Player Retention— Feedback

[Pleiadian]

This post explains how the game makes it hard to retain new players, and what are the solutions to increase player retention & player base.


Whenever you see a low-level player grinding his way to max level, they usually fall into one of these 3 categories.

1. The player from another server—upgrading an account— coming to raid the server
2. The player who knew the game before stopped playing and now starts playing again.
3. Players who are completely new to the game, just discovered the game recently, know nothing about the game, the goal, or anything, they just know that there’s something that attracted them to the game

The first category needs no introduction.

The second category is the highest demographic in terms of players who play every day and grinds their way to max level. Most “new players” arriving in-game are not really new, they knew DS before, but either just wanted to give it another try or came back from a break.

While the third category, is rare. It is not every day that we see a new player who joins this game and starts grinding from 0 to max level immediately.

In simple business terms, the first category of leads are the hot ones who are ready to spend in the game. While the second category are warm leads, that does not necessarily mean they will stay warm, it all depends on the game “funnel, to push them to use the product”— this post will give you an idea of why you cannot convert the cold & warm leads into hot ones to make them spend.

There are 2 problems here, there’s obviously a lack of advertising to bring in new players, but what is the purpose of advertising if the new players don’t stay?

The problem is about keeping them. Making them interested to play the game.

It is much much harder to start an account and level that up today than it was 4 years before, it is usually because of those cumulations of updates that brought changes (in a positive way), but this negatively affects some parts of the gameplay— All of these changes that occurred affect the low level negatively.

When a new player is starting out, nothing catches the player’s attention. The new player who discovers the game does not find anything interesting at first. There’s a reason for this. Because the gameplay is not geared towards the new player anymore, but toward the existing player base of 2013-2015— who are now level max.

Problems that Low levels encounter:

• Gameplay is not enjoyable— The current playing experience feels like torture. Too many quests for fewer rewards. Quests are slow to finish.
• No Guidance — Players who are just starting out need guidance about what the game is, they need an introduction to the end goal of the game. The Guide Book is not enough.
• Left Out Completely— Currently, a low level cannot participate in Events or war, which begs the question, what else can you do apart from the long journey to max level?
• Discouraging To Grind— Players just give up when they hear that it takes 1 year to level up to max level from nothing, they simply lose the motivation to even continue because it's a long road ahead.

(Perhaps I have missed some important points here)


Over the last major updates that occurred, almost every one of them was for the already existing player, but no changes were made for the new ones. It is as if, when you created the game, you already had an idea who the update is for but you left out the new player starting out.

When I browse the Dev Shack, it is logical to come to that conclusion, there have been updates that raised the maximum level many times, and updates that introduced new features in the game, updates that have improved the combat situation. All these are for players who are already at high levels.

But has there been a change that is catered specifically for the low levels? No.

When we look at how events are structured, it is all for max-level players and not new players. It is not made for the ones starting out or at low levels. And when there are no new players in the game, clans cannot recruit, the clan goes bust and eventually, we go on another server to scout for new recruits, thus born the idea of “raid servers”, where shops are abused, and war happens with the cheap account. Someone could correct me, but that gameplay gained traction around 2020 or so.

I have praised the Endgame Mechanic update, and how it will change things for the positive for the community that plays by the rules. I have said before that there will be decreased player base in Europe servers, due to the economic situation in Europe, and that will affect the game. So far, I haven't seen such behavior happening. Perhaps the game will not be affected as much, time will tell. However, the next Dev Shack should be dedicated specifically to the low levels, there needs to be a revamp of how a player is starting out the game. With a solid introduction to the game, and a gameplay that offers no limit (once the Endgame mechanic is completed), I legitimately believe that the game will thrive.

Feedback are most welcomed.

 

[vansh]

I believe the new update will help with player retention as it gives them an opportunity to complete the game without getting steamrolled by big alliances. At least a clear objective is present now unlike in the past where you had no guarantee to ever get rex in servers with big alliance/ servers where the same people get elected several time as sherrif. Now the problem is with retaining the old members who just leave the game as they are much discouraged by the game where it be people who just got sheriff and give their accounts to their friends or people who couldn't get sheriff and just gave up on the game. New content is the only way to retain old players while also attracting new players.

