In all games there is a moment where the player says to themself, "Now what?"
a) The "now what" moment is too early in the player's experience. I LOVE and really can't emphasize this enough that there is more hand holding in the PS4 client than there is in PC (the PC could definitely use this too don't get me wrong). There absolutely needs to be heavy player funneling in a game like this, but there isn't even enough currently. The existing funneling process needs to be drawn out so that players are receiving a trickle of rewards as they are playing, and those rewards should not be just gold. It should be drawn out so that the exit point which currently exists ("go play ranked") is about 3-5 hours further in the experience.
Edit for clarity: On point A; rewards consisting of the ability to unlock all of the precons & unlock cards that directly / gradually improve each of those precons would be the primary carrot on a stick.
b) The "now what" moment is too abrupt. What part of being dumped into the ladder and then getting rekt is a good experience? The player goes abruptly from having fun to not having fun. Ideally there would be some sort of limited/sealed gameplay that new players get to experience. My suggestion would be a sealed deck game with ___# of sparklecap (name?) packs. Such a natural fit and it is a cognitive next step in what currently exists. Furthermore, and this is a big one, limited is the moneymaker for HEX... it doesn't make any sense to dump players strictly into constructed. Introducing it to them is important but it shouldn't be the only thing being introduced.
c) There is not really any in game answer to the "now what" question. This is an extension of point b but the cognitive gap between playing precon decks in the dueling pits and then jumping into ladder with that precon deck only to get your face melted is enormous. The mental hurdle of assimilating all of the cards/information to proceed from this point is too large to expect your average person to WANT to continue playing. It isn't clear what the player is working towards at this point. That last sentence is much less of an issue for an already dyed-in-the-wool TCG player but for everyone else it is enormous. (okay, maybe this step is less concrete)
I know that at the end of the day you need to push your product to market and no amount of hand-wringing about not being ready can change that, but PS4... actually honestly... the entire game in general should have never launched without a step b)
a) The "now what" moment is too early in the player's experience. I LOVE and really can't emphasize this enough that there is more hand holding in the PS4 client than there is in PC (the PC could definitely use this too don't get me wrong). There absolutely needs to be heavy player funneling in a game like this, but there isn't even enough currently. The existing funneling process needs to be drawn out so that players are receiving a trickle of rewards as they are playing, and those rewards should not be just gold. It should be drawn out so that the exit point which currently exists ("go play ranked") is about 3-5 hours further in the experience.
Edit for clarity: On point A; rewards consisting of the ability to unlock all of the precons & unlock cards that directly / gradually improve each of those precons would be the primary carrot on a stick.
b) The "now what" moment is too abrupt. What part of being dumped into the ladder and then getting rekt is a good experience? The player goes abruptly from having fun to not having fun. Ideally there would be some sort of limited/sealed gameplay that new players get to experience. My suggestion would be a sealed deck game with ___# of sparklecap (name?) packs. Such a natural fit and it is a cognitive next step in what currently exists. Furthermore, and this is a big one, limited is the moneymaker for HEX... it doesn't make any sense to dump players strictly into constructed. Introducing it to them is important but it shouldn't be the only thing being introduced.
c) There is not really any in game answer to the "now what" question. This is an extension of point b but the cognitive gap between playing precon decks in the dueling pits and then jumping into ladder with that precon deck only to get your face melted is enormous. The mental hurdle of assimilating all of the cards/information to proceed from this point is too large to expect your average person to WANT to continue playing. It isn't clear what the player is working towards at this point. That last sentence is much less of an issue for an already dyed-in-the-wool TCG player but for everyone else it is enormous. (okay, maybe this step is less concrete)
I know that at the end of the day you need to push your product to market and no amount of hand-wringing about not being ready can change that, but PS4... actually honestly... the entire game in general should have never launched without a step b)
The post was edited 1 time, last by Funktion ().