BrowserQuests Online RPG

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Rosisha
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Rosisha »

Hey There!

For me it's time sadly. Between work and family I have about 30 minutes of free time a day if I'm lucky, and I usually spend that working on content. I know that's not helpful. But let me think on it. There has to be something that can be done.

What kind of user data do you have? Maybe there is something in the data that we could use to identify a choke point.
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Senyors
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Senyors »

With the way I designed the BrowserQuests system, I have total access to every piece of user data imaginable. So, it's easy for me to review where each user is in the game. I'd say that for every twenty users who sign-up to play, three or four get past the initial shopowner encounter and one may actually play through all the content I currently have. The rest, unfortunately, simply abandon the game and don't return. Maybe I should be content with those numbers, but I feel that I should be able to do much better.

Over the past 12-15 months, I've had about a dozen players complete my online questionnaire and, for the most part, the responses are quite positive. So, I think there's a minority of players who "get" what I'm trying to do and have fun with the platform. Hence, it's the majority of players who apparently don't like (or don't understand) what I'm doing and abandon the platform very quickly (and, unfortunately, I can never get them to tell me why).

My primary theory is that, in this day and age, players expect graphical presentations that consume the entire screen, first or third person perspectives that immerse the player within a visual environment (rather than using text to describe everything). I've tried tweaking the presentation to see if it makes a difference, but alas, nothing I do seems to keep the vast majority of my players.

Recently, I've been studying whether I should try turning the entire experience into a sort of classic "dungeon crawl" where players see a first-person perspective of the fantasy world and everything is visual in nature. To do that, however, I'd likely have to rebuild the entire game in some sort of JavaScript-based system (the game currently is driven by server-side programming with a smattering of JavaScript). I always wanted BrowserQuests to be a text-based platform, but if the text is turning most players away, perhaps I need to rethink the entire approach.
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Scott Mark Huelsman
Waunakee, WI 53597
https://browserquests.com
https://scottymark.com
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toddlyons
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by toddlyons »

It took me a bit of time to mentally synchronize the visual map and the written descriptions. I'm not sure audio would help there.

I remember entering the same areas repeatedly just to confirm I'd actually fully explored the space. Maybe that's normal? Getting your bearings and such. But that was my only struggle with the interface.
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Blazeguard
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Blazeguard »

Sorry to hear that you're struggling.

When you say they abandon the game before they leave the initial shopkeeper encounter, do you mean they don't even make it down to the cellar? If that's the case, I'm really not sure what the issue could be.

As far as moving to a more visual presentation, my personal opinion is that would take away from the whole spirit of the game and what you're trying to do. This is a niche game and not everyone will enjoy it but 20% completion rate does seem a bit low.
Last edited by Blazeguard on Fri Oct 23, 2020 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
The problem with doing something really stupid to impress people is that they may just be impressed by how stupid you really are.
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Blazeguard
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Blazeguard »

toddlyons wrote: Fri Oct 23, 2020 8:56 am I remember entering the same areas repeatedly just to confirm I'd actually fully explored the space. Maybe that's normal? Getting your bearings and such. But that was my only struggle with the interface.
Yes, that is one thing I noticed. I went back and forth from upstairs to downstairs probably half a dozen times or more before I finally completed the first quest. I kept missing things and felt like I had checked everything but then when I went back down and looked again, then I would find something else. That may be a little frustrating for new players.
The problem with doing something really stupid to impress people is that they may just be impressed by how stupid you really are.
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Blazeguard
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Blazeguard »

Also, one other thing I noticed is that you can't choose which weapon you use if you have more than one. Being able to choose a mace instead of a sword when fighting skeletons (for example) would be nice.
The problem with doing something really stupid to impress people is that they may just be impressed by how stupid you really are.
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Senyors
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Senyors »

Thanks for the continued feedback (which is always helpful). Yes, I'd say at least 50-60% of new players never even make it down to the cellar. It's as if they create a new hero, take an initial look at the very first encounter area just outside of the shopkeeper, and decide the game isn't for them. I don't blame these players of course--I just wonder why they won't give the game a chance.

I have had other folks tell me that BrowserQuests is a "niche" sort of thing, so I'm wondering what I can do to go beyond being merely a niche. Honestly, my goal was to sort of become a "Netflix" of text-based, "old school" online role-playing where countless authors could create countless campaigns consisting of countless quests; I've had a few nibbles regarding all of that but certainly nothing that compels me to keep putting lots of time into the platform right now. I have played around with trying to make the overall experience more graphical in nature, but like you said, it then changes the core dynamics of the platform.

For what it's worth, I'm considering a total rebuilding at this point, as the technologies I used to create the platform are relatively old and I need to go up the latest Microsoft-based learning curves anyway (in support of my day job). Hence, I'm open to perhaps trying again with a new approach, but first I want to make sure that whatever is developed has a much better chance of being used and, hopefully, becoming popular.

Finally, I am aware of several shortcomings to the platform. Indeed, I only developed enough of the game to basically provide for first through third level character adventures. I have a long list of improvements I'd like to make, but I've put all of that on hold for now.
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Scott Mark Huelsman
Waunakee, WI 53597
https://browserquests.com
https://scottymark.com
Rosisha
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Rosisha »

I know you mentioned microsoft platforms, but I'm wondering if PyGame couldn't help here. Just a thought. Let me take a look this weekend. I'll budget out some time and go back into it and make some recommendations.

Frankly, I think that there is a lot of value in what you're trying to do. I LOVED old text based games back as a kid. After playing HeroQuest for a few years, I got a chance to play Might & Magic and loved it. I played other games like that just can't remember all of em! There is value there.

I'll work on this tomorrow!
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Senyors
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Senyors »

The choice of technology is a long story. First, there's the DNN content management system that acts as a framework for the entire site. Then, there's the custom VB.NET programming that drives the game itself, and in addition there's the entire SQL Server database backend that provides data persistence (meaning that players can start the game on one machine, then go to a completely different computer anywhere in the world, log in and continue the game). Further, the entire system has been designed so that it's possible for outside authors to create their own quests, modules and even full campaigns. So, the platform is extremely complex and migrating it to ANY other technology will be quite the challenge.

Again, I'm not sure if it's worth it at this point, since I'm not getting a lot of players to actually interact with the game. If I can fix that, I'd be much more likely to continue with the platform (whether that means migrating it or just sticking to what already exists). I do appreciate the feedback and continued conversation--I just don't know if the platform is worth saving right now.
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Scott Mark Huelsman
Waunakee, WI 53597
https://browserquests.com
https://scottymark.com
Rosisha
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Re: BrowserQuests Online RPG

Post by Rosisha »

Okay in my defense I'm not a developer! I just use R and Python for work! Please forgive me :)
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