New Player Video Series

[Nathvaan]

I agree that we should be looking at bettering our social media management and we are looking at way of making that happen.  But in the mean time I have a project I would like to tackle and I need your help.  The suggestion was to pay a youtube person to play the game and stream it.  I am not against this at all but it would come with some issues that would need to be addressed. I think the first step is to make it easier to retain new players.  As we all know, if we could help new players get across the steep learning curve many of them would really enjoy the depth of role play that is hard to find anywhere else.

That said I would like to have some new player tutorial videos created. 

I am willing to take this on myself but honestly I think we probably have some players out there that would be better suited for the recording.  Maybe we have some people with movie star voices?!

What I don't want is just a random series of videos that show bits and pieces.  I would like to list all the features we want to show and then have short, 20 minutes videos, that each are very topic specific.

I would like to work with someone or ideally more than one person to work on a heavily detailed plan on what each topic would cover and how it would be covered.  What I will do is enable the players doing the videos to gain access to a test port of the game with test accounts and test characters so that these videos don't have interactions with live players in the game.

I would like this to be written/designed/scripted so that we can control exactly what and how we want to show new players how to do things.  By that I mean the bulk of the work will be production, design and scripting work while the recording of the videos and post production being the last bits.

Here is a list off the top of my head of things I could see in New PLayer video series:
-Suggestions for clients
-All about helpfiles.
--Help files in the game
--Help files on the web.
-Enabling Color
--Walk through turning on and off VT100.
--Walk through enabling colors to defaults
--Walk through example of changing on category
--Walk through viewing color settings.
-Prompt
--Setting prompt with various items
--Show prompt help file
--Examples of differnt prompts.
-Fun with keywords
--Description of keywords
--Key .
--Testing the keyword command.
-Looking
--Looking at the room
--Looking at the boards
--Looking at objects
-Managing inventory, putting thing inside objects and removing things from objects
--Removing and wearing items
--Checking where they can be worn
--Putting item in a bag
--Removing an item from a bag
-Communication
--Use of say with and without modifiers
--Use of tell with and without modifiers
--Use of whisper with and without modifiers
-Use of tables
--Look tables
--Sit at table
--Sit with <keyword>
--Use of talk with and without modifiers.
--Putting items on and getting items off tables.
-Aliases
--Adding in game aliases
--Modifying in game aliases
--Removing in game aliases
--Blurb about client side aliases.
-Psionics
--Contact
--Psi
--Barrier
-Combat
--Kill
--Hit
-Emoting
--Emoting generally
--Emoting targets.
--Include help emoting here
-Movement
--North, south, east, west, up, down.
--Enter, leave

Naturally this will take some time to ramp up and I do have a number of other pressing projects to take care of but I'd like to get this ball to start rolling.

What other things can you think of that would be good to cover? Thoughts?

[Riev]

While it may be covered by helpfiles, it may help to have a generalized video on the setting. What people know about the world, what a Templar is, and why magick is scary. What has been listed is "general MUD facts" that are tailored to our expansive code base, but it might help to have one or two "atmosphere" videos.

Maybe someone(s) with a reading from a submitted log. Or someone looks over a log, and writes a short story about it to draw a watcher in. Bonus points if animated in some way.

Explanations about the various areas. Intro to Allanak and the farming villages around. Armageddon: Living the Tribal Life. etc

[Feco]

I'd be interested in volunteering to help.  I'm also incredibly handsome, if at some point we want to have someone's face in the video.

While it may be covered by helpfiles, it may help to have a generalized video on the setting. What people know about the world, what a Templar is, and why magick is scary. What has been listed is "general MUD facts" that are tailored to our expansive code base, but it might help to have one or two "atmosphere" videos.

Maybe someone(s) with a reading from a submitted log. Or someone looks over a log, and writes a short story about it to draw a watcher in. Bonus points if animated in some way.

Explanations about the various areas. Intro to Allanak and the farming villages around. Armageddon: Living the Tribal Life. etc

This is an excellent idea.  We could use some of the existing player art in a sort of slideshow.

