Getting more players to Wurm - A brainstorming session

[Xor 684]

I know WU has split a lot of the population which hurts, and I won’t speculate whether it’s better or worse for Wurm as a whole. 

 

I do notice a huge difference In activity now than from before I left. Both on the forums and in game which has me a little dissapointed. 

 

But like most of you, I love Wurm and just want to see it grow. The community is one of the best let’s of this game. 

 

Just spitballing myself, I know when P&R were released there was a ton of activity. A friend had been interested, tried the game and left, but followed it and tried again when Pristine was opening. He brought me along for the ride and the rest was history. I know spreading the population so thin isn’t a best strategy,  but after seeing the boat travel option we have now I think the servers are closer than ever. An added bonus to being on a smaller server is unique events are easier to get to, and so is traveling anywhere else in the game too. I’d be interested in a new server released in a similar manner as the P&R scenario. I think with some marketing it could be a big draw for the game too. (However when I left this was being repeatedly suggested and shot down by the community as a whole, that still may be the case)

 

How much marketing does WO do? I wonder if there aren’t some skilled players who would be happy to contribute to a campaign in some way for no reward at all to help them curb those costs. Social media is a powerful tool.

 

Anyway, what do you think CC could do to generate a bigger interest in the game? I’ll try and keep the OP updated with what seem to be the most popular/plausible ideas added and maybe we’ll help grow the game with some of our ideas! 

 

This is isn’t necessarily a feature suggestion thread though, more like what moves could CC make to draw in more players. 

[Reylaark 1,100]

I believe there are two things that need to be completed before any serious investment in advertising, marketing, etc. (according to CC PR)

1. The new UI - Haven't heard anything in a bit, but that doesn't mean much as I haven't been listening .  It is in the works though (pretty sure), and should help retain younger players accustomed to pretty stuff.
2. New User Experience, ie. Tutorial -  Think that is actively in the works as well.  Again, haven't heard much in a while but I seem to remember that being a prerequisite to any kind of new PR push.

Other than that, I'm gonna go with puppies.  Everybody loves puppies.

Correction: Everybody worth knowing loves puppies.

[PumperNickel 127]

I think a new tutorial would be beneficial for new players to come and actually stay

 

57 minutes ago, Reylaark said:

Other than that, I'm gonna go with puppies.  Everybody loves puppies.

Correction: Everybody worth knowing loves puppies.

Awwwwww puppies!

 

Spoiler

 

[Sklo:D 2,210]

Haha where to start, so let's think back about what wurm devs missed in the last 10 years:

 

=> Smartphone integration

=> A client not using OpenGL (something with a real game engine would be really needed)

=> A UI that is not building up on windows over windows and more windows

=> Jumping, Flying and better physics

=> A fully working ingame market system

=> New ingame mailing system

=> ..........

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

Drop subscription entirely and up the cost of deeds.

[Flubb 773]

2 minutes ago, Etherdrifter said:

Drop subscription entirely and up the cost of deeds.

I was about to argue in some direction of "muh microtransactions" which I could elaborate, but it actually falls flat against this since deed costs are actually something quite essential to the game, so every player would end up paying unless they're nomads. Every player, rather than every character.

Which would be nice because 3 alts are a bit costly and make me consider my playstyle every now and then.

 

The flip side is that CCAB has to take a different stance on multi accounting. In order to not alienate the playerbase that is used to having multiple characters, I'd suggest falling in line with "1 account, X characters", (and just allow a smaller number to be played simulateneously).

That in itself may also be more appealing than the rather archaic billing system now. Multiaccounting is encouraged and if you want a priest without depending on others in a way that is crippling to most, you need to priest an alt. Which means paying twice. Feels a bit anti-consumer there, I'd rather see characters be managed by 1 account with 1 subscription.

[Yiraia 427]

More interactive combat. More methods of decorating deed. More customizable features. When colored outfits came out, I was severely disappointed. A method to make dyes only used to fully color stuff in a ridiculous manner really sucks. Being able to craft blank clothing and dye each component (or maybe even strip/plaid patterns) would improve that feeling where "wurm is what you make it."

[Mclavin 3,704]

The title says getting more people to Wurm. So I'm guessing it doesn't matter if we have 500 really cool exciting features if no player is Coming into wurm to see them. A newbie doesn't care for dying clothes and other mid-game features it cares about whats on the menu and what to expect for desert and a lot like food presentation you can turn it down before even tasting if you don't like what you read or see.


