Hey Praetorians!
Today we are going to try on some new shoes!
More specifically, we are gonna try on the shoes of the proverbial "New Player" in Splinterlands, here in October 2024.
Let's get started.
Everyone Needs a Map (aka a Search Engine)
First, I wanted to just see the Google results for Splinterlands. I'm not an expert on Google search and don't know the analytics, but the first thing I wondered: if someone heard about Splinterlands, how easy to "google it" and how helpful?
Well, my first thought is: at least it's the top link.
That's good.
I do wonder whether the descriptions and sub-links are all that helpful.
I mean, the Card Market page preview just shows random prices!
Anyways, I'll leave that for other Googlers to suggest improvements below.
Or maybe share your results from your favourite search engine in the comments.
Logging in: Quests? Yay!
Okay, so lets just fast forward through the process of clicking the link and creating a new player account because that's boring. Just name and email address.
Let's get to the real stuff. First login - this is what you see:
Okay so now that I'm in, I can see Nate and the team have implemented this cool new Quests tray right at the top of the screen.
- Tutorial
- Play a match
- Buy a spellbook
Okay, that's pretty cool.
Let's do it!
Tutorial (with, uh... Untamed cards...)
The tutorial is a fun little graphical story between two battle mage characters to walk the player through the team selection screen.
Yes, they have names, but unless I'm mistaken, neither of these memorable characters ever show up again in our Splinterlore, so I'm sticking with Good Cop and Bad Cop.
So the premise is Bad Cop says we aren't gonna cut it. But Good Cop takes us under his wing and teaches us how to get 'er done.
Some inspirational dialogue and a few clicks, and here we go....
Eww, what are these cards?
The Tutorial demonstrates some gameplay concepts but it's the old screen, it's only Untamed era, there are no Tactics summoners and exactly zero modern-legal cards...
No walkthrough of key screens, no mention of Energy, SPS, card levels, modern cards, markets, starter cards, or really anything except a single battle. No mention of Hive either. This leaves new players expecting a basic, simple game of "pick a team and earn some tokens". They are completely unaware of everything that surrounds the game they are signing up for.
Look, I get it. Tutorials take time to build, and the Team is waiting for last bits of tech modernization on the battle screen so they don't have to rebuild tutorials too often. Hopefully we get that in place soon so this can be more helpful.
I'm just glad Good Cop helped me teach Bad Cop a lesson in humility.
Tutorial Quest Complete! Now what?
Well, now that Bad Cop's licking his wounds, the second quest is...
PLAY A MATCH
That's pretty familiar, we know what that looks like - all new cards, but the setup isn't so different from the screen we just saw on the Tutorial, so our New Player just clicks some random cards and away we go!
Happily, we are progressing along. Let's check on our quests:
- ✅
Watch Tutorial - ✅
Play a Match - Unlock Spellbook
Spellbook already, eh? So one out-of-date video, one quick battle, and now time to buy!
I mean, sure you could do more battles, but giant checkmark says something else...
I think we need a little more romance before we ask for a kiss...
Fine! Just buy the damn Spellbook already!
What the heck, I'm gonna buy it eventually anyways, right?
So I might as well get those mighty Rewards that are coming to me instead of practicing with more free battles...
Okay, fun stuff, now we get to pick a secret identity Hive name...
Huh? My quests are reset? Well not like they are difficult, so I'll do them again, but it's a bit janky to the user experience. Let's do em again...
Nice touch - 1000 Glint for finishing the quests (again). Let's spend in the shop!
What am I seeing here?
- Unlock glint?
- Unlock rewards?
Wait, I thought the Spellbook was going to unlock those things...
This kinda sounds like it should be in that very nice My Quests screen we just completed...
So sure, I have 1000 glint, but it's not obvious that I can spend it or how.
I guess that big, bright orange BATTLE button is my next step, right?
Little detour, I guess I'll rent some cards first...
The pop up suggested to "rent some cards" so let's go see what that's all about?
At this point, there hasn't been a single peep about card levels, so as a new user, I'm assuming I rent both sets then I will have all the cards to dominate.
(Oh... poor new user. You are in for a surprise - these are bronze level Chaos era cards...)
Finally, after spending most of their new user credits, the eager new player joins the vaulted ranks of bronze to show their worth!
Vonak?
no, wait, that's not right...
VONAK!
Final Verdict
We're pretty much at the end of the guidance for new players.
I mean, sure, there's buttons for How to Play and Academy up in the corner, and the Support Team has done a lot of work to make them as informative as possible.
But...
We really could help direct our players around the screens more... lots of games do it, and Splinterlands is more complex than most games. If you listen to new players, they are often completely overwhelmed and even simple questions are answered with "Okay, sure, do this, but first do these other three things"
I think a good, solid, QuickStart guide, prominently displayed, would go a long way to introduce them to the complex ecosystem we've built up here and to give more info as they progress.
I like the My Quests at the beginning of the journey - I'd love to see those used more to unlock further concepts and integrate into the ecosystem.
I want to enroll them in Splinterlands Academy, with a Minor in Hive.
More to come.