What is up my Aladrans. So today I was playing Loka like I always do and I saw this very sad interaction in the chat between two homeless people:
This really got me thinking about the new player experience on Loka. It goes without saying that there is room for alot of improvement here. As we all know unless you are recruited on Loka by another player who already plays it can be quite confusing learning how to play. For a long time players have been waiting for an updated tutorial / Nomad quest line that makes it so a new player who joins Loka can play all on their own and have things to do that teach them how the server works, then they can get to choose whether they join a town or make their own with a friend group! This is all very cool and it would be a wonderful addition to the server.
However, after some Pondering and Contemplation, I quickly realized that the troubles of the new player do not start and end with their Peripatetic Lifestyle. Instead, they continue long after they have already been recruited into a town. Let us discuss the infamous and majestic
Loka Recruit
The recruit is a delicate creature. He is like a fish in the pond. He is like the cactus in the desert. He is like the hamster on the wheel. He exists and his existence is not only present and valued, it is indispensable. Every Lokan was a recruit once, just like every Lokan was an annoying little whiny baby once (some of you still are!), it is an essential part of the human life cycle itself. However, the recruit is often lost. Often confused. All of this hinders the experience of the recruit. Indeed, it is a sad but undeniable truth that most recruits do not grow up to become Mature Lokans, but they die in their infancy, in a sea of confusion and not understanding how the game works, they perish never to be seen again. It is a tragedy of history.
However, I believe I have found the solution. Loka must implement RECRUIT MODE! What is recruit mode you may ask? Allow me to explain.
In the real world (scary, I know) parents often baby proof their furniture so their little children do not hurt themselves. They activate parental control settings on the devices of their children to keep tabs on them and make sure they are not falling victim to some dark influence out there. They force them to eat veggies and they make them go to bed early. This is because the parents care for their children, and our society provides the parents with the rights (and the necessary mechanisms, legal and cultural) they need to do these things. Nobody questions when a parent enforces rules on their child because we accept that a child is immature and that the parent is the caretaker.
Now, I present you with the following query:
Does the Loka Town Owner not also care for their recruits? Are they not the primary care taker of the recruit?
When the recruit loses a brim or gets lost? Who is there to aid them? When the recruit needs gear or a companion to mine with, it is the benevolent town owners of loka (such as myself) who are there for them, and yet, unlike in the real world, Loka does not provide the caretakers with the necessary rights and mechanisms they need to take care of their recruits.
Recruit mode would change this.
My vision for recruit mode is simply, a mechanism that allows the full owner of the town to enable a setting for their new players until these new players have matured.
Recruit mode would:
- Prevent the recruit from going to gank isle without their caretaker present ("Your primary caretaker is not present so you cannot go here")
- Allow the Town Owner to monitor the location of their recruits via real time coordinates (in game of course, potentially real life if they misbehave)
- When there is an active conquest fight, A waypoint is added to the screen leading the recruit to the war room, big red arrows if necessary (believe me they would be), if the recruit has not registered for warp by a certain time, an advanced path-finding algorithm takes control and moves them to the appropriate location
- When a recruit dies during an active conquest fight, they are instructed by large bold text to make their way back to war room and rewarp, if the recruit fails to do this, the town owner is notified via Mail and an advanced path-finding algorithm takes control and registers them for the next warp
- Play a loud noise and shake the screen via nausea effect if the recruit is AFK during an active conquest fight
- Big red text saying "REPAIR YOUR ARMOR" when the recruit has low armor durability, the ancient ingot texture is changed to a shiny looking item that the recruit would find interesting and would interact with (think plushies or ipads in real life), if the recruit is still unable to figure out how to repair, an advanced armor repairing algorithm would take over and repair their armor
- If the recruit is near an enemy trap or town, their screen violently shakes and a loud pillager horn noise plays until they get back to mid, if the recruit fails to do this or falls into the trap, an advanced dont-lose-your-items-to-traps algorithm would handle the situation appropriately
AND MORE!
These are just the essentials, many quality of life features can be added to recruit mode at Mr. Cryptites discretion.
To address one final concern, the sad reality of abuse in our world. Sadly in real life (its Ok just give me a second) many parents do not care for their children very well, but luckily society has legal mechanisms in place (the rights of the child) to try and protect children. Loka should have this as well. In case their town owners mistreat them or do not care for them, the recruit should have access to a recruit hotline that allows them to plead for help to a staff member. The staff member is tasked with investigating and frees the recruit from recruit mode if evidence of abuse is found. Note that after a certain playtime (Non AFK), recruits would be set free from recruit mode once mature enough to play Loka unguided.
I have thought about this for a bit, and I think this is the future for Loka. I know for a fact that if I was in recruit mode as a youngster back in my day, my experience would have been a wonderful one. If you have any suggestions or disagreements, feel free to point them out below. Please +1 this post and click the up arrow if you agree with the points made here, or if you disagree and still think this is a step in the right direction.
TLDR: There is no TLDR. This is a matter of grave importance for Loka and its future. I apologize to all my Lokans with dysfunctional attention spans and I hope you can understand. Have a fabulous day.
