Where to Begin (The Game)

[Baron]

Actual concept art! I'd say that's an important milestone in this discussion. And it's good, too.


But... after a day of further thought about these concepts, and also seeing where the discussion is heading on the Great Shaft thread, I am wondering if we could consider "Where to Begin" at a more fundamental level, for a little while.

There are potential Uru fans who would someday find themselves interested in the game's puzzles, but won't have enough patience to solve one when they first arrive. Some people come online to socialize, or love to create things, and they'd be a boon on Spoken Word Night. They'd contribute great short stories that could be put in journals. They could help to create new Ages.

But if you hit them with an ordeal upon arrival, even a minor ordeal, they won't stay long enough to become interested.

There is discussion on the Shaft thread suggesting that the new player should be confined to a tutorial at least long enough for them to learn the basics of the game. My question is, what are the basics? Which elements are actual essentials?

I am increasingly convinced that the best thing, regardless of what sort of warehouse/mansion/pueblo/cart the starting area turns out to be, is to get each new arrival to their kind of entertainment as fast as possible. Forcing a visitor to choose Yeesha versus the DRC at the beginning is too much too soon (as Alahmnat concluded in the other thread). On the other hand, letting them choose between starting the puzzle quests, visiting an art gallery or library, or linking to a public space to socialize is likely to encourage them to stay.

And yes, I would allow new players to entirely bypass the Cleft, the core Ages and the Great Shaft at first. All of these are unnecessary obstacles that could scare off new members of the community.

Does this make sense to everyone? I am hoping we can engineer the game's beginning so that it instead grows the community.

Any plan -- any starting Age that we develop -- should provide immediate encouragement and direction to players who want to:

• Solve Puzzles
• Explore
• Learn the history of the places one can visit
  
  ...as Uru always has, but also,
• Socialize
• View Artwork
• Play competitive games
• Learn the D'ni language
• Collect things
• Build up high scores

What does this do to the authorized/Yeesha choice problem? I am not sure. We still need to enable the new arrivals to panic link and collect books. But I think it's of critical importance to get them started on the fun faster.

[Grogyan]

I'm not convinced that starting out afar from the Cleft is a good idea.

Though where you start now is good, and climb through the fence and into the caldera, where there is a box of Relto books for you to pick yours up from, then as you start and descend part way down into the hole, a podium with a Gahreesen book and a sign saying to pick up your KI device, this being the same book link that you get in the hood, blocks your way to go down to the great shaft

The KI would then associate you randomly to a hood that is instanced, from there you can join a hood of your choosing

[75th Trombone]

If this is truly in our hands, we need to take a good hard look at making some decisions that Cyan could never have made.

The beginning of the game is a good one. Cyan is intent on dropping you into a world and letting you figure stuff out. That's their aesthetic, and it worked great in Myst and Riven. But Myst and Riven used a mouse and one button.

Uru is vastly more technically complex than Myst or Riven. I think a big part of the reason Uru never appealed to many people was that you were completely lost, ESPECIALLY until you get your KI. So Uru needs a complete rethink of players' introduction to the world. My proposal is this:

Start the player in Relto in Tutorial Mode. An overlay asks "Want a tutorial?" and if the player clicks yes, then a text overlay walks them through linking to Garrison, getting a KI, going to the Nexus, and going to Ae'gura.

Over the course of that tutorial, the player is taught how to walk, how to interact with objects, the concept of Linking, how and when to use the Relto book, how to use the Relto hut bookshelf, how to use the [utterly redesigned] KI, and how to use the Nexus and Ae'gura Nexus pedestals.

Yes, it is incredibly un-Myst-like. Well guess what? Uru is largely un-Myst-like, and any MMO has to cater first to player experience and second to storyline and canon. Cyan has already made tons of editions to the mechanics of The Art just for Uru, proving my point.

I know Cyan would never, ever, ever have done anything like this. But that's okay. Cyan putting Uru in our hands means we get to make decisions in Uru's best interests that Cyan, for whatever reason, couldn't. We need to be reasonable about what we change, but bold about making changes that help this incarnation of Uru not fail.

[realXCV]

Give a gun to the player at the beginning of the game and you will attract many players.

[Gehn, lord of ages]

If this is truly in our hands, we need to take a good hard look at making some decisions that Cyan could never have made.

The beginning of the game is a good one. Cyan is intent on dropping you into a world and letting you figure stuff out. That's their aesthetic, and it worked great in Myst and Riven. But Myst and Riven used a mouse and one button.

