Initial Release support
Karrd
Join Date: 2005-02-26 Member: 42555Members
Join Date: 2005-02-26 Member: 42555Members
It occurred to me today (though I guess yesterday would be more accurate now) that I haven’t heard anything about how UWE plans to handle the actual launch of the game. I don’t mean the distribution and advertising end of it, what I’m concerned with is the launch environment. Let me try to explain:
According to steampowered.com’s stats page during peak hours yesterday there were about 350,000 players on and probably well over a million playing over the course of the day. Now think about those numbers. Let’s be pessimistic for a moment and say half a percent of that number decide to get NS2 when it releases, that probably means about 2,000 people getting online all at once during the release window. That means there will be enough people to fill completely between 33 to 65 servers.
Let me point out again that’s assuming NS’s reputation isn’t able to get more than 1/2 % of one day’s peak hour population. And that they only try the game for a short period and then leave. And let me remind you that’s assuming ALL SLOTS on EVERY SERVER is filled.
I for one think NS is a good enough game and has more than enough reputation that 1/2% is extremely low, and the idea that someone will buy a new game to play it only for a short time right after they buy it is ridiculous. Still, for the moment let’s use that as our low end numbers.
How exactly is this mob of people going to be handled? A sizable portion (quite likely a majority) will have either no experience with NS or outdated experience. That means that something will need to be done to acquaint a thousand or more people on how to play a game that if it is anything at all like NS1 has a mean learning curve if y
ou dive right in. It also means finding a way to let the people who do know what they are doing have some fun while playing with those that don’t. And the most urgent problem of them all: finding the servers to put them all on.
Normally, something like this would be handled only by the developer, but part of what makes NS so interesting is that the community is a part of the development process. Most of the people who will be reading this post want NS2 to succeed and many of you are willing to help with the success of NS2, and that will be a lot easier if we prepare ahead of time to help with the release.
Ok, now that I’ve (hopefully) gotten the point across, time to talk about what can be done about it. It’s still really early to be talking about this, but by putting a plan together now we can help both NS1 and NS2 succeed, and maybe avoid a few potential disasters.
<>First and foremost, the servers: We’ll need numbers, we’ll need to be prepared from a technical standpoint, and we’ll want people to run the games on them.
- The numbers won’t be easy but it should be simple. Arranging ahead of time for a hundred or so servers should be a pretty straightforward matter but there are a few issues to settle. Money will need to be found, renting a server for a week or two (or longer) isn’t cheap and considerably more than that will be needed. That should be offsetable by donations ahead of time and by allowing preexisting servers to set up ahead of time but it’s still going to cost a lot of money. Getting all the servers from one place could be a very bad thing, because if they are placed in one place (for example the east coast of the US) people who are farther away will get a worse experience. Most likely that means having to find multiple different hosting sites or setting up our own, neither would be easy. The last problem that occurs to me would be creating an organizational system so that in the early launch period people could sort through the large number of servers. If most of the servers are known simply as “server # X” it makes it harder to find and create the kinds of servers that make NS fun. A simple naming system should solve that, though the exact one will want to be thought about. I’m inclined to something along the lines of [unique name] [gameplay-style] [location] [number] so that you get something like “The Lost Pit --- [casual play] [NE Coast USA] #42”.
- Preparing for the technical side shouldn’t be that hard so long as time and attention is spent ahead of time. Not only will the game need to be up and running on a lot of servers before hand, there should be preparation for dealing with problems that will show up. There are a lot of different ways to go about that, but we should have plenty of time to discuss them.
- While not absolutely needed, it would help a lot if most if not all the servers had people on them to help direct the new players. That means at the minimum having players who already know the game waiting to explain to the new people. Ideally, it would mean having several people on each server taking shifts acting to handle teaching, regulating all the unwanted elements that inevitably make an appearance, report on how things are going to UWE, and also handle any technical tasks that might be needed to keep the server running smoothly. That would likely require more money and people than will be available, but again we have plenty of time to work that out ahead of time. This is one point if nothing else the community really needs to be involved in.
- Also, contingency plans need to be made for if things go well. It would monumentally [pick an expletive] if thousands of people decide to buy NS2 only to find out that there aren’t enough servers for everyone, or that no one in the servers knows how to play, or that any one of a number of things happen. This isn’t saying things have to be actively done ahead of time, but if you want NS2 to succeed then things need to be Ready ahead of time, so that opportunities can be exploited rather than missed while at the same time problems can be dealt with rather than tolerated.
