Topic

O have mercy on the noobs, for their lives are difficult in ways we cannot imagine

So I made an alt.  I had a specific challenge I wanted to try -- I wanted to see how far I could get with a character who was restricted in a particular way -- and so, after the rush of new signups had abated somewhat, I woke up on Gentle Island with a brand-new identity.  May I just begin by saying how much I love the new tutorial:  it's so sweet and kind and funny and warm and inviting that it made me fall in love with Glitch all over again.

But guys.  GUYS.  I'm here to tell you that this game is hard when you're just starting out.  I knew in an intellectual way that it was hard, I vaguely remembered a time back when it was hard... but actually playing as a noob brings home just how very very hard it is.  Now don't get me wrong:  I love playing this new character.  I love rediscovering the game through her eyes, revisiting quest areas I haven't seen in a year or more, and building her in precisely the way I want to.  She is deepening my appreciation for Glitch and I'm really glad I made her.  But:  HARD.

Fellow oldbies, let's just imagine having a tank of 100.  One.  Hundred.    When playing my alt, I actually get nervous staring at the upgrade screen trying to decide which card to pick, because energy-rot could send me to Hell while I'm idly flipping through the deck.  And I've actually played this game a long time, and have a pretty good sense of what the cards say;  a true noob could well die in the 5 minutes it takes to read the flavour text and make an informed decision.

Oh, that 100 tank.  If someone sends me a friendly IM, I have to decide whether I have enough energy left to tide me over while I write a response.  When my alt finally learned Meditation, I thought she was saved... except her Max Relax gave her a whopping 8 energy and mood.  8!  For Max Relax!  (For the record, buying that Orb cleaned her out financially, even when she bought it discounted at auction rather than for the ridiculous 1344 the vendor wanted.)  And of course you reach Zen after maybe a dozen meditation sessions, which for me usually happens around six in the morning on game day.

Food helps, but it brings its own problems.  Almost every prepared food overfills you by a tragically wasteful amount, and raw foods take a surprisingly high amount of energy, time, and effort to harvest.  I think of a new Glitch as being like a hummingbird, constantly eating and eating and eating, moving only as far as it takes to get to the next meal, which will fuel you for exactly as long as it takes to get the meal after that.  Hey, remember when squeezing a chicken took five energy and gave you one grain?  Remember how many butterfly massages you once had to provide, and how exhausting they were, and how expensive all the lotion was, and how, for all that trouble, you got one milk at the end?  And don't even get me started about how much energy it takes to make the cheese you need for all the early recipes, and how you don't even get imagination for your effort.  I love gathering -- it's how I spend almost all of my time as PQ -- but there's an urgency to it, dare I say panic, for a new player that I had long since forgotten.

For those of us who woke up on May 2, 2012, with a million iMG in our bank accounts and all the skills we needed to get by, it's impossible to imagine just how carefully a new player needs to choose her skills and upgrades.  This is actually my favourite part of playing my alt, since she gets to direct her growth in a way that PQ never really did and it is really, really fun.  But man, you gotta choose mindfully, since your iMG is very scarce and goes up by only a few points at a time -- and as I noted before, a lot of important actions (interacting with trees and animals, to start) don't give you iMG at all.  As an experienced player, I know perfectly well that I can probably wait on Engineering I since I'm not going to be working a blockmaker for a long time.  But for a newbie, those choices aren't always obvious, which means that they're going to spend a lot of time learning things they won't immediately use and getting quests that are far too difficult for them.  That's fine -- it's all part of the learning experience, and PQ certainly stumbled around a lot early in her life.  But I feel for the noobs who ask themselves for the first time, "wait, I have to make some weird special kind of gas before I can mix a Flaming Humbaba?!"

