[Ideas] Need more Wurmians

[GiuseppeP 194]

I have an idea that a few of you will dislike but seem a good agreement from Advantage/Disadvantage.
 
All that idea can be divided in 2 steps:
 
1) Improve the shop
2) Internationalization of Advertising
3) Increase the density of population per server
4) Interactive tutorial
 

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Step 1:

• Problem:

Compared to other similar game, our shop is currently overaged and obsolete.

• Solution:

Add other options, not only prem or prem + coins, but also special offers to open in specific time of the year.
Or add bundle like Deed (11x11) + Full Chain armor + 1 month prem ...

• Problem:

the Web Interface is difficult to use. Too many buttons, too height, difficult to found the right way you want.

• Solution:

Create a new interface (to merge Xsolla and Paypal) and use the API of Xsolla if avaiable or change system

 

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Step 2:

• Problem:

In my country all people know Minecraft, but no one know or heard of Wurm Online

• Solution:

Pay more for that!!!
Don't limit the adv to mmorpg.com, but extend to all countries. Facebook can provide you a good way, Google adwords too.
Another solution can be Ask to the player to promote in their country sending them the flyers, posters, etc.. to print and attach

 

Note about Challenge server:

Well, that is a good idea to gain a different target of player I like that, but new potential players should know of that.

 

 

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Step 3:

• Problem:

There are too many Servers and too few players.
New Wurmians < Wurmians quitting

• Solution:

A lot of you will dislike that but I suggest to wipe some server and shut down it.
The servers are Exodus and Celebration. Merge them in only one (without increase the size)

The same for Pristine and Release.

 

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Step 4:

• Problem:

Current tutorial doesn't learn things like it should. And players get lost there.
Too many pop up windows and 0 iteractions.

• Solution:

I like the current idea, but I think a good way is Use the current system but with the iteration like in the previous one.

 

Please comment it with costructive opinion.

[Hashirama 870]

Also, would like to add this, 
Problem: New players rage quite when they start on a pvp server as they are killed frequently by others as they are considered spies

Solution: Let new players only start on PvE servers on freedom cluster, so that they can learn the game 1st, even if they wish to come to chaos as a non premium, they can come via boat, but atleast they are saved from the trouble of making a boat and sailing to deliverance with a new account of 1 ship building and 1 woodcutting skill. And from personal experience, I see lots of new players making boats on Shroud which is just 1 starter town of chaos, am sure lots of others play on other starter towns as well, So i would say that players should not be able to start on chaos, as many players find it unique as its the only pvp server in freedom cluster, and hence they start there most of the time. 
Even I started on chaos, and rage quitted for months, later one day I decided to just play the game for some time, and am still playing, this is not always the case.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Hashirama

[Spolmit 620]

I think your idea for a deed bundle is a good one however, although I do not have full chain armour, I would not want to buy the armour. I want to achieve it using my own skills. I would suggest that most long-term players in Wurm would take that stance.

Advertising is crucial for Wurm so I completely agree with your second step.

I (and many others) have invested large amounts of time and money into deeds on the smaller servers. I have found a niche place on Pristine and will likely never be able to find a similar place. Other players will likely feel the same. I therefore cannot imagine that the developers would contemplate such an action- well meaning though your idea is.

The tutorial has been updated, however anything to improve the experience for new players is to be welcomed.

[hoof2000 278]

would i get a reimbursement for everything i have on a certain server if it gets wiped? if not, i would rather quit altogether... and how what would that  reimbursement look like? 

Instead of nerving traders Rolf could have reimbursed every trader owner with some silver and get rid off the so "unpopular" traders at once. But he did not...

 

Edit:

 

i know a lot of people in my age that would like to play wurm, but their english is horrible. some language packs for this game would greatly help too imo

Edited December 26, 2014 by hoof2000

[Brocules 89]

I really do not like the idea of Exodus and Celebration merging since I play there. Evenso plenty of  players would not like the merging of Pristine and Release. They would feel they are the victim to a problem they did not create.

When I login I see the number of players on PVE-servers, and the number of players on PVP-servers. The numbers of players on PVP-servers are just a small fraction compared to the numbers of players on PVE-servers. And that is even with all the PVP-servers having options and funny fancy stuff the PVE-servers do not have. So in my opinion PVP and Wurm do not mix well and investing in PVP-Wurm is a waste of time and resources.

The problem is within the PVP-section of Wurm. Dont drag PVE into that.

