An idea to help with player retention.

(Cletus_VanDamme) #1

First - This is not a ‘gimme moar free stuff’ thread. I rarely play, am swimming in credits like McDuck, and have cobalts for dayzzzzzz.

In Paladins (yuck I know, but I like to play games with my m8s) you get a reward for logging in every day, culminating in receiving premium currency on days 6 + 7. The rewards are not very special, from day 1-5 you get more by playing a couple of games, so it’s not bank breaking for the devs.

I don’t think the devs of Paladins are doing this to be Mr / Mrs nice guy.

They’re doing it to give all players incentive to log in every day, which is obviously boosting the amount of people playing their game.

I don’t know what you could offer from a Dirty Bomb perspective, but it really is working for Paladins. Look at the amount of people playing per day.

I suggest you do something similar, it can only help.

Thoughts?

(Icecoal) #2

They already give enough for daily logins. You get the first win of the day bonus , and 3 missions every so often. If you dont have time for that or just dont feel like doin it , you already lost interest in the game imo.

(MarsRover) #3

DB already has 4x500 credits in daily bonuses. Another free 500 or whatever won’t change anything.

(yenku) #4

I honestly keep playing DB for its gameplay. I don’t see myself quitting or playing any other FPS actually.

Of course any kind of extra reward is always well accepted but, not necessary, imo.

I’d like a higher credit base fee, just that, not much, just a little more. (not the credits we get from mission, only the base fee)

(Amerika) #5

I actually like Paladins and consider it a solid game. They have also implemented an extremely good system for both character customization that can be easily balanced that you get to pick which equate to the augments on DB’s cards but without the limitations. It has individual cosmetics that are not tied to anything and some can be bought in-game and some are premium only which is fine for a F2P title.

Characters, like DB, are pretty quick to unlock. Paladins uses an individual character level system and REQUIRES you to be proficient in quite a few of them before you can even queue up for ranked. Which guarantees you not only have a lot of game experience overall but you know how a good portion of the cast plays. That’s fantastic.

Hell, they even nailed mouse input. I’ve never played an UE3/UE4 game that felt like perfect raw input from your mouse…until Paladins. They somehow managed to get 100% pure raw input or at least what feels like it in the game. And I’ve heard from some friends who don’t have that great of a machine that the game runs well for them.

And the daily login bonuses that keeps ramping up gold rewards for just logging in then for playing is pretty great.

I honestly wish SD would borrow almost all of this for DB. Hell, a lot of those mechanics they already had implemented years ago and removed.

(Nail) #6

I love how you state
“First - This is not a ‘gimme moar free stuff’ thread”
and then immediately ask for free stuff compounded by extra free stuff after getting free stuff for x days

today’s gamers are way too entitled

(Amerika) #7

[quote=“Nail;207126”]I love how you state
“First - This is not a ‘gimme moar free stuff’ thread”
and then immediately ask for free stuff compounded by extra free stuff after getting free stuff for x days

today’s gamers are way too entitled[/quote]

You already get free stuff in DB. It’s more about making sure that free stuff is appealing and encourages people to play without pissing them off constantly. Even you should find it hard to argue that the system could use a bit of an overhaul to give people exactly what they get now but delivered in a better way.

You can re-arrange numbers so that the earnings on the backend that keeps the economy of F2P game healthy for the dev while making systems better for people who are playing.

I would much prefer a daily login reward that ramps up a bit over time as opposed to constantly getting Execution missions that makes me a bit upset almost every time I play. On the backend the numbers could work out the same for a healthy economy while on the front end people who are not a fan of Execution (only use EXE as an example). Nothing changes, no more “free” stuff is given away than normal and it removes some of the potential issues players will have with the system.

(Nail) #8

I come from games I played for enjoyment, I don’t care about the “rewards” they’re of no value

(jubilantManatee) #9

Paladins is fun, very, very linear - but worth a play now and then. Paladinz is new, and advertised on the front page of steam, so its bound to have more players.

For player retention, the fix \ casual matchmaking should go a long way to help - if it is a good working system.

Dirty bomb gives you aresenal crates on leveling, and random case drops, and daily missions, and first match bonuses. It has a lot of supplemental “give-aways” in place.

(bgyoshi) #10

If getting stuff was effective at player retention, I would still be playing regularly. Stuff doesn’t attract players. Daily rewards don’t keep players playing.

Having a fun game keeps players playing.

(Cletus_VanDamme) #11

[quote=“Nail;207126”]I love how you state
“First - This is not a ‘gimme moar free stuff’ thread”
and then immediately ask for free stuff compounded by extra free stuff after getting free stuff for x days

today’s gamers are way too entitled[/quote]

Entitled hey?

For making a suggestion to help keep people playing the game.

Rightyo.

I like how you decided to ignore the part where I stated I rarely play anymore and don’t need / want any free stuff.

The point of the suggestion was to discuss a potential way to keep players playing. That’s it.

But then again if you’re too closed minded to see that then it’s not really worth discussing with you.

Woosh!

(_retired_) #12

Usually free stuff doesn’t help since free stuff is only available and usable in the game and if they find it not enjoyable but flawed, they don’t do much with the free stuff.

There’s also rather natural curve for the lifespan of games.
The question is did DB reach the height of it already?

Free stuff doesn’t mean much in the world of freefall.

(Amerika) #13

Not everyone has that same mentality. I also play for the gameplay but that doesn’t mean other systems that help retain people aren’t useful to the health of the game which then also translates to profit (and long term support) for the developers.

(Dawnlazy) #14

I kinda like events that require you to play a bunch to get free stuff. Used to play S4 League and every other weekend would have something like “play 7 whole matches of every single gametype (game had like 6) to get this badass weapon/clothing set/pet”. Those weekends always had huge player counts. Sometimes it was even something retarded like “clock 24h of game time in 3 days to get this set” etc. Kinda like how the Dickens trinkets worked.

(The_N00Ba) #15

I think the trick is having a retention system that flows as one with the Fps gameplay. Something the more gameplay driven players will not think as being an add on. Something that itself becomes part of the overall game play. No idea if that makes any sense. Basically I think the best kind of retention system can draw both the gameplay driven and the reward driven player into the game. As to how… I have no real idea at the moment.

(ImSploosh) #16

Optimization would be a good start to retaining players. You know how many people quit DB because they either can’t run the game smoothly (many people do not bother with “potato configs”) or the game just has overall performance issues like stutters, FPS drops, and crashes. If someone can’t play or struggle to play a game (due to these issues) then why would they?

Of course there are other things, probably some that are more important right now, but I just wanted to mention that.

(responsibleKangaroo) #17

I just want South american servers to be what they are supposed to. This 170 ping is keeping lots of people away here. Even Paladins has brazilian servers

(yenku) #18

[quote=“Amerika;207116”]…They have also implemented an extremely good system for both character customization that can be easily balanced that you get to pick which equate to the augments on DB’s cards but without the limitations. It has individual cosmetics that are not tied to anything and some can be bought in-game and some are premium only which is fine for a F2P title.

Characters, like DB, are pretty quick to unlock. Paladins uses an individual character level system and REQUIRES you to be proficient in quite a few of them before you can even queue up for ranked. Which guarantees you not only have a lot of game experience overall but you know how a good portion of the cast plays. That’s fantastic.

And the daily login bonuses that keeps ramping up gold rewards for just logging in then for playing is pretty great.

I honestly wish SD would borrow almost all of this for DB. Hell, a lot of those mechanics they already had implemented years ago and removed.[/quote]

Just started Paladins out of curiosity (after your post here quoted above) and I found the customization and loadout system really really valid.

I wish DB would have such possibilities. Damn!