 

[vansh]

By new things we could have titles that we earn through achievement and they should give us bonus effect or attribute boost instead of fame. Below are a list of titles and their possible effect/boost.
- Merchant-> +10% bonus Dino dollar when selling items.
- Berserker-> +300 rage or Gain rage 30% faster.
- King Rex-> Gain 10% more Hp.
- Big tooth-> +5% attack damage or +1000 strength.
- Speedster-> Gain 3% bonus speed.
- Trixster-> Gain 5% dodge bonus or +200 agility.
- Big bone-> Gain 10% damage reduction.
- Albino-> Receive 7% bonus speed while in Maujak mountain or + 200 heat resistance.
I believe the community can bring a lot of good ideas but the problem is the speed at which the devs can implement them. If It is not timely then there is no point in it.

 

[Pleiadian]

Agree with your points. Endgame Mechanic will take care of already existing players and retain them.

But what about the new players? What about the new players who are starting out? Once new players set foot in the game, how to retain them? This post was made specifically to address this issue.

Many new players I have talked to recently, fall into the second category. They already knew the game before, they just wanted to give it another try because of "nostalgia". This just makes me think, why didn't they continue to play in the first place? What made them stop?

And while answering these questions, I myself fall into that category. I knew Dinostorm since 2015. I was annoyed by many things that I didn't understand. The idea of having my own Dino, to make war was exciting at that time, and that was what kept me. Until I got fed up with not understanding the overall gameplay and left. And eventually gave it another try.

Now another question, how many players are like this that we don't know? What would the player base be like if the developer had fixed this issue before?

I personally think, that this should be the next problem to address in the next Dev Shack after the current one.

 

[vansh]

1.Reworking the tutorial could help.
2.Making an interesting trailer showcasing high lvl battle might encourage them.
Pve with monstrous or Pvp with Trex.( We need paid actors) Then using the trailer for advertisement.
3. Making new players not feel like there is such a big level gap between them and old players. I read somewhere about an MMO mechanics about a leveling system to close the gap between high lvl and low lvl players. The system calculate the average lvl of all active accounts then gives player who are below this average a significant Exp Bonus until they reach said average. (It takes a new player 4 months of playing minimum to reach lvl 50 with guidance from old players, 1 year without guidance currently)
4. Getting on steam store.
5. Not being so chat sensitive; Like ds chat is more sensitive than league of legend chat which is notorious for people saying racial slurs and worse.

 

[slejd2001]

No Guidance — Players who are just starting out need guidance about what the game is, they need an introduction to the end goal of the game. The Guide Book is not enough.

I have heard from one person that when he started to play DS, he thought it was some pve farming game, then stopped playing and when came back realized that there was possibility to fight with other people too and there is a lot more other stuff to do, what kept him in the game after that.

 

[slejd2001]

2.Making an interesting trailer showcasing high lvl battle might encourage them.

well there is kind of trailer of the game, made by @Eredin in balance testing ptr server

5. Not being so chat sensitive; Like ds chat is more sensitive than league of legend chat which is notorious for people saying racial slurs and worse.

yea, ds chat is way too sensitive

 

[vansh]

The tutorial really is lacking in showing what dinostorm has to offer. Adding a quest to the tutorial where you need to fight a Named NPC that mimics a player. To imitate a PvP battle. Upon completing this quest you are rewarded with 1 silver crown which opens a chain quest asking you to visit the silver lily emporium. Then silver lily npc gives detailed info about how to progress in the game. (The old players aka us could come up with said detailed info)

 

[vansh]

Upon talking to silver lily we could use a cutscene cinematic just like how we get one when we discover a new map. Make it 5 minutes long and unskipable

 

[TheDinoWarrior]

You have made amazing points here bro ^^ I think they should make server choosing random or something similar to it when a newbie comes to game, cuz many of them drop straight to eu1 always xd

 

[TheDinoWarrior]

I'm sure this game is MMORPG worthy for all MMORPG fans and has huge potential. With the right type of advertising and making interesting updates which attracts all categories of players is a big big win.

