unforum

[rose]

[META] Ways to involve new players in an ongoing game?

[konamouse]

Exactly this. Tell people how great it is.
Call into ARGnet's weekly podcast.
Let people know about a new puzzle or mystery (mention it in the unfiction chat when the puzzle shows up).

[Dirt Diver]

Yeah I really want to get involved with TIMM but the game seems to be very far in already.

[Brave777]

What about wikis? Something that has a condensed version of whats happened, like a reference guide new players can be directed to?

[Agent Lex]

Hope people don't realise that this is the third chapter, and so they'll be hopelessly lost trying to figure out what happened in the first 2.

What I'm trying to say is, perhaps Eldritch isn't the best example of a game that new people can get into. For the record, I just tried, and the story so far, while comprehensive, has left me confused partway into part 2.

[metalheadx666]

[danteIL]

[krystyn]

[sampowers]

[rose]

[Andrhia]

From my point of view, there are two things a player can do: One is telling friends, of course, like everybody's already said. ^_^ But the other is assembling a very concise description of what's going on right now and any key-to-right-now bits of backstory.

This isn't the same thing as a guide or a walkthrough, and shouldn't be exhaustive. What you want is a way is something a new player can read in five minutes and say "Oh, OK, I know what's going on." And then as other older bits of information become pivotal, the player can fill in those gaps of knowledge organically over time.

You'd be surprised how incredibly helpful it would be for tiny, tiny recaps like: "Oh, well, this guy was murdered, and we don't know who did it, but it might have been a robot. So we're all gathering together at rallies tonight to protest robots and the robot-rights groups."

The enemy of a new player is that big, scary storehouse of information in a guide or walkthrough or trail or wiki. Don't clobber the poor new people with an hour of homework to do before they can actually, you know, PLAY. And then if it's a good game, they'll get sucked in and want to go read all of that stuff. It just can't be the starting point. ^_^

[TheIllustratedMan]

That's a great point Andrhia. Maybe do a weekly "Here's where we are." post, and include any information relevant to the current goings-on. For instance:

[Arcas]

I hope nobody ever goes the route that Hurts to Heal took a couple of months back when every player had to recruit two or three more. I hated all that gorilla recruitment business.