Has anyone noticed the rather drastic decline in the number of people playing Hawken these past few weeks. As of the time I'm posting this, there are 329 people playing Hawken. At the same time 3 weeks ago there were upwards of 600. That's almost a 50% DECLINE in player numbers!
Where the hell did all those players go? Hawken is back to the number of players it had BEFORE it was bought by Reloaded.
Call me paranoid, but if this keeps up for long enough I fear for the future of Hawken again. A big, big thing that needs to be focused on right now is NEW PLAYER RETENTION, because these new players are the future of Hawken, and I feel that both the new devs and the community need to take steps to improve the situation. It doesn't matter if the core community stick with the game through thick and thin, but players who have not invested so much time and effort into the game won't be as willing to fork out money for a game they don't like.
FEEL FREE TO LEAVE ANY CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM OR SUGGESTIONS
That being said, I think a good place to start would be what is driving the new players away. There are 3 main problems that need to be addressed:
1) Lack of understanding: A major complaint of almost all new players I've met, heard, or vaguely seen is that there is a severe lack of understanding among new recruits on topics that any seasoned player would mock you for not knowing.
For example, maneuvers!: L dodging, R dodging, feint dodging, Diagonal dodging, wave dodging, When and where to bunny hop, etc. Everyone should be able to learn all these and more from the get go, not by having to go to forums or meeting a player to teach you. This will vastly increase the number of skills that players can learn and increase the overall skill of the game.
HOW TO PLAY DIFFERENT GAME MODES! This one is especially important, especially in siege mode because the vast majority of player have no idea why you have to collect EU, no sense of timing or strategy to launching ships, no idea why getting in the AA is so important and then get pissed off when they lose over and over again. This drives people away in droves from a really fun and competitive game mode. And before anyone says it, IN GAME POPUPS ARE NOT ENOUGH TO TEACH PLAYERS HOW TO PLAY! Even with them enabled, I completely ignored them and then turned them off because they were annoying, and I can guarantee hundred of other people did the same. There needs to be a proper tutorial for all the game modes!
New players need to have access to better tutorials and education to game mechanics, simple as that. It's not just because it's nice, but because it's necessary.
2) Hackers, Smurfs and Trolls. Although fundamentally different, all three of these have the exact same effect and are relatively self explanatory. They drive players away from the game because it: A) irritates/angers them, b) Gives then a negative impression of the game.
Hackers drive players away for the simple reason that they are cheating, and it makes them think that cheating is either the way to win or it gives them a bad impression and they leave.
Smurfs have the same effect. If you ware a brand new player and some guy who is clearly leagues better than you kicks your ass in you first hour or two of playing, then it would make you not want to play anymore unless you are very persistent.
Trolls, they troll, people get angry and leave, 'nuff said.
In order to fix this there NEEDS to be an anti cheat system in place, and we need it asap. Removing the cheaters and hackers would remove a large chunk of the problem.
However, hacking is only part of the problem. Not only do we need anti cheating, but there needs to be a shift in the community's attitude towards smurfing and trolling. People generally accept smurfs because they sympathize with the "uber leet" players, many of whom I've met or played with, because they can't play any matches on a regular basis. While this is understandable, they also need to recognize that going into matches with brand new players in disguise is not helping the game that they clearly love to play. it's scaring away players, and that is directly affecting the player retention of Hawken. The 2200+ mmr range of players accounts for less than 5% of the population. This is a huge minority of the players, and we can't keep catering to wants of the minority over the needs of the majority.
3) The progression system needs a revamp, pronto. Reaching player rank 30 is practically a joke at this point in Hawken's lifespan, and it is a highly inaccurate representation of skill and time played. A brand new player can be at player rank 30 within 15-30 hours of playing, which is not nearly enough. If Hawken is going to have a level based system, the level cap needs to be raised to a ridiculously high level like 500. It gives players a goal to go for and it constantly rewards players for playing with the level system. When I first started playing Hawken, I was so excited every time I ranked up because I had a goal to reach for and I was rewarded for it with items and holograms. It encouraged me to play the game for that extra hour to level up again.
And horizontal progression needs to be a thing, it provides even more incentive to play the game and rewards players.
IF YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM OR SUGGESTIONS FEEL FREE TO LEAVE THEM. IF YOU ONLY LEAVE DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM OR NASTY COMMENTS, YOU ARE ONLY SHOWING TAHT THERE NEEDS TO BE A SHIFT IN THE COMMUNITY'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHANGE AND OPENESS.
Edited by BRiDGEb, 07 May 2015 - 11:54 PM.
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