Jump to content


Photo

Cat Rant: Reviewer Stereotypes


This topic has been archived. This means that you cannot reply to this topic.
31 replies to this topic

#1 Kalaris

Kalaris

    Lord of the Kitty Cats

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 195 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 11:09 AM

  Every game has been reviewed by many people, around the world. Some reviews are bad, some reviews are good. Some can also be mixed. Reviews are helpful in a way. They give you an idea of what the game is, tell you if the game is good or bad. Most good reviews give out cons and pros, which are reasonable. It shows that they have researched and played the game. Reviews are also depended on their experience. Some players may feel different about a game. 

 

  But, there are also bad reviews. Most of which are random spam, unreasonable, hadn't researched, or just judge by the cover. Of course, there are many more and bad stereotypes which I will be going through this topic. I'll be going through the bad stereotype reviewers. Showing their errors and their ways.

 

BAD REVIEWER STEREOTYPES:

 

1. Graphics Judge Reviewers

  This one is common for games with pixel graphics such as 8bitmmo itself. These reviewers would make you want to punch the screen. They don't review the game mechanics or the story itself, they review the FREAKING GRAPHICS! Once the graphics is bad, they rate the certain game an incredibly low score! It also happens to Minecraft. I've seen lots of reviewers review about the graphics. Rate and Slap a low score to the game. You got that right, slap a low score till the end.

  That's not the only thing. Some reviewers rate an incredibly bad game a good score just because of amazing graphics. An example would be a game that just makes you walk around in a forest doing nothing but seeing the view itself. They will just rate it a high score just because of the graphics. AND there is absolutely no gameplay or story in it. They just slap scores based on the graphics.

 

2. Title and Title logo reviewers

  You would want to delete their review after seeing theirs. They say stuff bad or good about a certain game. Yet, when you look into their games that they own. Struck with shock and terror, they only played for 1 - 5 FREAKING MINUTE! Seriously, they are the type of people who don't go in depth to the game. Neither did they did some research.

 

3. 'I haven't played it but it looks good/bad' reviewers

  These reviewers are least helpful. Yes, they did some research but they haven't experience a certain game themselves. To get it straight, they just research reviews of cons and pros and look at video game reviews itself. They could be watching IGN Reviews, and then just base their reviews on IGN and some other researched stuff. But if they ever played the game itself, their review could have more detail and would make more sense. And atleast the review would be more helpful

 

4. Spam Reviewers

  I don't need to say a speech to say this. But to just explain it, they just right a bunch of random words and then put a good rating or bad rating. Less helpful then the reviewers who haven't played it. One example would be "I recommend this because it's construction makes you want to fall of a building. 10/10, get this game" obvious troll is troll.

 

5 Unreasonable Reviewers

  2 types of reviewers at the same time. The first one is that they just say "It's a good game, get it 10/10" or "It's a bad game, don't get it. The developers suck". These reviews aren't helpful. Yes, they might be funny. But they give you absolutely no information about the game. 

  The second one is that they just give you cons and pros, but it absolutely makes no sense. Or they just tell you a story or some steps. Examples: "to beat this game step 1: kill and farm step 2: buy black racist tiles step 3: kill and farm step 4: die step 5: kill and farm step 6: buy white racist tiles... 10/10"  "I played this game and I died, WORST GAME EVER"  "Cons: Suck, bad gameplay, just kill, it's a game Pros: it's a game, funny, ugly, styled"

 

Nyao!

 

PLAYERS STEREOTYPE REVIEWERS:

 

1. LegoBox - "Micro Transaction socks' reviewers

  "Plus they say 'Mirco Transactions' are putting the game down. They say quote " there is literally only 2 ways to get gold: pay money or work your --- off all day" 

 

"PLAYERBASE SOCKS"

 Plus another problem they say is quote in my own words (meaning it has the same base but exaggerated) "omg dem playerbase is so f------ men -30/10"

 

2. A player....

 

 

WHAT REVIEWERS WANT (BASED ON REVIEWS): \

8bitmmo:

 

1. They Seem to don't like the humor...​

So I've seen some that don't like it but a handful that says it's " RobbyZ isn't Jerry Seinfield, but he sure isn't bad!". So maybe try on more known jokes?

2. PvP

The next one is the pvp, described as 'clunky'. RobbyZ, you might wanna include MOBA stuff there but ehh.... nothing much else left other than adding new weapons and probably armor at some point.

