What's missing from the CORE experience?

jasonrohrer · 2018-06-18 19:14:38

CORE is in caps, because I don't want a wish list here.... "More containers" or "more animals" is not a core thing....

I'm still feeling like maybe something is missing here. Something in the new player experience or overall experience.

The core experience seems pretty rich an multi-faceted, and obviously unlike any other game.

But what about new players?

Yes, a new player will face a lot of baby deaths, but there are probably enough mothers around that they will eventually be helped and survive. Lone Eve, if they ever end up there, is still pretty impenetrable for a new player. I worry that new players end up there more often because of frequent baby deaths and lineage cooldowns. And some of the cooler features, like the family tree browser, will be somewhat meaningless to new players, and also a bit hard for them to discover.

Here are some numbers to think about:

330 people bought the game in the past week.

Out of those, 308 people lived a life for the first time in the past week. 22 people bought the game and didn't get to the point of living a life at all, which isn't great, but clearly not the main problem here. There are perhaps some install confusion issues still, or compatibility issues, but 6% failure is okay.

240 of those people lived in the game for at least an hour total (77%). That means 23% bounced off the game before living an hour in the game. 204 lived for at least two hours. 118 for at least 5 hours. That's 35%, which seems a little low.

5 hours seems like a good value point for the first week of owning the game.

Of those new players who played at least 5 hours, the average number of lives is 93. That's a huge yikes right there... So, youth mortality is still a huge issue for new players.

But some of the more obsessed players swamp this. For players who played more than 5 hours but less than 20 hours, the average number of lives is 68.

18 new players played more than 20 hours in the first week, and 3 new players played more than 40 hours in the first week. So, some new players REALLY love the game.

Looking back two weeks ago, 381 people bought the game in that week. 184 of them played the game the following week, but 197 of them did not. So 51% of people who try the game do not stick with it and keep playing the next week.

Looking back three weeks ago, 810 people bought the game in that week. 378 were still playing the next week, or 46%, and 176 of them were still playing 2 weeks later (this past week), or 21%.

The numbers look like this:

.
Still playing during week:      7    6    5    4    3    2    1

bought 2 weeks ago:                                    381  184
bought 3 weeks ago:                               810  378  176
bought 4 weeks ago:                          490  262  133   76
bought 5 weeks ago:                     335  179  102   65   40
bought 6 weeks ago:                318  207  146  102   69   40
bought 7 weeks ago:           431  242  153  123  101   66   49

Essentially, we're shedding roughly 50% of players every week.

Over time, this means our player population will settle at 2N, where N is the number of players that join each week. You hit a steady state where the number of old players you shed, or 50% of the remaining players, is equal to the number of new players coming in.

If the number of players joining each week declines, your player population will decline too.

This is true for any player retention rate short of 100%. If you retain 95% of your players, and N players join each week, you will have a steady-state player population of 20N. If your population is larger than 20N, it will decline gradually until it hits this point. And as N declines, so will your steady-state player population.

This shows why eternal growth isn't possible, unless N continues to grow each week, which of course is impossible. And no game retains 100% of its players.

And there are only two ways to grow a player population:

1) Increase the retention rate

2) Increase the join rate

The join rate is directly correlated to how much exposure the game is getting. I can see that 3% of visitors to the game's website end up buying the game, pretty consistently. This is no huge surprise... it's the normal "conversion rate" that any website sees. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-aver … -industry/

I'm not sure that "increasing the retention rate" is something that I necessarily want to shoot for.... I don't want to keep people playing beyond the point where they are getting value from the game, just to keep them playing.

However, I do want to make sure that each and every person who buys the game gets substantial value from it. I feel like some people are falling through the cracks.

Also, pretty much none of my game design friends/colleagues have played the game in any substantial way. I think they all bounced off of it a long time ago.

YAHG · 2018-06-18 20:05:35

Villages are all the same, you don't really belong to any of them and they never interact in any way other than people
pretending they are trading when they could just take things and almost no-one would ever notice.

Village life seems to swing from starvation mode into boring abundance.

I don't really feel like what I do in the towns matters very much at all, the food is gone almost instantly or it builds
up uselessly. Tools etc. are about the same result.

I think there is no real connection to the places we are making, and the game is pretty much all about making enough food.
Everything else is just window dressing or is more making more food faster.

I don't see how people can really bond with the towns we make when we usually won't see them again and only see them for an hour tops.

So many of the food/farming options are just flavor and not mechanics. They aren't really choices they are just things to
make that one time and see what it is like.

All the lives are the same. Every big town is the same just slight variations of layout that effect efficiency, every Eve camp is
the same for the same reason. The towns have no reason to be different from each other, they are all a farm a forge an kitchen and a pen.

The people in the towns are even the same.. we all just get shuffled like cards through the places till we run out of chairs and go be Eve's.

