Game 5819 Help the New Guys

[davekuyk]

The long turn length may have contributed to some of the drops.

[Olorin]

It has been odd. Most new players usually take longer to fill out a turn, as they correct themselves repeatedly. Biggest problem I find is that once you mess up a turn it is very difficult to recover from. Making the game turn run faster means you give yourself even less time to figure out what mistake you are making. And you have to know what pitfalls there are to ask questions about. Which is usually too late to save a game.

Best way I can think of to help prevent that in the first place is to have a veteran look over the turn and give suggestions, but then the newbie has to trust the veteran. Which is why I thought of teams. So these are experiments to develop how to bring new players into the game so they get better and enjoy the game enough to stick with it.

[Strongwill]

It has been odd. Most new players usually take longer to fill out a turn, as they correct themselves repeatedly. Biggest problem I find is that once you mess up a turn it is very difficult to recover from. Making the game turn run faster means you give yourself even less time to figure out what mistake you are making. And you have to know what pitfalls there are to ask questions about. Which is usually too late to save a game.

Best way I can think of to help prevent that in the first place is to have a veteran look over the turn and give suggestions, but then the newbie has to trust the veteran. Which is why I thought of teams. So these are experiments to develop how to bring new players into the game so they get better and enjoy the game enough to stick with it.

Team game is the best way to learn, but not like the format that was done here for new people.

To start a team game a thread should be started. Select 1 or 2 veterans for each team followed by a newb or two.

After that is completed a draft in the forum should be completed by the decided teams. Members should communicate through email, text or any other platform they decide on. As you start completing turns each team member emails their turn and turn results to their other two team mates, and each of you double and triple check turns before ready is hit.

It’s a little more to it, but you get the idea. During the run of the game you will have a great knowledge of how to play in the next one you get into.

Strongwill

[Croaker]

It has been odd.  Most new players usually take longer to fill out a turn, as they correct themselves repeatedly.  Biggest problem I find is that once you mess up a turn it is very difficult to recover from.  Making the game turn run faster means you give yourself even less time to figure out what mistake you are making.  And you have to know what pitfalls there are to ask questions about.  Which is usually too late to save a game.

Best way I can think of to help prevent that in the first place is to have a veteran look over the turn and give suggestions, but then the newbie has to trust the veteran.  Which is why I thought of teams.  So these are experiments to develop how to bring new players into the game so they get better and enjoy the game enough to stick with it.

Team game is the best way to learn, but not like the format that was done here for new people.

To start a team game a thread should be started. Select 1 or 2 veterans for each team followed by a newb or two.

After that is completed a draft in the forum should be completed by the decided teams. Members should communicate through email, text or any other platform they decide on. As you start completing turns each team member emails their turn and turn results to their other two team mates, and each of you double and triple check turns before ready is hit.

It’s a little more to it, but you get the idea. During the run of the game you will have a great knowledge of how to play in the next one you get into.

Strongwill

Agree with the drops.  I’ve been fortunate to be in some recent games where people stayed in and it was definitely more exciting.

[Olorin]

I agree, think the best way forwards is to have teams composed of a veteran player and a couple of new players. Still give it a week, just so the new players can do communications and ask questions before the turn gets run. The game can always go faster if folks are willing to hit the button in any case, so the slow-go should speed up as the new players get a feel for it.