3. Building

Robby, if you're reading this, try and include the Z Axis Point in the tutorial and make an area that lets the players experiment.Many of the players  didn't know how to actually build with Z Axis and tried using Shift and failed horribly .Of course there's gonna be that one guy  who griefs the area, so make it delete every 20 minutes?

4. Dungeons

THE. PLAYERS. WANT. DUNGEONS!!!! They Say player quests are quite.... horrible. They don't like the randomized order, so they would want it sorted into different categories to choose from easy to hard. Plus, WHERE ARE THOSE NEW DUNGEONS YOU PROMISED US!!!

 

ROBBYZ'S OPINION:

 

Yep, the reviews kill me a little inside every time I read them.  Some of them are pretty useful, but most of them are vitriolic drivel.  Such is the internet.

 

There used to be ~16 different feedback points, but fortunately during early access they've mostly been resolved except for the notable ones you pointed out.  These are the most tricky, and may even be unfixable.

 

Dungeons - Up to the players to build.  I'm not opposed to lowering the price on spawners to make this more possible.  A quest browser would be a pretty neat feature too.

 

Graphics reviewers are the worst posts to me, because seriously, the screenshots and video tell you EXACTLY what to expect.  How is it people download the game and are then surprised by the graphics?  Pure idiocy.  It's fine to not like the graphics, but then shouldn't you spend your time wisely and go download a game with an art style you like better?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Microtransaction Haters - A lot of people on the internet legitimately think that everything should be free.  The average rating of free to play games on Steam is much lower than the average premium game.  I just now checked the most recently released F2P games tab -- every single one that has microtransactions has a 55% or lower review score.  Only the ones that have no monetization whatsoever are positive.  It's really hard to succeed in this environment.

 

To be fair, there was also a lot of confusion about plat initially.  People didn't realize you could trade plat items for gold.  Fortunately, I haven't seen the MTX Haters opinion surface nearly as much after adding information text about that to get Buy Plat screen.

 

Direct plat trading is also something I am considering adding in future.

 

"I got banned for being a troll" - ...yep. 

 

Humor - The humor is definitely intended for an older audience.  Regardless, people either seem to really like it, or really hate it.  This is quite related to a larger issue of a lot of people just don't like playing tutorials.  The tutorial is only about six minutes long, but the reviewers sure make it sound a lot longer (assuming they even finish it).  To be fair, it used to be even longer, and has been improved over the years.  Now it's down to the essentials of teaching you movement, combat, getting/returning quests, visual overlaps, and respawn.  I've considered adding a tutorial skip, but I think players would get super confused.  A dialogue skip would be a useful feature though, since you can still get the key info on the right tab.

 

PvP - A lot of reviews from people complaining the combat consists of one weapon.  They also uniformly have .1 hours played.  None of these people are getting to the more advanced weapons, arenas, or transponder matches.  It's unfortunate, but if they quit during the tutorial, their impression is going to be ill-informed.

 

Building - This is a legit concern.  Z axis manipulation is not easy to learn, and would be hard to teach as the first lesson in the building tutorial (which is why it's farther in Draco's quest progression).  Ultimately, a 3d perspective view is much better for building with no prior learning, but obviously that's not something that will be happening anytime soon.

 

The Real Core Issues (IMO)

 

Keeping an eye on feedback, I've improved various points about the game over the past few years, since before even Steam.  The tuning has helped a little, but all this improvement hasn't massively changed retention or monetization metrics.  At this point, I don't think it's a matter of making just a better tutorial.  Here's the core problems as I see them:

 

1) Top down building is hard.  People just aren't used to it and it takes time to learn it.  With F2P, people won't take the time to learn things.  3D would have been a better choice.

 

2) The game appeals to a younger target market than planned, and that market usually does not have a disposable income.  This is obviously bad for a F2P game.  I thought a retro aesthetic would have appealed to an older demographic.  Possibly the block building genre skews younger than I anticipated as well.

 

3) Some players are super creative and self-guided, but most players need a lot more direction.  After you build a house, a lot of players seem to be unsure of what to do next and leave.  There's no intrinsic benefit to building.  Survival games often employ environmental challenges to keep you on the defensive and reward smart base design.  With transponders, the raids do now provide a benefit to building, but transponders are not well integrated into the core of the game currently (I doubt most new players ever even find them).  Designing from the ground up around PvP base building might have been smart.

 

Next Steps

 

Sometime this month, I'll be transitioning out of Early Access into Full Release.  If I look at ancient screenshots of the game, it barely even looks or plays the same.  I'm super proud of how far the game has come, and the feature complete 1.0 release.