Uru is vastly more technically complex than Myst or Riven. I think a big part of the reason Uru never appealed to many people was that you were completely lost, ESPECIALLY until you get your KI. So Uru needs a complete rethink of players' introduction to the world. My proposal is this:

Start the player in Relto in Tutorial Mode. An overlay asks "Want a tutorial?" and if the player clicks yes, then a text overlay walks them through linking to Garrison, getting a KI, going to the Nexus, and going to Ae'gura.

Over the course of that tutorial, the player is taught how to walk, how to interact with objects, the concept of Linking, how and when to use the Relto book, how to use the Relto hut bookshelf, how to use the [utterly redesigned] KI, and how to use the Nexus and Ae'gura Nexus pedestals.

Yes, it is incredibly un-Myst-like. Well guess what? Uru is largely un-Myst-like, and any MMO has to cater first to player experience and second to storyline and canon. Cyan has already made tons of editions to the mechanics of The Art just for Uru, proving my point.

I know Cyan would never, ever, ever have done anything like this. But that's okay. Cyan putting Uru in our hands means we get to make decisions in Uru's best interests that Cyan, for whatever reason, couldn't. We need to be reasonable about what we change, but bold about making changes that help this incarnation of Uru not fail.

We could also put DRC message board things (you know, like the one in ABM Gahreeson that points you to getting your KI) to tell people to go to Gahreeson and get a KI (these would be positioned near the beginning of any Ages a person could first get to after going through the Cleft and Relto) and then one near the KI machine with an IC description of KI features (because they would be complicated IC as well).

[realXCV]

We could also create a game manual that explains all of this.

[T_S_Kimball]

My proposal is this:

Start the player in Relto in Tutorial Mode. An overlay asks "Want a tutorial?" and if the player clicks yes, then a text overlay walks them through linking to Garrison, getting a KI, going to the Nexus, and going to Ae'gura.

[-snip-]

I know Cyan would never, ever, ever have done anything like this. But that's okay. Cyan putting Uru in our hands means we get to make decisions in Uru's best interests that Cyan, for whatever reason, couldn't. We need to be reasonable about what we change, but bold about making changes that help this incarnation of Uru not fail.

Actually, they did (sorta). Referencing Prime (and, by association, Prologue and UU), the first thing I remember seeing upon starting a new game was a small controls popup (which could be recalled later, though not in an intuitive fashion IMHO). Can't remember if that was in MO:UL since I only started the game from scratch twice, in late '06.

It's not much, but it was something at least (and it was enough to tell me to immediately locate the key remapping section - changing it to WASD + E[Jump] suddenly made things infinitely easier, no thanks to many years in the HL games and ES:Morrowind/Oblivion).

My preference now is something akin to what I'm seeing in HL2 and Portal - as you go through the beginning, controls are introduced through an off-center transparent overlay (that fades shortly thereafter). I'd still go and re-map immediately if we kept the existing movement defaults.

--TSK

[Skydiverjimq101]

Ok to start, I'm Jimq101 in There and SkydiverjimBarbasz in second life. Well, we all miss MOUL. it's a great adventure and puzzle/clue solving game.
Well, to bring Myst/Uru back, you have to expand URU. I believe we only visit a small fraction of this great cavarn call D'ni. There may be more linking books yet to get discover. Even more, if they find the Terahnee linking book and find even countless more linking books or Ages.
How about finding a yeesha page to find a place to rest and to Socialize with other explorers. Maybe a yeesha page to build a place for rest and entertainment with other explorers. Well, I can't tell you what to do but what happens to Uru in the future will be the comglomerate with the best idea by fellow uru refugees.

SkydiverJimQ101

[The stranger]

Here's a new idea:

You begin in an abandoned old west town. There's a telescope on one of the roofs (which you can reach by a ladder). From it, you can see the volcano. There is an old west cart, half burried in the ground. This place is kinda' small. All buildigs are closed. This is a public place.

From this town, to your right, you can see Zandi's trailer (prerendered pic) and to your left, a tent (also prerenderd).

Once you walk to one of these things, you will disappear, and reappear again near it. This place is personal. The trailer is zandi's, the tent is of a DRC dude, which talks about the way to d'ni and all.

[Tweek]

Not to be rude but thats a pointless beginning, there's no need for you to be there aside for looking into the distance to see the cleft and the trailer, which can be done from the original starting location at the cleft.

Also the concept of "walking vanishing and reappearing" is a huge immersion kick to the head, if you're walking somewhere it needs to be continuous or handled through paging systems like the doors in Gaheeren on the second tower.