I would love for them to get rid of the streamlined character creation.
But if, for whatever reason, that's not in the cards, then at least when somebody first starts up creating a character, tell them it's been streamlined and that more options will quickly open up for them after playing for a bit. At least that way you wouldn't have people going "This creator sucks, it's got no options!" and not bothering with the game.
At the risk of, well, irritating the vast majority of folks in this thread....
I believe the reasoning behind limiting new people's costume creation is because they do not want new people to get bored of the character creation process and quit before they actually play.
While that last sentence may sound alien to many of you, the developers know this to be the case for many (not some, but many) new players.
While there are people who care very much about specific itemized details on their costumes, they (YOU) are already playing, and will likely continue to do so.
That move (limiting initial costume creation time) isn't made with you in mind. It's for the casual person who's never played a superhero-themed, or perhaps any MMO, before.
Not attacking... just saying.
Peace
And I'm just saying you're way wrong about it being "many" when you should be saying is "a few" or "a minority of".
I have observed that about 50 to almost 100 of my friends started playing this game that NEVER played City of Heroes or another superhero MMO.
My very first comments about Champions Online? I recall I said something about "looks cheesy", "I don't do MMO's anymore", and "eww that cellshaded black-outline crap is hideous...". Then I loaded up the character creator and spent TWO HOURS making my first character, and I distinctly remember being pleased with the final product. In fact, the armor of that character has hardly changed to this very day!
The other 50+? They all have commented at some point that one of the first things that attracted them was the ability to customize their character. Many of them were pulled over by word-of-mouth from other games, mostly shooters. Another common praise I used to hear was how this game was not another WoW-like grindfest... which is no longer true... and probably reason why 60% or more of my friends list never even logs on.
And really, the last time we were polled was last year about a travel power to be developed... Practically non-existant...
And I'm just saying you're way wrong about it being "many" when you should be saying is "a few" or "a minority of".
I don't think this is a call any player can make. While your own personal experience may lean heavily toward one side, one single person can't be representative of the entire population.
At the risk of, well, irritating the vast majority of folks in this thread....
I believe the reasoning behind limiting new people's costume creation is because they do not want new people to get bored of the character creation process and quit before they actually play.
While that last sentence may sound alien to many of you, the developers know this to be the case for many (not some, but many) new players.
While there are people who care very much about specific itemized details on their costumes, they (YOU) are already playing, and will likely continue to do so.
That move (limiting initial costume creation time) isn't made with you in mind. It's for the casual person who's never played a superhero-themed, or perhaps any MMO, before.
Not attacking... just saying.
Peace
I understand where you're coming from. But at the same time, the costume creator is one of the best parts of this game. To hinder it in any way to new players, is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Additionally, if people don't want to customize their character, there are multiple ways that the character creator can randomly create a costume for you, based off of several simple options. Plus I've seen new people play a character that is the default design for the archetype they're playing. So it seems to be kind of pointless. Plus this game is all about customization. To get into it and either not wanting to customize, or not finding enough customization options available, will hinder either demographic.
Decisions like this don't get made all willy-nilly. They don't just sit around trying to come up with things for people to do because they're sitting on their thumbs all day. This seems to me like a reactive decision, meaning something prompted them to do it.
I would be surprised if they didn't have some sort of analytics keeping track of everything that happens when a person logs in. Pull up a log of all new registrants, and see how far they got in the game, how long they were logged in for, how much time they spent here, there, everywhere.
They probably saw a lot of people just not coming back to the game after they got to around level 10, and that's probably the reason why the early game was redesigned so many times. And, they probably saw a lot of people not even getting past the character creator, whether they spent five minutes there and quit, or they spent four hours there and just thought that was enough time spent, and logged out.
Yet at the end of the day, all of this is simply speculation. Until someone comes up with hard numbers to back up such theories, that's all it will be.
Decisions like this don't get made all willy-nilly.
Eh, in corporations, they do all the time. Most likely scenario is some middle management type giving his ignorant boss all kinds of wrong information to back up the stupid idea he came up with to justify his job. And then it came up in a meeting...whereupon the "None of us is as dumb as all of us" concept came into play.
Decisions like this don't get made all willy-nilly.
This may sound harsh, but personally I'd rather believe that some of these decisions like this one are impulse decisions rather than believe that they were actually something someone(s) thought through and then implemented.