<>The other really big issue will be training. At the moment learning to play NS means either hunting down the game manual to try to get a grasp before diving in and spending a day or two just to get a good idea of how the game is played or it means diving in feet first and spending a lot of time learning as you go while constantly losing and/or being a dead weight to your team. This has always been one of the worst parts of NS, because by its nature NS has one nasty learning curve for new players. If we really want NS2 to succeed not just as a sequel to NS but also in a larger sense than the problem of turning a complete newbie into something resembling a prepared (if not necessarily a good) player needs to be tackled. And we need to do it well. If NS2 is anything like NS it’s going to be a hard game to master. We need to do something to offset the early learning curve that scares off so many new players. So let’s see what we can come up with, there are a lot of smart creative people in this community let’s put that to use.
- There are a number of things that we’ll have to acquaint new players with, remember that on the one hand there is the player who knows nothing at all and needs to be taught everything (the newbie player) while on the other hand there is the player who already plays NS and only needs to be shown a little (the new player). We need to find a way to let the new player get up to speed without subjecting him to all the redundant information that is given to the newbie player. To help with that we need to sort out who will need to know what.
- We should also look at the many different ways that we can help explain the game to new players. Some people can get what they need to get started from a game manual. Other people need to actually be shown step by step what needs to be done, how it can be done, and everything else in easy to digest bits. There are those that learn best when told what needs to be done and then given what they need to figure it out themselves. We need to find ways to teach all these types of people, and probably a few other types because very few people find it easy to learn from any method. And if it isn’t EASY for them to learn how to play, then they aren’t likely to do so, this is a GAME after all. Most likely we’ll need to find several different ways to teach them, and it’s not likely to be something thrown together in one session.
- We will also need to find ways to direct people to the things that will teach them. If they have to hunt for them they aren’t likely to use them at all. So, we need a plan on how to get them there.
- Something that would also help a lot would be resources for the players that know the game already to point to when helping those that don’t. The resources need to be something that will be easy to point to, easy to use, and also fast to reference. It needs to be something that can be pointed to During a game.
I’m about ready to fall asleep while typing, so I’m calling it a night for now. I’ll be back after I wake up to continue, and as I pointed out several times there is no need to rush this. Having said that this is EXTREMELY important, a bad launch experience can haunt a game for the rest of its life, people don’t normally hear a lot about a game 2 years after it’s come out they hear about it while it’s still new. If NS2 creates a lot of bad experiences when it first launches then not only will it get bad press but that is what people will hear about. At the same time, a really good launch can create enough enthusiasm and inertia that any problems end up being tolerated, and only (or mostly) good things are said about the game. So if you care at all about NS and NS2 we need to do at least a good (if not an amazing) job of dealing with it.
Enough exhausted ranting from me for now, I’ll edit more in after I’ve gotten rest. In the meantime, please, discuss…..
<i>Edited in:</i>
<>As I mentioned another thing that needs to be thought about is how we’re going to mix the newbie players with the players that actually know what they’re doing. It would be bad if the servers polarize too much: some servers having nothing but experienced players while others are full of players that don’t even know what they’re supposed to be doing, much less how to do it. Eventual polarization is a good thing, because it will allow new players to learn the game with other new players while the older players can just play without having to be interrupted all the time with questions. At launch though, we want mixing, because otherwise the new players will be left on their own. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot that I know of that can help deal with this. Most of what I’ve come up with involves community awareness:
- First, we need to try to get the community aware of this ahead of time. Just getting the point across that quitting a server because you’re the only experienced person there is a bad thing would go a long way. At the same time, if we could get people to consciously leave a server when it is filled with experienced players would go a long way. I’m not saying that every server should have only 1-2 experienced players, I’m saying to try to avoid having large majorities show up in either direction.
- The other thing that would massively help is to make sure the experienced NS players know that the influx of new players will be temporary. I’m hoping to get some more info on how long it is likely to be, but a normal launch window is only a few weeks long. That isn’t to say they aren’t sometimes shorter or longer. What is important is that the experienced players don’t give into frustration simply because there are a lot of players on at first who don’t have a clue what is going on.
- The last thing I can think of to offset this is again: we need a GOOD training system. No help file, training map, or whatever can actually prepare someone for playing the game, but it can teach them the basics. The new players will be much more easily tolerated if most of their questions are along the lines of “why is doing X a good idea?” or “why are you yelling at me for doing X?” Few people enjoy having to answer questions like “how do you switch weapons?” “what’s an armory?” or “what is a hive?” So, for our collective sanity, again, we need a training system.
That’s it for the specific points I wanted to start out with, but there is a lot more to be discussed.
In particular I’d like to ask the developers to try to talk to us about this stuff. I know UWE is on a <b>relatively</b> small budget, it isn’t likely that you’ll have time while actually making NS2 to spend the extra effort on things like this. So, take advantage of the community you have backing you up. You have a lot of people here who are willing to help to different extents, so let us help.
