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So here's a question about getting people to play your content
drakedge2
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 0 Arc User
I have labored many many hours over the quests that I have built. The system though seems to favor people who had access to the foundry tools back during and before the beta weekends. Always placing their quests at the top of the list, keeping their ratings and reviews from the previous betas as well.
How then is a new author supposed to get people to play their content?
I have tried forum posts, sitting in the enclave asking people to try it out and send me their feedback, and other such things?
With the amount of hours I have put into my quests, it's a little disheartening to see things like "XxTrololo ArenaxX" being posted after my content and getting hundreds of plays before mine reaches even 20 plays.
How then is a new author supposed to get people to play their content?
I have tried forum posts, sitting in the enclave asking people to try it out and send me their feedback, and other such things?
With the amount of hours I have put into my quests, it's a little disheartening to see things like "XxTrololo ArenaxX" being posted after my content and getting hundreds of plays before mine reaches even 20 plays.
A story driven quest, with a fun and challenging amount of combat, that takes you into the world of Planescape, carefully hand crafted by me.
Post edited by drakedge2 on
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First, you need a fancy signature. Then you need to be more active, here and in the general forum. Your quest needs to sound interesting. Every post you make is a billboard.
I have no reviews, 9 plays and and only 3 of those nine rated. So sadly, until we get the more intuitive search and quest categorization features that the community has been demanding for some time now, whether or not you quest gets played is far more luck then anything you can do. To most people, if you quest is not in the first three pages of the listing, it might as well not exist.
I have to look at it this way, making Foundry projects has to be number one about your own personal enjoyment. If you make it expecting that it will get played, then you will often be heartbroken. If make content because you enjoy the creativity, and as long as just a few friends end up playing it, then you will have fun. If the quest takes off and is popular, then that is a bonus.
Also, alot of this is due to the players. While the foundry is at its BEST when authors make engaging, well written and indepth quests, most MMO players these days just want the "lolz easy xp reading sux" quests, and that is why those types of mind numbing combat intensive, zero story quests seem so popular. Think of a story driven, or even a good mixed combat/story quest as a niche. They rarely get the plays that these combat driven quests will get. I think one of the best rated (and even spotlighted quests) in Alpha/BW4 was a very very generic light story quests, but a TON of mobs to kill, talking 70+ drow in one map. That is what most MMO players want. The best XP per hour and no reading.
Like I said, enjoy the act of putting your stories into a unique medium, ignore the masses that just want kill kill kill, and take pleasure that even if just two or three players enjoyed your quest, then you did it right.
What I'm trying to say is, have fun. If you like creating stories, then do it for that. Anything else is bonus. Game developers have money on the line, mass appeal is important to them. Is that where you want to be? They have schools for that.
They should have removed all foundry ratings from before the game went live with heroes of the north pack, and started everyone off same to be fair.
I can see where people that have their ratings remaining from earlier betas might disagree, but in all fairness all should have been wiped!
I agree as well. I was in the Alpha test of the Foundry and I am stuck with bad reviews because they tended to break the Foundry quests a lot with patches, which was reflected in ratings. A lot of people had this issue. So we are being graded on content that was made during a TESTING period when the Foundry tools were in constant flux. After every major patch, it was a rush to find what they broke and fix it before the next round of testing.
As it is right now, the average player won't find a new Author's content, not with those that have been around since before the rest of us could even touch the tools sit with thousands of plays and reviews, and thus always ontop of the chart. and readily seen by players looking at their "L" screen.
But I can see why Cryptic wanted the content for release. I also agree that the alpha testers get rewarded for their hours of testing and hard work.
My first quest, which was featured and reviewed very well in BW3 and 4, was barely played at all in the first two days after the Headstart launch, while the ones above me (and there weren't all that many of them) got tons and tons of plays. Yesterday however, my quests suddenly started getting a considerable boost in plays, and now I'm enjoying a constant stream of reviews and tips, lifting me back up in the lists after having been shoved further and further down initially. I had to wait my turn, and while I realize that my turn came early, this is what we can expect right now. Of course, you can skip the queue if you've got a good quest and can somehow entice a few dozen people to review your quest early. This will boost you well up the list very quickly.
It would be cool if they had a couple slides there on the opening page of the "L" key window. Like have a "Featured" - "Newly created counts for dailies" kind of preview tab, so that new authors and old authors are featured on the front page.
1) Cryptic continuing their "Featured" program on a regular basis will potentially give unknown quests and authors a chance in the spotlight.
2) What is the "For Review" tab for? It's been blank any time I've looked at it. Is it broken? If they make use of this properly, it gives players looking for a "hidden gem" somewhere to look.
I'm also thinking of there's a better way for us to help ourselves. Maybe something like a "Hey, if you play mine, I'll play yours!" type program. I know some people have sort of informally done this, but I think there are still some frustrated people here who can help one another with a little bit of organization.
The Crystal Relics - NWS-DMXNCNAVJ
Tower District Contest Entry: Undercover Brother - NW-DCD6OI9JE
There are plenty of other ways they could have rewarded alpha testers without unfairly impacting new foundry authors!
Condensed version: yes, as the system is right now, seniority is an almost insurmountable bonus. Us alpha/beta testers start with a great advantage, and 'headstarters' start with a smaller (but still noticable) advantage. Authors coming late to the party may as well forget about getting their content played (unless they get featured, and the chances of that are.. slim). Featuring is an attempt to spotlight the best of the best. Putting aside the matter of the live team's preferences, this is basically a small team of devs hand-picking 1-2 quests out of tens of thousands per week/month (and you have to ask the question: how are they going to handle the 'submit for featuring' backlog when it grows out of control?).. and that's going to favor other established authors who've already had tons of time to get better at the Foundry and received plenty of feedback for their other content so that they can improve their next quest. Chances are, your first quest will not get featured (talking about a time when there are thousands of quests competing for 'featured' status, of course). As for marketing: it'll maybe get you a handful of plays, unless you really pull out all the stops.