 

[- V O R A -]

You know what devs really need to do? Increase NPC damage by 500%

 

[VioletRosa]

you also know what we need? GADOS

 

[VioletRosa]

View attachment 45434

 

[vansh]

The game guide could be changed into a system that gives daily quest. Let's be honest who finds the game guide use ful?
Why not change it to a system that introduce you to your daily quest, for example to hunt 100 smilodon at otis and get rewarded 10,000 dd. Defend a gate from a bandit wave and get rewarded 2000 fame. Sell 50 junk items and get rewarded with 1000 dd. The daily quest should be something that you would naturally do as you play, some quest that give better reward could make you go out of your way to complete them though, such as Slay a monstrous dino to receive 50,000 dd based on contribution.

 

[vansh]

I though about quest that wouldn't make people go "Oh but people are just gonna abuse this and exploit that".

 

[vansh]

Don't underestimate the power of a daily quest system, that alone could save a game as simple as Dino storm.

 

[slejd2001]

The game guide could be changed into a system that gives daily quest. Let's be honest who finds the game guide use ful?View attachment 45438
Why not change it to a system that introduce you to your daily quest, for example to hunt 100 smilodon at otis and get rewarded 10,000 dd. Defend a gate from a bandit wave and get rewarded 2000 fame. Sell 50 junk items and get rewarded with 1000 dd. The daily quest should be something that you would naturally do as you play, some quest that give better reward could make you go out of your way to complete them though, such as Slay a monstrous dino to receive 50,000 dd based on contribution.

This would make players just more active, but not tell to the new players what is going on in the game or what it is really about. Some of your suggested quests will be added as achievements with 2nd endgame part

 

[VioletRosa]

The game guide could be changed into a system that gives daily quest. Let's be honest who finds the game guide use ful?View attachment 45438
Why not change it to a system that introduce you to your daily quest, for example to hunt 100 smilodon at otis and get rewarded 10,000 dd. Defend a gate from a bandit wave and get rewarded 2000 fame. Sell 50 junk items and get rewarded with 1000 dd. The daily quest should be something that you would naturally do as you play, some quest that give better reward could make you go out of your way to complete them though, such as Slay a monstrous dino to receive 50,000 dd based on contribution.

" conquer all the gados you see in 1 hour " reward: 100 gold and unlimited happiness UWU'

 

[Eredin]

well there is kind of trailer of the game, made by @Eredin in balance testing ptr server

yea, ds chat is way too sensitive

Yup

 

[AhmetCoşgun]

This post explains how the game makes it hard to retain new players, and what are the solutions to increase player retention & player base.


Whenever you see a low-level player grinding his way to max level, they usually fall into one of these 3 categories.

1. The player from another server—upgrading an account— coming to raid the server
2. The player who knew the game before stopped playing and now starts playing again.
3. Players who are completely new to the game, just discovered the game recently, know nothing about the game, the goal, or anything, they just know that there’s something that attracted them to the game

The first category needs no introduction.

The second category is the highest demographic in terms of players who play every day and grinds their way to max level. Most “new players” arriving in-game are not really new, they knew DS before, but either just wanted to give it another try or came back from a break.

While the third category, is rare. It is not every day that we see a new player who joins this game and starts grinding from 0 to max level immediately.

In simple business terms, the first category of leads are the hot ones who are ready to spend in the game. While the second category are warm leads, that does not necessarily mean they will stay warm, it all depends on the game “funnel, to push them to use the product”— this post will give you an idea of why you cannot convert the cold & warm leads into hot ones to make them spend.

There are 2 problems here, there’s obviously a lack of advertising to bring in new players, but what is the purpose of advertising if the new players don’t stay?

The problem is about keeping them. Making them interested to play the game.

It is much much harder to start an account and level that up today than it was 4 years before, it is usually because of those cumulations of updates that brought changes (in a positive way), but this negatively affects some parts of the gameplay— All of these changes that occurred affect the low level negatively.

When a new player is starting out, nothing catches the player’s attention. The new player who discovers the game does not find anything interesting at first. There’s a reason for this. Because the gameplay is not geared towards the new player anymore, but toward the existing player base of 2013-2015— who are now level max.