This may sound harsh, but personally I'd rather believe that some of these decisions like this one are impulse decisions rather than believe that they were actually something someone(s) thought through and then implemented.
Too true... Impulsive decisions... by people who might not be breathing pure air...
The Forumite formerly known as Galeforce.
If you want my money, there is a fairly simple way to get it since I am fairly free with how I spend it. First, produce something I consider to be worth buying. Second, offer it up for sale. Don't lock it behind a gambling scam. If I want something, I am perfectly happy to pay for it. But I will not purchase a CHANCE to get it, When I pay money, I have a perfectly logical right to expect to get what I want.
Yet at the end of the day, all of this is simply speculation. Until someone comes up with hard numbers to back up such theories, that's all it will be.
This may sound harsh, but personally I'd rather believe that some of these decisions like this one are impulse decisions rather than believe that they were actually something someone(s) thought through and then implemented.
The thing is, I don't believe the concept of this was bad idea at all. What's wrong with this change was the implementation. It should have been an optional thing all along. Some people just want to jump in and play (I mean, how many times have you seen Mr. Default Costume running around with like, just a different belt, or all the sliders maxed out?).
After selecting your powers but before your costume editor comes up, there needs to be a screen that says "Click here to enter the full costume creator," and another with "Click here to enter the basic costume creator, so you can get in the game quicker and beat some butts."
This would also be a perfect opportunity to display a "Hey man, don't copy copyrighted characters, you jerk!" message.
Eh, in corporations, they do all the time. Most likely scenario is some middle management type giving his ignorant boss all kinds of wrong information to back up the stupid idea he came up with to justify his job. And then it came up in a meeting...whereupon the "None of us is as dumb as all of us" concept came into play.
When the change was first made, we looked at the character creator and decided that many new players would get lost in all the options. It's the In-N-Out paradigm: For new folks, there's a very stripped-down menu to draw attention to what's most popular, but once you start asking around, you can order animal-style fries off the secret menu.
What this didn't account for, of course, was the closure of City of Heroes. We got a ton of players who weren't going to be confused by the full menu. We're aware of this mismatch, and if we get a chance after the Lemurian Invasion ends, we'll start crunching some numbers. It may end up that this streamlining is still beneficial for enough new players that it still makes sense; we'll need to see the numbers.
I let my twelve-year-old son create an account the other day, and he was terribly disappointed at the limited character-creation options. When I explained what was going on, he thought it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard and couldn't imagine why anyone who wanted to create a superhero would want limited options.. And he's twelve. (And fairly easily overwhelmed.) I'm just saying.
The thing is, I don't believe the concept of this was bad idea at all.
Eh, guess I can agree to disagree. There's just something innately wrong, IMO, about assuming that your new customer base is too stupid to be able to use the full features you offer and the solution is to limit all of them rather than provide the choice (as you mentioned) or gawd forbid provide some help hints they could click on (like question mark buttons in other games) that explain exactly what an option does.
I can't go by any data Cryptic may have (even TT says they "decided that many new players would get lost in all the options". Not did get lost, they decided/deduced/assumed/hypothesized that they would) but the experience I have with people trying to get into the game is telling a significantly different story from the one TT says they decided "would" happen. So far, I haven't run into a single player with a different story from mine either. Not even one. Not even someone just being a contrarian, devil's advocate or just plain trolling. I haven't run into one person who said someone they knew came to the game, got overwhelmed with the character creator and quit. Can't stress that enough. Not.even.one.person. But there are numerous (myself included) saying the opposite however.
At the end of the day, their game, I just play it. The decisions made speak for themselves and don't really need any explanations from any of us when it really comes down to it.
Before his account was banned (because I asked for CS help with something and was dumb and honest enough to explain that it was my son's account) my eleven year old had no problems with the creator...nor did any of the over two dozen kids on his friends list from our neighborhood or his school.
I haven't run into one person who said someone they knew came to the game, got overwhelmed with the character creator and quit.
Then the system is working? :P
I'm just saying, the system has merit if implemented properly, and in my opinion it wasn't. Since I'm not Cryptic though, I can't even guess at how positively or negatively this thing has worked for Champs.
I should have stated that I was talking about before the change. But, fair is fair. You got me. And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for...
