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### Topic

#### Changes needed for the newbies?

Glitch has recently opened up queue jumping again, which means next test there's going to be a lot of new players. Anyone else think that a few changes have to be made before they're allowed in?
For example, there are only 6 available houses right now. If a few hundred new players are going to be flowing in, a lot more have to be created.

Posted 22 months ago by Aldaris | Permalink

### Replies

- I have a feeling there is going to be a reset first. I know the devs said there was at least one more test before this but it does not make sense to let a load of noobs in and then reset just as they have got enough currents to buy a second bag let alone anything else. :)
  wow only 6 houses left. I wonder how many players own houses who have no intentions of coming back to play?
  Posted 22 months ago by Misha | Permalink
- Maybe your house gets repo-ed if you do not log in for a certain period of time.
  I always thought there was more there than I can see... ex., grab currants but they are there for the next player. Might it be the same with houses?
  Posted 22 months ago by Chelseathing | Permalink
- this is a very good topic.
  as for availability of houses, the devs have almost always added more houses whenever new invites go out. this is pretty easy as the housing quarters are readily expandable.
  long term, streets with housing will be built by players as the population expands.
  i don't think maintaining housing volume is going to be a problem.
  long term though, maintaining housing *density* could well become a problem, as people abandon houses they've purchased. chelseathing's idea of having houses repossessed would address this potential problem, but i think there are other solutions as well - like only having primarily rental properties in areas intended to be high density, alongside a smaller number of highly expensive, purchasable residences that would have a low degree of impact on the game if neglected - and really only affordable to the hardcore players who are unlikely to abandon them.
  Posted 22 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- Quarters can be extended almost unlimitedly.
  I mean, like a quarter estate on every street. Then, each quarter has it's own sub-quarters in the form of towers, with many many floors - dribbble.com/shots/88102-El... or treehousing estates with another signpost on each street, linking to more and more quarters, like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK5...
  Posted 22 months ago by Hburger | Permalink
- or if enough people abandon houses in a certain location, the rook shows up and threatens to wipe that location off the map.
  Posted 22 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- We might need homeowners' insurance policies with rook damage coverage.
  Seriously, though, I don't think it's right to repossess houses. If you're hit by a car and can't play for a few months, you come back to the game to find your house and items gone. Feh.
  Posted 22 months ago by glum pudding | Permalink
- I think if you're hit by a car, you'll have other things about which to worry than whether or not you have your Glitch house.
  Posted 22 months ago by RobotGymnast | Permalink
- I agree with glum pudding - repossessing houses (and the items inside them) is simply not the way to go.
  Posted 22 months ago by Hburger | Permalink
- I'm sure there's some sort of back-end clear out (at least I hope there's a plan for it).
  I don't actually see housing as an immediate issue. I seem to remember it took me a full test to figure out how to buy one, and a second test to gather the cash. I lucked out in getting the house I wanted when I wanted it... but I'm really worried about it after the reset happens. The areas seem incredibly easy to expand as needed, so I think the dev's have the issue well in hand.
  The best experience I've had have been with games that do a short clear out (circa 10-14 days) to clear off the mess left by people who got started and lost interest... combined with a long clear out (circa 6 months) for those that gave up after a month or so. E-mail reminders about your character dieing have also helped... and one had a 'recovery' mechanism.
  They mothballed the data, put the house back on the market (and the player was credited for the sale price)... I came back 2 years later, but they pulled the archived data and I got my character back, with enough money to buy a new house. It actually was a *good* thing, because I'd been gone so long my friends had all moved to a new area, and my old area had turned into a noob slum.
  I'm betting something can be worked into the Bureaucratic stuff that you can buy some sort of paperwork to keep your house around (like property taxes in the real world), but I come to games to get away from the crappy economy of RL. I think it would really, really suck to have your house foreclosed on in a game.
  Posted 22 months ago by Travinara | Permalink
- As for new people... we have the Help Channel (for now), but it can get a little cluttered. I opened a new Group "Welcome Wagon" to give people a quieter space to help out some of the new folks, and in case the Help Channel goes away.
  I think if *we* organize ourselves a bit better, and use some of the Group functionality (such as the Social Chitchat for chatter, the In Game Store Group for auctioning things, and the New Streets to coordinate the Project) the new people will follow suit - and it will help set a tone for when things go live.
  Also, I'd love to see some sort of welcome brigade (someone has to have that New People Quest still lingering). I'm not overly worried... the world is pretty good at explaining the basics.
  Posted 22 months ago by Travinara | Permalink
- @Travinara those are really good ideas. Especially about *us* trying to set a good example. I remember being quite intimidated by the Help channel when I first started, because there were all these people who all seemed to know one another talking about things I didn't know anything about - and sometimes things that were spoilers, really. And recently there's always a lot of chatter around the projects and what's needed, but a lot of the things for the projects are only accessible to fairly high level people with the right skillz.
  Posted 22 months ago by Tradescantia | Permalink
- I agree - the help channel should be used for help, not for chitchat, if a lot of new people are there, and especially when it goes live. A group channel should be ok for the chitchat. And a projects group should be used for project chat. The groups don't seem to be getting used but I think they should work pretty well for that kind of thing.
  The Welcome Wagon is a very good idea.
  I think navigation really needs to be fixed but more for the people who have been around for a while, at lower levels it doesn't matter that it takes a while to get somewhere because there are things you need to do on the way. But once you've got to the stage of doing projects etc and you have a house, it's really frustrating.
  Posted 22 months ago by Emu | Permalink