Beginners games

So... I've noticed that there has been an influx of new players recently, and I've been playing plenty of live games(they often play world classic, which I enjoy in a 2 player setting) and I try and give them some tips in the game chat sometimes, or sometimes I just play. Here's the thing, when they are starting out they're playing against much more experienced players, and often they end up losing a lot of their first games. What do I propose? I would like to see a first 20 games no rating lost rule or something of the sort. Why? Because I do wonder sometimes how many players leave the site after a few games with only winning 1 or 2 games, have you ever noticed how many people own the private rank? according to the shop: 76927 players, how many players are even on the "Player Ranks page" like 1500... now I know a lot of these are from the past, but still something to consider Now I understand that this raises some issues, there isn't any risk in it for the newbies and they can just get free rating, but I think that it's important to help welcome people into the community and its a really big turn off to be losing a bunch of games.The only reason I stuck around was because I played my first 50 or 60 games with my friends who were all new to the game, and I want everybody to be able to settle into the site in the way that I was. Thanks for listening.

Love the idea in theory, pyg! I think you hit the nail on the head though with no risk for newbies and the free rating. I think those games would either 1) be hard to fill if someone knew they could lose rating but not get any back, or 2) not realize they joined a game with no reward if they won. I'd love to see this expanded out to a "casual" game mode instead that anyone can join where no one gets or loses any rank. Would be a great way for new people to get their feet wet but also would allow for experienced players to branch out and try some new game modes they don't usually play.

Another thought is just having a game setting where no one wins or loses rating, which would work on the same principle.

I very much like that idea too! It would stop players from taking advantage of them too.

good thoughts, but no new sign up cares or pays attention about points or rank. so point free games wont make a difference. it might encourage experienced players to join without fearing loss of big points..but the new players will still lose in theory right? the no points games, has always been a favourable topic since probably the beginning of the site. hasn't been implemented. dunno if it ever will be. i think bot games would be cool. you can win against bots. other sites have them, and it keeps players on the site while waiting for actual opponents.

beginner games topic. i've signed up 100's of players using my referral link, many of them sign up and don't even play 1 game before they disappear and never ever log in again. People want to join a site and play immediately. They are looking for a game, and games to start immediately. That's why 1v1 games are popular in the live games. they fill fast obviously and they get a quick intro to the interface. to tackle this issue. i've suggested a floating empty 1v1 game to always be in the live room for anyone to join, and when filled, another pops up. new players are navigating the site. no games being hosted, they will likely not bother to try and create one. new sign ups want to check out the site first. I suppose, these games could be pointless or just 1v1 games should just be pointless.

Very good points hood!

I would agree with that hood, maybe we should ask some beginners too on what they are feeling idk.