I'm amazed at how many things I take for granted when I'm playing PQ:  triple-jumping (which didn't even exist when PQ was imagined -- how did I live so long without it?), having every tool you need immediately to hand, quoins that are worth more than 1 thing each (urggh!), being able to repair broken items without wiping out your energy allowance for the day, iMG for pretty much every action ever.  Bag space.  Remember managing inventory?  The new tutorial improves the new player's lot in life vastly by giving you a quest for a couple of bags, and of course we have free houses that we can teleport back to any time, so the inventory thing is a little less anxiety-provoking than it was for my generation.  Even so, I still see a lot of lumps of earth and abandoned musicblocks scattered around Ur, no doubt left by newbies who didn't know where to put them, and who haven't yet figured out whether they're useful or not.

Playing my alt is great.  She has a very different "personality" from PQ and it's fun to explore that;  I also really like going through the iMG system from the beginning, since PQ is an XP veteran.  But man, I never realized just how challenging and time-sensitive Glitch is in the early levels.  Next time you see a newbie who looks lost or who's dropping stuff on the ground or who's too busy stuffing eggs in his mouth to talk to you, take pity.  They're doing the best they can.

Posted 4 months ago by Pale Queen Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • You know, the more I think about this, the more I keep returning to a question that I've had since I first started playing more than a year ago:  why is there energy rot at all?  I don't mind the idea of limiting energy, so that a newbie can only harvest 20 trees a day before having to deal with Hell and poopedness and other limitations on her activity.  Meanwhile, a level-60 couldn't harvest enough trees to get pooped before New Day, even if she wanted to.  That's fine.  It's one of the perqs of being an advanced player.

    But... why rot?  It feels like the game is punishing you for reading info screens, or chatting with other players, or popping into another window to put something up for auction, or enjoying the scenery, or picking cards carefully, or doing a thousand other things that enhance the gaming experience and contribute, at least indirectly, to Glitch and to Ur.  I always figured that the designers don't want us to stay online and idle, which I guess is their prerogative, but... I dunno, the more I think about it, the more energy rot feel distinctly unGlitchy and cruel, especially for someone with a 100 tank who needs extra time just to figure out what to do with all the new and beautiful things she sees around her.

    This might be a really naive question (I'm no game designer), but when I was writing this post I spent a lot of time thinking about how much anxiety rot causes at low levels, and how little it contributes to the gaming experience.  Aren't we supposed to be moving slowly, admiring the scenery around us, chatting?
    Posted 4 months ago by Pale Queen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I feel the same way about mood, Pale Queen. I've never understood the purpose of a dropping mood mechanic.
    Posted 4 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • PQ - What a thoughtful well written post - thanks for posting/sharing. Big warm welcome to all new players - have fun!
    Posted 4 months ago by Slippy (Throb) Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Pale Queen I have to disagree about limiting how much a player can do in a game day. That is precisely what has driven me away from other promising games. I don't like being told when I can't play anymore - especially if it's a game I'm willing to pay a subscription for. I'm ok with an energy drain, I just think maybe it needs to be dialed back a little. 

    Maybe they could give newbies a temporary buff. Say for the first week the energy drain is only half as bad as normal. That would give them time to learn a few skills and reduce the stress some.
    Posted 4 months ago by Faux Paws Subscriber! | Permalink
  • PQ - what economic aspects of the game did the tutorial cover.  Vendors and auctions, I assume, but towers?  I'm getting the feeling that new players don't get any introduction to the concept of useful resources being on other peoples home streets.  Instead, I see lots of auction activity from lower level players - not that that's a bad thing.  I'm just wondering, after leaving gentle island, what shopping options would a newbie be likely to remember? 
    Posted 4 months ago by WalruZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I started playing 5 days ago. It really wasn't that difficult :) Then again I met some really awesome people who were helping me out, great community here.
    Posted 4 months ago by Zdaz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • WalruZ: Nothing was covered about economics that I can remember. I figured out auctions and towers and SBDs (im not actually sure what those are still) are by snooping around and buying things lol
    Posted 4 months ago by Zdaz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • hi i'm a newbie. just started bout a week ago. i agree with PQ's post a little bit. Dropping energy so fast is annoying. i mean, it drops really fast! I know this is a make believe world, but i eat so much! i'm a total pig!

