Neat title, eh?
I've stated it before, and I'll say it again, Loka is far from newbie-friendly. Try as we might with various text pop-ups, the initial steps on Loka drive players away no matter which path they take. I myself left Loka before NN considered moving here, out of confusion and frustration. And even then, I was lucky. I was immediately helped out by the lovely Mr. @Jammin_Mas in a voice chat, and I was totally and utterly lost.
Is this a bad thing? Well, sure, it's why most new players leave within a day or two. It's why we know most people on the server at any given time. But I want to make it clear that I am not pinning this on the administration. From the tutorial to the text pop-ups to the various staff/Slicer roles, Loka has a good system in place to help new players. The issue is, Loka is so customized and unique that it's hard for players to understand quickly.
Think of it this way. After the tutorial, a new player has three options: start their own Town, roam as a Nomad, or join an existing Town. I don't have numbers, but I'd be willing to bet that most new players are quickly picked up via Town recruiters. That means the natural course of the Loka game - Nomad to Town Owner/Member, slowly, with progression, is usually lost. Instead, new players typically seem to be invited to Towns which have already reached a decent level of progression. Before even touring Spawn, newbies are planted in a confusing Town with weird buildings and sounds and inputs and outputs and new perks and masteries and rules and prestige. You can store things in the Void? What do you mean I can't use a Nether Portal?
From posts and private discussions, Cryptite has stated Loka's aim is towards more a mature and perhaps slightly older audience than the average Minecraft server. Certainly with a good Town Owner and close inspection of the wiki, a new player, even if thrown into a Town right away, could learn the ropes. But keep in mind new players are usually testing the waters of servers they join, seeing if they would like it here. The first impression is everything. Confuse a new player, and you've lost him/her.
Again, I know staff has lots of good features in place for new players, and that's wonderful. I do think more could be done to help new players, perhaps in the form of a book or easier /help command. I'd love to hear your ideas on that.
As for me, well, I would like to take part in helping new players as well. Lord knows I can't code, lol.
With Loka News Network kind of falling on its face (a good idea, but too ambitious at this point in time), I'd love to make my starter guide on the wiki into a tutorial video series. I'm aware there is an official video tutorial series(?) in the early planning stages, but with the staff's efforts understandably being split into many different things, it would be nice to have a fairly regular tutorial series in place, however crude and limited it may be.
So what are your thoughts? How can Loka improve its new player experience? Is there anything specific you think I shoule cover in my tutorials? What's a greenthumb, anyway?
I've stated it before, and I'll say it again, Loka is far from newbie-friendly. Try as we might with various text pop-ups, the initial steps on Loka drive players away no matter which path they take. I myself left Loka before NN considered moving here, out of confusion and frustration. And even then, I was lucky. I was immediately helped out by the lovely Mr. @Jammin_Mas in a voice chat, and I was totally and utterly lost.
Is this a bad thing? Well, sure, it's why most new players leave within a day or two. It's why we know most people on the server at any given time. But I want to make it clear that I am not pinning this on the administration. From the tutorial to the text pop-ups to the various staff/Slicer roles, Loka has a good system in place to help new players. The issue is, Loka is so customized and unique that it's hard for players to understand quickly.
Think of it this way. After the tutorial, a new player has three options: start their own Town, roam as a Nomad, or join an existing Town. I don't have numbers, but I'd be willing to bet that most new players are quickly picked up via Town recruiters. That means the natural course of the Loka game - Nomad to Town Owner/Member, slowly, with progression, is usually lost. Instead, new players typically seem to be invited to Towns which have already reached a decent level of progression. Before even touring Spawn, newbies are planted in a confusing Town with weird buildings and sounds and inputs and outputs and new perks and masteries and rules and prestige. You can store things in the Void? What do you mean I can't use a Nether Portal?
From posts and private discussions, Cryptite has stated Loka's aim is towards more a mature and perhaps slightly older audience than the average Minecraft server. Certainly with a good Town Owner and close inspection of the wiki, a new player, even if thrown into a Town right away, could learn the ropes. But keep in mind new players are usually testing the waters of servers they join, seeing if they would like it here. The first impression is everything. Confuse a new player, and you've lost him/her.
Again, I know staff has lots of good features in place for new players, and that's wonderful. I do think more could be done to help new players, perhaps in the form of a book or easier /help command. I'd love to hear your ideas on that.
As for me, well, I would like to take part in helping new players as well. Lord knows I can't code, lol.
With Loka News Network kind of falling on its face (a good idea, but too ambitious at this point in time), I'd love to make my starter guide on the wiki into a tutorial video series. I'm aware there is an official video tutorial series(?) in the early planning stages, but with the staff's efforts understandably being split into many different things, it would be nice to have a fairly regular tutorial series in place, however crude and limited it may be.
So what are your thoughts? How can Loka improve its new player experience? Is there anything specific you think I shoule cover in my tutorials? What's a greenthumb, anyway?