I should have stated that I was talking about before the change. But, fair is fair. You got me. And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for...
Nah I knew what you meant, was just making jokes. I think I've only heard a couple of people ever mention that there was too much stuff and things were hard to find because everything is in a huge list or something, but that could also be the fault of an aging layout.
I can't go by any data Cryptic may have (even TT says they "decided that many new players would get lost in all the options". Not did get lost, they decided/deduced/assumed/hypothesized that they would) but the experience I have with people trying to get into the game is telling a significantly different story from the one TT says they decided "would" happen.
Yeah, this is what bothered me about TT's post. No examination of actual data, just a "feeling."
Impulse decision. And a poor one at that. Shame on you, Cryptic.
When the change was first made, we looked at the character creator and decided that many new players would get lost in all the options.
See, that makes absolutely no sense to me. If that were true, it would indicate to me a flaw in how the creator is set up that needed to be fixed as opposed to somewhat draconian and undocumented limitations for an eyeblink. It's not that big a deal once you know what's up, but it seems a very weird problem solving process.
I mean, it's like saying "People are going to be confused by the creator, but after they play for an hour, they'll no longer be confused".
As I understand, you've only been here a few months, yeah?
Well I've only seen Mr. default costume a few times myself as well and by few I mean single digits. But on the flip side they had names like asdfghjk. Wait...I think that just made an argument for people being too dumb to create a name...Quick, someone "fix" the entry box for names! People are getting overwhelmed with too many letter choices!
(I mean, how many times have you seen Mr. Default Costume running around with like, just a different belt, or all the sliders maxed out?).
Which is why I keep saying that they should have done what they did in CoX and added some Preset Costume options instead of limiting the amount of costume pieces we get. Limiting the amount of costume pieces for the ENTIRE community because of the minuscule fraction of the community that doesn't want to spend time creating a costume before they jump into the game will only limit the options for the vast majority that come into this game precisely for the costume editor while STILL requiring the players that don't care about it (or at least don't want to spend time creating one right away) to spend time working on their costume.
This has already been partly done in the form of new default costumes based on selected ATs, but a better alternative to deal with this perceived issue (which I strongly believe affects only a minuscule portion of the population) would be to offer a list of Preset Costumes for those that want to jump in right away, with the option to work on your own using the entire alotment of available pieces.
Being underwhelmed with the costume creator almost turned me off of this game when I was looking for a new game after they announced the death of CoH.
Between that and the tutorial that can only be appreciated after you no longer need a tutorial and its distinct lack of travel powers to cover the still goofy run animation I had crossed CO off my list until I learned there was sidekicking (of a more primitive kind) which was one of the big bullet points for the next game.
Anyways, it does not make it easy to pitch this game to former CoHers. "The game sucks until you get someone to level 10." is unfortunately a required disclaimer and an almost insurmountable barrier.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Which is why I keep saying that they should have done what they did in CoX and added some Preset Costume options instead of limiting the amount of costume pieces we get. Limiting the amount of costume pieces for the ENTIRE community because of the minuscule fraction of the community that doesn't want to spend time creating a costume before they jump into the game will only limit the options for the vast majority that come into this game precisely for the costume editor while STILL requiring the players that don't care about it (or at least don't want to spend time creating one right away) to spend time working on their costume.
This has already been partly done in the form of new default costumes based on selected ATs, but a better alternative to deal with this perceived issue (which I strongly believe affects only a minuscule portion of the population) would be to offer a list of Preset Costumes for those that want to jump in right away, with the option to work on your own using the entire alotment of available pieces.
Yeah I don't disagree.
They do have a sort of "preset" thing going on, but it's so unnoticeable I doubt many people use it. In the randomize section, you can select a theme and hit randomize. Kinda preset. But real presets would be cool too.
See, that makes absolutely no sense to me. If that were true, it would indicate to me a flaw in how the creator is set up that needed to be fixed as opposed to somewhat draconian and undocumented limitations for an eyeblink. It's not that big a deal once you know what's up, but it seems a very weird problem solving process.
I mean, it's like saying "People are going to be confused by the creator, but after they play for an hour, they'll no longer be confused".
Agreed.
Maybe I a bit old fashioned but it just seems like a bad idea to hide your product's best feature from prospective new customers. Back in the old days if a company had developed a product with a particularly desirable feature they would make a point of actually telling people about it. This whole newfangled approach of hiding your product's best features so that new customer's don't see it just seems like it might be bad for business somehow.