    then i was able to learn about meditation. then focused meditation...but pfft, i'm still gorging on sammitches the whole time i'm playing. meditation really doesn't do anything but stop me from playing for a few seconds...every few seconds...until i max out and go back to food.

    bag space, currents and img aren't that big of a deal. sure you have to save up a little to buy things, but it is good to have small easy goals early in life. mayber later on the grind to save up to buy stuff will get annoying, but right now, it isn't too bad.

    the one thing that is hard is all the skills. if i remember right, the tutorial did mention that i might want to stick to one skill area...but they all opened up so fast and promised to make...things...easier that i couldn't help myself. and things (such as grinding harvesting) aren't that much easier. sure i have meditation and focused meditation, but the act produced so little energy that i might as well eat the stack of meat i just harvested.

    so my advice to fellow newbies:
    1) save up to buy a couple extra bags
    2) use the auction site and trade chat to buy items that aren't in your chosen skill line. i do not recommend going willy-nilly on learning skills just because you don't have item x to craft item y for skill quest z. i have some sort of chemistry thing that i have noooo idea what it is for because i was all like, "ohh neat chemistry! i can imagine i'm smart!" and this fruit changer thing that i never have enough energy to use because i'm trying to harvest meat to make sammitches with so i can stay alive to harvest fruit to change to other fruit so i can make a cocktail with my shaker.

    my brain is literally bleeding because i have so much crazy stuff learned that i don't use yet.
    Posted 4 months ago by Patchwork Piggy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @WalruZ:  You meet a vendor in the tutorial and learn how to interact with it, which is also how you get your first bag.  But there's nothing about auctions, much less towers.  I think later you get a quest to auction off some vegetables, if memory serves -- my alt hasn't done that yet but I do remember going through that quest with PQ.

    Home streets in general are not covered very well IMO.  They do show you how to use the "go home" and "back to world" buttons, but a new player working out how to use the map might not understand that home streets are all interlinked with each other but not with Ur.  (I forget if it shows you how to add names to your street sign.)  I don't think towers are mentioned at all.
    Posted 4 months ago by Pale Queen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Isn't the whole point of being a beginner in anything learning and striving to grow? What's fun about everything being handed to you? I LOVED the challenge of keeping myself fed back then. Without any skills or toys or a house, what else did I have to do? Run around, discovering new things and places, and survive. That WAS the game for the first few days and it was wonderful!

    Why take that important learning/discovering experience away from the new children by handing over lots of freebies or making energy loss less (and you lose energy IRL just sitting around doing nothing. Why not here?)? Sure, guidance is great and I don't object to the occasional treat, but I keep hearing about gift bags (in more than one discussion) and that just doesn't make sense to me.

    Let 'em survive on cherries and meat for a few days: they'll appreciate their own growth even more. You did.
    Posted 4 months ago by Kip Konner Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I can confirm the auction veggies quest, as I don't do grocery list style quests except incidentally, and that is one of the many still sitting in my log.  

    Definitely seems they need to clarify more carefully the public street/private backyard set up, as I've seen one new player that thought it was blatantly obvious and another that didn't get that public applied to the cultivated resources and not just the ability to find the street.  
    Posted 4 months ago by Red Sauce Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Kip, I totally agree that newbies shouldn't have the game just handed to them.  Someone commented upthread about how they didn't find the game hard because a stranger just up and gave them 20,000c, which, uh, sure, okay, nice work if you can get it.

    Be that as it may, though, stressing out because you might die while reading an info box doesn't seem to TEACH you anything besides the idea that the game will punish you for standing there, which strikes me as a poor incentive to explore and enjoy.  I hope nothing in my original post gave you the idea that I want players to have it easy.  In fact, I don't think my original post criticized the design of the early game at all.  If pressed, the only things I'd consider changing about the early game are a) energy rot, which to my eyes adds only anxiety and no fun, and b) certain actions that don't get you any iMG, particularly making cheese, which is so important to new cooks.

    Overall I think the early game is wonderful;  just difficult.  I hope that point came through in my original post.

