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Topic: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players? (Read 532 times) |
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Janzert
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Arimaa player #247
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Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« on: Sep 26th, 2008, 2:28am » |
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I've noticed a pattern in opfor's games that has been worrying me a bit for the past few weeks. I'm worried it goes something like this. A fair number of people new to the site make it into the gameroom and then first thing they see is the open game with opfor, nicely centered directly under the welcome message. Having just read the nice blurb and bullet points on the front page on why Arimaa is so difficult they say "Hah, I shall prove the superiority of the human race and crush this mindless bot". Of course usually it doesn't quite work out that way.
Ok, so it probably isn't quite like that but I'm worried that a crushing defeat probably isn't the best way to encourage new players into playing more games. I'm not sure how to best handle this though. For now I added the following to opfor's initial chat messages:
Quote:If you are a new player to Arimaa you may find I'm a little difficult for one of your first
opponents. You might enjoy playing some of the bots on the bot ladder first. The bot ladder
can be found under the "Play now" item on the left side navigation menu of the gameroom. |
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Ideally I wish I could have opfor simply appear in the list of online players and people could invite it to play a game as desired. But that would probably take quite a bit of work for Omar to implement.
Does anyone else think this is a real problem? Should I only put opfor up for play occasionally?
Janzert
p.s. Since I've started this message there have been two more games against opfor. One the first game ever played by the player. The other against a player that has played 3 games total, all losses against opfor at this point. Both were quick timeout losses as I have opfor playing blitz at the moment.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 26th, 2008, 2:33am by Janzert » |
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ChrisB
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Arimaa player #2339
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #1 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 7:02am » |
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on Sep 26th, 2008, 2:28am, Janzert wrote:| Does anyone else think this is a real problem? |
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Possibly. I think it was a good idea to add what you did to the initial chat message.
on Sep 26th, 2008, 2:28am, Janzert wrote: Should I only put opfor up for play occasionally?
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I hope not! I've enjoyed playing the development version of OpFor several times.
But .....
on Sep 26th, 2008, 2:28am, Janzert wrote:| Both were quick timeout losses as I have opfor playing blitz at the moment. |
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... perhaps having to play at blitz speed is intimidating to new players. (In my case, I was happy that the blitz bots were high up the bot ladder so I didn't have to play them early on.) It would be nice if new players could have the option of playing OpFor at a slower speed.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #2 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 8:38am » |
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It is an unfortunate reality that people don't read the instructions. I really, really like it that the latest version of OpFor is available for play, but it would be much better if beginners were railroaded straight to ArimaaScoreP1. I don't know what technical solution will keep OpFor available without making it a pitfall for newcomers, but I agree that we need some solution to stop alienating people right off the bat. This is a hack, but maybe if ArimaaScoreP1 were _also_ in the gameroom, people would look at the rating and choose wisely?
Incidentally, the number of new accounts the past two weeks has almost doubled from the normal trickle, so this is an especially bad time to drive people away.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 26th, 2008, 8:39am by Fritzlein » |
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mistre
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #3 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 9:17am » |
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A couple of suggestions:
1) Take the open games page off the front page and just make it selectable from the menu.
2) Make new players meet either a games played or rating threshold before they can play open games.
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omar
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #4 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 9:29am » |
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I had also been suspecting this. I just made some changes now. Until a player has played 10 games they are restricted from playing someone who is more than 300 points above them. Also I added a link to the Bot Ladder in the 'Open Games' section.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #5 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 9:58am » |
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I like both of the changes, Omar. I'm not seeing the Bot Ladder link under open games, though. Do you hide it for people who have completed the ladder?
P.S. I just tried to open my Postal Mixer game against RonWeasley from my e-mail, and it says I can't play that opponent yet.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 26th, 2008, 10:00am by Fritzlein » |
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RonWeasley
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Harry's friend (Arimaa player #441)
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #6 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 11:35am » |
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on Sep 26th, 2008, 9:58am, Fritzlein wrote:
P.S. I just tried to open my Postal Mixer game against RonWeasley from my e-mail, and it says I can't play that opponent yet. |
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Hagrid says Buckbeak smacked into an owl yesterday. Feathers raining everywhere. Maybe that was yours.
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chessandgo
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Arimaa player #1889
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #7 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 12:27am » |
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on Sep 26th, 2008, 9:29am, omar wrote: Until a player has played 10 games they are restricted from playing someone who is more than 300 points above them.
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This seems too resctritive to me; quite a few players seem to come because a friend who's already a member of the community advise them to do so; if they can't play with that friend on their first game, they might leave ... 
How about just making this restriction on bots, not on human players ?
And I like the new bot ladder link too.
Jean
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| « Last Edit: Sep 27th, 2008, 12:28am by chessandgo » |
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omar
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #8 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 11:22am » |
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on Sep 26th, 2008, 9:58am, Fritzlein wrote:
P.S. I just tried to open my Postal Mixer game against RonWeasley from my e-mail, and it says I can't play that opponent yet. |
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Thanks. I think I've fixed this now. Please let me know if you still get this message.
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omar
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #9 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 11:23am » |
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on Sep 27th, 2008, 12:27am, chessandgo wrote:
How about just making this restriction on bots, not on human players ?
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Good idea. I've made that change now.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: Is opfor being a deterrent to new players?
« Reply #10 on: Sep 27th, 2008, 2:59pm » |
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on Sep 27th, 2008, 11:22am, omar wrote:| Thanks. I think I've fixed this now. Please let me know if you still get this message. |
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I can now once again use the e-mail links to my Postal Mixer games. Thanks for fixing it!
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