Player Progression and Retention
ZProbe
Canada Join Date: 2016-02-29 Member: 213669Members
Canada Join Date: 2016-02-29 Member: 213669Members
I've typed up 3 page long explanations on practically every game I've ever had interest in improving. Not today. I refuse to write up a huge selection that ends up being ignored. Here's the gist of what I usually say.
To make your game to excel in PLAYER RETENTION, it must pass 2 main major tests.
1) Fun
-I want to play because its fun.
2) Achievement
-I want to play because I've become attached psychologically to the achievement of my character/story/game etc.
The Fun aspect is either there or it isn't. I'm not worrying about that.
The Achievement aspect is the important bit when it comes to player retention.
How do you get me to play your game? You want me to feel attached, dedicated, to my game. I feel attached/ dedicated through my achievements. (No, not stereotypical gaming achievements like get 5 headshots). I'm talking about the success after conflict. I'm talking about the feeling of attachment you get to a character when you play a campaign mode with them and SUCCEED DESPITE THE CONFLICT.
Fast forward through my monologue - what I'm describing is PLAYER PROGRESSION.
Tell me, describe in the very closest detail, what the player progression system is in Natural Selection 2.
If you came up with anything more than a lackluster answer, you're lying to yourself. When I first joined the game I saw a "customize character" option and was stoked. How was I going to unlock gear to customize my character? What CONFLICT was I going to have to go through to SUCCEED/ACHIEVE a better look, utility etc.
And then I found out you pay for it. Yes, that's right. You too can buy a cool skin. Fun. Great. Except if no-one wants to stick around long enough to buy a skin, who cares!?
Tell me, describe in the very closest detail, what the player progression system is in Natural Selection 2.
Nothing. If you asked me "Why do you play NS2?" I wouldn't respond with, "Well, I've got this really decked out character and I've put a lot of time developing them and their personality and their abilities and blah blah blah blah. I wouldn't tell you that I'd ACHIEVED something with my character after tons of CONFLICT. I would tell you I play it because.... well I guess I might find it fun for a while or I might just in general like RTS games. (That's my answer)
Your problem with player retention isn't coming from stupid simplicity tweaks. Its because if you ask a new player what they are getting out of playing the game, they'll tell you they are playing a hard game (its an RTS for god's sake) because they just bought it.
Make new players feel like playing is rewarding them.
ANYTHING, ANYTHING IN DEPTH AT ALL WILL SUFFICE.
What if you got virtual "credits" every game you played, generated by the res nodes active in that game and then you could spend those credits on different skins? NOT FULL SKINS ALL AT ONCE. A helmet maybe, then the chest, then the legs etc. Make me work for something! Set me a goal - Play enough and I'll unlock new badass gear - Get enough resnodes built and you'll get a cool weapon skin. NOT THE STANDARD STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS. THAT'S TERRIBLE. MAKE IT A TANGIBLE PART OF THE GAME.
Taking that idea a step further. What if there were statistics that you could level up and mess with? What if there were 4 categories like Stamina, Strength, Intelligence, and whatever the fuck other idea you have. You could put a CONSTANT number of points into those categories to customize your character. Maybe they do slightly more damage (strength) and weld buildings/armor faster (intelligence). Maybe if you have a certain number of points in strength and stamina combined, your character's taunts become very cocky and arrogant. Perhaps with more intelligence and stamina they say something really interesting/smart. To give the player that sense of achievement we make it so you can only put a max amount of points into each category until you unlock it.
Obviously my ideas were constructed in 10 seconds and so they wouldn't work without MASSIVE reworks. The point is, THAT'S THE STUFF THAT KEEPS PEOPLE IN THE GAME. GIVE THEM AN OBJECTIVE, A CONFLICT ON THE WAY TO IT, AND A TANGIBLE TANGIBLE TANGIBLE SUCCESS/ACHIEVEMENT.
/endrant
TLDR;
Player Progression needs to be added because there is none currently.
To make your game to excel in PLAYER RETENTION, it must pass 2 main major tests.
1) Fun
-I want to play because its fun.
2) Achievement
-I want to play because I've become attached psychologically to the achievement of my character/story/game etc.
The Fun aspect is either there or it isn't. I'm not worrying about that.
The Achievement aspect is the important bit when it comes to player retention.