 

I will also be thinking about the Next Project.  Don't panic, 8BitMMO isn't going away.  I'll be continuing to support 8bit with new content.  We'll do some more in-game events also.  Mostly, it'll be business as usual, just with some part of my day set aside to experiment with something new to share with you guys.

 

It should be an exciting 2015!


2196ow0.jpg


#2 The Blood Rose Alchemist

The Blood Rose Alchemist

    Platinum Extraction Manufacuture Corporation C.E.O

  • Members
  • -998558 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 11:31 AM

  Every game has been reviewed by many people, around the world. Some reviews are bad, some reviews are good. Some can also be mixed. Reviews are helpful in a way. They give you an idea of what the game is, tell you if the game is good or bad. Most good reviews give out cons and pros, which are reasonable. It shows that they have researched and played the game. Reviews are also depended on their experience. Some players may feel different about a game. 

 

  But, there are also bad reviews. Most of which are random spam, unreasonable, hadn't researched, or just judge by the cover. Of course, there are many more and bad stereotypes which I will be going through this topic. I'll be going through the bad stereotype reviewers. Showing their errors and their ways.

 

BAD REVIEWER STEREOTYPES:

 

1. Graphics Judge Reviewers

  This one is common for games with pixel graphics such as 8bitmmo itself. These reviewers would make you want to punch the screen. They don't review the game mechanics or the story itself, they review the FREAKING GRAPHICS! Once the graphics is bad, they rate the certain game an incredibly low score! It also happens to Minecraft. I've seen lots of reviewers review about the graphics. Rate and Slap a low score to the game. You got that right, slap a low score till the end.

  That's not the only thing. Some reviewers rate an incredibly bad game a good score just because of amazing graphics. An example would be a game that just makes you walk around in a forest doing nothing but seeing the view itself. They will just rate it a high score just because of the graphics. AND there is absolutely no gameplay or story in it. They just slap scores based on the graphics.

 

2. Title and Title logo reviewers

  You would want to delete their review after seeing theirs. They say stuff bad or good about a certain game. Yet, when you look into their games that they own. Struck with shock and terror, they only played for 1 - 5 FREAKING MINUTE! Seriously, they are the type of people who don't go in depth to the game. Neither did they did some research.

 

3. 'I haven't played it but it looks good/bad' reviewers

  These reviewers are least helpful. Yes, they did some research but they haven't experience a certain game themselves. To get it straight, they just research reviews of cons and pros and look at video game reviews itself. They could be watching IGN Reviews, and then just base their reviews on IGN and some other researched stuff. But if they ever played the game itself, their review could have more detail and would make more sense. And atleast the review would be more helpful

 

4. Spam Reviewers

  I don't need to say a speech to say this. But to just explain it, they just right a bunch of random words and then put a good rating or bad rating. Less helpful then the reviewers who haven't played it. One example would be "I recommend this because it's construction makes you want to fall of a building. 10/10, get this game" obvious troll is troll.

 

5 Unreasonable Reviewers

  2 types of reviewers at the same time. The first one is that they just say "It's a good game, get it 10/10" or "It's a bad game, don't get it. The developers suck". These reviews aren't helpful. Yes, they might be funny. But they give you absolutely no information about the game. 

  The second one is that they just give you cons and pros, but it absolutely makes no sense. Or they just tell you a story or some steps. Examples: "to beat this game step 1: kill and farm step 2: buy black racist tiles step 3: kill and farm step 4: die step 5: kill and farm step 6: buy white racist tiles... 10/10"  "I played this game and I died, WORST GAME EVER"  "Cons: Suck, bad gameplay, just kill, it's a game Pros: it's a game, funny, ugly, styled"

 

Nyao!

Plus they say 'Mirco Transactions' are putting the game down. They say quote " there is literally only 2 ways to get gold: pay money or work your --- off all day"  Plus another problem they say is quote in my own words (meaning it has the same base but exaggerated) "omg dem playerbase is so f------ men -30/10"

 

 

WHAT REVIEWERS WANT (BASED ON REVIEWS): 

1. They Seem to don't/like the humor...

So I've seen some that don't like it but a handful that says it's " RobbyZ isn't Jerry Seinfield, but he sure isn't bad!". So maybe try on more known jokes?

2. PvP

The next one is the pvp, described as 'clunky'. RobbyZ, you might wanna include MOBA stuff there but ehh.... nothing much else left other than adding new weapons and probably armor at some point.

