What makes you want to play a game?

Hi there. I need your help. My friends and I run a small online gaming commmunity, with a game we've created, have for a few years now. Things have been good, you know. We've made enough money through donations to keep it running, and for each of us to have a little cash in our pockets. However, we've hit a wall. Our community has shifted to being 95% non-english and a very hostile community. We both hate it, but we can't make any drastic changes, with fear of losing a large amount of our playerbase. We both want to change things for the better but have no idea how to.

How can we change things without making the hundreds of people that don't like change go haywire?

How do we attract english-speaking players back?

Are level caps discouraging to you as a player?

What are the kind of items in games you don't mind paying money for?

How do we make end-game content?

Basically, what are things in a game that make you want to play?

I won't post a link to our website/forums here, because this is not an advertisement, but I'll gladly link you upon request.

Question one: Probably never. Unpleasable Fanbase happens, and multibillion dollar companies like Blizzard are still dealing with it.

Question two: Pretty much everything gets translated into english nowadays, so offering something in a different language will attract people that speak it simply because they don't have as many choices. I think. All i speak is english :P

Question three: To me, yes. At least in singleplayer games.

Question four: Vanity and convenience items. Extra Credits did an episode on this, but i'm not sure if it's back up on their Penny Arcade home yet. Suffice is to say: Don't sell sharper swords, sell a sword rack so a player finds it easier to switch between the favorites in his collection.

Question five: Endgame content should usually be targeted to your more hardcore fans, the one that are willing to put in 200% more effort so their character is 5% more powerful then the next guy. But put too much emphasis on it and you'll be neglecting the more casual fans. It's a balancing act, i suppose.

Question six: Skill and mastery of the mechanics leading to success is the most important thing for me in a game. I don't like it when i can win through luck (I'll just cast death! It has a 3% chance of working and i saved three minutes ago!) or attrition (This boss is too hard. I'll just grind some enemies until i'm level 50.).

Anyways, that's my completely uneducated and uncertified opinion that you'd probably be insane to follow to the letter. But I think it's right.

It's the same for me, sort of. When I win, I don't want to feel that I just lucked out. It's a thrill when you know you escaped defeat through your meticulous planning.

I don't really have an issue with level grinding, except when it feels like the game expects me to do that. In that sense, a level cap may help in pacing the difficulty. Or, if you really want to pace things, cap people's level depending on their point in the game.

I'll definitely agree with Shirow Shirow's answer for question six. There's nothing I love more than seeing myself improve as a gamer, and earning my victory due to pure skill.

edited 30th Sep '11 9:12:33 AM by Schitzo

Question 1: It's hard to answer this without knowing the game. Though I figure that if your game has a hostile community, then that's one thing you need to take steps to sort out. That sort of elitism stops MMOs, etc. from growing their playerbase.

Question 2: Does the game have a good standard of English? Poor English standards put alot of English-speaking gamers off, because they feel that they're playing a substandard, mediocre game. Not to say that yours has that problem, just throwing that out.

Question 3: Yes. Capping levels puts a barrier on the amount of time people will play. It depends on how well the level system is capped, but you can't expect people to keep playing when they're inhibited from further progression in their game by level caps. However, at the same time it's ok to have a level cap so that new players don't feel locked out.

Question 4: Weapons, armour, accessories which change your appearance (vanity items), convenience items, possibly useful healing and buff items too.

Question 5: Not a clue.

Question 6: The potential to achieve and gain rewards/bragging rights. An atmosphere of adventure. A compelling story.

Important question for you, OP. Do you actually listen to your players?

edited 30th Sep '11 10:03:59 AM by Shichibukai

@Navi:

If you could give us a link to your game we might be able to offer a more qualified opinion after at least checking it out.