    Edit:  LOL, I just outed my alt.  I'm not very bright, am I?
    Posted 4 months ago by Saag Paneer Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Giving someone something does not equal giving them everything they need ever and taking away everything they could ever work for.
    Posted 4 months ago by diaveborn ♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you for this post! I've only been playing a few days and I WANT to love it -- I'm having a really tough couple of weeks at work  but I'm not finding escapism in it at all because it's all time management and work work work to get anywhere or do anything. I literally sign in, get my daily IMG, poke around my home street and a few friends', and then leave because the idea of trying to actually explore and do things with such constant energy/mood micromanagement is just depressing when I'm already having to micromanage my work day. It's great to see some acknowledgement of how hard this is -- I was assuming that as with most games it STARTED easy and then GOT hard, not the other way around!
    Posted 4 months ago by Diabolical Moeblob Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I didn't seem to have energy problems when I first started since I leveled so much.
    Or just had a lot of meat.
    Posted 4 months ago by Volkov Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A significant portion of the game has to do with food.  Eat!
    Posted 4 months ago by WalruZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Volkov: But they don't get more energy for leveling anymore, it's all upgrade cards. For which they need to earn iMG, for which they need energy to be able to do things.
    Posted 4 months ago by Aliera Subscriber! | Permalink
  • When I first started, back in the olden days (4 days short of one year ago), the game consisted of me wandering around Groddle, petting and squeezing and milking and harvesting everything on each street. That tended to keep my mood up, and I always had bags full of edibles. It would be tough to start over after having an energy tank like I have now (it's over 9,000!) but that's because I would want to do all the things that aren't possible at lower levels. 

    My n00b is finding it pretty easy so far, although I help him out - probably more than he needs. 
    Posted 4 months ago by Aleph Zero Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm sorry that people are experiencing the initial parts of the game as stressful, and I'm sure that feedback is being heard by the developers.

    Definitely part of the problem is the skills you choose.  If you go straight up Animal Kinship then the second day you are playing (16 hours and 10 minutes of learning time) you will be nibbling piggies for 2 energy and getting 3 meats from them.  You will be massaging butterflies with no lotion for 3 energy and getting 3 (or maybe 4, not sure) milks.  Both of these actions will also provide imagination and mood.  In short, you will never have problems with energy or mood again and you will have a fairly easy route to money-up to some bags.

    Go up arborology and in just four and a half hours of skill learning time you'll have arborology 2 which means 5 energy to harvest 12 things.  That's an energy profit off of even beans, cherries and allspice, even better for bubbles, and if you find some egg plants then you are doing fine.

    If you take an interest in mining you are going to have a bit of a hard road ahead.  If you take up cooking first then unless you can find cooking ingredients at good prices on auction your skill isn't going to help you at all.
    Posted 4 months ago by Humbabella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @ Aliera
    Oh, I didn't know that.
    That's incredibly shitty.
    Posted 4 months ago by Volkov Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Just a mildly unrelated post from me here: I didn't die for ages since I started. I just assumed that once I ran out of energy, I couldn't do anything, so I always exited the game before that happened. :P

    I think the first time I died was by accident, or doing no-no or something. The Get Out of Hell Free cards we have now are EXCELLENT and it really takes most of the penalty out of dying.
    Posted 4 months ago by Avnas Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Humbabella Thank you for saying what I was trying to get across with a long winded story in a more concise way. The reason I think I had such an easy time was because I love animals, and so chose all the animal skills right in a row. The bags I bought with the gifted currants were relatively paltry compared to the benefits of the skill choices I made without really knowing the consequences, positive ones luckily, contrary to what @Saeg Paneer said above.
    Posted 4 months ago by Barren Earth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hi, newbie here about to return to the world for the second time. My first trip into the world was a complete disaster and I had vowed never to return. My real life friend has since given me more tuition and I now feel ready to start again.
    Posted 4 months ago by Messy Tresses Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ah. I felt the same-ish. 
    I was a beta player who, at the end of Beta 1, felt that Glitch was getting immensely boring. So I took a hop into some other stuff and occasionally popped back in. Everything stayed the same when I check every couple of months... until the iMG came out. 