3. Building

Robby, if you're reading this, try and include the Z Axis Point in the tutorial and make an area that lets the players experiment.Many of the players  didn't know how to actually build with Z Axis and tried using Shift and failed horribly .Of course there's gonna be that one guy  who griefs the area, so make it delete every 20 minutes?

4. Dungeons

THE. PLAYERS. WANT. DUNGEONS!!!! They Say player quests are quite.... horrible. They don't like the randomized order, so they would want it sorted into different categories to choose from easy to hard. Plus, WHERE ARE THOSE NEW DUNGEONS YOU PROMISED US!!!


200.gifThe epic up rise of the Hidden Creed is here. Join now.stickfight_editada__by_PCR2.gif


#3 SneakySneakers

SneakySneakers

    COOL MASTER

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1552 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 01:06 PM

There are also those filthy idiots that complain about a game because of it's community. Like, sorry that mods and devs can't MIND CONTROL them!

 

P.S 8bitmmo sucks because SneakySneakers plays it


76561198089099494.png 46XWJMu.gif


#4 PyoroLoli

PyoroLoli

    Just a Cactus

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 485 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 03:15 PM

1. Graphics Judge Reviewers

  This one is common for games with pixel graphics such as 8bitmmo itself. These reviewers would make you want to punch the screen. They don't review the game mechanics or the story itself, they review the FREAKING GRAPHICS! Once the graphics is bad, they rate the certain game an incredibly low score! It also happens to Minecraft. I've seen lots of reviewers review about the graphics. Rate and Slap a low score to the game. You got that right, slap a low score till the end.

  That's not the only thing. Some reviewers rate an incredibly bad game a good score just because of amazing graphics. An example would be a game that just makes you walk around in a forest doing nothing but seeing the view itself. They will just rate it a high score just because of the graphics. AND there is absolutely no gameplay or story in it. They just slap scores based on the graphics.

 

I was once on IRC and found this:

 

[17:48] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> my friend stopped playing because he couldn't see and he thought the "3D affect" sucked :|
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> [12] Players Online
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <SapphireCoyote> What did he expect? Battlefield 4?
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> XD
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> he just said yes :|
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> he did
[17:50] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> :|


"FURY SUCK A CAR" - Po2005


#5 Zooty

Zooty

    princess zooty, a stone cold gangsta

  • Banned
  • PipPipPip
  • 2535 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 03:45 PM

I was once on IRC and found this:

 

[17:48] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> my friend stopped playing because he couldn't see and he thought the "3D affect" sucked :|
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> [12] Players Online
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <SapphireCoyote> What did he expect? Battlefield 4?
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> XD
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> he just said yes :|
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> he did
[17:50] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> :|

While Battlefield 4 is beautiful, I can not run it on my toaster like I can with 8BitMMO.


rrqlql.png

#6 Sharky

Sharky

    Fishy

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 545 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 03:51 PM

While Battlefield 4 is beautiful, I can not run it on my toaster like I can with 8BitMMO.

I can run Battlefield 4 on my toaster. It's smoother than butter!

EMRlBNQ.png


#7 Kralereth

Kralereth

    The Emerald Wizard

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1277 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 04:50 PM

Omg I HATE graphics reviewers! Once I told some of my friends to play a game with 8bit graphics (RotMG) and they told me the next day "that game sucks the graphics are terrible"
FqAuPvV.jpgew5x0uL.png
"I'm just here to watch people die" -TheGreatOnion
"MY SIGT KEY BKORK" -Po2005
"could I end a helping hand?" -Ankos

#8 asedita1

asedita1

    Santa

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 408 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 04:55 PM

I was once on IRC and found this:

 

[17:48] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> my friend stopped playing because he couldn't see and he thought the "3D affect" sucked :|
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> [12] Players Online
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <SapphireCoyote> What did he expect? Battlefield 4?
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> XD
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> he just said yes :|
[17:49] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> he did
[17:50] <@EightBitMMO> <BlockMaker> :|

 

This needs to become the default community response to people complaining about the graphics



#9 madman

madman

    best master yi

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 2505 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 08:52 PM

the thing about the draco quests is that they DON"T HAVE to do it to continue gameplay unlike the tutorial where you have to finish it to continue on to the next area (or else you don't know what to do) so putting zaxis lock training in the tutorial is a good idea. but then again its probably easier if we just let the noobs ask zaxis pro's how to use it since explaining it is probably easier then robbyz coding it. and yeah graphic reviewers suck, a lot of my friends that i invited to the game after a few minutes cuz they said its too confusing with the graphics and one even said: WTH the dude looks like he is floating in the air. and in a last bid attempt to make them continue playing the game i just say: " you rage quit cuz it was too hard for you" which is pretty insulting but most of them do rage quit and never return to the game :( and also my favorite type of reviewer is the dire game reviewers :D their good to farm