So why isn't this a game-ending issue and why haven't the devs poured thousands of man-hours into this in COH and in STO (I won't mention NW, since the game hasn't even launched yet)? The answer is simple: the payoff isn't worth the cost.
Consider that from a player's POV, having a group of stable 'known good' quests in the browser (even if it's the same 100 quests over 10 years) is much better than having a vast sea of uncertainty. Most players aren't going to be Foundry fiends; they may play a handful of quests during their account's lifetime (and those are likely to be the max-reward min-effort quests). I seriously doubt even the most hardcore Foundry enthusiast (excepting dedicated reviewers, maybe) is going to play more than 200 quests over their account's entire life. There'll be more than a hundred times that many quests after the first month, so it makes sense that everyone wants to play the best of the best and ignore the rest. Yes, the list is going to be stale, and it's going to be impossible to break in. No, this doesn't actually matter to most of the playerbase. Especially when you consider that there'll be a few quests spotlighted every week/month, keeping the content somewhat fresh (and keeping up with the heavier Foundry consumer's needs) and showing that the Foundry is making great content.
And here's a but, that's actually a pretty big BUT. The devs are aware of this, and they promised there'll be some big changes coming in this area (from a functional tag system to incentivization of playing less-known content). They've posted about this multiple times. When (or if you really want to be cynical, if) these features will be implemented is up in the air, but I think there are bigger problems on their plate right now anyway.
Getting good content to players in the Foundry - challenges and solutions
Handle: @zaphtastic
Himmelville - Are you easily frightened?
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On one side of the mountain, there were bones...
@Mithandrel
NW-DCJAT109U
Mindflayer
The note scribbled on a crude map speaks of a cave that leads to a mountainous rain forest know as Jangala, where, amidst the over grown ruins of a forgotten time, the lizard king Bonecrown and his minions have made their home. The entrance to the Kings lair is rumored to be a crowned skull carved into the mountainside. Your contact also told you that an archeologist, Finton Blic, left yesterday in search of the lost City of Jangala... lets hope you can catch him before he runs into the Bonecrown Tribe! He has the only known map to Bonecrowns lair.
V1.B
This is my first foundry quest, 80+ hours in the making. This was a blank large map totally custom, no populate was used everything was placed by hand. I kept the over all adventure simple and went for atmosphere instead of walls of text. I hope I did a good enough job on the aesthetic so that it visually tells a story.
I need players to test it for revision, so any feedback is good.
If you enjoyed it please rate it, if you didn't please take the time to send me a message in game, with any thoughts or bugs you find. Thank you for your time, and enjoy!
More about me here: www.pliaconis.com
Below are some teaser shots of the Jangala region prior to reaching the Lair of Bonecrown!
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Anyway, I don't advertise my missions, in fact, I don't even publish them under this name. Yet people have been playing them and I'm getting both good reviews and tips (which I never, ever expected!).
The only thing I can think of to account for this, is the search tags I've added to the descriptions. I know for myself, that whenever I'm looking for a new foundry mission to play, I type in search words that appeal to me. It looks like other people do too.
Anyway, here are some of the search terms I use (and look for): Easy, Solo, Daily, Cleric, Story, Single.
It doesn't hurt to add particular features from your mission either. For instance, if your mission is set in a crypt with lots of zombies, then I'd add Crypt and Zombie to the search tags as well.
I think one of the worst thing Author's can do, is to not add a good description to their missions.
'This is my mission. I hope you like it' isn't going to get you noticed (or found).
'This is an easy mission, designed for solo players. It's set in a crypt with lots of zombies to kill' will probably get you more attention and more search hits. Because people who are looking for that type of mission will be able to find it.
Well, that seems to be my experience anyway. Hope it works for you too. Best of luck.
Your story introduction is excellent, it's hooked me and I'm curious to know more. But I'm not sure if this is the type of mission I'll enjoy. Is it designed for group play or solo? Is it easy or challenging? Are there puzzles? What type of enemies will I face (are they standard or hard?).
This is the type of information that's very important to me. At the moment, the only search tags you have are Cave, Rain Forest, Lizard and City. If people aren't looking for those particular words, then they won't find your mission.
But as compensation for singling you out, I will play your mission and review it
Personally, these are the types of description I prefer in the Overview. I really only need disclaimers if something isn't solo-friendly and to be fair there are very few 'group' quests that aren't labelled as such (or at least that is my, admittedly limited, perception as a L60 CW).
However, in four days we will see the new player tag system implemented, I can't wait to use it and it looks like it will be really helpful for you klixan, and players like you who search using tags.
To get this necro'd thread back on topic - and weehawk, you really need to make a separate thread for your quest - while I hope the tag system leads to some improvement in what gets shown when we search, I would still love to see a database of all quests, either on the official database, or via the Gateway.
While we may not have as much invested, the lack of choice available via the in-game catalogue is disappointing to players too.
I'm having too much fun just "playing" Foundry to care too much if people play or not. If people enjoy them, that's icing on the cake.
I need more quest slots as well - even though I've only got four "published," I've got 5 more in various stages of development.
So enjoy the creative process, and welcome to "Playing with Foundry" - a game within a game.
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