    Then I went a bit crazy. It was beautiful. I was sad that I had to give up my wonderful, readily decorated Firebog house, but I got to decorate(FYI, I missed the first housing reset)! I was about level 12 or 13 then. Then I noticed certain things that kind of sucked. Like the energy thing that was pointed out earlier. I didn't get a bigger tank with each level up! I personally thought that it was a much better system- level up, energy grows, level up, energy grows. With upgrade cards... I suppose it's just different but a part of me screams that it isn't practical.

    But yes, even on a level 13 it was hard, somewhat. I was forever broke, because I decided to pursue a career of Gardening and it certainly wasn't the most lucrative field, especially because of the sheer frequency of tool breakage. Imagine on level 3, with no Tinkering or garden or seeds! 

    One thing I was grateful for was the currants with each level up. They were certainly useful. In the past, I splurged on cubis- now the only cubis I own happen to be abandoned chicks or other things from gifts and stuff from friends. 

    I've not leveled enough for Towers yet, but I've certainly made a huge profit in the Tower Boom- learnt Engineering for no apparent reason awhile back and went nuts on the Urth Blocks.

    So that, is my story. I'm thinking that its better to give the newbs information rather than resources- like, "Did you know that so and so has a gigantic collection of Icons on his Home Street? Get some mood or iMG or whatever off it!", or, "You need Tinkering to fix broken stuff. I can mix it for ya this time, but you should learn the skill and get the tool." 
    Little tips like that make all the difference. 
    Posted 4 months ago by KitkatCat Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I loved your post, PQ! I can't even imagine what its like for the newbies to come into a world that has so many "older" and more seasoned players already in it. Those of us who have been playing have settled ourselves into Ur life and have schedules or routines of sorts, albeit with changes for new things... I have invited several real life friends into the game, and all are enjoying immensely, but I think that is because I was ready with tips, a sammich or two, and a few butterfly milks. :D

    I remember starting in October 2011, and wondering why someone would invite me into such a crazy place. I was supposed to milk butterflies? What was the deal with the eggs that came from an ugly tentacled plant, and not chickens, which I was supposed to squeeze? Insanity, all of it. I wandered around wanting to cry because I wanted to love the game as much as the friend who had invited me (she was already level 7), but I couldn't. After logging in twice, I vowed to quit.

     Later, I walked by my friend playing, (did I mention we were playing at work? :D) and was shocked to see all of the cool things she was able to do. That motivated me to try again. I learned Animal Kinship 1, quickly followed by 2 and subsequently 3, and realized I'd made a good choice. Soon after I discovered I loved the cooking aspects of the game and before I knew it I had almost all of both sets of those skills. It wasn't until later that I realized how much I appreciate our lovely trees, along with how much like a dwarf I was (I became a gem hoarder). 

    Soon, I was working towards my very first house, which was actually an apartment. It was crappy, I had nothing in it but my gem trophy, but I couldn't have been more excited about it! Within a week I had moved into a tree house, which was slightly bigger and slightly less embarrassing to be seen in. Two weeks later I was in the house of my dreams, a cottage in Bortola full of vegetable furniture. I lived there until I took a break from the game, right before Easter.

    I came back to a whole new Ur. I was completely lost. Thankfully, I reconnected with a few old friends, who helped me through the transition. I fell in love with glitch all over again, and couldn't wait to share it with my other friends! Sadly, invites were closed, so I quietly waited, albeit impatiently... I was ecstatic to invite new friends having no idea (or choosing to forget) how many headaches I was giving them for the first few days. It was interesting to watch each person progress, in their own way.

    One friend played twelve or so hours straight, having become immediately addicted, and I logged in to see her at level 12! Two others took their time, walking different paths, but progressing at about the same pace, who are now in their teens. I have still two more friends at levels 6 and 7 who are still totally lost, even with my help, but are still trying to get to a place where they love the game. I loved reading about all of your different experiences, and I hope mine is not too boring.

    Feel free to add me as a friend, and I hope to see some of you around Ur! :)
    Posted 4 months ago by Capt. S.T. Weasley Subscriber! | Permalink
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