E13smaa.jpgcWYq9I1.png

 


#10 pooa123

pooa123

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 81 posts

Posted 04 January 2015 - 09:19 PM

People should just understand that 8bit games have 8bit graphics how hard is it? And insulting someone or something about of what it looks is just rasism.
there's things why I love 8bitmmo.
There's just so awesome community on this game probably the best one.<3<3
Ability to create building's and art.
AND OF COURSE THE SUPER FANCY TOP HAT And OTHER AWESOME AND UNIQUE STUFF.
8bitmmo forever^_^

200.gif200.gifTHIS IS FINLAND

 


#11 The Blood Rose Alchemist

The Blood Rose Alchemist

    Platinum Extraction Manufacuture Corporation C.E.O

  • Members
  • -998558 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 12:21 AM

Honestly, looking through the reviews again, made me want to throw up (I actually did like 5 hours later), and it seems most of them don't understand the meaning of 'Work In Progress'


200.gifThe epic up rise of the Hidden Creed is here. Join now.stickfight_editada__by_PCR2.gif


#12 RobbyZ

RobbyZ

    Administrator

  • Developer
  • 1331 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 02:13 AM

Yep, the reviews kill me a little inside every time I read them.  Some of them are pretty useful, but most of them are vitriolic drivel.  Such is the internet.

 

There used to be ~16 different feedback points, but fortunately during early access they've mostly been resolved except for the notable ones you pointed out.  These are the most tricky, and may even be unfixable.

 

Dungeons - Up to the players to build.  I'm not opposed to lowering the price on spawners to make this more possible.  A quest browser would be a pretty neat feature too.

 

Graphics reviewers are the worst posts to me, because seriously, the screenshots and video tell you EXACTLY what to expect.  How is it people download the game and are then surprised by the graphics?  Pure idiocy.  It's fine to not like the graphics, but then shouldn't you spend your time wisely and go download a game with an art style you like better?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Microtransaction Haters - A lot of people on the internet legitimately think that everything should be free.  The average rating of free to play games on Steam is much lower than the average premium game.  I just now checked the most recently released F2P games tab -- every single one that has microtransactions has a 55% or lower review score.  Only the ones that have no monetization whatsoever are positive.  It's really hard to succeed in this environment.

 

To be fair, there was also a lot of confusion about plat initially.  People didn't realize you could trade plat items for gold.  Fortunately, I haven't seen the MTX Haters opinion surface nearly as much after adding information text about that to get Buy Plat screen.

 

Direct plat trading is also something I am considering adding in future.

 

"I got banned for being a troll" - ...yep. 

 

Humor - The humor is definitely intended for an older audience.  Regardless, people either seem to really like it, or really hate it.  This is quite related to a larger issue of a lot of people just don't like playing tutorials.  The tutorial is only about six minutes long, but the reviewers sure make it sound a lot longer (assuming they even finish it).  To be fair, it used to be even longer, and has been improved over the years.  Now it's down to the essentials of teaching you movement, combat, getting/returning quests, visual overlaps, and respawn.  I've considered adding a tutorial skip, but I think players would get super confused.  A dialogue skip would be a useful feature though, since you can still get the key info on the right tab.

 

PvP - A lot of reviews from people complaining the combat consists of one weapon.  They also uniformly have .1 hours played.  None of these people are getting to the more advanced weapons, arenas, or transponder matches.  It's unfortunate, but if they quit during the tutorial, their impression is going to be ill-informed.

 

Building - This is a legit concern.  Z axis manipulation is not easy to learn, and would be hard to teach as the first lesson in the building tutorial (which is why it's farther in Draco's quest progression).  Ultimately, a 3d perspective view is much better for building with no prior learning, but obviously that's not something that will be happening anytime soon.

 

The Real Core Issues (IMO)

 

Keeping an eye on feedback, I've improved various points about the game over the past few years, since before even Steam.  The tuning has helped a little, but all this improvement hasn't massively changed retention or monetization metrics.  At this point, I don't think it's a matter of making just a better tutorial.  Here's the core problems as I see them:

 

1) Top down building is hard.  People just aren't used to it and it takes time to learn it.  With F2P, people won't take the time to learn things.  3D would have been a better choice.