There’s a lot more to be discussed but this post is long enough as it is. I’ll add the rest in replies as the conversation continues.
According to steampowered.com’s stats page during peak hours yesterday there were about 350,000 players on and probably well over a million playing over the course of the day. Now think about those numbers. Let’s be pessimistic for a moment and say half a percent of that number decide to get NS2 when it releases, that probably means about 2,000 people getting online all at once during the release window. That means there will be enough people to fill completely between 33 to 65 servers.
Let me point out again that’s assuming NS’s reputation isn’t able to get more than 1/2 % of one day’s peak hour population. And that they only try the game for a short period and then leave. And let me remind you that’s assuming ALL SLOTS on EVERY SERVER is filled.
I for one think NS is a good enough game and has more than enough reputation that 1/2% is extremely low, and the idea that someone will buy a new game to play it only for a short time right after they buy it is ridiculous. Still, for the moment let’s use that as our low end numbers.
How exactly is this mob of people going to be handled? A sizable portion (quite likely a majority) will have either no experience with NS or outdated experience. That means that something will need to be done to acquaint a thousand or more people on how to play a game that if it is anything at all like NS1 has a mean learning curve if y
ou dive right in. It also means finding a way to let the people who do know what they are doing have some fun while playing with those that don’t. And the most urgent problem of them all: finding the servers to put them all on.
Normally, something like this would be handled only by the developer, but part of what makes NS so interesting is that the community is a part of the development process. Most of the people who will be reading this post want NS2 to succeed and many of you are willing to help with the success of NS2, and that will be a lot easier if we prepare ahead of time to help with the release.
Ok, now that I’ve (hopefully) gotten the point across, time to talk about what can be done about it. It’s still really early to be talking about this, but by putting a plan together now we can help both NS1 and NS2 succeed, and maybe avoid a few potential disasters.
<>First and foremost, the servers: We’ll need numbers, we’ll need to be prepared from a technical standpoint, and we’ll want people to run the games on them.
- The numbers won’t be easy but it should be simple. Arranging ahead of time for a hundred or so servers should be a pretty straightforward matter but there are a few issues to settle. Money will need to be found, renting a server for a week or two (or longer) isn’t cheap and considerably more than that will be needed. That should be offsetable by donations ahead of time and by allowing preexisting servers to set up ahead of time but it’s still going to cost a lot of money. Getting all the servers from one place could be a very bad thing, because if they are placed in one place (for example the east coast of the US) people who are farther away will get a worse experience. Most likely that means having to find multiple different hosting sites or setting up our own, neither would be easy. The last problem that occurs to me would be creating an organizational system so that in the early launch period people could sort through the large number of servers. If most of the servers are known simply as “server # X” it makes it harder to find and create the kinds of servers that make NS fun. A simple naming system should solve that, though the exact one will want to be thought about. I’m inclined to something along the lines of [unique name] [gameplay-style] [location] [number] so that you get something like “The Lost Pit --- [casual play] [NE Coast USA] #42”.
- Preparing for the technical side shouldn’t be that hard so long as time and attention is spent ahead of time. Not only will the game need to be up and running on a lot of servers before hand, there should be preparation for dealing with problems that will show up. There are a lot of different ways to go about that, but we should have plenty of time to discuss them.
- While not absolutely needed, it would help a lot if most if not all the servers had people on them to help direct the new players. That means at the minimum having players who already know the game waiting to explain to the new people. Ideally, it would mean having several people on each server taking shifts acting to handle teaching, regulating all the unwanted elements that inevitably make an appearance, report on how things are going to UWE, and also handle any technical tasks that might be needed to keep the server running smoothly. That would likely require more money and people than will be available, but again we have plenty of time to work that out ahead of time. This is one point if nothing else the community really needs to be involved in.
- Also, contingency plans need to be made for if things go well. It would monumentally [pick an expletive] if thousands of people decide to buy NS2 only to find out that there aren’t enough servers for everyone, or that no one in the servers knows how to play, or that any one of a number of things happen. This isn’t saying things have to be actively done ahead of time, but if you want NS2 to succeed then things need to be Ready ahead of time, so that opportunities can be exploited rather than missed while at the same time problems can be dealt with rather than tolerated.
