Why is the 0 A.D community so small?

[Seleucids]

Let's think how a player progresses from completely unaware to a regular user: (at each step, N is multiplied by a fraction  f_i , 0 < f_i < 1)

- Discovery phase: N people hear about 0ad or see its existence, e.g on YouTube, in a Linux app store, walking across the website, FOSS recommendation etc.

- Out of these people, f₁  of the are attracted and try to download the game. 

- f₂ successfully downloads and runs the game for the first time, the remaining fails due to whatever technical errors or just their own stupidity. Some people are driven away by the large download size. 

- f₃ make it through the tutorial or some easy AI mode without loosing interest. From my personal experience, this number is quite small as I found it quite difficult to beat the easiest AI and the tutorial was long and tiring. The tutorial could be improved by having larger texts and ability to skip steps

- f₄ out of these decides to play AI the next day and the days after - we now have a casual singleplayer

- f₅ are bold enough to click on multiplayer and register their first account to the lobby

- f₆ of these are not discouraged by their village getting vapourised by inf at min 14 and decides to become regular players

There is a fraction q of regular players who quit the game for whatever reason. 

In the end, we have the current lobby users:

n = N * f₁ f2 f₃ f₄ f₅ f₆ (1 - q)

 

so ideally we maximise the values of N and f, then minimise the value of q

[Seleucids]

To maximise N, we need to maximise exposure of the game. Ads, appearance on Steam, GoG, Origin, Microsoft Store (these are disgusting places but are quick to get views). More involvement in alternatives.to, appear more on recommended lists etc. For example you can advertise as free alternative of AoE

f1 is quite big imo, the media to the outside world does look attractive. We just need to make sure the description is pristine in every software store: Gnome Softare, KDE Discover, Flathub, Snap, ...

f2 can be increased by making the download easier. I think in the main website, the https download llink could be made more obvious. You can even put the https download link in the first homepage with big attractive button around it. Maybe more modern design as well to make it look like a well maintained legit project.

Also the download size is way too large, 1.32GB! Can we cut that down a bit? E.g. on Linux we separate the data from the base engine, can we do something similar in Windows?

f3 is small and is something we can work on. I think the pregame page could be redesigned to guide new players better, e.g. by having large buttons for tutorials and guides in the middle to really emphasise where someone should click.

The tutorial could use some improvement, for example not too much text. It really tests the patience of players. Use short sentences, 1 thing per page. We can even break up the tutorial into bits.

The default settings could also be improved. The AI is set to medium by default. Petra is too aggressive. By default, it should be Easy + Defensive to ensure that the new player has time to explore before getting smashed. Experienced players know how to adjust settings so it's really not a problem for them.

 

f4 is really dependent on how well f3 is received and whether the individual is into the RTS style. Not much we can do. But we can always say something like "there is so much more that you can explore!"

 

f5 -- at the end of some hard campaign we can recommend them to join the lobby. Or, after they smash the very hard AI for the first time, we can do a popup message that says "Congrats! You have passed the trial, now you are ready to play with other humans!"

 

f6 -  we can add some social guidance on the lobby page. Some comforting messages like "try your best" "enjoy" "it's ok to loose" "don't give up" "have fun" , not the current harsh ones. Also it's important to explain to them not to try to join OP TGs on their first game as it won't be fun for anyone. 

 

q can be minimised by fixing some bugs and other problems. But that's really another story

[TheCJ]

9 hours ago, Seleucids said:

Ads

...

9 hours ago, Seleucids said:

Microsoft Store

not microsoft, please...

9 hours ago, Seleucids said:

Origin

what is even that?

Also, you forgot a very relevant way of increasing "N"; creating content (e.g. yt-videos, reddit posts, twitter, instagram and what not). 

9 hours ago, Seleucids said:

Also the download size is way too large, 1.32GB

Your first time downloading a game? 0ad is very small compared to most other games. I mean, 30+GB is very normal, there are also 200+GB games...

Can't really speak on tutorial or single player, since I never played those and went directly to multiplayer. 

Anyway, thank you for the input!

[Seleucids]

2 hours ago, TheCJ said:

Also, you forgot a very relevant way of increasing "N"; creating content (e.g. yt-videos, reddit posts, twitter, instagram and what not). 

Good point 

2 hours ago, TheCJ said:

Your first time downloading a game? 0ad is very small compared to most other games. I mean, 30+GB is very normal, there are also 200+GB games..

The difference is, they are not one file. You first download a small installer exe, then when you launch this installer it retrieves data from the server. Some games only try to download data when you reach that relevant part of gameplay. 

0ad can do the same: you download a tiny installer, which contains only the key dependencies and engine core. Then the installer downloads the big public data from the wfg servers. To make it fast for everyone, build in multithreaded parallel download into the installer.

[Baelish]

I totally agree with Seleucids, he/she wrote a really good guide to approach the average unexpert windows user.

To make the game interface, installation and presentation noob friendly requires lots of work, but I think it's necessary.

A personal experience: my friend was scared by the initial message which says that the game is still in development and can have problems. I laughed at her, but if we want to grow the community, we must take care of this type of user

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Well at least now that the game is signed, macos users won't have their operating system telling them that the game is malware XD.

4 minutes ago, Baelish said:

initial message which says that the game is still in development and can have problems.

I suppose it could just be "In development".

[Gönndolsalv]

Interesting how opinion differs here. I like the in Development disclaimer. I also don´t think calling the different game versions alpha XX is a issue. Since you can play the game for free and it is in development it´s ok that things are not perfect or subject to change. I´m not a typical gamer so maybe i´m the wrong person to ask.

3 hours ago, Baelish said:

A personal experience: my friend was scared by the initial message which says that the game is still in development and can have problems. I laughed at her, but if we want to grow the community, we must take care of this type of user

When i get this question from my fiends that i got to install the game my reply is: because there will be more features, it will be better with the next version or if you want you can help them, write a mod with your own changes. From my point of view all of that is positive.

[Baelish]

35 minutes ago, Gönndolsalv said:

Since you can play the game for free and it is in development it´s ok that things are not perfect or subject to change.

It's true, but lots of games, also paid ones, are under development (e.g. Among Us, COD Mobile, Fall Guys, Fallout 76), but they only release an upgrade and a banner with all change listed.

It gives to the player a feel of care toward the game coming from the developers, not a feel of unfinished or worse abandoned.

[Grautvornix]

43 minutes ago, Baelish said:

It's true, but lots of games, also paid ones, are under development (e.g. Among Us, COD Mobile, Fall Guys, Fallout 76), but they only release an upgrade and a banner with all change listed.

It gives to the player a feel of care toward the game coming from the developers, not a feel of unfinished or worse abandoned.

Indeed, this game is far from being unfinished although there are many ideas and discussions of extending and further improving it. Frankly, the game works well and is fun to play (both SP or MP).

So , I do support the proposal to rephrase that disclaimer from essentially saying:

"this game is unfinished and will not completely work, has potentially bugs", etc.

to something more positive like:

"this game is a full featured early release that is constantly improved and extended by an active community. Many extensions are already available for download as mods, and there is even guidance material available how to adapt the game by yourself and therefore contribute to this community project." 

Plus I would really suggest renaming the next version from "0AD Alpha 0.0.27" to "0AD 1.0" (and no alpha).

I do acknowledge this might be seen as a bit bold marketing but THIS GAME IS ALREADY AWESOME RIGHT NOW and will get even better!

Sorry, I had a need to express my view .