Problem: cities stopped early in their development

[Hugs]

We have all seen it, cities that seem to be started on, only to be left vacated very quickly... And, there is a lot of them.

So, what is done to this problem. The current approach, which is probably a good one, is to delete a city that is in an early stage, and where the user have not logged in for 30 days.

Well, this is probably a good idea, but more can be done.

As someone somewhere noted, a lot of cities are created by people searching for specific boosted goods.

What if the game was capable of discovering when a user left a city in early construction, and popped up a window to the user asking for feedback on why he is leaving, giving him several options like:

* I liked the game, but something forced me to leave early, I will probably come back
* I have tried this game, and found that it was not for me, if I don't return within a week, I won't return at all
* I was looking for a specific boosted goods, but this city did not give what I was searching for
* None of the above

All of the options leads to a different action from the game.
* The first one will set the "delete limit" up to 60 days, as this user is more probable to actually return. In addition to this, a couple of mails will be sent to the mail address the user gave at creation, trying to entice the user to return.
* The second one will set the "delete limit" down to 8 days - as this user will probably not return at all, and it's good to get the startup-city out of the game quickly.
* The third one will allow the user to "restart" his city, erasing his current progress, and have him start over. It might even allow the user to choose one out of 9 possible boosted goods that he wants to see in the new city. This will probably encourage the user to play what he wants to, and stay in the game, while at the same time getting quickly rid of cities that are bound to be vacated - even enabling the user to not have to worry about creating another user, only filling the game with garbage.
* The fourth option will give the user a text box, where they might explain or give feedback that can be used both to learn where the major leaks from the game are, but also to figure out if maybe there is a need for more options in this "Hi, we noticed you are about to leave us, without having finished the initial tutorial, would you give us a minute to help us understand why?"

This is just an idea though, the final solution might well be a variation over this. But, you folks on the forum, what do you think, would this help mitigate a challenge that is in the game, or just make a problem out of something that is not there?

 

[DeletedUser1901]

How will the player get the pop-up window in-game if they left the game or how would the game know that the player is currently leaving the game in order to send the pop-up window? The game can't read someone's mind or gain intel based on certain behavior from the player to know that they are in the process of leaving the game. I would be very frightened if this happened. The poll would have to be in a message sent to the user's confirmed e-mail address after a certain amount of time since their last log in.

 

[DeletedUser1877]

We have detected improper thought patterns, and feel we need to bring you in so we may "help" you........

Sorry, couldn't resist

 

[Hugs]

How will the player get the popup window ingame if they left the game or how would the game know that the player is currently leaving the game in order to send the pop-up window? The game can't read someone's mind or gain intel based on certain behavior from the player to know that they are in the process of leaving the game. I would be very frightened if this happened. The poll would have to be in a message sent to the user's confirmed e-mail address after a certain amount of time since their last log in.

In order to leave the game/log out, you have a couple of options:
* You can close the browser or that specific browser tab. This can be tracked with some frame.closing event or something similar. I think you have all experienced sometimes that when you are about to leave a web page, you get a popup message about something . This is not something frightening. Think about it this way, your computer needs to know that you are closing the browser window, in order to make it disappear from your screen. It happens based on an action initiated by the user.
* You can do a "proper logout" from this character. This is even easier to track.
* You can restart your computer, or just pull out the power cable.... - this cannot easily be tracked I guess, and in this situation your ingame "settings" remain unchanged.

In my opinion a very short one window survey when the user leaves the game after having tried it from the beginning, asking for some simple feedback would be a good idea always. It can help increase understanding about what makes people more or less interested in the game.

 

[DeletedUser607]

it's a good idea to learn why the player left.

for the others, who have that dying city around, how about this: after 30 days, the account does not get deleted. it will be sent into cold storage, with a similar system than the player relocation (just change the location to something far far away). if the player comes back, he'll get a new location, similar to the registration process, where a player gets his lot in the landscape.

 

[Deleted User - 60152]

@Hugs - to set up a pop-up that comes up on exiting - it has to be on a specific timer. So with which log out would it come up?

The first time the player logs out? The second? Tenth?
Every time the player logs out? I would quit if I had to deal with that every time.

When I shut down my browser I usually have several tabs open and may or may not be on the elvenar tab when I leave. I also don't want a pop-up that prevents me from closing my browser and shutting down my computer if I'm in a hurry.

I think an email sent to a player who hasn't logged in in XX days is a better option.

 

[Hugs]

Well, I was naive, and thought, it happens the first time only, and only if the user stops working on the city before the initial tutorial is over (I do understand that it might be a discussion on when it is, but I also guess there is a point in this initial training where we know for sure it is over).