How do you get me to play your game? You want me to feel attached, dedicated, to my game. I feel attached/ dedicated through my achievements. (No, not stereotypical gaming achievements like get 5 headshots). I'm talking about the success after conflict. I'm talking about the feeling of attachment you get to a character when you play a campaign mode with them and SUCCEED DESPITE THE CONFLICT.
Fast forward through my monologue - what I'm describing is PLAYER PROGRESSION.
Tell me, describe in the very closest detail, what the player progression system is in Natural Selection 2.
If you came up with anything more than a lackluster answer, you're lying to yourself. When I first joined the game I saw a "customize character" option and was stoked. How was I going to unlock gear to customize my character? What CONFLICT was I going to have to go through to SUCCEED/ACHIEVE a better look, utility etc.
And then I found out you pay for it. Yes, that's right. You too can buy a cool skin. Fun. Great. Except if no-one wants to stick around long enough to buy a skin, who cares!?
Tell me, describe in the very closest detail, what the player progression system is in Natural Selection 2.
Nothing. If you asked me "Why do you play NS2?" I wouldn't respond with, "Well, I've got this really decked out character and I've put a lot of time developing them and their personality and their abilities and blah blah blah blah. I wouldn't tell you that I'd ACHIEVED something with my character after tons of CONFLICT. I would tell you I play it because.... well I guess I might find it fun for a while or I might just in general like RTS games. (That's my answer)
Your problem with player retention isn't coming from stupid simplicity tweaks. Its because if you ask a new player what they are getting out of playing the game, they'll tell you they are playing a hard game (its an RTS for god's sake) because they just bought it.
Make new players feel like playing is rewarding them.
ANYTHING, ANYTHING IN DEPTH AT ALL WILL SUFFICE.
What if you got virtual "credits" every game you played, generated by the res nodes active in that game and then you could spend those credits on different skins? NOT FULL SKINS ALL AT ONCE. A helmet maybe, then the chest, then the legs etc. Make me work for something! Set me a goal - Play enough and I'll unlock new badass gear - Get enough resnodes built and you'll get a cool weapon skin. NOT THE STANDARD STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS. THAT'S TERRIBLE. MAKE IT A TANGIBLE PART OF THE GAME.
Taking that idea a step further. What if there were statistics that you could level up and mess with? What if there were 4 categories like Stamina, Strength, Intelligence, and whatever the fuck other idea you have. You could put a CONSTANT number of points into those categories to customize your character. Maybe they do slightly more damage (strength) and weld buildings/armor faster (intelligence). Maybe if you have a certain number of points in strength and stamina combined, your character's taunts become very cocky and arrogant. Perhaps with more intelligence and stamina they say something really interesting/smart. To give the player that sense of achievement we make it so you can only put a max amount of points into each category until you unlock it.
Obviously my ideas were constructed in 10 seconds and so they wouldn't work without MASSIVE reworks. The point is, THAT'S THE STUFF THAT KEEPS PEOPLE IN THE GAME. GIVE THEM AN OBJECTIVE, A CONFLICT ON THE WAY TO IT, AND A TANGIBLE TANGIBLE TANGIBLE SUCCESS/ACHIEVEMENT.
/endrant
TLDR;
Player Progression needs to be added because there is none currently.
Comments
That said I would absolutely love if there were more items achievable along the lines of the 'Eat Your Greens' patch. Something to work towards is always a good thing, especially if it's strictly cosmetic. Unfortunately because players host their own servers there is very little one can do to add any sort of gravity to the achievements and cosmetic changes - it's too easy to game the system and cheat your way into the rewards and there is nothing UWE can do about it without investing a couple million dollars into their networking.
I would rather not have it tied to hive skill, especially since it can be exploited. People already care way too much about their hive skill level.
If anything were to be unlocked, I would rather it be through hive level. Hive level is different from hive skill. For example, at the time of me writing this I have a hive skill of 1853 and a hive level of 79.
Score/minute is a decent, but not perfect, indicator of skill. The more score/minute you get the faster you get the supposed cosmetics.
As you can see, with the following histogram, score/minute is quite normally distributed with an average of 7 score/minute.
One problem with this is that larger servers get more score/minute. Wooza's players would be first in line.
You get better at the game, you become a strong field player and commander, you learn new tactics, you play competitively (if you feel like it).
NS2 is an FPS/RTS hybrid, don't overlook the FPS aspect, as 90% of players in a game are playing the FPS element primarily.
