Quote Originally Posted by Titus K View Post
I'm not gonna waste my time reading through the myriad of replies that have come before, but here's something I think you should all know:

First off, let me state that while I am new to Civony, I am not a "newbie" to these kind of games. However, having tried (and failed) twice thus far to start the game without asking what has been defined as "Noob" questions, I'm beginning to understand why ther world chat is so clogged with them.

This game lacks anything of a tutorial. While it's fine for those of you who already know how the game works to say "stick to the ongoing quest and you'll be fine" or words to that effect, this is not a workable solution in practice.

Undertand that the general public's attention span is somewhat lacking. What I've found so far, is if you do follow the quests the game frovides, you soon end up with no resources to build further, and nothing to show for it in your town except cottages.

Fine that;s a start for the workforce maybe, but it doesn't really attact interest. What this game severely lacks is a useful in-game tutorial.

A beginner quest, showing new players how the game works, what buildings you can build, and which ones are actually needed for play would cut down the "noob" banter to a bare minimum.

For example, a new account has a set amount of resources already havested, a newbie package, and a few other items. At no point does the "ongoing" quests mention any of this, and while you can see your resources (if you look for them) you won't find your "newbie starter kit" unless you spend the first 5-10 minutes clicking everywhere on the page.

This is all very well, but you must understand that a true "newbie" player will be unwilling to just click everywhere randomly, as this tends to lead to bad things. Most of who (if you even bother to read this far) will doubtless disagree with my words - after all you mananged it, so should everyone else, right?

WRONG!

This attitude is not one that encourages new players to stick around.

Take for example this little gem. After (once again) discovering that following the games quests leads to nothing but draining yourself of resources, with little hope of building anything else for some time, I responded to an advertisement posted in world chat:

(name not given to protect the guilty) "If any new players need help and assistance, mail me I'd like to help." Or words to that effect. This struck me as a pretty nice guy, so I did as instructed and mailed him with my dilema:

(me) "Okay, so I'm new to the game. I started yesterday, and for some reason all my progress (which admittedly wasn't a lot) got wiped.

I started again just now, and following the quest guide, have run out of resources. The quest guide is crazy, as all it says is "ass a cottage" over and over. No mention of the other buildings you can construct. No mention of what's outside the city. And no mention of the newbie package thsat I found after the facts.

From what I see, I'm going to have to start over." Due to the limits inherent in the mail system, I unfortunately could provide no further information.

I waited a short while, and finally I got a reply:

(him)"yes do that" Extent of "help and advice", verbatim. Okay, so this isn't exactly genius advice, but I figure I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, and state my requests:

(me)"That's helpful. I'd figured that part out.

I don't suppose you have any advice as what needs to be built to start the city off? I already contacted what laughingly passes for game support and suggested a beginner quest should be added, but that'll take some time.

So what do you suggest needs to be built to start off the first city?" Well, sure, admittedly the fine line was a little sarcastic in hindsight (although I meant it more in jest) but what can you do. Here's his reply:

(him)"idk" Words (if you could call it that) verbatim, once again. Wow. Such I see I'm in the presence of such genius here. I mean honestly, this guy offers advice, and then has none to give. This is the extent of the help a new player can expect from the game? Back to me:

(me)"lol

So why did you ask newbie players to contact you if you have no advice to give? lol" Which was folled up with:

(him)"if you dont want the advice that im giveing get lost and dont come back " So you can see, hardly any help in the first place, and folled up with insult and a sduggestion to quit playing.

Let me get this straight. The advice of a player who portays himself as helpful to new players is essentially, not to play the game at all? Hardly advice that a new player would want to hear, don't you agree?

My closing statement is unimportant, as it did little other than explain to this guy that what he had to offer was hardly advice, and a comment of his unrivaled genius.

Under the laws of most forums, my quoting of these mails will likely get me banned, but I don't care. What has occured needs attention drawing to vit, and I'm hoping the game designers, or game operaters out there are reading this.

If this is truely the extent of help a new player is going to recieve when they start to play your game, trust me; the will not be playing it for very long.

Take my advice, and install an update. Add a beginner quest that will answer most, if not all the questions a new player will have, and for the love of god TELL them of any gifts you're giving them.

What is the point of offering a new player a freebee to get them started, if they don't find out about it until after they've squanders all they have to build with?

Becasue believe me, the first thing anyone wants to do when they start to play a new game, is play it. What they don't want to do is explore what every little buttom does before they've already had a go.

If there's a quest, it's more likely than not, that they'll start with that. And if there's a tutorial, even better. The majority of the public at large understands that tutorials are designed to help, and play them.

It isn't hard. You've already designed the game, and install a quest/reward system. Just put in one more. before the rest.

Get them started, show them that they need to build cottages, sure. But inform them also of the other building a town can have, and the functions they perform. Explain that they'll need to build a Forester, and Mines and god-s alone knows what else BEFORE they squander everything following the quests.

I said before I've played games simmilar. They have a tutorial, why does this one not? And yes, I know there's a forum (I'm on it, aren't I) and it's quite likely that help and advice a new player seeks in on here.

But I'm telling you now, that quite a number of players won't even look at the forum, let alone join it. And not just because the button that leads to it is stupidly small and at the lower bottom of the game screen.

You have hovers over practically everything else. At the very least include a hover over this button with a note that help and advice can be found therein. Well, I'm off now. I've had my say, and I'll be posting this again in it's own link.

I don't care what happens to my account (I'm quitting, following the advice of that unnamed player if you will) but I do hope you take into consideration the philosophy behind my words, if not the temperament that's hidden within them.

If you want your game to grow and thrive, you will. I wondered at first why so many of my neighbours were a a simillar lvl. Now I guess I understand why. They quit almost immidiately after starting.
Rofl, Titius you are a noob by all definitions, except that at least you have good english. Anyways, I built up my empire following the quests. Asking in the world chat only for an alliance. You need to be able to figure out how to do things by yourself. Not everything will be handed to you on a silver platter.

And wtf are you talking about the forum button is too small and unnoticeable.
Its part of the MAIN menu, and is a graphical button. Its ****ing as noticeable as the quest or report.

Noobs need to learn how to learn. Otherwise, you will not only fail at this game but also fail at LIFE.