So with that said the biggest focus should be the main website. The website more than advertisement because if you bring customers into a restaurant that doesn't have an interesting menu then whats the point?
It doesn't do wurm justice it's aged and very poor.

Check these websites out of new/more modern games that are out
https://www.elitedangerous.com/

https://www.dualthegame.com/en/

http://camelotunchained.com/v3/

https://albiononline.com/en/home

 

 

I can very well see a well-pitched out website attracting more players to go beyond and click that play buttom. 
A short clip of somebody terraforming switched to somebody farming, switched to somebody riding a horse, sieges, to smithing to showing night/day cycles as you're reading the info on this awesome game.
Easy to go to tabs, Whats wurm, your history, settlements, pvp clusters, FULL LOOT, the pop out features (Massive terraforming, massive terraforming mission god ran events, Sieges and raids, boat combat, animal breeding)...and so much more.

You're being edged to one side in the sandbox full loot department, many people ask for full loot games but not many Know about wurm...



 

Edited January 24, 2018 by Mclavin

[Yiraia 427]

10 minutes ago, Mclavin said:

A newbie doesn't care for dying clothes

Excuse me? A player does not care about what the game has to offer in customization in a sandbox? That is a bold statement.

 

12 minutes ago, Mclavin said:

So with that said the biggest focus should be the main website. 
It doesn't do wurm justice it's aged and very poor.

Much like the rest of the game. If the website doesn't push them away then the game will, almost IMMEDIATELY.

 

14 minutes ago, Mclavin said:

I can very well see a well-pitched out website attracting more players to go beyond and click that play buttom. 

I once had a friend that said they won't join wurm because of the look of the website (I didn't even ask them to join) but It was obvious that even if the website would satisfy her, after crafting a large cart or walking around for 2 hours with a 60kg pig corpse, she would realize that its the type of game she wants to avoid. You are simply asking for an audience that won't last long. And even if the website is good and the advertisements look nice, Most gamers look for a youtube video of the gameplay experience before pressing that play button ( I play with a group of 5-6ish people, non of them will join wurm lol ). After not finding 1 exciting video, you can easily tell the mood of the game.

 

But seriously...

20 minutes ago, Mclavin said:

switched to somebody riding a horse

We ride horses to get to places faster, not look cool. Infact, the horse riding animation clip in the background of websites like you are advising XD its just gonna look like a really advance website on a really bad game. Our characters look like there are sticks up their butt and our hands are really awkward.

Spoiler

Do you really want to see a character like that staying completely still while the horse runs on the website? Come on man. This is advertised as a free mmo, and from my experiences, mmo players try almost ANY mmo as long as its free to get a taste and see if they like it. The website is not gonna stop mmo players (even though wurm isn't considered an mmo by some) Its the gameplay thats going to stop a person. Once they are in the game and they stand completely still just to kill a cow, they are either not going to care and want something simple just to relax, or play a real game that offers interaction.

[Locath 533]

For years I'm mentioning a working referral system.

 

Example:

In a browser game which I play on occasion, which you can play for free, you get bonuses for referring new people if they decide to donate. In the case I played, it was 10% of what they spend is added to the referrer. I have purchased google adsense adverts to get refs. about 10% of my 350 refs spent some money, about 5% still play it after 2+ years. Cost of running ads for 12 months was much, much lower than donating to get the same amount of credits by donating. Plus, I log on every so often to play for a while to a nice surprise of a small fortune which wasn't there before.

This system almost guarantees that person who clicks the reflink will be my referee, even if they decide to go to main website link before registering, cookies stay and if they register without a reflink, they are still my refs because I introduced them to the game (or my advert did).

 

On the shop website, after user is logged on and verified, display the reflink. Or even easier, use player name for that since those are unique anyway.

No change in rewards would be necessary, just allocate the ref to correct account once referred player premiums up their account.

 

In current system, people don't think about introducing more people to the game, they get nothing out of it unless they personally know said new players and even then most have enough integrity to tell them that they can sell their ref. This has very little to do with referral system and imo shouldn't be called that.

 

If player joins without being referred and premiums up - current option could still work. manual refer in game as it is now. Use it on your other toon or sell it.

 

Pros: Players would actively promote the game by whatever means they feel will work. Posting in forums they visit, sending invitations to their friends, what have you. If someone creates an alt, they can use their own reflink and get the reward once alt pays first premium or just go to wurm website and create one and later sell the ref in game like we do now, since there is no referrer attached to that account. This would translate directly into more players trying the game and some % of them would likely stay.

