Immersion

[Gorvarchovic]

Immersion, the key to maintaining a player base, after all this is entertainment and someone has to decide that whatever they are doing is more entertaining than what they could be doing. So I played this point and click game, easy to pick up hard to put down, a key component to putting most people on the road to immersion. My guide placed me in the woods, there was no one around, lots of tress, lumpy uneven ground. As I wandered out, I came across evidence of other people in the area. These places were undeveloped, a few whittler's benches but nothing else and most ominously no people, like they had just given up.

Only played for about 4 days, but I managed to make a 28 x 22 flat even area, free of trees and their stumps, save for a few I left for leaves and branches. I was surprised that the mini-map changed itself to reflect my alterations, the once yellow-orange colored map had a brown rectangle that just seemed completely out of place with the rest of the endless wilderness, someone was here. I build a whittler's bench, fireplace, sawbuck, 4 wooden boxes, pilgrim's hovel, claim stone, kiln, 4 tanning frames, tanning tub, coal clamp, 14 urns, oven, 3 compost bins with a 4th on the way to reflect the humors and a limed cereal field to keep the bins full. Kept mostly to myself, had a few conversations with people, actually started giving out inspirations and food to people who were new if not slightly less wiki-usable than I was. I just finished crafting a backpack and was heading out to kill some crickets and beavers, if I could find the later. I detected some crickets and stopped to line up to attack one, when this guy with a boat on his back comes into view, I remember seeing him in Boston, likes to lean on the center statue, does a beeline for me and then stomps me, it hits for 26, I only had 21.

So there I am on the ground, he follows his attack by saying hello, an interesting way to introduce oneself. He then post a link to some forum, due to the way the ender client handles text, and I assume the general client, I really didn't read it, then he says some other stuff, unfortunately for him I didn't get that either, then he suggest I start on another server and then I am on the loading screen with no character. I assumed he killed me, so I start up a new character and it can inherit the land my other guy had, so I do that.

As I am standing in this settlement it feels strange, something is different, I suddenly know why I am alone in the woods, why there are no other scars on the mini-map in any direction I walk, I start wondering about other things that have nothing to do with the game, the immersion is gone.

To the developers:

2-3 years from now when you are at a table talking about the changes you need to make to kick up more revenue. I want you to remember this sentence. "We allowed a system where a certain segment of our user base could control the base size, and similarly, the money in our pockets."

To the guy who killed me:

Thank you using your far more decked out character to one shot then kill my 4 day character, I have no idea what you typed or why you did it. Based off your bravado I can safely assume I was not the first nor will I be the last. You and yours will continue to run people out of the game and it will eventually shut down, know that when it does, that it was your own bravado that ended your supremacy.

Good luck everyone else!

[Thor]

So what are you trying to say?
Told us the story how the game started for you, had some bad luck and got your character killed and quit?

[Dallane]

Cool story quiter

[martinuzz]

1) where you playing on Roanoke?
2) where you wearing a mask, on bloody sunday?

[jwhitehorn]

I told you about the Treaty. Gave you a link to it. And then ended your life. It brought you to these forums where you should have been weeks earlier to acquaint yourself with the politics of everything. Your welcome.

Chief PeePooKaKa
MM Tribe

[staxjax]

Shame on you jwhitehorn. You broke his immersion.

[alloin]

Only played for about 4 days

I stopped reading after this !!

[JeffGV]

The problem is that he's perfectly right.
There is no reason for a new player to start on Plymouth right now and even if they don't know about the tribe, they would soon discover it (and probably lose everything in the process).
That's also why that one is the least populated server, despite being the first created.
The game itself gives no reason to trust strangers, and neither there is need for cooperation. A new player will either have to start with some friend or play alone. And he won't be able to get decent defenses before someone notice his base and decide to raid him. And even with the scents they won't be able to do anything, cause you would need some experienced player to help you, but neither would be free or devoid of risk, cause he would be risking his alt char to murder another alt char, and why even bother.
This game is flawed in the design itself.

[Nimmeth]

The problem is that he's perfectly right.
There is no reason for a new player to start on Plymouth right now and even if they don't know about the tribe, they would soon discover it (and probably lose everything in the process).
That's also why that one is the least populated server, despite being the first created.

i re rolled Plymouth 1½ week ago, because i wanted to see what all the whining was about, and i was a bit bored walking the same places.
i can confirm you are not correct about this. I've not had any problems with the tribe, it's common sense to read up on the forums before entering a perma death game, or at least it should be.
if message boards were to be placed as Alloin and many others have suggested, then that could be a good source of information about the server state.

Transferring from a good server, i easily recognize another good server.
People is also playing on Plymouth for the thrill of trying to hide, another aspect of the game many do not see.

[MagicManICT]

it's common sense to read up on the forums before entering a perma death game, or at least it should be.
if message boards were to be placed as Alloin and many others have suggested, then that could be a good source of information about the server state.

I don't know if I'd call it "common sense" and you might not have to if you're willing to go through the more difficult part of sorting things out in real time. Of course, coming to the forums and trying to sort things out isn't exactly easy, but I will say so far this community is pretty straight forward and if a person were to ask about it, the various factions and who to watch for and who will help gets posted up pretty quick. (It's been asked before with only a few odd less-than-helpful remarks here and there.) I'd probably expand that statement to "any game with open PvP" as there's a ton of those.