Topic
Newbie thoughts
Feedback from a gaming newbie...
It looks really nice, though I haven't really figured out what the point is - am I just wandering around having fun as a kid, am I supposed to be solving a crime, am I supposed to find nirvana???
I've only played some games now and then, so here's what I got confused over. I'm not quite sure where you want the feedback, but this general forum looked like the place??
Profile/Account - it seems odd you can't change your human name, and why does it cost to change your character name? Doesn't seem very friendly :(
During the tutorial, one of the familiar black instructions boxes came up and I must have clicked something that made it disappear, I couldn't figure out how to see it again - I don't know if it said anything important :(
I don't like how the energy/mood doesn't show a number - after a while I figured out you get it if you mouse over it (I was mainly using the keyboard so never thought of that) - maybe if there was a 'get status view' button? And it took me ages to notice the currants total is at the top - it is outside the main box so didn't notice it!
When I first went to middle valley clearing my music stopped and I couldn't figure out how to get it back - I played with the speaker icon sliders but no joy
After a while I completed all the quests in my quest log. Um, not sure what to do now? Eventually I got some more quests.
I find it confusing that sometimes the direction seems to match the map (ie. left to right), whereas other times it is back-to-front
Why doesn't escape close the map?
On Groddle Forest Junction in Groddle Forest, the little XP, coins etc kept reappearing after I jumped and got them so I got lots over and over, just wondering if that was supposed to happen?
Then on Sylvan Grove I couldn't get any of the coins, and then it crashed - got a blank screen with "!"
Overall it was quite nice, but after a while it all became 'the same'. I did 2-3 learnings, but it still all seems the same. I'm not sure what age it's aimed at (I'm older)? I don't really think it will keep my interest for much longer.
Thanks for letting me test, hope my comments help.
Replies
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I agree with the same toughts that MeetHead. Since i started to play yesturday, i want to give you some feedback but i was shy to write my thougts here, in the forum. Maybe if we can send the staf private messages, the number of feedback will improve.
i don't know if you expect this kind of feedback, but it is a constructive feedback (:
The game is cute, has many sidequests - sidequest is love - is easy but I miss a major goal. Since i start to play I don't now why I'm doing what I'm doing. Why a have to mine? how i'll use this in the game? what for? to sell? there's some other purpose that i don't know? not just minning, but alchemy too. How learn this skills will be important in the game? Maybe latter in the game I figure out, but now, i'm just boring because I don't have a Major goal in Glitch-life. Maybe if I figure this out in the beggining, i would find Glitch more pleasure.
The way that is now, I think I'll keep playing for a week.
Other thing that i miss is some kind of history of what the "stone" said (the stone has a name?)
I think this is all
Thank you for let me test and sorry about the english (I'm Brazilian) -
I just forget one thing :P
I miss keyboard shortcuts to pick the things... I don't like to use mouse + keyboard always (if there is a shortcut, it should in a more visible place)
and maybe if up=jump things could be easyer -
Hey Amora — great comments.
Nobody should be shy about leaving their thoughts. The game is still in the early phases of testing, and they've invited us in to get our feedback. I doubt anyone is going to be annoyed with what you say, whatever it may be --- that's the whole point of taking part in the tests! -
The points as far as I can tell are to develop all the facets of the world, keep the giants balanced, and socialize. There isn't a grand goal.
You may be worried about saying something for the 10th time on the boards, but the more times something is said, the more it's paid attention. Speak freely! -
goals in the game beyond quests:
make money to buy a cool house [and ultimately decorate it, be creative with other stuff you buy, clothes and flowers and paint and whatever else ends up added to the game to support this]
make money and gain skills to help with building new streets, build the world!
gain lots of xp to climb to the top of the leaderboard
meet people and help them learn how to do the above
but i think the *main* point or reason for playing the game is going to be the same reason people play SimCity.
just like SimCity, the point is to build an environment that is awesome and that is functional.
unlike SimCity, you build the environment from within, and you do so collaboratively [or at very least in parallel] with other people. this adds a whole host of interesting complications. -
"long time poster, first time player'
that was a joke. but since i started playing last week 'first time player' is apt. not to get too philosophical here but i see the goal of the game is to be human, or "glitchen" as it were. i see it as you are one of many trying to find your place in this world. contribute where you can and help the group but otherwise, there are goals to accomplish (graduate grade school, go to college, get a good job, marry, have kids, write a classic novel) things on your own.
i don't want a game where there is a set goal for everyone; which is what attracted me to this one. you chose the skills you want to learn to get along in this world. choose not to learn one? well, you'd likely die (or at least not get very far).
this isn't to say the above feedback isn't valuable, it is; but i like to think this is a different world where you make your own rules (to an extent) and so "guidelines" are a bit too narrow-minded. but that's opinion. -
just wanted to add that by "build the environment" i don't necessarily mean players have to be part of massive construction crews or have to be virtual urban planners and community organizers.
