As a relatively new player who is still learning the game (although I played NS1), I think an interactive tutorial based on simplified scenarios (as described above) would be so beneficial to player retention in NS2.
I love NS2 and suggested to a few of my friends to buy it during the summer Steam sale, but I've been stuck with on my old laptop the last couple of months and haven't been able to take them through the basics. They'd played themselves, but after the initial couple of goes hadn't played again. Why, I asked? It's an awesome game! "Yeh but I had no idea what I was doing" came the reply.
Now, many people enjoy complex games, especially PC gamers, but it's got to be enjoyable to learn, not play for a few hours and get your ass handed to you without feeling like you at least progressed significantly in terms of game knowledge if not raw skill. I remember feeling the latter and I'm glad I persevered with the wiki and youtube. A scripted tutorial that breaks down the game mechanics (particularly things like comm, gorge, advanced tech/lifeforms) in an interactive fashion with a couple of basic bots spawned at set points would do wonders imo. As awesome as the tutorials are (thankyou!), noone really wants to watch the brand new game they just installed being played on youtube for about an hour first, they want to get stuck in straight away.
New players naturally seem to gravitate towards marines as this is the most familiar setting for an FPS gamer. Alien gameplay is one of the many things that makes NS2 a uniquely enjoyable experience, but I've no doubt new players have a reluctance to join the aliens side; I did when I began, as it wasn't as easy to understand. To have to close the game and go search through the vids or wiki for what exactly this gorge thing does and why its so poor in combat, for example, is a massive mood killer. I would have thought that the less effort it requires for someone to learn the game mechanics, and the more it feels like 'play', the more players would be retained.
There are tons of tutorials. Youtube "ns2 tutorial".
People are over estimating the need for tutorials. Theres explore mode and if they have any fps experience positioning and basic thinking isnt the issue.
What most new players dont have, is map knowledge. As in ambush spots, tricky vent positions etc. Theres also general game knowledge like respawn time (how long can i harass this rt before he comes back?) And knowing when to spray your entire clip into a cyst and when not to.
These kind of things take experience and is not aomething you can easily teach people through a tutorial system.
Its like saying "get last hits, buy items and kill stuff" when teaching some one to play dota when there so much more stuff involved.
I think that most people grasp the basics of the game pretty well. The glancing jumps on walls isnt exactly intuitive for some one completely new but thats not exactly important in order to be a somewhat decent skulk either.
jumping is apparently extremely nonintuitive in general... as is the concept of juking.
Comments
I love NS2 and suggested to a few of my friends to buy it during the summer Steam sale, but I've been stuck with on my old laptop the last couple of months and haven't been able to take them through the basics. They'd played themselves, but after the initial couple of goes hadn't played again. Why, I asked? It's an awesome game! "Yeh but I had no idea what I was doing" came the reply.
Now, many people enjoy complex games, especially PC gamers, but it's got to be enjoyable to learn, not play for a few hours and get your ass handed to you without feeling like you at least progressed significantly in terms of game knowledge if not raw skill. I remember feeling the latter and I'm glad I persevered with the wiki and youtube. A scripted tutorial that breaks down the game mechanics (particularly things like comm, gorge, advanced tech/lifeforms) in an interactive fashion with a couple of basic bots spawned at set points would do wonders imo. As awesome as the tutorials are (thankyou!), noone really wants to watch the brand new game they just installed being played on youtube for about an hour first, they want to get stuck in straight away.
New players naturally seem to gravitate towards marines as this is the most familiar setting for an FPS gamer. Alien gameplay is one of the many things that makes NS2 a uniquely enjoyable experience, but I've no doubt new players have a reluctance to join the aliens side; I did when I began, as it wasn't as easy to understand. To have to close the game and go search through the vids or wiki for what exactly this gorge thing does and why its so poor in combat, for example, is a massive mood killer. I would have thought that the less effort it requires for someone to learn the game mechanics, and the more it feels like 'play', the more players would be retained.
jumping is apparently extremely nonintuitive in general... as is the concept of juking.