And, I thought that it would be a quite simple pop-up, with one or two questions, and ofc. an option to quickly skip the questions if you did not want to respond. (If the user don't respond, he just continues with his initial settings, no problem. The questions only gives the user some options to alter these settings.)

So in my head if the user played through the initial tutorial in the first sitting, the popup would never come. This user has spent enough time in the game to learn what it is about, and will be reached with a couple of emails. First one that gives you bonus diamonds for confirming your email, and the second one - that is also sent out even today, that try to taunt the user to come check back what is happening in the game.

I think an email sent to a player who hasn't logged in in xx days is a good additional thing. But, I don't see it contradicting the popup. The clue with the popup is that it will come when the user still remember what Elvenar is, and might have gotten an idea. The main purpose with it, is to be able to purge those users who will never return as fast as possible, while giving them alternatives to just leaving. I believe that if one simple popup appearing one time if the user stops playing very early, can make half of the vacated cities be purged within 7 days rather than 30 or more days, it would be a nice benefit for those of us who are playing a bit more. I even believe most of us would consider it worth the small interruption of the user who are leaving the game very fast.

 

[DeletedUser1681]

What I myself was looking for when I started my 1st ever Elvenar account was a "restart" button (after feeling I had painted myself into a corner).
Survey would be good, placed quite early (many seem to have left the game after an hour, or after 1st day). If person has become inactive maybe sendin that to registration email.
Reminders from game companies when a player fails to reappear are quite common, don't know if this game sends them.

... It might even allow the user to choose one out of 9 possible boosted goods that he wants to see in the new city.

I would be very surprised if this would materialize.

Actually there is a (well hidden, or at least not advertised) delete option outside the game interface, that could be brought in-game. If someone would be "searching for boosted goods and not finding them" or being just uninterested - they could just use in-game "delete account" options with maybe 3 day - one week "cancel deletion" option. Many other games have something like that, so if the person knows he/she has seen enough, not interested, they could use that.
EDIT. The deletion option that exists might actually list all Innogame accounts (can't quite remember, used it long ago) so maybe that's why it isn't readily available. But I ofc mean an in-game option for this spesific game.

 

[Hugs]

What I myself was looking for when I started my 1st ever Elvenar account was a "restart" button (after feeling I had painted myself into a corner).

And here you quoted me for suggesting that the user might be allowed to choose one out of 9 possible boosted goods that he wants to see in the new city - and replied:

I would be very surprised if this would materialize.

Considering that what some users are doing today, start an account and work just far enough to understand what boosted goods they got, and if it was wrong, they vacate the city, and start over... - an option allowing them to restart that city which they know they will leave, will be a relief for both the user and the game.... and understanding that they will continue vacating (or restarting if allowed) until they get their favorite boosted goods, it's not so bad idea to simply offer it right away. It will save both the game and the user for some fuss... - maybe even offer it for the 100 diamonds the user will have left after playing the (new) intro... - meaning he will then not have 100 diamonds available to shorten in some waiting time...

If this leads to everyone searching for a marble increase, with time it is going to make the trader so full of marble they will hardly get to trade fair to get the other goods, and then... it will balance itself out, as it will lead everyone to start searching for something else to start with... Also, if everyone is going to have marble increase ... the game will not find plots for the users with many neighbors, and this too will lead to balancing

 

[Elderflower]

I don't mind cities where the players have left the game so long as I can still visit them and gain some gold and goods by giving Neighbourly Help. What I find really annoying are the cities where the player sets their Main Hall to upgrade and then quits, and leave no cultural buildings either. Such cities sabotage other players because they are occupying space that could, at the very least provide gold from a mine.
I suggest that a city where the Main Hall is set to upgrade and then not visited for a week (or other time period that may be more appropriate) should be moved to the furthest edge of the map - "into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Which might save the rest of us from cursing and gnashing of teeth

 

[DeletedUser1877]

I don't mind cities where the players have left the game so long as I can still visit them and gain some gold and goods by giving Neighbourly Help. What I find really annoying are the cities where the player sets their Main Hall to upgrade and then quits, and leave no cultural buildings either. Such cities sabotage other players because they are occupying space that could, at the very least provide gold from a mine.
I suggest that a city where the Main Hall is set to upgrade and then not visited for a week (or other time period that may be more appropriate) should be moved to the furthest edge of the map - "into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Which might save the rest of us from cursing and gnashing of teeth

I'm thinking as it appears to be deliberately attempting to damage play....... an IP ban