"carving out your niche" is part of building the world. maybe even the most important part. - This is not maplestory.
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When i was playing the last half a hour I found where i could buy a house and this change my game perspective (and the striact comment)
When i say a "major goal" i don't mean something like "kill this monster and its end of the game" but something simple like take care of a farm or try to please the gods. Until the end of the second day, it was not clear for me that living and help to build the environment was a major goal. -
I think that part of it is that Glitch gives you somewhat everyday goals (obtain food, learn skills, get a house) but frames them so fancifully that it might create too much of a disconnect for new players.
Plus the ideas about the Giants that you get in the first five minutes of the game maybe aren't reinforced again when your character is born into the world, and who remembers the first five minutes of the game, especially when you are oohing and aahing over the design?
Also--there is a problem/issue/crisis that comes up later, it just hasn't been introduced into gameplay. That is: "Disemprobablization", which is represented (at first I think?) by a character called the Rook. We just haven't seen much of him yet. - I think the helping build the environment part of the game should be made more clear early on in the game. Perhaps there could be some quests related to this such as asking players to water trees even if they did not add a gardening related skill along with exposition by rock about the need to take care of the trees so they don't die. Another quest could ask players to join in a street building project. I know people are sick of the rock, maybe he could have less clever chit chat and more useful exposition to help new players understand the purpose of the game.
- @frankenpaula I'd like to see some early quests related to building and maintaining the world. Maybe at level 1 you could get a quest to water all of the trees in a certain residential block, or maybe some street building projects could require a lower-level character to participate.
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Thanks for comments from people who have obviously got a lot further in Glitch.
I think when you turn up at a new game you are bringing ideas of how it might work based on other games you have played in the past. MANY games involve a quest towards a goal, and once you've achieved that goal you have 'finished' the game. What I'm hearing is this is NOT that kind of game.
I guess that's all I'd need to hear. If I'd known it was more like Second Life or Sim City, I would know that it's about the 'experience' of living in this virtual world, about exploring and collaborating. This makes sense as an overall goal - I don't know why I need to know mining, but it will likely help me be a better citizen. The problem is I had no concept of what the overall goal might be.
@Nanookie mentioned getting a house is one of the goals. I stumbled upon one of the towers that people had bought apartments in. I had no idea if this was something I should be aspiring to. If I had know the game was about living in a virtual world, I could have made an assumption it probably was. Even if the assumption turned out to be wrong, at least I would have walked away from there at peace, rather than perplexed.
As an aside, I recently learnt there are two kinds of learners - visual/spatial and auditory/sequential. Sequential learners want to get straight into practical steps, they're happy to discover the big picture as they go. Spatial learners hate following instructions/steps unless they know the big picture first to put those steps in context. I'm spatial, which is why I found starting in Glitch very frustrating, especially the tutorial where I was forced through steps but didn't know why, and then all these quests and learnings were available but I couldn't figure out why. -
Maybe also some thought could go into 'achievement moments'. When I first started I felt like I was achieving stuff. But after a few hours I felt like I wasn't. This is what I meant by feeling it was all the same - after a while all I could do was walk around and water things. The levels seemed pretty arbitrary - they just suddenly were achieved, not because I had purposely aimed to achieve them.
Maybe the rock thing could make some suggestions every now and then so you feel maybe you are on the right track after all, eg "I noticed you haven't had any new quests assigned recently, if you get me to do some learnings I can see if I can arrange some more for you" -
Thanks for all your comments and feedback - it's all helpful, and we welcome thoughts from new players. New players offer feedback from a unique perspective that's impossible to get back once you've played the game for a while … so, it's valuable.
The game definitely has 'open' aspects to it in terms of direction, goals, or a specific 'point'. A lot of it is about exploration, discovery, balance, and expansion of the world.
As the game continues to get developed some of these things will become more clear (the backstory will be explained a bit better) and some may not. There will always be an aspect of uncertainty in the game, through which players will help direct the game, its social aspects, and even its direction.
Please feel free to keep sharing your thoughts!