I've NEVER seen this limited costume creator, but I agree whole heartedly. It sucks. The costume creator should not be cut down until after tutorial. Or at the VERY LEAST there should be a tick box to show the more advanced options the first time around.
I love advanced options, even on games I'm new to. Take TERA for instance, they have an advanced tick box setting for their character creation screen. I clicked it the first time I loaded TERA up in closed beta.
Some people like it, and the first thing people should see is the fact that there's a lot more to the game than just the surface.
When the change was first made, we looked at the character creator and decided that many new players would get lost in all the options. It's the In-N-Out paradigm: For new folks, there's a very stripped-down menu to draw attention to what's most popular, but once you start asking around, you can order animal-style fries off the secret menu.
What this didn't account for, of course, was the closure of City of Heroes. We got a ton of players who weren't going to be confused by the full menu. We're aware of this mismatch, and if we get a chance after the Lemurian Invasion ends, we'll start crunching some numbers. It may end up that this streamlining is still beneficial for enough new players that it still makes sense; we'll need to see the numbers.
Ok, I'm sorry but this is incorrect and foolish beyond belief...
1. A common #1 rule in business? Know thy market! This isn't a facebook game, shooter, or mainstream MMO. This is a game where you can make your own superhero from your imagination. That's what makes this game unique for new players. Your place in the video game market MUST be tailored to that, or your competition is going to crush you and put you out of business (often times as a slow death full of neglected customers, overworked & underpaid employees, and montly meetings with layoff/firings and lots of tears)
In short, not knowing your market is business suicide, and everyone gets hurt.
2. If you have numbers, they are wrong.
Everything I have seen, whether myself, my friends, kids who are way too young to be playing this game, people over 60 playing this game, etc. are saying they first noticed & liked how you could customize in detail.
What ever metrics you are using are giving some sort of error. Too small sampling size, sampling bias, bad assumptions?
3. Improving the costume creator is good, but limiting it is not.
4. Not showing premium costume sets to where people can "try them on" kills a built-in effective means of advertising.
4. Not showing premium costume sets to where people can "try them on" kills a built-in effective means of advertising.
Heck, under this "streamlined" system, you don't even know there are costume sets to buy. Nor do you know about premium ATs, because they don't show up as possibilities until you get a toon to minimum 10, then start a new toon. Anyone starting into this game without a friend already playing must wonder what on Earth is in the cash shop, since nothing is said about anything a new player might want...
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
Heck, under this "streamlined" system, you don't even know there are costume sets to buy. Nor do you know about premium ATs, because they don't show up as possibilities until you get a toon to minimum 10, then start a new toon. Anyone starting into this game without a friend already playing must wonder what on Earth is in the cash shop, since nothing is said about anything a new player might want...
Err well yes that's what I meant but you explained it in better detail.
Comments
But if, for whatever reason, that's not in the cards, then at least when somebody first starts up creating a character, tell them it's been streamlined and that more options will quickly open up for them after playing for a bit. At least that way you wouldn't have people going "This creator sucks, it's got no options!" and not bothering with the game.
And I'm just saying you're way wrong about it being "many" when you should be saying is "a few" or "a minority of".
I have observed that about 50 to almost 100 of my friends started playing this game that NEVER played City of Heroes or another superhero MMO.
My very first comments about Champions Online? I recall I said something about "looks cheesy", "I don't do MMO's anymore", and "eww that cellshaded black-outline crap is hideous...". Then I loaded up the character creator and spent TWO HOURS making my first character, and I distinctly remember being pleased with the final product. In fact, the armor of that character has hardly changed to this very day!
The other 50+? They all have commented at some point that one of the first things that attracted them was the ability to customize their character. Many of them were pulled over by word-of-mouth from other games, mostly shooters. Another common praise I used to hear was how this game was not another WoW-like grindfest... which is no longer true... and probably reason why 60% or more of my friends list never even logs on.
And really, the last time we were polled was last year about a travel power to be developed... Practically non-existant...
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
Does your Champion have a theme song? (share it!)
Got a funny in-game screenshot? (share it!)
Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)
I don't think this is a call any player can make. While your own personal experience may lean heavily toward one side, one single person can't be representative of the entire population.