 

2) The game appeals to a younger target market than planned, and that market usually does not have a disposable income.  This is obviously bad for a F2P game.  I thought a retro aesthetic would have appealed to an older demographic.  Possibly the block building genre skews younger than I anticipated as well.

 

3) Some players are super creative and self-guided, but most players need a lot more direction.  After you build a house, a lot of players seem to be unsure of what to do next and leave.  There's no intrinsic benefit to building.  Survival games often employ environmental challenges to keep you on the defensive and reward smart base design.  With transponders, the raids do now provide a benefit to building, but transponders are not well integrated into the core of the game currently (I doubt most new players ever even find them).  Designing from the ground up around PvP base building might have been smart.

 

Next Steps

 

Sometime this month, I'll be transitioning out of Early Access into Full Release.  If I look at ancient screenshots of the game, it barely even looks or plays the same.  I'm super proud of how far the game has come, and the feature complete 1.0 release.

 

I will also be thinking about the Next Project.  Don't panic, 8BitMMO isn't going away.  I'll be continuing to support 8bit with new content.  We'll do some more in-game events also.  Mostly, it'll be business as usual, just with some part of my day set aside to experiment with something new to share with you guys.

 

It should be an exciting 2015!



#13 The Blood Rose Alchemist

The Blood Rose Alchemist

    Platinum Extraction Manufacuture Corporation C.E.O

  • Members
  • -998558 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 02:18 AM

 

 

 

Next Steps

 

Sometime this month, I'll be transitioning out of Early Access into Full Release.  If I look at ancient screenshots of the game, it barely even looks or plays the same.  I'm super proud of how far the game has come, and the feature complete 1.0 release.

 

I will also be thinking about the Next Project.  Don't panic, 8BitMMO isn't going away.  I'll be continuing to support 8bit with new content.  We'll do some more in-game events also.  Mostly, it'll be business as usual, just with some part of my day set aside to experiment with something new to share with you guys.

 

It should be an exciting 2015!

 

For me, honestly, you should have some sort of Royal Building Groups, to build stuff for you. Like build new dungeons, building etc.


200.gifThe epic up rise of the Hidden Creed is here. Join now.stickfight_editada__by_PCR2.gif


#14 asedita1

asedita1

    Santa

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 408 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 05:46 AM

 

The Real Core Issues (IMO)

 

Keeping an eye on feedback, I've improved various points about the game over the past few years, since before even Steam.  The tuning has helped a little, but all this improvement hasn't massively changed retention or monetization metrics.  At this point, I don't think it's a matter of making just a better tutorial.  Here's the core problems as I see them:

 

1) Top down building is hard.  People just aren't used to it and it takes time to learn it.  With F2P, people won't take the time to learn things.  3D would have been a better choice.

 

2) The game appeals to a younger target market than planned, and that market usually does not have a disposable income.  This is obviously bad for a F2P game.  I thought a retro aesthetic would have appealed to an older demographic.  Possibly the block building genre skews younger than I anticipated as well.

 

3) Some players are super creative and self-guided, but most players need a lot more direction.  After you build a house, a lot of players seem to be unsure of what to do next and leave.  There's no intrinsic benefit to building.  Survival games often employ environmental challenges to keep you on the defensive and reward smart base design.  With transponders, the raids do now provide a benefit to building, but transponders are not well integrated into the core of the game currently (I doubt most new players ever even find them).  Designing from the ground up around PvP base building might have been smart.

 

Next Steps

 

Sometime this month, I'll be transitioning out of Early Access into Full Release.  If I look at ancient screenshots of the game, it barely even looks or plays the same.  I'm super proud of how far the game has come, and the feature complete 1.0 release.

 

I will also be thinking about the Next Project.  Don't panic, 8BitMMO isn't going away.  I'll be continuing to support 8bit with new content.  We'll do some more in-game events also.  Mostly, it'll be business as usual, just with some part of my day set aside to experiment with something new to share with you guys.

 

It should be an exciting 2015!

 

 

 

1)

I agree the fixed perspective building is a challenge, and you the problems in noob buildings... but i dont think after this much time it would be wise to transition to 3d, too much has been built for the fixed perspective

 

2)

i defiantly think your last sentence is more true than you give it credit.  i know minecraft isnt well loved here, but i give it credit for being the game to make sandboxes like 8bit a viable spot in the gaming industry, and it did so because of a very young demographic, one of the youngest of any genre (except FPS which is populated entirely by 3 years olds)

 

3)

this is something that i have been feeling, but unable to put into words, its kinda a 'so what' feeling, and i have to say ive felt it at times.  maybeif the world mobs spawned more frequently and had a larger homing range then a good house would be usefull.  but then we get to a 'now what' that i personally have been able to answer, but many noobs either struggle to or cant.  i think part of the answer is make a town, but that feeds to its own discussion (ill not go there), but i think another good answer would be build a quest.  Right now, quest building is not something most noobs have the ability to do, or even know they can, i definatly support making rewardblocks cheaper and more rewarding.