<>The other really big issue will be training. At the moment learning to play NS means either hunting down the game manual to try to get a grasp before diving in and spending a day or two just to get a good idea of how the game is played or it means diving in feet first and spending a lot of time learning as you go while constantly losing and/or being a dead weight to your team. This has always been one of the worst parts of NS, because by its nature NS has one nasty learning curve for new players. If we really want NS2 to succeed not just as a sequel to NS but also in a larger sense than the problem of turning a complete newbie into something resembling a prepared (if not necessarily a good) player needs to be tackled. And we need to do it well. If NS2 is anything like NS it’s going to be a hard game to master. We need to do something to offset the early learning curve that scares off so many new players. So let’s see what we can come up with, there are a lot of smart creative people in this community let’s put that to use.
- There are a number of things that we’ll have to acquaint new players with, remember that on the one hand there is the player who knows nothing at all and needs to be taught everything (the newbie player) while on the other hand there is the player who already plays NS and only needs to be shown a little (the new player). We need to find a way to let the new player get up to speed without subjecting him to all the redundant information that is given to the newbie player. To help with that we need to sort out who will need to know what.
- We should also look at the many different ways that we can help explain the game to new players. Some people can get what they need to get started from a game manual. Other people need to actually be shown step by step what needs to be done, how it can be done, and everything else in easy to digest bits. There are those that learn best when told what needs to be done and then given what they need to figure it out themselves. We need to find ways to teach all these types of people, and probably a few other types because very few people find it easy to learn from any method. And if it isn’t EASY for them to learn how to play, then they aren’t likely to do so, this is a GAME after all. Most likely we’ll need to find several different ways to teach them, and it’s not likely to be something thrown together in one session.
- We will also need to find ways to direct people to the things that will teach them. If they have to hunt for them they aren’t likely to use them at all. So, we need a plan on how to get them there.
- Something that would also help a lot would be resources for the players that know the game already to point to when helping those that don’t. The resources need to be something that will be easy to point to, easy to use, and also fast to reference. It needs to be something that can be pointed to During a game.
I’m about ready to fall asleep while typing, so I’m calling it a night for now. I’ll be back after I wake up to continue, and as I pointed out several times there is no need to rush this. Having said that this is EXTREMELY important, a bad launch experience can haunt a game for the rest of its life, people don’t normally hear a lot about a game 2 years after it’s come out they hear about it while it’s still new. If NS2 creates a lot of bad experiences when it first launches then not only will it get bad press but that is what people will hear about. At the same time, a really good launch can create enough enthusiasm and inertia that any problems end up being tolerated, and only (or mostly) good things are said about the game. So if you care at all about NS and NS2 we need to do at least a good (if not an amazing) job of dealing with it.
Enough exhausted ranting from me for now, I’ll edit more in after I’ve gotten rest. In the meantime, please, discuss…..
<i>Edited in:</i>
<>As I mentioned another thing that needs to be thought about is how we’re going to mix the newbie players with the players that actually know what they’re doing. It would be bad if the servers polarize too much: some servers having nothing but experienced players while others are full of players that don’t even know what they’re supposed to be doing, much less how to do it. Eventual polarization is a good thing, because it will allow new players to learn the game with other new players while the older players can just play without having to be interrupted all the time with questions. At launch though, we want mixing, because otherwise the new players will be left on their own. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot that I know of that can help deal with this. Most of what I’ve come up with involves community awareness:
- First, we need to try to get the community aware of this ahead of time. Just getting the point across that quitting a server because you’re the only experienced person there is a bad thing would go a long way. At the same time, if we could get people to consciously leave a server when it is filled with experienced players would go a long way. I’m not saying that every server should have only 1-2 experienced players, I’m saying to try to avoid having large majorities show up in either direction.
- The other thing that would massively help is to make sure the experienced NS players know that the influx of new players will be temporary. I’m hoping to get some more info on how long it is likely to be, but a normal launch window is only a few weeks long. That isn’t to say they aren’t sometimes shorter or longer. What is important is that the experienced players don’t give into frustration simply because there are a lot of players on at first who don’t have a clue what is going on.
- The last thing I can think of to offset this is again: we need a GOOD training system. No help file, training map, or whatever can actually prepare someone for playing the game, but it can teach them the basics. The new players will be much more easily tolerated if most of their questions are along the lines of “why is doing X a good idea?” or “why are you yelling at me for doing X?” Few people enjoy having to answer questions like “how do you switch weapons?” “what’s an armory?” or “what is a hive?” So, for our collective sanity, again, we need a training system.
That’s it for the specific points I wanted to start out with, but there is a lot more to be discussed.
In particular I’d like to ask the developers to try to talk to us about this stuff. I know UWE is on a <b>relatively</b> small budget, it isn’t likely that you’ll have time while actually making NS2 to spend the extra effort on things like this. So, take advantage of the community you have backing you up. You have a lot of people here who are willing to help to different extents, so let us help.