 

Cons: Many of us remember the reddit new player rush. Servers gave up on life, massive influx of trolls and grieffers. This could happen again but with the new highway protection system and village permissions as they are now, it shouldn't be as bad as few years ago. (and yes, I know some of the people who cane to Wurm on that wave are still here and are decent people but it's a handful compared to the number of players who joined then).

Few times when I discussed this on GL Freedom, I was bashed because people are buying refs to have their premium time extended and this would reduce the number of refs available for sale. Yes, this is correct. Go refer someone maybe and you get the reward?

 

Edit:

 

Forgot about the 2s premium deal, reward after that premium lapses on next renewal in that case.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Locath

[Hailene 362]

1 hour ago, Yiraia said:

Excuse me? A player does not care about what the game has to offer in customization in a sandbox? That is a bold statement.

 

He means that when a newbie opens up the game and sees the train wreck of a UI we have he quits in 5 minutes--way, way before most newbies know about clothes, much less dying them.

 

We need them to stick a while longer before worrying about the bells and whistles.

 

I think the graphics (which isn't going to change much) and the UI are the two biggest issues.

 

The information dump of a tutorial is a nightmare. I'd rather throw them to a random non-pvp map (with the one time option of teleporting to a map of their choice later, including PvP if they desire) and have pop ups as they play.

 

Spread the information over hours of actual gameplay rather than bombard them in 20 minutes. They won't remember 90% of it.

[Holar 1,484]

Wurm is not a visually attractive at all.. unfortunately with new technology graphics hold more value then actual content. You never hear some ask another person “what’s the interface and content like?” It’s always “broooo the graphics are legit you should see them in 4K!” I think if Wurm was more visually pleasing it would be a much better draw to a larger audience. Not saying Wurm should be 4K or visually mind blowing but updating and OPTIMIZING the graphics would be nice.

 

Marketing plays a huge factor, hell at one time Wurm was being reviewed by magazines, semi-popular websites and admired by other games. Now the biggest advertising Wurm Online gets are the reviews for Wurm Unlimited on steam. Players spreading the word only goes so far or using outdated MMO sites for upvotes, spend some time on making legitimate marketing ideas and get Wurm out there!

 

Rolf.. where is he? what is he doing? It would be nice to hear from him and know what the actual future of Wurm is. After all he does sign the checks for stuff to get stuff done.

[Oblivionnreaver 5,175]

Just chuck the launcher on steam and since it's in the f2p mmo section you'll have thousands of kids with no credit cards playing. If infestation survivor stories/The War Z can get 15k peak players im sure wurm can too.

[Mclavin 3,704]

12 hours ago, Yiraia said:

Excuse me? A player does not care about what the game has to offer in customization in a sandbox? That is a bold statement.

 

A newbie doesn't care for dying clothes and other mid-game features 

A newbie will not make it to the point of where he can dye clothes if the start game and the website/advertisement isn't there. We know devs are working on the UI and tutorial, we haven't heard much about the website.
This is about getting players to wurm so you have to stick to the first part "getting them" here. Then you can make another topic called "keeping players"

Wurm is Wurm, the animations make it that, showcase the wagons and horses and mounted combat, if you're scared to show what wurm is either 1. update animations or 2. be truthful about it when showcasing the game so players don't expect more than what is being offered. You really don't need to cherry pick words in an attempt to break down a whole point tho, it remains; showcase your game as soon as somebody clicks the webpage.

And no I really wouldn't pick wurm for Dying clothes, i joined for all the features we had back then and tbh in todays age of wurm SO MUCH MORE has been added, that "dying clothes" realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly doesn't make or break the game. lol.

I'm simply following the thread title. Like everybody here I could post my personal opinion of what i'd like to see in the game at my current level of things, but that won't get new players here.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Mclavin

[Xor 684]

I don’t think the graphics are as big of a turn off as suggested. Minecraft is good example of a graphically bad game that is very successful, and there are others. If their marketing shows the game as it is nobody will be upset graphically, but the UI while it may take a little getting used to I still don’t think it’s ultimately that bad. Some games with worse that have had more success for sure. 

 

Id like to see Free play expanded some as someone else suggested, maybe to 21 BC so they can ride horses, skills to 30 (maybe even 50). Maybe not allow cross server travel until premium or even not allow the quick navigation travel for F2P. 