 

     one suggestion i have, that i dont think has been mentioned lately, if ever is this:

What if there was a NPC that you could give gold (LOTS of gold like 10k/1p or more) to for plat items, i know lots of games often have a merchant that you have to or can buy items from and i think it would be useful for indicating to the player that 'Yes you can trade gold for plat' here is an example, but you can also trade with players.

Of course this would have to me regulated or mitigated in some way to prevent some of the richer players from abusing it, maybe limit # or transactions/time, or amount of plat traded/time, or only available for 1st month of game, but i think that a merchant NPC would be a cool feature

 

"into Full Release"

does this mean all the bad reviews on steam go away? do we get something special for being part of early access? will there be any more updates before the release?

     on a sorta related note, will there be more regularity in the map updating? would there be a way for you to notify us when to expect the next map update? something as simple as a date, or a progress bar, or maybe even a minimap that gets shaded as autocap moves over it.  I would really appreciate anything of the sort.

 

'Next Project"

/me is excited... and scared....

 

To 2015, may your sword's be ever sharp, your inventory's be never full, and your safe's be overflowing!



#15 Kralereth

Kralereth

    The Emerald Wizard

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1277 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 06:25 AM

To 2015, may your sword's be ever sharp, your inventory's be never full, and your safe's be overflowing!


Sounds like the exact opposite of my experience, but I'm still super excited about the full release!! :D :D :D
FqAuPvV.jpgew5x0uL.png
"I'm just here to watch people die" -TheGreatOnion
"MY SIGT KEY BKORK" -Po2005
"could I end a helping hand?" -Ankos

#16 madman

madman

    best master yi

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 2505 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 06:31 AM

 

Yep, the reviews kill me a little inside every time I read them.  Some of them are pretty useful, but most of them are vitriolic drivel.  Such is the internet.

 

There used to be ~16 different feedback points, but fortunately during early access they've mostly been resolved except for the notable ones you pointed out.  These are the most tricky, and may even be unfixable.

 

Dungeons - Up to the players to build.  I'm not opposed to lowering the price on spawners to make this more possible.  A quest browser would be a pretty neat feature too.

 

Graphics reviewers are the worst posts to me, because seriously, the screenshots and video tell you EXACTLY what to expect.  How is it people download the game and are then surprised by the graphics?  Pure idiocy.  It's fine to not like the graphics, but then shouldn't you spend your time wisely and go download a game with an art style you like better?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Microtransaction Haters - A lot of people on the internet legitimately think that everything should be free.  The average rating of free to play games on Steam is much lower than the average premium game.  I just now checked the most recently released F2P games tab -- every single one that has microtransactions has a 55% or lower review score.  Only the ones that have no monetization whatsoever are positive.  It's really hard to succeed in this environment.

 

To be fair, there was also a lot of confusion about plat initially.  People didn't realize you could trade plat items for gold.  Fortunately, I haven't seen the MTX Haters opinion surface nearly as much after adding information text about that to get Buy Plat screen.

 

Direct plat trading is also something I am considering adding in future.

 

"I got banned for being a troll" - ...yep. 

 

Humor - The humor is definitely intended for an older audience.  Regardless, people either seem to really like it, or really hate it.  This is quite related to a larger issue of a lot of people just don't like playing tutorials.  The tutorial is only about six minutes long, but the reviewers sure make it sound a lot longer (assuming they even finish it).  To be fair, it used to be even longer, and has been improved over the years.  Now it's down to the essentials of teaching you movement, combat, getting/returning quests, visual overlaps, and respawn.  I've considered adding a tutorial skip, but I think players would get super confused.  A dialogue skip would be a useful feature though, since you can still get the key info on the right tab.

 

PvP - A lot of reviews from people complaining the combat consists of one weapon.  They also uniformly have .1 hours played.  None of these people are getting to the more advanced weapons, arenas, or transponder matches.  It's unfortunate, but if they quit during the tutorial, their impression is going to be ill-informed.

 

Building - This is a legit concern.  Z axis manipulation is not easy to learn, and would be hard to teach as the first lesson in the building tutorial (which is why it's farther in Draco's quest progression).  Ultimately, a 3d perspective view is much better for building with no prior learning, but obviously that's not something that will be happening anytime soon.

