XP Requirements are Frustrating Creators, Please Reconsider!
Feb 5, 2015 5:19:15 GMT 1
De Lírios, swarm, and 4 more like this
Post by Jatsu on Feb 5, 2015 5:19:15 GMT 1
This post is in response to the new level restrictions placed on publishing projects (level 3), publishing content to the marketplace (level 4), and any other potential restriction that will be placed on creators in the future.
Developers, please reconsider where you're implementing XP requirements. You're effectively blocking creative features and forcing players to grind XP in ways that they are not interested in pursuing. According to the old forums, your original intentions for the experience system was to unlock features in a naturally progressive way in order to prepare them for advanced features. However, you're doing nearly the exact opposite and making it a grind to access basic features. Furthermore, all of these restrictions are being placed only on the creator's side of Kogama. There's no balance to it, you're adding restrictions for complexities sake and it's backfiring horrendously. Overall, you're hurting your content creators. Consider the following cases:
Case 1: A new user seeking to build in a different sandbox game registers on Kogama. They immediately enter a PublicPlanet project and begin editing. They're excited after exploring the basic features and are pretty proud of the creation they made in just a few hours. Then, they discover the publish button, and ponder, "could it really be that simple?" They're thinking, "I can share this to everyone right now!?" Unfortunately not. They're prompted that they cannot publish the cool work they made until they reach level 3. Instant bummer. They're forced into a greater time investment that they had no knowledge of expecting and potentially discouraging them from building on Kogama in the future. New player scared away.
Case 2: Consider existing users who spend most of their time in projects rather than playing games. Their XP levels are going to be far lower than that of other players. They create an awesome level that they really like but find that the feature they're used so many times before is now blocked. They're thinking, "What the hell? I've published games before, this is unfair!" Instant loss in enjoyment. They investigate how to earn enough XP to regain access to the publishing feature and find that XP events are severely unbalanced against creators. So they now must enter games they take no enjoyment in playing and spend unwanted hours to grind the XP they didn't have interest for in the first place. Massive dissatisfaction and loss of interest in Kogama.
Right now, the potential for retaining new and existing players is feeling abysmal. The idea that any player can create content and share it freely is one of the pivotal driving features of Kogama. Even players who spend most of their time playing games at least enjoy editing and selling avatars. However, these new level restrictions, which both are very time consuming feats in normal games (not XP farms), add an unnecessary time investment to the game that has never existed before. Requiring time investment in a predominantly casual game is a complete and ridiculous contradiction. The end result is a frustrating experience for existing players who have already spent hundreds of hours playing Kogama and a daunting, if not discouraging exposure for new players.
Look, we're not saying that you shouldn't implement XP requirements on certain features. You're original intention for player's progression on Kogama is admirable. However, your implementation needs to be less restricting on the basic and fundamental features of Kogama. At some level, you have already acknowledged this, otherwise we would have already seen similar unnecessary restrictions placed on accessing games too.
Right now, it needs to be determined what is the initial primary experience you want players to have access to. At minimum, creators should at least be able to explore every feature up to a certain point without restriction. For example, players could initially only be allowed to publish a small number of projects, models and avatars before they're introduced to the concept of XP. This would give them the opportunity to explore and get used to how things work without XP weighing them down. Later on, as the player gains more XP on their own, their higher level could increase these initial limits. Perhaps at a certain level, these restrictions are removed allowing the player unlimited publishing rights.
Ultimately, I dislike and find no enjoyment in these restrictions, but this would be the next best compromise if nothing else changes or this horrid trend continues. It's safe to say that most creators and myself would prefer it if these XP level restrictions were removed entirely. However, it would be unfair to assume that you'd drop your plans after working so long on this system.
Therefore, I'm going to end with my personal stance on what I think XP should function as. It should be an enjoyable goal to work towards that supplements a player's website and game experience, and not solely define it. The XP system needs to be something that adds to a player's enjoyment of already existing features. It should never gate access to or directly block features, and if it ever does, there needs to be an option to opt- or buy-out this restriction so that existing players aren't inconvenienced so much by those restrictions. One method of achieving these parameters is through a perk system, where small benefits are gained for their quantified dedication to Kogama.