I like the idea of multiple people interacting on the test server.

We should be careful not to make it too scripted.  Unless we have real script writers and voice actors, the only way to make things natural and interesting is to *speak* naturally, maybe just following an outline.

A set of eHow like videos would be informative, but I worry they would be boring.  Scripted interactions/commands mixed with a more outline driven commentary might be more engaging.

[Delirium]

I think this is a great idea. Also +1 for Feco narrating, especially if using "corrupt bartender" voice.

[Melkor]

I am thrilled that this is happening. Kudos to all staff and players involved.

Willing to audition for narration.

We need to get one of our own as a guest on some podcasts, as well.

[Riev]

I like the idea of multiple people interacting on the test server.

What if there was a generally-scripted scene between some known-good thinkers/feelers, and have it done through the filter of a watching immortal? In the video, you can point out where someone is feeling an emotion, and then show their physical reaction to it, pointing it out so people see.

"Oh, so Timbleberry feels a well of rage rising to the top? That would explain why he's talking "curtly" or has his teeth clenched or a tight jaw."

[Feco]

I think scripted scenes are a good idea -- it's the commentary that we probably want to be a little more freeform.

I like that idea, though I worry that level of analysis and that perspective would be too much for new players.  My initial impression was that these videos would largely be introductions to the syntax and the setting -- the sort of tutorials that would benefit from first person gameplay and stories, respectively.

I could see a place for more complex videos like that, though, as long as they're in addition to more simple stuff. 

[Feco]

I think this is a great idea. Also +1 for Feco narrating, especially if using "corrupt bartender" voice.

** spitting in mug intensifies **

[mansa]

What about a small plot to play out, to see what sort of adventure you can create?

Something scripted, but realistic.  Like a night in a bar with a fight happening, a thief in the 'rinth getting caught, a ride in the wastes and fighting, a merchant politicking with a noble, etc.

Armageddon is about the stories.  We need to draw people in with a story, and get them to create their own.

[Feco]

What about a small plot to play out, to see what sort of adventure you can create?

Something scripted, but realistic.  Like a night in a bar with a fight happening, a thief in the 'rinth getting caught, a ride in the wastes and fighting, a merchant politicking with a noble, etc.

Armageddon is about the stories.  We need to draw people in with a story, and get them to create their own.

I think this is a good idea.

I do think it should be from the perspective of a single player, and the stories should be formed in such a way that they can be used to teach syntax in an incremental way.

[Nathvaan]

Agreed, it would be nice to have a primer on the world as well as some RPing scenes to demonstrate command usage and role-play.

I think the first series will have to be a little more technical with client configuration, account creation, character creation etc etc but when those are complete I would totally be on board to help facilitate some shorts to showcase game play as it could be expect to be seen from a player's perspective.

[Pretentious]

I love this idea so much! And I'm willing to (temporarily) donate my voice to the cause if it's needed!

At first glance, some suggestions I have for content. A bunch of stuff I now take for granted that really threw me when I was learning:

- Character creation. It can be daunting. (Edit: Oh, you mentioned that right above me. Oops.)
- A run through of the newbie area, and reroll self and undo and showing how that works. Buying things from the newbie shops, and how it's alright to buy from shops that don't match your guild/subguild if it fits your character.
- Quit/Save rooms, and why you need to quit out and not just quit your client.

Edit - more things!:

- IC excuses for OOC driven stuff. (Being krath-struck, having gate duty, etc)
- Something on immersion and what RP-enforced means in this game, for those not so familiar with RP, or used to far more lax environments. Something for helpers or PCs in game to point people to rather than trying to explain things in the game.

[azuriolinist]

+1 all around!!!

I absolutely like the idea of having the videos follow a single character's storyline and progression through the game. Also, what mansa said. Let's emphasize on storytelling; the stories are probably one of the main reasons that got me to stick around with Arm, as a new player. Watchers would get a sense of how a character's life might actually play out, while learning the appropriate use case for syntax in scenarios they could actually experience in-game.