 

The Real Core Issues (IMO)

 

Keeping an eye on feedback, I've improved various points about the game over the past few years, since before even Steam.  The tuning has helped a little, but all this improvement hasn't massively changed retention or monetization metrics.  At this point, I don't think it's a matter of making just a better tutorial.  Here's the core problems as I see them:

 

1) Top down building is hard.  People just aren't used to it and it takes time to learn it.  With F2P, people won't take the time to learn things.  3D would have been a better choice.

 

2) The game appeals to a younger target market than planned, and that market usually does not have a disposable income.  This is obviously bad for a F2P game.  I thought a retro aesthetic would have appealed to an older demographic.  Possibly the block building genre skews younger than I anticipated as well.

 

3) Some players are super creative and self-guided, but most players need a lot more direction.  After you build a house, a lot of players seem to be unsure of what to do next and leave.  There's no intrinsic benefit to building.  Survival games often employ environmental challenges to keep you on the defensive and reward smart base design.  With transponders, the raids do now provide a benefit to building, but transponders are not well integrated into the core of the game currently (I doubt most new players ever even find them).  Designing from the ground up around PvP base building might have been smart.

 

Next Steps

 

Sometime this month, I'll be transitioning out of Early Access into Full Release.  If I look at ancient screenshots of the game, it barely even looks or plays the same.  I'm super proud of how far the game has come, and the feature complete 1.0 release.

 

I will also be thinking about the Next Project.  Don't panic, 8BitMMO isn't going away.  I'll be continuing to support 8bit with new content.  We'll do some more in-game events also.  Mostly, it'll be business as usual, just with some part of my day set aside to experiment with something new to share with you guys.

 

It should be an exciting 2015!

 

pvp should be part of the tutorial or the first sir zombie brain quest where u pvp with a npc avatar so it gets you some real pvp experience rather then fighting hipsters, but i guess most people i know quit the game because the view was too confusing and lots of players have asked if they can rotate the screen. zaxis is quite difficult to master but if a player survives up till there they can just ask the community. i really think some sort of screen rotation should be added cuz another big problem is when your building a tall building and the front side is a solid block, then you can't see behind it where as a screen rotation command would let u be able to see it. but i think the real problem with people quitting is that the game actually requires more skill the games like battlefield4. i mean slaying hipsters with a white sword and reaching the rewardblock that is surrounded with spikes is about 10x as hard as 360 no scoping under the legs headshotting a player in BF4 and most people quit cuz they say "argh the hipster dungeon is too hard" or "argh where is the key to the lawyercat dungeon?" maybe the lawyercat dungeon should have a sign saying the general direction of the key?


E13smaa.jpgcWYq9I1.png

 


#17 Kalaris

Kalaris

    Lord of the Kitty Cats

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 195 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 07:53 AM

Thank you RobbyZ for posting about your opinion. Actually, it was quite useful. I will edit the topic now to add your statements.


2196ow0.jpg


#18 SneakySneakers

SneakySneakers

    COOL MASTER

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1552 posts

Posted 06 January 2015 - 03:52 PM

And unlike some games (cough*starbound*cough) it's a WORK in progress, Robbyz actually implements game-changing updates (town warfare).

STABLE VERSION NOOB SPOTTED! 

 

And town warfare was one of the only things implemented that are actually useful and not fundraisers or artwork showcase.


76561198089099494.png 46XWJMu.gif


#19 TheSapphireCoyoteKing

TheSapphireCoyoteKing

    Bees?

  • Moderators
  • 329 posts

Posted 09 January 2015 - 05:15 AM

I'm going through steam reviews of 8BitMMO as I post this. All I can say is that I've never been angrier.


Sapphire_Coyote_Exp_Bar.png64x64_Bloodshed_5ks_badge.png<5 killstreak badge<64x64_Dominator_10ks_badge.png<10 killstreak badge<64x64_Why_Isnt_He_Dead_Yet_15ks_badge.pn<15 killstreak badge<64x64_Bloodshed_20ks_badge.png<20 killstreak badge<64x64_Im_really_starting_to_hate_this_gu<25 killstreak badge<


#20 SneakySneakers

SneakySneakers

    COOL MASTER

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 1552 posts

Posted 09 January 2015 - 04:15 PM

While some negative reviews are quite valid, most of them are like GRAPHIX SUK AND I GOT MUTED FOR HATING ON THE GAME


76561198089099494.png 46XWJMu.gif