 

I don’t think as a free player you can experience enough of the game to want to commit an investment that is generally going to cost about 24+ Euros. 

 

I haven’t played the tutorial in awhile, but do remember I retained almost nothing from it. It was all learned from experimenting, asking in Chat, forums, or wurmpedia. And i I still had tons to learn before I left, now there is even MORE I’m behind on lol. 

 

As for marketing there are lots of forms of free marketing that could still be done with social media and have lots of success. I’m going to try and get an Instagram going once I get my new PC (using an oldie now with low settings doesn’t make for good screenshots, might even work on some YT and Facebook stuff but I have no editing skills so I fear the quality won’t be high enough for marketing purposes). 

 

Anyone else using sing social media could help by trying to bump up the official pages, throw in some Wurm mentions when you can (don’t just spam). 

 

Theyre almost dead on facebook, nonexistent on IG (save for some posts from one of the tapestry contest winners).  The FF guys may be the best they have on YouTube but they’re videos are longer and I enjoy them generally, but wouldn’t expect someone who doesn’t play to make it through all many of their videos. 

 

Small tutorials in shortened videos (1-3min, and FF through timers, but showing step by step actions) would would be great, and could also become a fantastic resource to direct new players to. As well as maybe some GM power flight video of big events like Impalongs, Unique battles (or even the 10-30 people traveling towards the unique too!)

 

Then of course cross promotion between social media platforms, posting YT vids in a blog on facebook, throw up some IG posts on Facebook as well. Link to all platforms on all platforms. Mention them on the YT vids. 

 

I am by no means educated in social media, but even without extreme knowledge I can see their value as a tool for marketing. 

 

Social media would also be a great place to post some of the really cool screenshots in the forums thread, (Magnaron’s Rest, and a recent castle with red banners posted come to mind but I’m sure there are tons more)

 

Sticking to the core concepts that make Wurm so great: If you’re motivated, you can literally raise or flatten mountains, slay dragons, build vast underground caverns or cities, full loot PVP, craft thousands of items, play on your own in a secluded corner of the world, or in a village with other players, etc. 

 

I could go on, but I think the point is made and already longer than necessary.. sorry. XD I’ll put all that social media stuff into a spoiler when I get home to a computer. At work so it’s easy to ramble on in the break room

[Yiraia 427]

14 hours ago, Hailene said:

He means that when a newbie opens up the game and sees the train wreck of a UI we have he quits in 5 minutes--way, way before most newbies know about clothes, much less dying them.

I have invited several people to the game, their accounts probably don't exist anymore, but their names were skullybabe (or something like that), zomgsevey, veryveryveryverykindman (maybe another very), falzar (or alshu, i forgot), some other guy i forgot the name of, a guy named damionspade, some random guy that was bored from town of salem. Hey, I even invited Pumpernickel (EDIT: This one stayed  and loved it, but then again she didn't have a choice <3 ). Not 1 of them complained about the UI of the game, only the lack of things to do. Often when i make suggestions, i speak on the behalf of those who tried the game and said oh hell naw. So yeah, I invited 8 people and not one of them said "Nope, UI" only "Nope, Theres nothing to do but click." And these werent people who were looking for an amazing game, they were just looking to chill in a game and wurm simply didnt have much to offer as a sandbox for them. All the people I listed, except the town of salem guy, played minecraft with me for months.

 

14 hours ago, Hailene said:

I think the graphics (which isn't going to change much) and the UI are the two biggest issues.

The information dump of a tutorial is a nightmare. I'd rather throw them to a random non-pvp map (with the one time option of teleporting to a map of their choice later, including PvP if they desire) and have pop ups as they play.

Spread the information over hours of actual gameplay rather than bombard them in 20 minutes. They won't remember 90% of it.

I only somewhat agree with graphics. There are audiences out there that heavily favor content over graphics. tutorial sucks though, thats a biggy.

 

4 hours ago, Mclavin said:

A newbie doesn't care for dying clothes and other mid-game features 

AND THAT IS WHERE YOU ARE WRONG . Again, I play in a gaming group and we often search for games. We never step blind into an mmorpg and let the beginning decide whether or not we will continue. We often look at the wikipedia and see what the game has to offer. If we see a combat one that only has "Class" "Skills" and "Equipment" then we immediately say that its a dull average one. Once more categories come in such as "Fishing" "Events" "World Map" "Cooking" "Crafting" "Building" then you see the game has more to offer and you peek to see if it seems to actually be fun. We do this so we don't waste time playing certain games. Other than the wiki, we look at videos to see if the game can be exciting or have a nice feel to it. Seeing a bunch of people on different color horses with crappy colored carts and the same outfits repeated is already a huge downer, and shows lack of customizability. I play with groups of people... I know dis.