The toughest part for me, as a new player, (other than learning all the commands and the symbols for emoting!) was the amount of lore and cultural nuances that just seemed to be hidden away in all the helpfiles. Whether I was supposed to be bowing to this silk-clad person or not, what racism and racial roleplay should generally look like, the discrimination against 'gickers (yup, I completely missed that helpfile), and so forth. If the videos could somehow include such scenes, that would be super grand.

[lostinspace]

I'd be interested in volunteering to help.  I'm also incredibly handsome, if at some point we want to have someone's face in the video.

And on the flip side I look  like a total neckbeard, so if we want to angle for that target audience I could help

[James de Monet]

I realize this isn't exactly what you're talking about, but I'm throwing it out there because it already exists.  A while ago I created a "Playable" Arm demo that covers some of these ideas, albeit briefly.

Also, at one point some guy did 'let's play' kinda thing with Arm on YouTube.  It wasn't professional, but it was amusing, IIRC.

[Lizzie]

Lots of great ideas, so many topics though, and I'm not sure new players would want to spend a lot of time watching a whole bunch of videos just to make sure they cover every topic (since they don't know which topics they need to know).

My idea would be to have just a few videos total, sequential.

The first: Welcome to Armageddon.
This short video is actually someone creating a character from scratch, but the mdesc is already prepared so we don't have to watch them type it. Can just mention it was prepared, and we can see them CTL-V it onto the buffer. After completing the application (using a dummy account that has just new-player karma options), we let the viewer know that the wait for approval can take up to 24 hours but is usually shorter, and we'll just assume we're approved. Fast forward to the Hall of Kings process, the newbie shops, and then entering the game into the Gaj. Cut scene.

The second: Welcome to Allanak.
This one starts where the last one leaves off, except we happen to have handy a Byn recruiter looking for mercenaries, a House Jal recruiter looking for an aide, a Kadian recruiter looking for a crafter, a half-elven gemmed mage, and "random pocket-snatching elf #74."
In this video, we get to introduce basic syntax: sit, stand, sit table, sit at 4, sit #4, sit with amos, say, talk, tell, whisper, think, feel, and the difference between HIT and KILL in a bar. A narrator (whoever is making the video) will describe the scene while the screen scrolls the scene itself. Here we get to see how different types of characters interact.

The third: Malik gets a job.
This one is a continuation of the last, where each recruiter goes over their usual spiel that they say to pretty much any new character who says they need a job. The narrator explains why it matters, and what *kinds* of coded things recruiters are looking for when they're hiring (city-based house aides don't necessarily need warrior-based skills, but perception-based skills would be considered valueable. Bynners would be more on the other end of the spectrum. Crafting houses are -typically- looking for the ability to master - at the very least - some of the crafts that are specific to their house. So a warrior/master clothworker isn't likely to find much fun working for Salarr, and a ranger/armorsmith won't be much use as a crafter in Kadius. Emphasis would always be on the roleplay, the "why" of it all. But it's very important for new players to understand that code -does- matter in this game, and they will want their coded existence to be meaningful so that they can enjoy the roleplay of their character.

The last: RIP Malik, and Welcome to Armageddon!
Malik the newbie Bynner is minding his own business on a day off at the Gaj, and random elf #74, who remembers Malik from when he was fresh out of chargen. Malik, being a loveable but gullible galoot, thinks Elfy is going to be his VBFF and follows him to help move - and then share - a keg of whisky. Elfy apartment-kills Malik for his leet new Byn gear, and Malik's player gets Le Beep.

All of these videos could be made on the builder port, using dummy accounts and NPCs.

[Melkor]

Exciting progress being made.

That being said, all of this seems like ways to introduce newbies to Arm with the aim of retaining them as a player, but not necessarily to draw in new blood.

I would like to suggest, once more, that we simply sponsor a video-game review channel on youtube (<100k subscribers) With a few hundred bucks and have them play the game and make their own review. Their subscriber base should bear the fruit of quite a few newbs, some of which will be retained.

