#NewBoost, a new community project to help out new users and possibly boost retention rate in a very original way. A couple of my own thoughts and a request to you to help us make this a success.
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#NewBoost
A couple of days ago, @untiqm launched a brand new idea that would allow us as a community to help out new players and might keep them around. The project is called #newboost, and I'm personally a big fan.
You can read his post about his idea here
Basically, it comes down to this: every player that wants to participate spends 1 hour each week to play one of his accounts. The DEC that is collected during that hour, will be used to boost a newcomer who will be randomly selected during a live stream event @untiqm will be hosting each week.
But before you go on, please read the post linked to above, so you'll know more about the basic idea.
Below, I'm just gonna share why I like the idea, but also some things we need to think about if we want to make this work.
Why I like the Idea
- We need to find ways to make out newcomers stick around.
The game is still advertised as 'play and earn', but when you first get started, it becomes obvious pretty fast that it takes a whole lot of time, patience (and money) to actually start earning. People give up before they even discover the potential the game has to offer.
- For people with only the spellbook, there aren't too many ways to really boost their account. To do good in novice tournaments, they at least need the epic cards. From my point of view, the cost of the spellbook and buying those epics isn't a huge investment. But I was lucky enough to be born in a rich, first-world country. $30 is not a lot of money for me, but we have players from all over the world, and for some this is like a monthly wage.
* The lack of options to build their deck (many only get potions in their loot chests) is really demotivating, and makes people quit. Adding a weekly event like @untiqm proposed, gives them at least something to look forward to, and maybe make them stick around, hoping they will get a chance to advance a bit faster.
Note: I am NOT saying we should give them the opportunity to build their deck without having to invest. This is just about giving them a chance to get a boost during their first days of playing and maybe make them realize it is worth it to stick around.
An Example
Yesterday, I spent exactly 1 hour playing one of my decks. I collected 790 DEC during this hour.
Since the #newboost initiative still needs some streamlining before it can actually go live, I'm gonna go forward and send that DEC to a brand new player that has just joined our Team Possible guild.
I still need to look into which player that will be, but I already know he's going to be over the moon. It's not a fortune, but I'm 100% sure it will boost his morale, while helping him realize what an awesome community we have here. (We can't underestimate the power of the community when it comes to new players. I've seen plenty that were disappointed by the rewards but fell in love with how we're all helping each other our here and stayed just for that.)
It's all about empowerment!
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Some Thoughts
The list below is far from complete. These were just a couple of things that popped up in my head right before I started writing this post.
Feel free to add to the list in the comments section, so we can make this new initiative as foolproof as possible.
If we want to make this work, there are a couple of things we need to agree on, and stick to those to make sure the chance this initiative fails becomes as small as possible.
These were the things that came to mind:
- We need a predetermined set of rules about who can be considered as an eligible newcomer. The system can be easily abused by bots or alts, but as @untiqm stated on Discord: if people want to abuse the goodwill of the community, it says more about them than about the community.
- A newcomer should only be eligible to receive the boost once.
- Because of the time zones, it's nearly impossible to set a specific time to spend an hour playing. My suggestion would be that everyone just chooses 1 hour/week that is most convenient for him/her, then sends the DEC earned during that hour to an account specifically set up for that purpose.
- If too many people participate, the amount of DEC could get really high. It might be an idea to predetermine a max amount of DEC/newcomer. If the total amount of collected DEC exceeds this set amount, maybe there should be 2 (or more) newcomers picked instead of 1 during the live stream event, and the amount could be split between the ones that are picked.
- There need to be clear instructions and a time limit set for new names to be entered in the raffle.
- We need to find a way to notify newcomers about this initiative without spamming Discord with the same message over and over again.
Like I said, these were just some things that came to mind in a couple of minutes. I assume there will be a lot more things we need to pay attention to. So I'm counting on you guys to bring some extra ideas to the table.
Who's In?
I'm stoked about the idea, even though it still needs some polishing to make sure it'll work as intended.
Up until now, there has been a good amount of positive feedback, and it looks like we already have a couple of players who are willing to participate.
Let's face it, a community like ours is pretty unique, which gives me the confidence we might be able to pull this off. (Of course, we need a solid way of organizing it first to limit possible abuse.)
Please leave your thoughts in the comments here, or in the comments section of @untiqm's post.
I'm sure there are things I didn't think of, and that's where all you guys come in.
This Is Our Chance To Make A Change
Needless to say, we need to boost that retention rate. In spite of the fact that a lot of spellbooks have been sold during thse last couple of months (more info in yesterday's AMA, to which you can find the link here), the number of people who are giving up before they even got started is way too high.
This is our chance to try to make a change as a community. Let's not waste it!
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