 

4 hours ago, Mclavin said:

A newbie will not make it to the point of where he can dye clothes if the start game and the (1) website/advertisement isn't there. We know devs are working on the UI and tutorial, we haven't heard much about the website.
This is about getting players to wurm so you have to (2) stick to the first part "getting them" here. Then you can make another topic called "keeping players"

(1) I just typed mmo sandboxes and the first link contained wurm in it... Anybody jumping around to see sandboxes will notice this game as an options, and i have met several players in different games that said "Oh i tried wurm, Its too grindy, there isnt much to do other than click" NEVER, EVER did i hear UI issues, just gonna say that again.

(2) As long as a person is looking for an mmo sandbox, they may come. But when they see the game has little to offer, they will leave. Wurm doesn't need to be the game thats always talked about or selling awesome t-shirts to get a good amount of people.

 

4 hours ago, Mclavin said:

And no I really wouldn't pick wurm for Dying clothes, i joined for all the features we had back then and tbh in todays age of wurm SO MUCH MORE has been added, that "dying clothes" realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly doesn't make or break the game. lol.

Character customization is a huge part in any game that involves creating the world. As much as I don't like roleplayers, you can see a huge influx come in if they had the chance to diversify themself. It doesn't only have to be dying clothes, Its also more variety in furniture to make your place seem different than others. So far, the only difference I have seen in people's homes were random stuff thrown on the ground rather than actual furniture. Only a few cool things here and there like aged fog spider corpses under a huge tub to make a hot tub.

 

4 hours ago, Mclavin said:

I'm simply following the thread title. Like everybody here I could post my personal opinion of what i'd like to see in the game at my current level of things, but that won't get new players here.

Are you kidding me? I don't know where wurm started but when i joined, a bunch of small features got me hooked onto the game for a while. I don't know where i posted it, but i mentioned the fact that you heal specific wounds on your body was cool. I had a better time saying "I'll come down for dinner after i fix the bruise on my crotch" rather than "Yeah, after i drink this health potion" when I was 15 XD. To find wurm all you need to do is search "mmo sandboxes" and it comes up... lol seriously its just that easy. Just work on making the game more enjoyable.

 

3 hours ago, Xor said:

I don’t think the graphics are as big of a turn off as suggested. Minecraft is good example of a graphically bad game that is very successful, and there are others.

Had a convo about that with a friend once. When he said wurm graphics suck and I told him so does minecraft, he responded with "Yeah but minecraft intentionally sucks, wurm just looks like a guy got lazy." To be fair, hes the youngest in the group XD like 11 years old, but he behaves quite mature (Or everybody else in the group is immature)

Edited January 24, 2018 by Yiraia
lil' note about pumper

[Xor 684]

@YiraiaI think you make good points, character customization is a huge attraction to many people, myself included. Nothing worse than looking like everyone else and the only way to really avoid that in Wurm is to have expensive / very difficult to acquire gear. 

 

I think “too much clicking” is too broad, but I understand the tedium of parts of this game. Did your friends try it before or after the crafting window? I think that is a major upgrade for QoL in the clicking / tedium department. 

 

As as for the graphics, it is what it is. They improve overtime but can’t be made to suit everyone’s tastes or become an overnight CGI miracle. Another example of a successful, poor graphic game is the scape. Both BEFORE 3D and after 3D it still was poor, but wildly popular, and that included those who preferred the 2D “Classic” version as well. 

 

I am hoping this thread can communicate reasonable ideas for the Rolf and the Dev team to work on that maybe they haven’t thought of. If it can encourage the player base to do their own marketing for them via social media that would be great too. 

 

I dont think saying “graphics aren’t good enough, coding language / system is outdated” is beneficial as I fully expect their entire CC staff to understand their own pitfalls in those categories and if the last few years since I started playing aren’t a tribute to their efforts to improve I don’t know what is. However asking them to reinvent the game on an entirely new engine AND maintain all in game information as it is would be extremely difficult and timely (and maybe they’re working on it, they should be long term if they want the game to survive anyway). 