I understand where you're coming from. But at the same time, the costume creator is one of the best parts of this game. To hinder it in any way to new players, is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Additionally, if people don't want to customize their character, there are multiple ways that the character creator can randomly create a costume for you, based off of several simple options. Plus I've seen new people play a character that is the default design for the archetype they're playing. So it seems to be kind of pointless. Plus this game is all about customization. To get into it and either not wanting to customize, or not finding enough customization options available, will hinder either demographic.
Yet at the end of the day, all of this is simply speculation. Until someone comes up with hard numbers to back up such theories, that's all it will be.
Eh, in corporations, they do all the time. Most likely scenario is some middle management type giving his ignorant boss all kinds of wrong information to back up the stupid idea he came up with to justify his job. And then it came up in a meeting...whereupon the "None of us is as dumb as all of us" concept came into play.
This may sound harsh, but personally I'd rather believe that some of these decisions like this one are impulse decisions rather than believe that they were actually something someone(s) thought through and then implemented.
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
Too true... Impulsive decisions... by people who might not be breathing pure air...
The Forumite formerly known as Galeforce.
If you want my money, there is a fairly simple way to get it since I am fairly free with how I spend it. First, produce something I consider to be worth buying. Second, offer it up for sale. Don't lock it behind a gambling scam. If I want something, I am perfectly happy to pay for it. But I will not purchase a CHANCE to get it, When I pay money, I have a perfectly logical right to expect to get what I want.
Very much so.
The thing is, I don't believe the concept of this was bad idea at all. What's wrong with this change was the implementation. It should have been an optional thing all along. Some people just want to jump in and play (I mean, how many times have you seen Mr. Default Costume running around with like, just a different belt, or all the sliders maxed out?).
After selecting your powers but before your costume editor comes up, there needs to be a screen that says "Click here to enter the full costume creator," and another with "Click here to enter the basic costume creator, so you can get in the game quicker and beat some butts."
This would also be a perfect opportunity to display a "Hey man, don't copy copyrighted characters, you jerk!" message.
When the change was first made, we looked at the character creator and decided that many new players would get lost in all the options. It's the In-N-Out paradigm: For new folks, there's a very stripped-down menu to draw attention to what's most popular, but once you start asking around, you can order animal-style fries off the secret menu.
What this didn't account for, of course, was the closure of City of Heroes. We got a ton of players who weren't going to be confused by the full menu. We're aware of this mismatch, and if we get a chance after the Lemurian Invasion ends, we'll start crunching some numbers. It may end up that this streamlining is still beneficial for enough new players that it still makes sense; we'll need to see the numbers.
I like cats :cool:.
UGC Campaign: The Coldblooded Scrolls
Eh, guess I can agree to disagree. There's just something innately wrong, IMO, about assuming that your new customer base is too stupid to be able to use the full features you offer and the solution is to limit all of them rather than provide the choice (as you mentioned) or gawd forbid provide some help hints they could click on (like question mark buttons in other games) that explain exactly what an option does.
I can't go by any data Cryptic may have (even TT says they "decided that many new players would get lost in all the options". Not did get lost, they decided/deduced/assumed/hypothesized that they would) but the experience I have with people trying to get into the game is telling a significantly different story from the one TT says they decided "would" happen. So far, I haven't run into a single player with a different story from mine either. Not even one. Not even someone just being a contrarian, devil's advocate or just plain trolling. I haven't run into one person who said someone they knew came to the game, got overwhelmed with the character creator and quit. Can't stress that enough. Not.even.one.person. But there are numerous (myself included) saying the opposite however.
At the end of the day, their game, I just play it. The decisions made speak for themselves and don't really need any explanations from any of us when it really comes down to it.
Before his account was banned (because I asked for CS help with something and was dumb and honest enough to explain that it was my son's account) my eleven year old had no problems with the creator...nor did any of the over two dozen kids on his friends list from our neighborhood or his school.
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
Then the system is working? :P
I'm just saying, the system has merit if implemented properly, and in my opinion it wasn't. Since I'm not Cryptic though, I can't even guess at how positively or negatively this thing has worked for Champs.
Touche
I should have stated that I was talking about before the change. But, fair is fair. You got me. And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for...