From my own experience: [list] [li]As a newbie, I never quite understood how the whole rank vs. rating points thing worked. So that was not what would turn me away. However...[/li] [li]Anyone sensitive to early losses might appreciate having a clearer picture of who they're playing. Many of the Privates are actually experienced players with high rating. There has been discussion around getting rid of the concept of buying rank and instead just showing everyone's actual rank based on their rating. That would go a long way toward newbies not walking into a slaughter. Personally, I'd rather see people's true rank just out of curiosity without having to cross reference against the last monthly rating list.[/li] [li]I was surprised to learn that I needed tokens to keep playing. While it makes sense from a purely operational standpoint, it may be a significant contributor to why it can be difficult to fill a Live game. Granted, not a daily event, but it is also not rare to see someone begging for tokens, or politely declining an invite because they are out of tokens. Rather than limiting games per day before requiring tokens to continue, perhaps the limit can be broadened to weekly? That way if someone wants to play 10 games in a single night, and nothing the rest of the week, they at least provide "liquidity" for the night that they are playing (i.e. increase the number of games available to play while not stressing the servers over the long run).[/li] [li]I've never quite understood the allure of winning tokens from a tournament; What's the point? By the time you're good enough to acquire the rating to purchase a new rank, or good enough to win a tournament, you have probably also accumulated a sizable pile of tokens. So, why does anyone need thousands of tokens from a tournament win? I think it would be far more rewarding to give away free months of membership as tournament prizes. That might help fill tournaments quicker and would introduce people to the advantages of being a paid member (if keeping stringent games per night limits).[/li] [li]Speaking of tournaments, it might be a good idea to have a regular tournament catering just to newbies (e.g. entry requirement is for people that have played fewer than 50 games - or something). Again, the prize would be expressed in months of membership. I say this without any idea of how much effort it takes to run a tournament, but perhaps it could be a monthly thing, and perhaps there could be the same for beginner/intermediate/expert such that there was a tournament for each group every month. That might keep the site "front of mind" for those that might otherwise get distracted and fall away.[/li] [li]Another thought might be to have predefined windows of "beginners play", maybe more broadly "community play". For example, pick a set time for each continent (e.g. Americas, Europe, Asia, etc.), such as Friday at 8:00 PM EST for Americas, or Friday 8:00 PM GMT for Europe, etc. and make it well known that at that time people are encouraged to login with an expectation that many others of the same skill level will also be logging in. You could spread the time slots for different skill levels across different days so as to avoid server overload. That might help reduce the number of stillborn games that never fill due to not enough players being in the same place at the same time. It might also increase the social aspects as people get used to seeing the same users week after week and grow in skill as a cohort. Maybe for that set period of time (e.g. 3-4 hour session) the fixed number of games limit could be lifted such that people might stick around and play 5, 6, 7 shorter games, etc. Analysis could be done to see what the best time interval would be for such sessions (either to identify periods where most games go unfilled, or conversely when server usage is at its lowest so as to minimize the impact of un-gated play).[/li] [li]Might be interesting to have a Map of the Month where nightly game limits are suspended for players playing that map. Could help newbies find something more to their liking than the traditional.[/li] [/list] Basically, it could prove useful to introduce community building activities and suspend (even if only for short periods) game limits. You don't create addicts by limiting supply :-) Final thought, perhaps introduce a sponsorship program to offset the server cost such that "This month's game play brought to you by playerA, playerB and playerC" rather than having number of game limits.

the time window is good in theory, but it restricts other players playing when they have freetime, and life exists... the only tourney that is free membership is D12

[quote=Hoodlum] i've suggested a floating empty 1v1 game to always be in the live room for anyone to join, and when filled, another pops up. new players are navigating the site. no games being hosted, they will likely not bother to try and create one. new sign ups want to check out the site first. I suppose, these games could be pointless or just 1v1 games should just be pointless. [/quote] That's not a bad idea, Hood. An open 1v1 game open to anyone on the site 24/7 with a bot as the opponent. Pointless and tokenless. It could even be expanded on to include other types of games as well. For instance one deathmatch game, one assassination game, one capitals game, and one domination game. Maybe even different levels of difficulty for the bot? We've discussed test games before, and your idea would kill two birds with one stone: practice and churn. I hope it gets implemented.

I have recently had similar thoughts about the use of bots, but I envision them as hosting multiplayer games. I also think it could be permissible to have rank & points & token gain even if a bot plays in the group.

But “speaking of tournaments “ .. I have had a related thought that needs refining yet, but here is the concept: Automated games ( no host) in the Live lobby. Multiplayer and random maps, no avoid list function, 2 or 3 of them a day, I call them The Daily games . ( bot optional) They could include ‘tournament’ like tracking over a period of time ( monthly?) as incentive, amounting to a monthly winner (or bimonthly or,,etc ) , and some sort of prizes ( perhaps tokens or points, or some premium weeks?) ,, plus the hall of fame list. However, the tourney like version of an automated daily game may be asking too much from our programming helpers, perhaps too ambitious and time consuming, so I would say the simple automated multiplayer game at least could sit there until it fills, and a new one could pop up as soon as it does fill.