 

* more legitimate customization for characters, vehicles, horses, etc. 

 

Perhaps a PVE PMK could be possible (sort of as alliances are treated, maybe require X amount of deeds, large start up costs, and maybe even a monthly cost sort of like deeds). I’d expect them to get some revenue and an uptick in their residuals from that. 

 

Also 11 yrs old is great. To expand the player base will require more age groups as well. (I think Wurm isn’t instant enough for younger crowds generally though). 

 

An important distinction for Wurm in comparison to other sandboxes is that you can create things that will literally last years into the future, but also an important distinction is that you can’t do it instantly. If you want to make something monumental it will require effort, time, and help. I think that’s an important and one of the best characteristics of the game. 

[Roccandil 959]

On Minecraft graphics versus Wurm's, I think of that as the difference between functional graphics and scenic graphics, in which scenery is only there to look pretty, but doesn't actually do anything, whereas the functional graphics are there to offer valuable information; they actually mean something.

 

As an example, I've noticed that playing Wurm with graphics on lowest settings is in some ways actually more functional (it's a whole lot easier to find that one normal grass tile in an enchanted field, for instance).

 

On the other hand, one bit of scenery in Wurm that bothers me are the boulders that pop up in dirt tiles. I'm so used to things on the ground meaning something in Wurm, that the extraneous/scenic shapes seem out of place. (I actually wish that getting a field ready for sowing involved plowing rock shards out of the ground, but hey. )

 

Anyhow, I get the impression that a game that offers scenery for the sake of scenery will be judged to a different standard than a game that only offers functional graphics.

[Tallios 307]

Spoiler: This suggestion is to ultimately do away with deed upkeep as money upkeep.

I personally recommend that a deed be limited by upkeep via materials consumed for maintenance, fence borders for deeds, and have wurm move away from direct monetary payments.

 

3 types of NPC merchants in every starter town.

 

I know a lot of people would whine and ###### about this system, but virtually everyone wants some sort of coherent market system.  I strongly recommend this because it's simple, in-depth, allows players to actually be traders or even specialize in certain trades, and provides a pathway to support yourself without having to learn everything.  I currently do not support private versions of these as it would cause to much headache.

 

Each starter town merchants MUST be separate,  A map wide or game wide connected merchant system would cause more damage and hurt the game in the long run.

 

New action: Seal Crate

Activate hammer/mallet  and right click crate to be sealed.  Nails are consumed as necessary from inventory.

 

Crates of singular items can be sealed with a small or large nails respectively.  (Yes Wurm, be specific,)  The crates will then read as a "Large/small sealed crate of X quality Items". 

• Large Crate merchants:
  • Only purchases must be sealed large crate of singular items.
  • Items in crates sold to vendor must be above 30 quality
  • Items in crates sold from vendor will be 30 only quality. 
  • Crates sold to or from a cart or wagon.
  • Will purchase crates of items at "market price" minus 20% as the taxes/merchants cut, whatever.
  • Will sell crates of items at "market price" plus 20% as the taxes/merchant cut, whatever.
  • Sales and Purchases are 1 at a time.

 

• Small Crate merchants:
  • Only purchases must be sealed small crate of singular items.
  • Items in crates sold to vendor must be above 30 quality
  • Items in crates sold from vendor will be 30 only quality. 
  • Crates sold to or from a cart or wagon.
  • Will purchase crates of items at "market price" minus 35% as the taxes/merchants cut, whatever.
  • Will sell crates of items at "market price" plus 35% as the taxes/merchant cut, whatever.
  • Sales and Purchases are 1 at a time.

 

• Basic Merchant:
  • Purchases must be of singular items.
  • Items sold to vendor must be above 30 quality
  • Items sold from vendor will be 30 only quality. 
  • Items sold to or from a player inventory.
  • Will purchase items at "market price" minus 50% as the taxes/merchants cut, whatever.
  • Will sell items at "market price" plus 50% as the taxes/merchant cut, whatever.
  • Sales and Purchases are 1 at a time.

 

 

Edited January 24, 2018 by Tallios

[Wurmhole 3,650]

Code Club will never do anything to actively market WO.  They have proven that for the last 10 years.  WU however is the best marketing system that has existed and does bring over quite a few people to try the "real" game.  But they rarely stick around.  New player experience is the destroyer of 95% of people that come here.

 

#1 increase new player retention.

#2 see #1.

