weeks after TS asked people to wait so they could do more testing.) It is sweet, slow, and comprehensive. On the other hand, I had the experience of sitting next to an actual new player trying it last week, and his experience was that it was very slow, expecting him to invest a lot of time and attention learning skills for a game he didn't yet know if he wanted to take on. He is now a statistic of someone who played for one tutorial hour or so and then logged off untempted to try it again. I think maybe the tutorial should incorporate more surprises and prizes and less learning time, then get people out into where they can interact with other glitchen rather than dumping new people randomly into unpopulated areas.
Replies
- Hmmm. Great input Vocable. No clue how you ended up in " OFF TOPIC" since this is all about game play and really nice feedback. Hope someone who should see this saw it.
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That makes sense to me. It takes me a very short time to know whether I'm going to want to continue a game (online or not). It's like trying on clothes for me; many games just don't "fit" me right off. And there's a lot of free dreck out there, so I've played a LOT of tutorials and often not gone back.
For the most part, I know within 5-10 minutes if I'm going to love a game. Glitch definitely applies. -
I'll be honest, I thought the tutorial was very slow as well and was getting impatient to get into the game and start interacting with people.
I liked the way it was - pick your clothes and there you were trying to figure everything out. Then a guide would pop up helping you through the rest. At first I thought the guide was a bot only to find out that I was, in fact, interacting with another player! If you didn't join through a friend, it was nice to make a friend immediately in the game - someone you can count on for help. :) (I get that there's the guide stick now, but you don't get that till after you leave the island.)
Also, you were forced to be curious and figure out the game play on your own. Again something very novel and different from other games. I liked that - it made me think/learn and forced me to use the resources at hand (forums, global, live help, etc). Aka it encouraged interaction between players. -
Perhaps there needs to be a choice of tutorials:
Slow and easy, for people who like to know what they're doing before they do it.
Fast and furious, for people who like to get straight into the action and figure out what's going on as they go. -
idk i dont like social games because it requires you spamming your friends. you can't play alone u_u
i dont play much games either but yeah
i play transformice but i slowly stopped because it was getting boring.
i introduced many of my friends to play glitch, but it took a very long time because the tutorial was long. so some gave up. -
Airya when you say "guide" and "guide stick" I think you mean greeter and greeter stick.
Guides are in Live Help, Greeters are summoned with the Greeter Twig. -
Maybe (like Joihn posted above) the tutorial needs a shiny red button that can eject a noob right into the middle of Ur randomly so they can get the 'learn as you go' experience.
Then of course they will run into help chat flailing their arms helplessly, but thats what you get for wanting to be dumped into the game instantly.
I tried the tutorial and it was not that bad, maybe paced a little slow but then it didnt have much if anything new to show me. If someone cant sit still to go through that 'ordeal' then Glitch is probably not for them anyway.
Too many folks want the reward instantly now and few are willing to sit through the journey to get to it. The journey is what you learn from, not the reward. Some folks have an awfully hard time coming to grips with that. -
I personally did not think the tutorial was very long though I'll concede that the only part I considered as a real tutorial was the part up until you have to sign up to see more.
I agree with elf. There's just far too much about Glitch for the tutorial to be cut shorter than it already is and I honestly don't think it's a good idea to make it much shorter either as the main issue is not speed so much as suitability. If they didn't like what they found in the tutorial making it as simple as getting your clothes and walking isn't going to entice them to keep playing. -
When I magically found Glitch (I can honestly say I have no idea how I found out about Glitch.. so I must have hit my head pretty hard or something after that...) I liked it a lot at first, but I did stop playing Glitch for a few weeks...
But I did return! :D
PS: Maybe I'm mistaken, but I've read somewhere I've only played 60 hours of Glitch O_o... -
I personally highly dislike long tutorials. I liked the old intro into the world. I don't know what the new one is like but if it really does take an hour I doubt I would be playing now if they had it back when I tried out glitch the first time.
I think an opt out for the tutorial would help for impatient people like myself who like to just go figure things out by being thrown into the middle of them. -
I have to agree, that anyone too impatient to work their way through the current Glitch tutorial, probably isn't the type of player that fits for this game. I find nothing more annoying than players that ask questions that were answered in the tutorial, if only they paid attention. Opting out, just allows more of those players into the world. Also, I find typically more immature players will often opt out because they haven't developed patience yet...and those are often the ones that will cause more disruption since they don't understand the ethos of the game (i.e., the ones most likely to opt out are the the ones that most need to go through the full tutorial).
Though I will say that it would really help to have newer players dumped into key hub worlds (Groddle, Ix, Uralia) instead of the distant regions. At a minimum, dump them near a subway (though they can't use the subway until they get their papers), so they know there is a way to get to key hubs other than walking. Also intentionally creating some distant 'region' centers (like a town center), might be helpful - have a tool vendor within a street or two of each of the Bureaucratic Halls, could help to have people congregate in those locations. And then dump newbs near those locations, would probably help them socialize more quickly. - So motherfreaking true. Lots of them are unoriginal, rehashed, uninteresting, and general time-wasting pieces of junk. This is why I play Glitch.
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I have a couple questions about the new tutorial, and I am too lazy to create an alt to take a look.
Is there a story/hook that keeps your attention engaged followed by surprises every 11 to 23 seconds throughout the tutorial? Did this tutorial give away too much information and leave little room for imagination (or mystery of wonder)?
The shorter attention span folks will just log off if they start to feel impatient, and from what everybody says, it sounds like a long tutorial, so I am wondering about the psychological aspect of it all. - I was trying the tutorial when we could play without an account. Still prefer the previous tutorial. This one is really really way too slow.