Sometimes, fun is the reward!
In the first instance, this would require a ton of implementation and systems that don't exist yet, but it's a good idea, actual rewards that carry over from one game to another for performing well. Honestly though, you can barely make out what skin is what when the game is kicked into high-gear.
This would never be accepted by the community, NS2 is very unique game and its balance model has gone through numerous iterations. Adding the ability to start with more health than someone else (for example) is pretty game breaking and would cause uproar. Perhaps if this was limited to game by game and your 'points' and abilities were reset to 0 at each round maybe, but that's pretty much what NS2:Combat is (was). But fundamentally, this takes away from the Commanders functions and role entirely. If marines/aliens were able to evolve their own traits and abilities regardless of the tech path the commander uses, why bother with a commander?
In terms of player progression, the latest build added Steam Achievements, which I think is a great move and certainly gives people something to aim for. You can get a shoulder patch for completing 6 basic achievements as is, so real strides are being taken in the steps you've described. Be patient, watch the dev blogs and more will come, I assure you.
And that's the mindset that kills games. If you are relying on your game being "fun", you are also relying on there not being something else that is both fun and psychologically investing. Sometimes, fun isn't enough of a reward. (Like in this case) Fun = 1 of 2 categories. Even if you nail fun 100%, again, you only end up with 50% because 50% is missing without tangible player progression. I realize I'm restating myself but its to enforce the point - this game only has the "fun" aspect with no tangible progression.
Not important about how easy it is to make out. Its about the psychological development of the player.
This was a terrible idea by me. I was just trying to suggest something else that wasn't skins that was tangible. A real idea is for the creative director and the community to dream up.
I propose that your two points are valid, and that both are in the game. Progressing each round is fun, and destroying the enemy with your new-found powers is the best feeling. So, when is the game NOT fun? When progression is either too difficult or ends too abruptly.
Some examples:
-Stuck on 1-2 resource towers all of the game.
-Never having a 2nd hive.
-Losing an expensive lifeform or exosuit 1-2 minutes after evolving/buying, or without getting at least a few kills/enemy structures destroyed.
This usually happens when the teams are imbalanced, which is no easy feat to fix. I regularly play on a server that features a "Balance Teams" button, and even then it doesn't work 100% of the time.
How do we fix it? It's really hard to come up with ways to make sure there is a perfect distribution of skill, so the next step consists of finding ways to make the game less punishing and still have some progression when players are up against a more skilled team. I believe Aliens need a new feature regarding higher lifeform death, which I have already posted about here. I also think an additional Shade Hive power could help teams expand out more in the early game to help with progression, which I have posted about here.
This whole thing assumes that buying your weapons ingame counts as progression.
Which it is NOT.
Why? Because it's not constant. You can't even possibly sit here and pretend that you get attached to your marine psychologically. You fucking die how many times a match. And then you respawn. There is no "this marine is my marine" aspect AT ALL. I am extremely infuriated that this is even being suggested! You spawn. You MIGHT have enough res for a weapon/ jetpack. You will do shit for a bit. Then you will die. Then you will spawn.
That's GAMEPLAY. THAT IS NOT PROGRESSION. The only aspect of progression is "oh look I just accumulated like 0.1 player res." But you don't earn it, and when you do, it's not a "Congratulations, you got a point!" it's a "0.1 added to 27".
I understand that it's the morning when I'm reading this, so I'm probably more grumpy than usual but for god fucking sake throw this entire response out the window. THIS IS THE REASON WHY GAMES HAVE GONE DOWNHILL.
Your argument is akin to saying Call of Duty has progression since you can pick up the weapons off of fallen enemies. NO. YOU GET A WEAPON TO SHOOT THINGS WITH. THAT IS NOT PROGRESSION UNLESS IT IS CONSTANT. (You will lose the weapon when it runs out of ammo or the match ends.)
There are people that like to improve in a game because it becomes more fun that way. They feel like it would kill this genuine fun if there'd be any categorization like ranks or other rewards. Thats why I'm also against showing hive skill ingame and on the page. After it was introduced, some people now only play to improve the skill number and for the sake of winning. Before, there was a recognizable incentive to experiment, try out new strategies and playstyles. It wasn't so important to win or loose a round in the past, but rather what happened during a round
Also your capslock does not make your text very readable.
If you check the official ns2 trello board you will see the devs are going to be experimenting with player progression soon.