#3 Old player retention - provide support by solving bugs that make the game unplayable.  I've spent several weeks trying to pin down a combination of settings that will allow me to keep my client running without locking up and many others have the same issue.  Wurm staff have done absolutely nothing to help, other than tell me one of the settings I thought was helping actually is a ghost settings that does absolutely nothing at all anymore.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Wurmhole

[Roccandil 959]

A few thoughts:

 

1) I found Wurm via searching on "sandbox mmo", and of the options, Wurm intrigued me the most (especially the skilling by doing mechanic);

2) Once I created an account, I tried my best to "do" the tutorial, but it seemed to be an odd place where I needed to stand on particular tiles to trigger pop-ups to read, and there wasn't much actual learning;

3) I finally found the portal out of the tutorial zone, and was presented with the clearly enormous decision of which cluster and which island to choose. I actually logged at this point to do more research, which in my opinion shouldn't be necessary; a player should be able to make an informed choice based on the presentation at the portal. (I chose Epic/Serenity, and I'm very happy with that initial choice.)

4) Again, due to the paucity of the tutorial, as well as Wurm's inherently obfuscated systems, I spent a lot of my newbie time learning from the wiki. This is ok, I guess, but I believe it's far superior if what you need to know is available in the game itself. The less a player needs to stop playing to play, the better. I still really don't know what many skill/stats actually -do-, I just figure more is good. But, this steals rewards. For example, I know that my Woodcutting/Mining skill is my max gather QL. That means increasing those skills is very rewarding, and something to look forward to (O boy, I can get 90QL ore now!). For something like Body, however, what it does isn't clear. (The same is true for many parent skills.)

5) Trees -really- need selectable colliders; this was very confusing at first.

6) I was very frustrated by the skill mechanic requiring successful results to gain skill, while at the same time lowering the chance of a successful result for low skill. The devs have since fixed this on Epic, at least (all results give skill up to 20).

7) I was also frustrated by the RNG inherent in the "skilling by doing" mechanic. The devs have since improved this on Epic; skilling feels much more natural now.

8) The all-or-nothing RNG mechanics embedded in different systems are also a turn off. Effectively, they're gambling my time/effort for fun. Maybe some folks like that, but I get the impression more don't.

9) I've stuck with the game so far despite the petty frustrations and client lag/crashes, but there's still a significant "despite" that I suspect turns many potential players away.

 

Finally, the premium model excludes free-to-play players, who in other games act as content for paying customers. The 20 skill wall is, I think, a place where many people stop playing because the game becomes a waste of time if you don't pay.

 

I'd recommend considering the removal of the 20 skill barrier on Epic, and only charging for deeds. Epic's player base is small enough that I suspect it won't hurt bottom-line much, and it could be an interesting experiment. (It would also tend to balance the whole "let's-skill-on-Freedom" thing, since players could skill for free on Epic, but need to pay premium to skill on Freedom.)

 

[Mclavin 3,704]

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(1) I just typed mmo sandboxes and the first link contained wurm in it(1) 

 

And it brought you to a bad website that doesn't advertise the great features we have. I wasn't speaking about what google brings up, I was talking about what the website is advertising to you.

 

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Not 1 of them complained about the UI of the game,

All 13 of the people I heard from did. Even dev's have been told the UI sucks. The devs don't just plan to make a overhaul for nothing, they've got the feedback. UI it terrible, hell the third comment on this thread mentioned the UI. Again it's all about the surface when you're a new player

Quote from a smart guy when talking about wurm and the players we miss/don't stick around


 

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One thing I will say, and it goes for pretty much every person who talks about the game

we're the ones that didnt let those things stop us [UI, Graphics, Grind, Website, Lack of players]

The ones that did arent around

2

2

This is a brainstorming session, so really nobody is wrong. You can put all these ideas into one basket and we'd probably see good results.
For me, they need to rethink the very first click a potential player makes, which is to this website.

And then they need to go down the list from there. 

Edited January 25, 2018 by Mclavin

[Aetherion 379]

As a part/full time veteran player who's played on a fresh account recently, I can say when you queue up a 24s+ action and don't gain skill its pretty disappointing. secondly a 24+ second action is also pretty disappointing. priest restrictions, which force you into having a second premium character. what do you think someone who's never played before would think? ya probably why they didn't stay... when you make the game less of a hardcore time sink, the game will become more popular. just saying it's above average but still to slow for a moderate No Lifer like myself.

