How can we increase the player base & boost the longevity

please post your ideas & lets find a way to help Desert help us... One idea I believe that may help with the longevity of the ranked players is bringing back out ribbons & trophies... Spring semester & year, Fall semester & year, Most improved, highest win ratio etc. that might help give the ranked players something to stay enthusiastic about. As far as increasing player base I don't have many ideas besides social media and informing my friends but even when I can convince someone to try out pox, it seems so confusing to them as a beginner. Its kind of hard for them to gain an understanding on what the game is about and learning more about the stories behind pox.

 

and as far as rune pricing and how hard it is to access new runes for new players, we as the Pox community have to understand supply and demand, & what it is to run a business as well. Lets build a bigger base then i'm sure desert can gain more income, then they might start considering lowering rune expenses and accessibility.

 

The game really needs more advertising. While runes are much easily acquired then they ever have been, it's still a massive undertaking for a new player. Making it much easier to get at least your first competitive deck could go a long way. If they made a mobile version that would boost things alot. Using steam was a great idea, but they need to keep up with it, the steam client has alot of issues.

 

Make commons commonly available.

 

yea i'm also all for a mobile app 100%, that would take it to a whole other level; being able to start off accessing runes then eventually working in game play through the app.

 

There has been demand for mobile for some time now, but as I understand it's a massive undertaking that the devs are reluctant to do. I hope it happens, it would be really good for the game. To make money they should focus alot on Reskins and aesthetic stuff like that. When a game is good and free, people are usualy more the willing to pay for that kind of stuff, curently not free enough for that to be viable. May even consider just making the entire core set free, that would give new players alot to work with, and still plenty to achieve.

 

We could kidnap people and force them to play, and then, put those players in a vegetable diet for longevity.

Edit: Kidnap and chaining would also solve player retention.

 

Sounds expensive, game needs a larger player base and income before that is viable.

 

Easy improvements

Create some of those cheesy corny advertisements you find on MMO list websites, you know the ones, the ones with the really revealing fantasy women.

Change create game to being custom games, create an unranked queue where players are matched with people with their similar level randomly.

Remove training mode, include it as a custom game gamemode.

Allow custom games complete control in settings. Unlimited nora, no fonts, ten second turns, etc.

More personalization like skins, rune naming, globe skins.

Better drums of war. Promotes faction loyalty and gives better rewards


"What ifs"

Map creation tool. (Like battle for westnoth has)

Allow custom maps to be uploaded and played in custom games.

Better story driven campaigns, that fully include the lore in a more cinematic and interesting way. Provide limited rune rewards (Like Raxar, a limited version of skeezick general). With over-arcing plots and decision making.

 

The problem with Poxnora and new player is, in my opinion, its complexity.

I have learned this game in about seven years and I still know nothing about half of it. Now, if I should restart and learn again everything as a new player I would probably quit in about a month to save my mind sanity. Too much ability, too much things to keep track during a game, too much interaction... and bugs here and there to mess with everything else.

So, anything that can help to lower the amount of complexity is the best way to go. Some examples:
* Tooltips that say how much damage would be dealt by attacks, spell;
* Unit that get "red" when you choose an ability/attack that can't be used on it;
* Get away with percentages... they are a mess without tooltips.
* More ability consolidations.
* More ability recycle (the player designed expansion gave a good example of what can be done with 0 new code).

That's all for me.

 

You always can force them into slave labor during part-time to cover their expenses.

 

Ah fair. And we can always cut there food/comfort budgets if they are not performing well at the game, food will be the incentive to take the game seriously. Considering how old pox is we can get them pretty junk computers to.

 

The way I see it, I think this is the main critical problem.

Balance is completely irrelevant for a new player (no way you'll notice) and Rune acquisition is secondary at least (it is pretty straightforward with all the Achievements + Forge + Poxbox + Garu Skirmish Farm).

I believe the Nº1 reason why people don't join & stay playing the game is its unreasonable complexity.
- Long and complicated descriptions
- Low standardization of abilities (in any given deck a bunch of runes have individual effects, not keywords, so in order to know what it does you need to read AND try it before hand or you'll run out of turn time).
- Combat log is not easy to read and hard to follow up. (I think it should update less and give more relevant, condensated info.)
- No easy way to know what is currently beeing played or what decks are viable other than forums, watching games or stalking people at the lobby. (I mean, when you are new you have no clue what to play and it is HARD to get quality info without investing a shitload of time).

So from personal experience:
I used to play with a group of friends (7 ppl) we had a fair amount of runes, but they eventually got bored because they never had the time to keep up with the rules and got tired of getting owned by everyone.

If you ask me the main problem is there is no easy way to learn how to play the game at a decent level. Once Pox can retain a good % of the new players, maybe then would be wise to start investing heavily on advertising.

 

Longer turns and more/better tooltips would go a long way. It is a very complex game, and complexity creep should be very limited. The complexity is part of the attraction though so I don't want to see the game dumbed down either. Streamlining things would be good though.

 

Yeah, I'm mostly talking about making the game easy to read and understand, but it should remain complex.

I think we need more descriptions like:
- "Rapid Assault: The next champion you deploy from the runedock has Initiative 2 and Equalize."

and less of:
- "Mindslicer Boomerang: Target real champion you control takes 7 Psychic damage. Then, the closest real champion you control takes 6 Psychic damage. This repeats until all real champions you control have been damaged this way, each taking 1 less damage to a minimum of 1. The opposing champion closest to the last champion takes Psychic damage equal to the damage dealt. The opposing champion also gains Defenseless if 5 or more champions you control were damaged this way."

When you have never seen the spell in action you are like..."Huh what?"

 

They should also have there own detailed search/filter and a list of abilities/tooltips on the homepage or at least add a link to poxbase.

 

To be fair this game is amazing. Yeah it needs work but i'm sure we still have a long while before it as all games must eventually do die. This is literally the best game i've ever played and while its frustrating at times i can honestly say i'm in love.

 

Why must all games die?

 

no doubt you get the influx of new players, from places like steam, just (it being a niche turn based strategy game)... i think the problem is they leave. congrats on the positive steam reviews, that will bring players here. so find ways to keep the new players here.

 

Old players eventually leave because doing the same thing for 5+ years isn't always what you want to do with your time, especially in a game like poxnora where a match can last 30 minutes and not be particularly gratifying. For most games, worthy alternatives are made each year. I haven't found mine for pox, but if duelyst was more to my liking I would probably spend more time there than in pox.

So yeah, eventually even for the hardened veterans this game can get stale.