Originally Posted by
Hachima
So I am at level 16 and I still feel like I'm stuck trying to finish the tutorial. Even after coming back from a 6 hour break I don't have the resources for more than 5 min game play, and not enough army for a good 3rd fight. I am left pretty board, wishing I could be initiating multiple fights. After 24 hours, only being able to participate in 2 fights is a bit of a turn off for a new player. In the current state of the game, it will take a new player several days to establish an opinion about the game. I’m not sure what research youhave, but usually only have a 15-30 min window to get peoples interest in your game for the average web game player out there. So you may hit the settlers player fanbase , but you will miss out on a huge general market of gamers that have player similar games but were able to start battles within the first hour or two of playing.
Also when a player first starts the game and several hours into the game they already feel like they need to be using gems, I think they will be left with a bad impression of the game. If the game were live I'd be left with the feeling that the only way to advance at a fun pace is to dump money into the game. While this is intended to some degree, I also feel like there is no advantage I can gain from the game by investing my time into it.
I probably spend ~300 a year on web games, and I've been a developer for a online game company based on micro payments so I've seen all sorts of systems proposed. I don't like the direction of the gem system that is available right now though.
When a browser game doesn't reward my for putting time into it, I play 5-10 min a day and eventually stop playing all together. If I feel like I can actually sit down and play for 1-2 hours and be better off than the guy playing 5-10 min a day I'll be more likely to stick around and invest some money into the game.
In the current state I feel like too much of the progress players can make in the game is gem based and not strategy/time investment based. I'm waiting on resources (mainly stone, then tools). This can be overcome by gems. If I were to buy 1 million gems, and that wasn't my bottleneck, I'd advance, but be left with an unfulfilled feeling of accomplishment. When advancement comes through paying money, there is no real sense of accomplishment. This leaves me bored. If my advancement is due to hard work/smart decisions I would feel more fulfilled by my progress than if I just bought all my resources. Its like playing a game with cheat codes. Sure you beat the game a lot faster, but it leaves you bored sooner and your accomplishment isn't as meaningful. Allowing players to advance through gems is a double edged sword in this way. If too much advantage can be gained through gems, people that initially invest the most, are left with no fulfillment and quit. It’s like a sugar rush for a kid with a big drop off.
I'd prefer more long term rewards, instead of instant gratification rewards. 25% lumber rate for 7 days,30 days 90 days etc. Larger building queue for 7,30,90 days. This is going to keep my playing the game longer too. If I know I still have 10 days left of this boost, I'll feel more obligated to log on and play while I have that boost. Then I'll be more likely to extend it if I've spent all this time building myself up.