Problems that Low levels encounter:

• Gameplay is not enjoyable— The current playing experience feels like torture. Too many quests for fewer rewards. Quests are slow to finish.
• No Guidance — Players who are just starting out need guidance about what the game is, they need an introduction to the end goal of the game. The Guide Book is not enough.
• Left Out Completely— Currently, a low level cannot participate in Events or war, which begs the question, what else can you do apart from the long journey to max level?
• Discouraging To Grind— Players just give up when they hear that it takes 1 year to level up to max level from nothing, they simply lose the motivation to even continue because it's a long road ahead.

(Perhaps I have missed some important points here)


Over the last major updates that occurred, almost every one of them was for the already existing player, but no changes were made for the new ones. It is as if, when you created the game, you already had an idea who the update is for but you left out the new player starting out.

When I browse the Dev Shack, it is logical to come to that conclusion, there have been updates that raised the maximum level many times, and updates that introduced new features in the game, updates that have improved the combat situation. All these are for players who are already at high levels.

But has there been a change that is catered specifically for the low levels? No.

When we look at how events are structured, it is all for max-level players and not new players. It is not made for the ones starting out or at low levels. And when there are no new players in the game, clans cannot recruit, the clan goes bust and eventually, we go on another server to scout for new recruits, thus born the idea of “raid servers”, where shops are abused, and war happens with the cheap account. Someone could correct me, but that gameplay gained traction around 2020 or so.

I have praised the Endgame Mechanic update, and how it will change things for the positive for the community that plays by the rules. I have said before that there will be decreased player base in Europe servers, due to the economic situation in Europe, and that will affect the game. So far, I haven't seen such behavior happening. Perhaps the game will not be affected as much, time will tell. However, the next Dev Shack should be dedicated specifically to the low levels, there needs to be a revamp of how a player is starting out the game. With a solid introduction to the game, and a gameplay that offers no limit (once the Endgame mechanic is completed), I legitimately believe that the game will thrive.

Feedback are most welcomed.

I want to add that the game has become so p2w that novice players can't contract without plus those who do this are very rare, but when they start developing inv and warehouse slots, the work really gets worse, because for players who don't load gold in the game, this situation is getting worse because the old players' warehouses are 60 70 pages, and a novice player can do it 6 or 7 at most, and this is always insufficient

 

[vansh]

You can easily get 50 inv space as a free to play player. Just that most new player don't even know what they are doing while most high level player make low level accounts just to drain gold field with the free gc.

 

[AhmetCoşgun]

He used to want 4-5 gold to make 1 slot upgrade, but the number was fixed, ds later changed this and they started asking for higher prices with each upgrade

 

[mystery]

guys they cant even work on endgame part 2 and u want them to work on this

 

[vansh]

Why do people only lament about the past? It's lame to always cry about how this was like that in the past. Look at the present and future instead of always complaining about how the past was like this. Why don't you de-evolve back to a monkey man? You can do what ever you want then. Back in the monkey era where you could go on a tree and claim that tree as yours, eat all the fruits you can get your hands on?

 

[TheDinoWarrior]

Why do people only lament about the past? It's lame to always cry about how this was like that in the past. Look at the present and future instead of always complaining about how the past was like this. Why don't you de-evolve back to a monkey man? You can do what ever you want then. Back in the monkey era where you could go on a tree and claim that tree as yours, eat all the fruits you can get your hands on?

Broo- humans didn't descend from monkeys and I'm a science student and I know this is out of topic xD.. but yeah we shouldn't cry about game being better in the past but we should look at those things what made the game better and try to implement it in the current game. xd

 

[Sunshine..]

first that no updates will solve anything as long as the developers do not control the sharing and sales of accs.

why would a new player be wasting time, if he can simply buy a high level acc and already have rex unlocked?
and in many cases the clan leader himself lends high level accs to his members.

one of the game's biggest problems is the lack of "law".

the right thing would be to fix the existing problems and only then add new things.
what's the use of asking for updates, knowing that it always takes years to complete?
it would be faster to fix what is already in the game and then add new things.

 

[Alewx]

humans didn't descend from monkeys

Everyone is descendent from dinosaurs

 

[Ulutin]

humans didn't descend from monkeys and I'm a science student and I know this

 

[Eredin]

Hi,

I get ur point but honestly I don't have the numbers of players that joined the game after the new trailer has been made. I did everything just for free as i wanted to do it, atm I dont have so much time to spend on making videos but I can try to think about new ideas to bring some players to the game.

Regards,