Topic

Suggestions From New Player

My apologies if this is posted in the wrong place, but I could not find where else to make suggestions. 

I just began Glitch this past weekend, and I really wish the tutorial had informed me (or emphasized, if I in fact missed it) that by training skills broadly I would suffer substantial learning time penalties. I only found out about this by digging through the wiki and forums, and by then I had already trained most skills through the lower levels. As a result, full benefit from any particular specialty will take me a very long time, and so these teen levels are primarily spent struggling to stay alive (for instance, cooking uses up as much energy as the resulting food gives - at lower skill levels).

The reason I trained broadly is that I had no sense of what benefits each skill area would confer at higher levels (I still don't). Maybe the tutorial or trailer or quests could showcase some high-skill results as enticement to train particular skills, which would help new players make initial or longterm skill choices; also hinting at skills which would make survival easier in the early levels would be helpful.

Also, if I had known I could buy a house for the price of a bag, I would have bought a house much, much sooner, rather than initially accumulating more bags. For this reason I postponed gardening and pets for longer than I needed to.

I've been playing Wizard 101 for a few months, and what initially attracted me to the game is making me now consider leaving it. I pass this along as a suggestion of what to avoid in Glitch: the price structure of subscriptions plus optional cash spending in W101 is similar to Glitch, and I do like that. But in W101 the quantity, desirability, and frequency of new cash items is so compelling that over time they can become substantial financial burdens. They alternate sales on subscriptions with sales on cash coins monthly, setting up a pattern of monthly spending of $60 or $120 at a time for cash coins. While this and other tactics are obviously quite profitable, in time it can become so burdensome to players that I suspect there will be some backlash. While it's true that they're giving the players what they want, it's beginning to feel quite predatory to me, especially the gambling-type methods. While I have nothing against gambling, the possible wins are so compelling that many people get in over their heads. 

There's obviously a compulsive component to player motivation that both makes games fun for the player and profitable for the game, but there is an unspoken pact between player and game company that must be based on trust that game incentives will not become unethical manipulation. Fortunately I have seen no such thing in Glitch, and I can only hope that future plans will not go in that direction. 

I have to say I had a blast this weekend and I think you have a winner in Glitch! Kudos to all of you!

Posted 17 months ago by Widdershins Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • This should probably be in the General Forums, but since you have taken the time to post I'd like to respond.

    +1 to better education about the increasing nature of learning times and
    +1 to better education about the cost/availability of basic housing.

    I think you make some great points about the new player experience. I started almost 2 months ago and had some very similar experiences. I failed to grasp the nature of the Better Learning skills and as a result my learning times were increasingly looooong (I know they increase for everyone but lacking Better Learning skills makes a huge difference).

    "Also, if I had known I could buy a house for the price of a bag, I would have bought a house much, much sooner, rather than initially accumulating more bags"

    That really hits the nail on the head. I eventually found out about the Apartments in Louise Pasture and put off all other purchases until I had the 1000 currants, but until then I was always broke since so many of the quests had me buying things. And I was buying more bags just to hold on to things. (It wasn't until maybe my third test that someone clued me in to the mining skill to make enough currants to get above the poverty level.)

    I've seen in some threads that they are considering giving new players a very basic starter house. To me it seems more like an education issue - making new players aware of what you stated so well above: A place to live can be had for the price of a generic bag. Make it a quest to get your first 1000 currant apt early in the game - and make sure there is enough low level housing to meet demand.

    I haven't played W101 - but from the time I've spent here and the actions/comments from staff and testers I don't think you will have to worry abut "unethical manipulation" of players in Glitch. Tiny Speck wants and needs to make money, but they show their faces in game and in the forums and everything I've seen so far seems to indicate that they are interested in helping to create a player driven game that is responsive to the requests and happiness of their players. Of course only time will tell how it all goes in the long run!

    Welcome to Glitch!
    Posted 17 months ago by The Cat Face Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I can understand what you mean, but I think it is very important to let players mess around with the skill tree because you have to get a *feel* for the different styles of game play.  There are many different ways to play the game based on the skills available.  You could be a chef, or a miner, or a herder, etc etc.  You won't really get a good feel for what you like in the game if you don't learn the skills/do the quests first!

    They are planning on adding an "Unlearn" skill so that if you do want to shorten the learning times you can simply "unlearn" the skills you don't like!  It's not up yet, but they are definitely going to add it! 

    Thanks for posting your thoughts about the game!
    Posted 17 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Can you please explain (I know I'm being thick) what you mean about the learning times? Are you saying that if I started with, say mining, and learned all of the related skills before I went on to cooking or something that all of my learning times would be less?
    Posted 17 months ago by Audaria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • From the Glitch Wiki:
    After a player's tenth skill is learned, each additional skill you learn will cause a compounding 5% increase in the length of time to learn another. So, to learn the twentieth skill will take 63% longer than the base time and the fortieth skill will take 432% longer to learn. The Better Learning skills can delay these increases.
    Stoot has said, "The base times have not been changed, but, as discussed in some other forum thread a very long time ago, we finally switched to a system where there are "decreasing returns" — the more skills you learn, the longer it will take to learn further ones
    Posted 17 months ago by Victoria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • IDK. If a skill is holding you back *that* bad, queue it up and log out. It'll be done in 30 minutes?

    I did a lot of broad learning of skills myself at the early levels, and I never recall having any problems. 
    Posted 17 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink