Hey everybody!
A hard game is a great game. Everybody wants to play a hard game, because everybody wants a challenge. However, what if a game get's too hard? Then you or are a die-hard and play further, or you give up.
If you ask the most people that read this, whether they have difficulties playing this game, they will say: "not at all". And that is the right answer, because I don't think that many players that played this game for over a month, have really much trouble to keep the company cash levels positive.
Why do so many new players give up then? That's because the begin is hard. The first day, the first week, the first month. After that, we all understand it: the real game begins.
Many before us have tried to help them, to name a few: Starterfund and the whole organisition behind it, they supplied the newbies with cheap products and technology to give them a head start; VLLord, erevion, turkbostjan and goto64, they all made their brilliant guides to get the new players moving; we have noglues5, who produced an explanation guide about the qualification; and last: all the players who toke the time to answer their questions on the forum or by PM's.
However, we still have a long way to go, I feel all things above are still not 100% satisfying. They are a great help, but should the new players really be totally dependent on those things? What does this game miss, that all other (hard) games have? I think, it's an in-game tutorial.
The average player do something like this: he registers, and with uncle's gift he already has a factory and a shop. From there, no-one tells him what to do, to be successful. The next day he sees the effiencies and his cash drop and leaves the game, because he was too confused to understand what he actually had to do.
I don't know if many people have cats as pet, but if you do: what do you do with the cat, if you just adopted him from the animal shelter? Do you open the door and let the cat outside on their own? Of course not: he first have to feel home, then you can walk with him outside, just like a dog, with a harness and a leash so he can't run away when something unexpected happens. And after a few times, you can remove it and he will happily walks in and out the house on it's own.
The new players are like these cats: but they are just thrown into the game, and no-one to let them see the neighborhood. No wonder they get lost.
What I want to discuss, is how we want the in-game tutorial should look like. When we have a plan that is organised, well thought out, and really clear, I'm sure the dev's pick it up and implement it.
Give me every thought in your mind!
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