new-user-experience
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Shroud of the Avatar enters Steam early access today
There's a certain feeling that you get when you walk around in a game with a new hat, as if you're making a statement: "Hello, world, I have a new hat." And you can get a new hat by logging into Shroud of the Avatar and doing the Grand Tour quests added in the game's most recent release. The new pilgrim hat will be available only during Release 12's testing schedule, so you'll want to get the hat soon if you want that new hat. Release 12 does offer more than just a new hat, though; the update offers a comprehensive new user experience, 15 new skills, 50 new weapon and armor recipes, 40 new songs, new maps, guilds, and other improvements. Studio boss Richard Garriott has also weighed in on the state of the game and updates for the solo play version of the game. Check out the full update on the official site for more details and community news. SOTA officially enters early access on Steam today.
Dark Age of Camelot takes players to school
Dark Age of Camelot's new website is already paying off in spades for players, as the developers are able to pass along a host of new information, concept art and previews for the populace. DAOC will be 10 years old as of next month and isn't slowing down. Exhibit A: The team is already hard at work on the 1.110 patch. John Thronhill penned a dev diary about the patch this week; he focuses on the new Lesson Quests that will go hand-in-hand with the beginner experience. Lesson Quests are designed to help newbies get their footing in this complex setting, especially since the game continues to see a "large amount of returning and brand-new players" each month. As players progress through Lesson Quests, they'll not only get a better understanding of how DAOC works but be rewarded with buff tokens, potions, and other nice goodies. As part of the quest chain, NPCs will demonstrate crowd control techniques and other RvR survival skills in the hopes that new players will be able to make a better contribution to the war. These tutorial quests can also be skipped if players already know the ropes. Lesson Quests aren't the only new additions coming with 1.110, although Thornhill says we'll have to wait until another day to hear about the rest.
DAoC rolling out new website, allowing server transfers
As Dark Age of Camelot counts down to its 10th year anniversary in October, Stuart Zissu breaks out a few early presents by revealing four "big ticket items" in his latest producer's letter. An upgraded new player experience is on its way for the game to help new and returning players get up to speed for epic RvR battles. Dubbed the "New User Journey," this extended tutorial will give pointers on everything from pets to crowd control. The team's also hard at work on a new website for the game, which should be coming soon. Or "soon." The new website will operate in conjunction with the third big ticket item, which is a DAoC wiki. Zissu put out a call for players to help fill the wiki once it's up and running. Finally, players on the Glamorgan cluster will be able to transfer to Ywain in the near future. You can read all of the nitty-gritty details of these items on the Camelot Herald.
Details on WAR's new user journey and apprentice system
Warhammer Online may have traveled a rocky road this past year but with each new patch, the game gets better and better. The latest patch installment to hit the public test server is 1.3.2, which features a New User Journey, Apprenticeship System, career balance changes, and further improvements to performance, stability, and RvR.The two biggest items being tested right now are the New User Journey and Apprenticeship System. The former introduces new players to the game much more effectively and efficiently, funneling them into the same starting area (Chaos vs. Empire), auto-adding them to a starter guild, and much more. The latter allows highly ranked players to drop their level (stats and abilities capped formulaically) and lowly ranked players to raise their level in order to play together.As for RvR, fortresses are being removed from the zone capture system, which should result in more frequent city sieges. Whether this is a good or bad thing is yet to be determined because depending on your timing you may not be able to join your friends due to the current instance mechanic. Keep warfare will now benefit from a new difficulty mechanic as well, which grants more rewards when more combatants are present.Check out the full 1.3.2 patch notes for all the gory details!
Lab publishes NUE test results. Greeters vs mentors: Greeters win
Linden Lab recently attempted to evaluate the efficacy of its user-volunteer corps as a part of the new user experience (NUE) in Second Life. Two NUE areas were selected (Hanja and Korea), and baseline results established. Then testing was conducted in two phases using one area as a testing ground and the other as a control. The first incorporated themed tours by volunteer greeters, and the second involved general mentoring in conjunction with the original style of Orientation Island tutorials. Phase one seemed to draw some very successful results, while phase two only showed a slight improvement. The phase two results look to be well within the margins of error, and essentially statistically insignificant. The sort of mentoring you might find at Help Island Public would, based on these results, seem to be broadly ineffective. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