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
Nah I knew what you meant, was just making jokes. I think I've only heard a couple of people ever mention that there was too much stuff and things were hard to find because everything is in a huge list or something, but that could also be the fault of an aging layout.
Sorry, this is silly. Anyone who can get into an MMO in the first place isn't going to have problems with lots of costume options. Bad idea.
So far, I've only seen it twice.
Yeah, this is what bothered me about TT's post. No examination of actual data, just a "feeling."
Impulse decision. And a poor one at that. Shame on you, Cryptic.
As I understand, you've only been here a few months, yeah?
See, that makes absolutely no sense to me. If that were true, it would indicate to me a flaw in how the creator is set up that needed to be fixed as opposed to somewhat draconian and undocumented limitations for an eyeblink. It's not that big a deal once you know what's up, but it seems a very weird problem solving process.
I mean, it's like saying "People are going to be confused by the creator, but after they play for an hour, they'll no longer be confused".
Well I've only seen Mr. default costume a few times myself as well and by few I mean single digits. But on the flip side they had names like asdfghjk. Wait...I think that just made an argument for people being too dumb to create a name...Quick, someone "fix" the entry box for names! People are getting overwhelmed with too many letter choices!
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
Which is why I keep saying that they should have done what they did in CoX and added some Preset Costume options instead of limiting the amount of costume pieces we get. Limiting the amount of costume pieces for the ENTIRE community because of the minuscule fraction of the community that doesn't want to spend time creating a costume before they jump into the game will only limit the options for the vast majority that come into this game precisely for the costume editor while STILL requiring the players that don't care about it (or at least don't want to spend time creating one right away) to spend time working on their costume.
This has already been partly done in the form of new default costumes based on selected ATs, but a better alternative to deal with this perceived issue (which I strongly believe affects only a minuscule portion of the population) would be to offer a list of Preset Costumes for those that want to jump in right away, with the option to work on your own using the entire alotment of available pieces.
Between that and the tutorial that can only be appreciated after you no longer need a tutorial and its distinct lack of travel powers to cover the still goofy run animation I had crossed CO off my list until I learned there was sidekicking (of a more primitive kind) which was one of the big bullet points for the next game.
Anyways, it does not make it easy to pitch this game to former CoHers. "The game sucks until you get someone to level 10." is unfortunately a required disclaimer and an almost insurmountable barrier.
Yeah I don't disagree.
They do have a sort of "preset" thing going on, but it's so unnoticeable I doubt many people use it. In the randomize section, you can select a theme and hit randomize. Kinda preset. But real presets would be cool too.
Agreed.
Maybe I a bit old fashioned but it just seems like a bad idea to hide your product's best feature from prospective new customers. Back in the old days if a company had developed a product with a particularly desirable feature they would make a point of actually telling people about it. This whole newfangled approach of hiding your product's best features so that new customer's don't see it just seems like it might be bad for business somehow.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
I love advanced options, even on games I'm new to. Take TERA for instance, they have an advanced tick box setting for their character creation screen. I clicked it the first time I loaded TERA up in closed beta.
Some people like it, and the first thing people should see is the fact that there's a lot more to the game than just the surface.
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ
Ok, I'm sorry but this is incorrect and foolish beyond belief...
1. A common #1 rule in business? Know thy market! This isn't a facebook game, shooter, or mainstream MMO. This is a game where you can make your own superhero from your imagination. That's what makes this game unique for new players. Your place in the video game market MUST be tailored to that, or your competition is going to crush you and put you out of business (often times as a slow death full of neglected customers, overworked & underpaid employees, and montly meetings with layoff/firings and lots of tears)
In short, not knowing your market is business suicide, and everyone gets hurt.
2. If you have numbers, they are wrong.
Everything I have seen, whether myself, my friends, kids who are way too young to be playing this game, people over 60 playing this game, etc. are saying they first noticed & liked how you could customize in detail.
What ever metrics you are using are giving some sort of error. Too small sampling size, sampling bias, bad assumptions?
3. Improving the costume creator is good, but limiting it is not.
4. Not showing premium costume sets to where people can "try them on" kills a built-in effective means of advertising.
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
Does your Champion have a theme song? (share it!)
Got a funny in-game screenshot? (share it!)
Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Err well yes that's what I meant but you explained it in better detail.
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
Does your Champion have a theme song? (share it!)
Got a funny in-game screenshot? (share it!)
Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)