The ATITD New Player guide (which is on the Wiki, meaning that it was written by players, because the devs would be damned if they could be bothered to write any documentation) has this quip:
One thing I am sure you have noticed already is the dearth of documentation or in-game hints and tutorials. Some say this is the developers being lazy, but there is another reason. A Tale in the Desert is a highly social game. You are meant to interact with other people.A dearth of tutorials and documentation means you can't ask the game how to play. Some say "it makes the game more social."
I vehemently disagree. Noobs asking dumb questions like "how the fuck do I get a camera that isn't utter shit" isn't social. That damn noob should look that stuff up on the web. I hate Barrens chat, in part because it's dumb questions like that. "How I mine for fish?" Damn, noob, google that crap.
It's a different problem in WoW, because most of these easy questions are things like "Where is Orgrimmar?" What makes those people noobs is they haven't yet found the Map interface, or they're too lazy to use it. It's really easy to find -- there's a button right there on your screen that takes you to the world map, and Orgrimmar is right frickin there on the world map. The world map is not hidden very well. If you can't find the map in WoW, you're a moron. And if you ask in chat, then I hate you and want you to die in a car fire.
In ATITD, the option is hidden. Or broken. Or doesn't even exist. The only way to find out is by asking someone, or reading a web page.
The web page is written by people that know the game well and hence are likely to not remember what exactly was so frustrating to new players. This is a problem in lots of places in the world: either you're in and you know everything and don't recall what it was like being new, or you're out and no-one has bothered to put anything together to help you get started. This might be OK for maintaining a sense of elitism; a special barrier to keep riff-raff from joining your private social club. But for an MMO? The devs should want a ton of players. Maybe the ATITD devs thought 2000 subscribers was "too many."
Apple had awesome documentation for the Macintosh. I guess they still do. That's my standard for documentation, and by that standard, 99.9% of the documentation in the world is utter shite. If Apple gets an A+, then everyone else is failing the class. It's not even close.
The problem is that most people don't know jack shit about epistemology. And I don't mean the nonsense spouted by Wittgenstein and the like; I mean simple concepts, like "concept." Concepts are mental entities. You form them most efficiently when you see a few positive examples and at least one negative example. The negative examples are crucial.
Spouting words that you feel are similar to a concept you are trying to communicate doesn't make your listener understand you. Good communication understands the position that the listener is in. A good communicator draws a mental map; he points the way and points out hazards. The work is done by the listener; the listener has to be able to see the similarity underlying the concept you're trying to communicate, and to be able to delineate that similarity from background noise (which is the purpose of negative examples).
Good communicators have an idea of what the listener is thinking. It doesn't matter how well you know the concept; you have to know how that concept is different.
You can show a kid a picture of a golden retriever, and a dachshund, and a labrador, and a pit bull, and a german shepherd, and a chihuahua, and say, "these are all dogs." Showing him the breadth of the concept isn't enough; you also have to point out where the breadth ends, and where a different concept begins. That child might see a cat and exclaim "dog!" proudly. Or see a particularly fluffy couch or shrub and say "dog!"
The person who knows most what a newbie needs to know is the newbie himself. He'll tell you what he's wondering. Beware of newbies writing guides without adult supervision, though, because they might label that cat as a dog.
so... wow. Totally off topic.
My point was that bad documentation doesn't make a game more social. Good documentation answers the questions that you don't want the game elders to have to answer over and over. That's what FAQs are for; they're primarily a benefit to the elders, not the newbies. And they also benefit the game developers, because if a newbie can get accurate answers easily and quickly they're more likely to hang around and pay for your game. If your documentation doesn't answer the question, the newbie will ask in general chat and get his answer, pissing off everyone else who has to read the same damn question for the 20th time this hour.
The questions that you want your elders to answer in-game are questions of judgement: where should I start my settlement? What spec should I use when levelling up? Should I do X or Y?
You don't want them answering "how do I do X?" Your documentation, in-game tutorials, and UI design should make that easy for the new player to figure out.
No comments:
Post a Comment