There’s a lot more to be discussed but this post is long enough as it is. I’ll add the rest in replies as the conversation continues.
Comments
I also assume that the large majority of sales the first week or more is by fans of the original NS. After that people will buy from word of mouth. This is at least what I would expect, again I'd say it would be nice to have some empirical data on game releases. Maybe Charlie and Max already has talked to other experienced game developers about it, I don't know.
In the case I argue, the problem won't be as gigantic as you picture it Karrd, though it's admirable that you are considering the more dramatic possibilities. Perhaps some insights from somebody who has first- or second hand experience on this could share their opinions?
At the moment there are 204 NS servers running. So assuming every single server switched to NS2 as soon as it was released, and assuming every one of those servers had 32 slots, the NS2 launch would have 6,528 slots. Now, ask yourself how likely it is that every server will do that.
Compare that to the nearly 3,000,000 steam users most of them (I assume) would all see an ad when the game is released. Think about that: Three Million. That's why the half a percent I suggested as a low estimate generates a problem.
Relying on the community alone to create new servers would be courting disaster. One thing that would definitely stunt NS2's success would be for people to buy the game only to find out that there aren't enough server slots. Word of mouth can work against a game pretty quickly when it is released, just as it can work for it.
It would be nice if Flayra or one of the other official developers would respond. It would help to know what their thoughts about this are and if they have any hard data to add to this. Having data on other steam launches would be really useful. In particular knowing if they have talked to Valve about what kind of release support they might be willing to lend, and as to what level of advertising UWE is planning on putting out.
I do think the learning curve and training of new players is an issue worth worrying about however, but perhaps it is not an issue that can be responded to this early in the development process. I hope that there will be a training level of some form, whether it is in the forum of a mission, tutorial or straight "sandbox" for messing about in.
Like you so eloquently put it:
<b>"Normally, something like this would be handled only by the developer, but part of what makes NS so interesting is that the community is a part of the development process"</b>
For this reason I don't think this will be a problem. Here are my two reasons:
<b>1.) </b> Do you remember about this time, oh say.. a year and a half ago? Remember all those absolutely great tutorials and FAQ's people posted? Sure, some people will ignore this, for them a special TRAINING MAP was created, I cannot find the link, but I'm certain you at least heard about it. Did wonders in teaching new comms.
<b>2.)</b> Now lets remember the first time WE played. You remember that? You went marine thinking this exact line: OMG BIG GUNS, IMMA PWN SOME ALIENS! You delightfully spawned in at an IP, and your commander so thoughtfully gave you your first waypoint, and like all noobs you completely ignored him, and went in searching of your first alien. Of course some are dumber then others, and like me, you immediatly went for the John Woo mentality: A pistol is SOOOO much cooler than a silly submachine gun. Then you turned a corner, pistol in hand, and met your first fade. One respawn later, you where a little bit smarter. The point I'm making is this: yes the game is complicated, but you learned it did you not? Therefore I have complete faith in the newbies and their learning skills. Sure some will do stupid stuff for a while, and those will either A. Quit playing after they keep dying. or B. Much like most mammals, LEARNED through neccesity. Besides, there are many, many, many more complicated games on the market that are mass appeal. ( Supreme Commander anyone? Maybe you would like to play some Freelancer with me?)
In summary I do not think training will be a problem, do not even get me started on the server issue, as that as already been pointed out and dealt with. To sum up my thoughts on that: Where do you think all the current NS servers came from? Notice how about oh.... 3 are official servers? Its not a problem, you are blowing this out of proportion. However props for correct grammar usage (Much better than I can do.) and your foresight into the issues facing this mod's release.
Happy Fragging NS players!
I don't think we'll have much of a problem with server availability at all.
Remember, not only will old NS servers upgrade to NS2, new servers will be set up from newer places. Publicity does wonders, like the Dynamic Infestation video provided.
That said, let's move on to talking about the training/help.
First off, the current method just doesn't work that well. As someone who plays NS, it worked for you, but all you have to do is join some other game's servers and start asking around and for every 1 person you run into who plays NS you will find 3-4 that tried it and didn't stick around. If you don't believe me, try it. So saying that the current method will work is just dreaming. I'm not saying this to be mean, or to put anything down, I'm saying it becuase NS2 needs something better. The current style is too hard to find, too slow, and too frustrating for many people. Plus, how do you expect a small group of people who have just started playing the game to teach an even larger group of newbies the ropes?
As to what can be done about it, I have a lot to say (as I'm sure most of you have guessed already), I've spent alot of time thinking about it since I started playing NS. I'd like to see first what everyone else has to add. The lack of singleplayer will make things complicated.