 

edit to add - raise characteristics above 20 for free to play and have the skill gained above 20 get calculated in when they do go premium. so no gains are lost. I have like 10 hours in and i've already hit 20 body strength, and by the time i finish the rowing boat. i'm sure i'll hit body control mind and stamina. when a premium player with above 30 characteristics loses premium they drop down to 30. allowing you to still sail and ride a horse etc. Why limit free to play so much?

 

Improve the Wurmpedia. under basic knowledge is says you start with a 30ql longsword for instance. "The 30 quality long sword you get at the beginning is barely good enough for killing rats,"

 

There is a decent crafting window, now's a good time for an improvement window. unless you want your players to get carpal tunnel. I think it's a good time to stop saying what free to players can't do and what free to players can do.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Aetherion

[Roccandil 959]

Another way to handle free-to-play would be to separate the skill tree into prem skills (say, channeling) and non-prem skills (say, shortsword). Free-to-play players could indefinitely skill in the non-prem skills, but would be limited to 20 in the prem skills.

 

This could even be used to make lesser used skills and gear more interesting, like shortsword or small axe.

 

With a bit more complication, you could customize all skills with non-prem caps, so, for instance:

 

- Two-handed sword: 20 cap

- Longsword: 50 cap

- Shortsword: no cap

 

And yes, any gain past the caps -should- be tracked, and not only tracked, but displayed prominently in the skill tree to non-prem players as an advertisement of what shelling out some money will get them immediately.

[Yiraia 427]

22 hours ago, Mclavin said:

And it brought you to a bad website that doesn't advertise the great features we have. I wasn't speaking about what google brings up, I was talking about what the website is advertising to you.

I tried other mmos and regular games. Mortal Online, Archeage, Aion, Guild wars 2, Tera, Neverwinter, Everquest II, Rift, Defiance, Warframe, Rappelz, Warface, salemthegame, haven and hearth, Wildstar, Maplestory, Vindictus, Trove, Dragon nest. There are probably so many more that im just not remember right now, but I am telling you right now, the website meant nothing to me. The important part of the website is an easily noticeable download button. If I want to find a game, I look for either the wiki or videos of people playing the game. So does everybody else in the group I'm with.

 

22 hours ago, Mclavin said:

All 13 of the people I heard from did. Even dev's have been told the UI sucks. The devs don't just plan to make a overhaul for nothing, they've got the feedback. UI it terrible, hell the third comment on this thread mentioned the UI. Again it's all about the surface when you're a new player.

There is a difference between "The UI sucks" and "The UI is the reason why players are leaving." Like you said earlier, this post is about getting more players, not making those who are playing more satisfied. Are the 13 players you asked still playing this game? All the people I mentioned (except pumpernickel) left. Also, an overhaul does not pertain to new players, this is obvious if you would consider the cooking overhaul. What player joined the game and said "Aww screw this game, theres no pizza." That update was for players who have stuck to the game and so will the UI update. You are slightly correct about something though. Its somewhat about the surface when deciding to do something, but whatever is beyond the surface is important too. Everybody I play with would like to know what to expect in the later portion of the game. Its really simple and I don't understand how you aren't grasping this.

 

22 hours ago, Mclavin said:

This is a brainstorming session, so really nobody is wrong. You can put all these ideas into one basket and we'd probably see good results.

-sigh- If you are trolling me plz stop. It hurts my feelings  to see somebody make so little sense in an argument/debate.

 

On 23/01/2018 at 6:40 PM, Yiraia said:

More interactive combat. More methods of decorating deed. More customizable features. When colored outfits came out, I was severely disappointed. A method to make dyes only used to fully color stuff in a ridiculous manner really sucks. Being able to craft blank clothing and dye each component (or maybe even strip/plaid patterns) would improve that feeling where "wurm is what you make it."

 

On 23/01/2018 at 7:32 PM, Mclavin said:

A newbie doesn't care for dying clothes and other mid-game features it cares about whats on the menu and what to expect for desert and a lot like food presentation you can turn it down before even tasting if you don't like what you read or see.

 

Correct me if im wrong, but i believe you also stated that my approach was "wrong" in bringing new players.

 

22 hours ago, Mclavin said:

For me, they need to rethink the very first click a potential player makes, which is to this website.

And that very first click has often been to find information on the game through videos or the wiki. What better way to improve that is to improve the CUSTOMIZATION available in this SANDBOX.