*edited to add: Personally, I think a "let's play" or a stream of Armageddon is a bad idea, other than a few short clips to show aspects of gameplay. Aside from potentially revealing IC information (even innocuous IC info... Rules are rules), I think the best seed to be sown is the idea of a RPI MMO in which you can accomplish nearly anything, if you can survive.

[Melkor]

It just occurred to me that I am basing my assumptions off of no data or evidence.

I am curious to know what percentage of new accounts are created, only to never be used after the first character. If this figure is egregious, then yeah, focusing on retaining the vast number of passers-by holds priority. If the percentage of new accounts which make more than one character is over 5%, then lets just let hordes of newbs drawn in by large-scale advertisement outside of the Mud community try us out and see who sticks around.

[Hauwke]

If we want someone to review an indie game, I recommend Splattercat. Dude does indie games and stuff all the time and has shown interest in some forms of text games, Caves of Qud for example. Im sure he would be willing to at least give it some thought.

Edit: He does have interest in RP as well, though that is more tabletop RP then text based.

[Melkor]

That would be cool. Splattercat seems like he may genuinely be interested in the game...

However, with 350k subscribers, I would worry about being inundated with so many new players.

A healthy balance exists, I think.

[Hauwke]

Actually a good point on the sheer volume of people that might flood in from that. Either way, just a suggestion on it and I think if this was the path we were to take we do need a healthy balance of people actually viewing the video, as well as people that follow the channel, that would be interested in it, but not too many so as to inundate staff and the server as well simply the game itself, Sure a mud -can- support hundreds of players, just look at Aardwolf, that one averages a few hundred at all hours of the day. But could you imagine Arm with a dozen players in every single room? You wouldnt be able to codedly hide from people even half as easily.

On the other hand, it would be a boon to us seeing just how full the city truly is. You cant go five steps without running into some idiot having a bad day.

Tl;Dr balance.

[Lizzie]

Armageddon isn't capable of functioning as an MMO.

HRPTs are hard enough to handle with just the limited playerbase we have now. I'm all for a more robust playerbase, but I don't think a 100+ active logged-in nightly playerbase will serve this game. Armageddon was built for a modest base. Codedly it can handle more, but the code is not human beings trying to read a scrolling screen, keep up with what's going on, and be able to participate in it. Just because the game code can accommodate 200 or 300 people logged in all at once, doesn't mean it SHOULD accommodate it. You still have to consider the players who are reading the game screen and typing at a reasonably modest pace, and still be able to keep up. An arena match with that many people would be a nightmare. I imagine people would just stop running RPTs entirely, so as not to make their own eyes bleed in the process.

50 off-peak and 150 peak time, spread out throughout the game, I think, would be optimal. More during RPTs but not all that much more, or it could hurt the game rather than help it.

[Shoka Windrunner]

Sorry, I'm a little late to the party here, but I already have a YouTube channel and some of my watchers are interested in Armageddon, as I've been plugging it a little on my Twitch streams.  I'd be more than happy to help out with this and get some new life in here.

Been told at least five people have joined from me mentioning it on my stream. 

[Akaramu]

I agree that we need stories, not tutorials, to get people interested in the game. How-to videos could help new players who are already interested in Armageddon but feel overwhelmed by the learning curve, but it's the stories that get people hooked in the first place.

How about a promotional video where a few players tell interesting stories about past characters - nothing overly long, maybe 30 - 45 seconds each, followed by 'This actually happened. In Armageddon MUD.' And then the next player's exciting story.

If we want someone to review an indie game, I recommend Splattercat. Dude does indie games and stuff all the time and has shown interest in some forms of text games, Caves of Qud for example. Im sure he would be willing to at least give it some thought.

I <3 Splattercat, and not only because he's damn hot for a nerd who plays games for a living. But I agree that even just 100 new players getting started all at once might overwhelm poor Ginka (and staff). Still, it could be worth a try if staff is up to the challenge.

[Hauwke]

Id be game for telling a story, im not sure how recording my voice would go at all, but I would be willing to tell that story of this one time we got pounded by bugs right in the ass. It was a great time for our group. (It wasnt, it really really wasnt great)