This really got me thinking about the new player experience on Loka. It goes without saying that there is room for alot of improvement here. As we all know unless you are recruited on Loka by another player who already plays it can be quite confusing learning how to play. For a long time players have been waiting for an updated tutorial / Nomad quest line that makes it so a new player who joins Loka can play all on their own and have things to do that teach them how the server works, then they can get to choose whether they join a town or make their own with a friend group! This is all very cool and it would be a wonderful addition to the server.
However, after some Pondering and Contemplation, I quickly realized that the troubles of the new player do not start and end with their Peripatetic Lifestyle. Instead, they continue long after they have already been recruited into a town. Let us discuss the infamous and majestic
Loka Recruit The recruit is a delicate creature. He is like a fish in the pond. He is like the cactus in the desert. He is like the hamster on the wheel. He exists and his existence is not only present and valued, it is indispensable. Every Lokan was a recruit once, just like every Lokan was an annoying little whiny baby once (some of you still are!), it is an essential part of the human life cycle itself. However, the recruit is often lost. Often confused. All of this hinders the experience of the recruit. Indeed, it is a sad but undeniable truth that most recruits do not grow up to become Mature Lokans, but they die in their infancy, in a sea of confusion and not understanding how the game works, they perish never to be seen again. It is a tragedy of history.
However, I believe I have found the solution. Loka must implement RECRUIT MODE! What is recruit mode you may ask? Allow me to explain.
In the real world (scary, I know) parents often baby proof their furniture so their little children do not hurt themselves. They activate parental control settings on the devices of their children to keep tabs on them and make sure they are not falling victim to some dark influence out there. They force them to eat veggies and they make them go to bed early. This is because the parents care for their children, and our society provides the parents with the rights (and the necessary mechanisms, legal and cultural) they need to do these things. Nobody questions when a parent enforces rules on their child because we accept that a child is immature and that the parent is the caretaker.
Now, I present you with the following query:
Does the Loka Town Owner not also care for their recruits? Are they not the primary care taker of the recruit?
When the recruit loses a brim or gets lost? Who is there to aid them? When the recruit needs gear or a companion to mine with, it is the benevolent town owners of loka (such as myself) who are there for them, and yet, unlike in the real world, Loka does not provide the caretakers with the necessary rights and mechanisms they need to take care of their recruits.
Recruit mode would change this.
My vision for recruit mode is simply, a mechanism that allows the full owner of the town to enable a setting for their new players until these new players have matured.
Recruit mode would:
- Prevent the recruit from going to gank isle without their caretaker present ("Your primary caretaker is not present so you cannot go here")
- Allow the Town Owner to monitor the location of their recruits via real time coordinates (in game of course, potentially real life if they misbehave)
- When there is an active conquest fight, A waypoint is added to the screen leading the recruit to the war room, big red arrows if necessary (believe me they would be), if the recruit has not registered for warp by a certain time, an advanced path-finding algorithm takes control and moves them to the appropriate location
- When a recruit dies during an active conquest fight, they are instructed by large bold text to make their way back to war room and rewarp, if the recruit fails to do this, the town owner is notified via Mail and an advanced path-finding algorithm takes control and registers them for the next warp
- Play a loud noise and shake the screen via nausea effect if the recruit is AFK during an active conquest fight
- Big red text saying "REPAIR YOUR ARMOR" when the recruit has low armor durability, the ancient ingot texture is changed to a shiny looking item that the recruit would find interesting and would interact with (think plushies or ipads in real life), if the recruit is still unable to figure out how to repair, an advanced armor repairing algorithm would take over and repair their armor
- If the recruit is near an enemy trap or town, their screen violently shakes and a loud pillager horn noise plays until they get back to mid, if the recruit fails to do this or falls into the trap, an advanced dont-lose-your-items-to-traps algorithm would handle the situation appropriately
AND MORE!
These are just the essentials, many quality of life features can be added to recruit mode at Mr. Cryptites discretion.
To address one final concern, the sad reality of abuse in our world. Sadly in real life (its Ok just give me a second) many parents do not care for their children very well, but luckily society has legal mechanisms in place (the rights of the child) to try and protect children. Loka should have this as well. In case their town owners mistreat them or do not care for them, the recruit should have access to a recruit hotline that allows them to plead for help to a staff member. The staff member is tasked with investigating and frees the recruit from recruit mode if evidence of abuse is found. Note that after a certain playtime (Non AFK), recruits would be set free from recruit mode once mature enough to play Loka unguided.
I have thought about this for a bit, and I think this is the future for Loka. I know for a fact that if I was in recruit mode as a youngster back in my day, my experience would have been a wonderful one. If you have any suggestions or disagreements, feel free to point them out below. Please +1 this post and click the up arrow if you agree with the points made here, or if you disagree and still think this is a step in the right direction.
TLDR: There is no TLDR. This is a matter of grave importance for Loka and its future. I apologize to all my Lokans with dysfunctional attention spans and I hope you can understand. Have a fabulous day.
