Forged Alliance Forever

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-20T22:45:03+02:00

the most new viewers came from here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrLgylUmE2s
and here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-7Tnmp8sfs
that's kind of dafug

Statistics: Posted by ColonelSheppard — 20 Feb 2013, 22:45

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-19T18:16:54+02:00

On youtube new viewers (not the regular subscribers) come from two sources. Youtube search and related video.

Here is an example of how getting a supcom FA video related to a popular planetary annihilation video lead to 2000 minutes of watch time from 200 new viewers.

A community of a few thousand has a lot of power in terms of what videos are related and what youtube search considers relevant. I hope this makes it clear how you could help reaching new players.

Statistics: Posted by SeraphimLeftNut — 19 Feb 2013, 18:16

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-17T18:24:20+02:00

Noobs just play Thermopolae for a while till they get the hang of it. The appeal initially is just going to be building defences and throwing experimentals around the place. They can graduate to proper matches later if ever.

Statistics: Posted by BLITZ_Molloy — 17 Feb 2013, 18:24

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-17T16:44:43+02:00

Blodir wrote:
Maybe an easy unit comparison table would be nice, but I must join with the rest that showing exact numbers is just confusing. A new player needs LESS information not MORE.

this is exactly what you can do in the unit DB

Statistics: Posted by ColonelSheppard — 17 Feb 2013, 16:44

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-17T15:39:10+02:00

The_PC_Snob wrote:
Blodir wrote:Maybe an easy unit comparison table would be nice, but I must join with the rest that showing exact numbers is just confusing. A new player needs LESS information not MORE.

This exact conversation happened with someone I introduced the game to:

Him: So this factory makes lots of units, which one is good?

Me: I don't know. Each one has its role. Just build tanks for now, you'll be fine.

Him: Ok... how good are tanks. Do they do good damage?

Me: Somewhat. The light bots do more, the artillery has better range.

Him: How much more do light bots do?

Me: I don't know. More.

Him: Why doesn't it says here somewhere? This is stupid.

Me: Just play. Upgrade it later...

Looks like a very specific case. When I've got my friends to try the game they definitely didn't want to make the game even more complicated. Even if someone says they want to know how much damage the units do, it might be better if they don't. The more time you spend on looking at stats that won't improve your gameplay significantly the longer it'll take for you to start winning games. And if you lose all your games you're probably going to uninstall.

Statistics: Posted by Blodir — 17 Feb 2013, 15:39

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-17T02:35:35+02:00

Blodir wrote:
Maybe an easy unit comparison table would be nice, but I must join with the rest that showing exact numbers is just confusing. A new player needs LESS information not MORE.

This exact conversation happened with someone I introduced the game to:

Him: So this factory makes lots of units, which one is good?

Me: I don't know. Each one has its role. Just build tanks for now, you'll be fine.

Him: Ok... how good are tanks. Do they do good damage?

Me: Somewhat. The light bots do more, the artillery has better range.

Him: How much more do light bots do?

Me: I don't know. More.

Him: Why doesn't it says here somewhere? This is stupid.

Me: Just play. Upgrade it later...

Statistics: Posted by The_PC_Snob — 17 Feb 2013, 02:35

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-17T00:43:22+02:00

The_PC_Snob wrote:
Look, I am not a Starcraft advocate. I love Supreme Commander for very good reasons. But if we're trying to have a discussion about how to make people get into SupCom we're gonna have to understand some of our givens about the game are not so obvious to everyone. And antagonizing the people who needs this guidance is not gonna help any towards this objective.

Maybe an easy unit comparison table would be nice, but I must join with the rest that showing exact numbers is just confusing. A new player needs LESS information not MORE.

Statistics: Posted by Blodir — 17 Feb 2013, 00:43

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-16T23:39:18+02:00

Afaik you can disable the tooltips in the options. There is a good place to store any information for new players that could be helpfull. Someone gotta do the work and adjust all tooltips, though.

Statistics: Posted by Zock — 16 Feb 2013, 23:39

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-16T23:35:30+02:00

this is nice argumentation, but somebody would have to do this, and concerning that even the DB is not working 100% correct i dont see anybody atm who had the time + the skills to to what you suggest

Statistics: Posted by ColonelSheppard — 16 Feb 2013, 23:35

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-16T23:01:16+02:00

Look, I am not a Starcraft advocate. I love Supreme Commander for very good reasons. But if we're trying to have a discussion about how to make people get into SupCom we're gonna have to understand some of our givens about the game are not so obvious to everyone. And antagonizing the people who needs this guidance is not gonna help any towards this objective.

Statistics: Posted by The_PC_Snob — 16 Feb 2013, 23:01

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-16T22:36:15+02:00

if he builds it one time he will know it

Statistics: Posted by ColonelSheppard — 16 Feb 2013, 22:36

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-16T21:29:15+02:00

Well, to a new player it matters to know. A new player will see LABs and Medium Tanks and wonder why they'd ever build LABs. Being able to compare units before using them is important when you're learning a game, and frankly a new player will not care much about a "complete unit database" if this is outside the game itself.

Statistics: Posted by The_PC_Snob — 16 Feb 2013, 21:29

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-16T18:21:24+02:00

Sure, the problem is that Starcraft spends a lot of screenspace realty to give this info that becomes obsolete once you get used to it, but in SupCom you could easily have a full UI and a reduced UI (the current UI) for once you're familiarized with the game. Some simple info like unit speed and unit damage (or at least DPS) would go a long way making the game more accessible than lots of info about the economy without any info about the unit itself. It is fun for some (it was fun to me) to discover all this by experimentation and documentation, but most need this information on the spot.

Would the DPS help much? A heavy bot got obviously more demage then a light bot, and is obviously slower (you need to make it only once to see that, if you can't see that with logic). What benefit would you get if you know the exact values? I think theese are only important when you play on a higher level, for new players, its just important to know what role each unit has and when to build either then one, or the other. Exact values would propably be more confusing, as dps isn't the only thing in supcom that is important for the effective demage dealt. I think not bothering everyone with this, and providing it for the ones who want to know in the database http://www.faforever.com/faf/unitsDB/ is a very good solution?

But i may be wrong, it's been a long time since i was new to SupCom.

Statistics: Posted by Zock — 16 Feb 2013, 18:21

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-16T15:46:23+02:00

Flynn wrote:
The trouble is with a game like this you need intelligent people, not MW/MOH/COD meatheads.

Well, this attitude isn't going to help any. The game and its mechanics ARE a bit impenetrable. It doesn't help that there's a lot of mechanics that aren't very well explained and the UI is lacking some very important information because most units are very complex.

In Starcraft, for instance, when you select a unit you can see a lot of info about it that allows you to have an idea of how the unit works.

In Supreme Commander the only useful info we get about a unit itself is their hit points.

Sure, the problem is that Starcraft spends a lot of screenspace realty to give this info that becomes obsolete once you get used to it, but in SupCom you could easily have a full UI and a reduced UI (the current UI) for once you're familiarized with the game. Some simple info like unit speed and unit damage (or at least DPS) would go a long way making the game more accessible than lots of info about the economy without any info about the unit itself. It is fun for some (it was fun to me) to discover all this by experimentation and documentation, but most need this information on the spot.

Statistics: Posted by The_PC_Snob — 16 Feb 2013, 15:46

Re: Word of mouth, is exponential growth

2013-02-15T20:09:03+02:00

The trouble is with a game like this you need intelligent people, not MW/MOH/COD meatheads.

Statistics: Posted by Flynn — 15 Feb 2013, 20:09