As far as Challenge goes: i play some other games. Events (Challenge can be called an event) do not last a full month there. One solution would be to limit the time of the Challenge server to 1 week, or even less. No skillgain, just playertime invested and personal brille will gain you the title and rewards.

 

In general, I have been looking into this section of the forum last days. Almost all problems and solutions mentioned are PVP-based. This leads for me to the conclusion: Wurm has a problem and its called PVP.

 

I think advertising could work, wurm after all is a great game, but perhaps the developers are afraid of sudden rushes of high numbers of players causing lags and other problems to the servers/connections. So selective advertising would be advised. One country at a time. So Belgium first week next year, Netherlands second week, Scotland third week, Northern Germany 4th week, Central Germany 5th week, etc.

[sunsvortex 599]

The problem is a bit more complex than what you list. Its not really about getting more players in, Wurm can do this just fine. We have seen this in the past with 1.0 , Xanadu ect ect. What Wurm cant do is retain the players it gets. Until systems are put in place that will address this issue, getting in new players may be doing more harm than good.

 

Rolf needs to start looking at successful MMO's and compare and contrast them to wurm on a very high design level. Take some clues and hints from those that are successful at retaining players and put those systems in place. Putting in a real Trade system, tieing in PVP with PVE and creating an enjoyable pvp environment are just a few things WURM could do to help retain players. Until this is done, simply trying to get new players in is not such a good idea.

 

Wurm also needs to expand on what it does very well, Terraforming and building. Adding circular building objects, dome roofs for example as well as circular walls. Adding in meaning to building these nice castles manors and houses beyond the aesthetic value would also go a very long way in both getting and retaining new players.

 

However closing down a few servers wouldnt be a bad idea as well as adding some other items in the shop.Not that this will help get new players in or retain them, but the slim population Wurm does have is increasingly spread out.

Edited December 26, 2014 by sunsvortex

[Eobersig 1,005]

I have an idea that a few of you will dislike but seem a good agreement from Advantage/Disadvantage.

 

All that idea can be divided in 2 steps:

 

1) Improve the shop

2) Internationalization of Advertising

3) Increase the density of population per server

4) Interactive tutorial

 

...

 

Awfully sorry, but most of your suggestions won't change a thing.

 

1) and 2): Plenty of new players enter the game every week, as can easily be seen in CA chat. Wurm's problem, however, is that few of these new players stay, even fewer stay for long. No sort of advertising or making an improved shop will do anything to improve this retention rate of new players. Investing into advertising or making another shop at this time is just throwing away money.

 

3): Closing of servers will cause a revolt amongst existing players. Most new players pick the most populated server anyway, thus closing of less populated servers does next to nothing to improve retention.

 

4): A better tutorial is always welcome but costs money to develop as well. Whether it's worth to spend that money you likely don't know, Rolf however does. He will know how many new people start the tutorial without ever entering one of the life servers. It only makes sense to invest into a new tutorial if he sees that many new players give-up playing Wurm during the tutorial.

[Etherdrifter 2,517]

I've mentioned it before and I will simply do so again.

Wurm was once the exception to the rule, a sandbox game in a world of themepark mmorpgs.  But now everyone has gone sandbox and wurm has competition.

 

To gather players Wurm is going to really need to carve out a niche for itself in the sandbox genre because sandboxes are no longer niche, they're generic.  Almost all modern mmorpgs include some kind of "home" system as well as in depth crafting.  It's the norm.  The trouble is wurm's current niche is older players who "miss the good old days where skills meant something".

 

Wurm's numbers are likely to continue steady, though it will see a sharp hit to it's PvPer intake when life is feudal is released (essentially wurm with a more active and tiered early game and a much better combat system).  This will lead to a slow decline on that front as wurms engine is poorly suited to PvP (see PvP population (most dev focus) vs PvE population (least dev focus)).

The OPs ideas are good ones (though I do object to the loss of worlds!), however what is really needed is some way to pull in players and keep them.  Grinding for skills is not part of modern culture (which makes me a little sad since in wurm achieving a skill of 90 in something is just that, a huge achievement) and nor is passive combat.  Changes to these would be needed, but doing so would change the essential nature of wurm as an achievement based game.

 

I realise I've rambled a little here and I suppose what really needs saying is that wurm is not going to bring in enough new players to make a difference without substantial change.  Change which would likely alienate the existing playerbase entirely.

Sorry folks but we're just not cool anymore.