Developers, please reconsider where you're implementing XP requirements. You're effectively blocking creative features and forcing players to grind XP in ways that they are not interested in pursuing. According to the old forums, your original intentions for the experience system was to unlock features in a naturally progressive way in order to prepare them for advanced features. However, you're doing nearly the exact opposite and making it a grind to access basic features. Furthermore, all of these restrictions are being placed only on the creator's side of Kogama. There's no balance to it, you're adding restrictions for complexities sake and it's backfiring horrendously. Overall, you're hurting your content creators. Consider the following cases:
Case 1: A new user seeking to build in a different sandbox game registers on Kogama. They immediately enter a PublicPlanet project and begin editing. They're excited after exploring the basic features and are pretty proud of the creation they made in just a few hours. Then, they discover the publish button, and ponder, "could it really be that simple?" They're thinking, "I can share this to everyone right now!?" Unfortunately not. They're prompted that they cannot publish the cool work they made until they reach level 3. Instant bummer. They're forced into a greater time investment that they had no knowledge of expecting and potentially discouraging them from building on Kogama in the future. New player scared away.
Case 2: Consider existing users who spend most of their time in projects rather than playing games. Their XP levels are going to be far lower than that of other players. They create an awesome level that they really like but find that the feature they're used so many times before is now blocked. They're thinking, "What the hell? I've published games before, this is unfair!" Instant loss in enjoyment. They investigate how to earn enough XP to regain access to the publishing feature and find that XP events are severely unbalanced against creators. So they now must enter games they take no enjoyment in playing and spend unwanted hours to grind the XP they didn't have interest for in the first place. Massive dissatisfaction and loss of interest in Kogama.
Right now, the potential for retaining new and existing players is feeling abysmal. The idea that any player can create content and share it freely is one of the pivotal driving features of Kogama. Even players who spend most of their time playing games at least enjoy editing and selling avatars. However, these new level restrictions, which both are very time consuming feats in normal games (not XP farms), add an unnecessary time investment to the game that has never existed before. Requiring time investment in a predominantly casual game is a complete and ridiculous contradiction. The end result is a frustrating experience for existing players who have already spent hundreds of hours playing Kogama and a daunting, if not discouraging exposure for new players.
Look, we're not saying that you shouldn't implement XP requirements on certain features. You're original intention for player's progression on Kogama is admirable. However, your implementation needs to be less restricting on the basic and fundamental features of Kogama. At some level, you have already acknowledged this, otherwise we would have already seen similar unnecessary restrictions placed on accessing games too.
Right now, it needs to be determined what is the initial primary experience you want players to have access to. At minimum, creators should at least be able to explore every feature up to a certain point without restriction. For example, players could initially only be allowed to publish a small number of projects, models and avatars before they're introduced to the concept of XP. This would give them the opportunity to explore and get used to how things work without XP weighing them down. Later on, as the player gains more XP on their own, their higher level could increase these initial limits. Perhaps at a certain level, these restrictions are removed allowing the player unlimited publishing rights.
Ultimately, I dislike and find no enjoyment in these restrictions, but this would be the next best compromise if nothing else changes or this horrid trend continues. It's safe to say that most creators and myself would prefer it if these XP level restrictions were removed entirely. However, it would be unfair to assume that you'd drop your plans after working so long on this system.
Therefore, I'm going to end with my personal stance on what I think XP should function as. It should be an enjoyable goal to work towards that supplements a player's website and game experience, and not solely define it. The XP system needs to be something that adds to a player's enjoyment of already existing features. It should never gate access to or directly block features, and if it ever does, there needs to be an option to opt- or buy-out this restriction so that existing players aren't inconvenienced so much by those restrictions. One method of achieving these parameters is through a perk system, where small benefits are gained for their quantified dedication to Kogama.