I still think that https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=1406 provides for more bonding with towns and families than pure lineage bans.

A good game is one you think about when you are not playing.
Who is gonna plan how they are gonna fix that farm layout in that city they won't get to play in again?

If we can belong to villages/tribes in a more purposeful way the game would then tap into the human mind's natural propensity for tribalism
and competitiveness. You have said you wanted real wars and real trade, but you can't do that if you are born to both sides of the conflict
back and forth over and over. Not to mention trade is pointless when we can't own anything and we all have the same things.

Turnipseed · 2018-06-18 20:06:09

I think a simple tutorial of the game would help alot. I talked my friend into trying the game on my laptop, and after dying as a baby a few times he was finally raised to a kid.

He could move just fine, but the problem was eating. I laughed my arse off when he couldn't figure it out.

This really hard start turns alot of people off. A basics button on the login screen with a few pictures would help alot of fresh players.

Im not talking about a detailed crafting guide, but mabey just how to eat, make basket, and how to make a stone axe (just as an example of multi step crafting mechanics)

sc0rp · 2018-06-18 20:11:36

There are two major pain points early on and one major later.

Early on:

1. Game is very hardcore and it's impossible to learn without spending significant time on web pages etc. You have to do that even Alt-TABbing during the game. There is no in-built tutorial, no easy mode for beginners and no recipe browser (the one it's there is completely useless when what you need to craft is two or more steps ahead).

2. There are very few cities where you can learn things without stress (by looking or by people teaching you). And combined with lineage ban, after 2-3 tries you end up as eternal Eve/Eve's child (at least it looks like this), where nobody have time to talk to you. Wheter this causes new playes to drop the game can be more or less checked by looking at generation number they spawned few last games before they completely quit (I bet it's similar to 1, 2, 2, 1, 1).

Later - ~two weeks:

3. If you got pass above hurdles, you start to notice how unbalanced game vs griefers is. Single person can easily destroy everything that several generations of 10-15 people built. Some things just take long long time to reverse, some cannot be reversed at all and you have no tools to prevent it (e.g. cutting all useful trees in green biome). The thing that is most dissapointing is that it's not people attacking your town from outside. People destroying your town are your own familiy members.

Angel Carrillo · 2018-06-18 20:13:47

Retention is extremely important. How about a basics guide so at least we don't have to teach people how to eat. I had to literally do that once.
Maybe there can a award given for teaching others, and building? I notice building isn't used too much and nor is teaching.

FounderOne · 2018-06-18 20:13:52

The learning curve is the biggest hurdle.

I see now several options.

1) Better guides on video-platforms. Also linking those guides to new players when they purchase the game.

2) Implementation of Onetech.
I told several people of OneTech. But if you google it you wont find it directly. Maybe implement OneTech on this website instead of the wiki.

3) Ingame Button to the forum. Bring more people on the forum, here they can read the storys, learn new things, ask questions.

4) Maybe decrease the hunger rate for new players. So if you play your first game, your hunger rate is reduced by X%. After several games your hunger rate increases for some percent. And after maybe 30 games played your hunger rate it on a normal level.

New players wouldn't die that often, could learn and do more stuff and see more facets of the game. (More then dying )

And slowly without noticing it their hunger rate increases, but since they know now the basics they can adapt to it easy.

Maybe the game would be to easy for others. So if you play the game you could ask if they like it hardcore or soft and explain them what would change for them depending on what option you click.
Or the hardcore guys are at such a small number that it would not make a big change if you let this option away.

Make it easier to join and connect, and I think more people will stay.

Last edited by FounderOne (2018-06-18 20:17:08)

jasonrohrer · 2018-06-18 20:22:35

Well, YAHG, this may be a longer-term problem with the core design of the game. It's a game where every life is different, and you have to say goodbye to what you worked on when you die.

The inherent boredom or lack of planning that comes with this core design is something you only face after you've been playing the game for a long time. Though it obviously affects long-term player retention, it's not going to be something that causes new players to bounce off.

Still, it's kinda the core idea of this game. Without that, it's a different game. And there are loads of games where you can keep working on the same thing forever.

This is a game about finding collective meaning in a system of individuals where there is inherently no individual meaning.

I've always avoided tutorials in my games, but maybe I need to bite the bullet on this one.

QweeniiPug · 2018-06-18 21:03:00

I'm a player that recently started playing about a week ago. Unlike what a lot of people are saying, I liked that there wasn't a tutorial. Having to learn everything slowly on my own is what has kept me in the game. I have been murdered a bunch but that too has never really bothered/angered me or put me off from playing. It's just apart of the game.

The biggest thing I have struggled with in the game is just that game after game I feel as though I'm not really accomplishing anything or impacting much. There is this one town that I am born to at least once a day. Each time I go, whatever I was working on will be different or gone entirely. It also gets very repetitive. You spawn in either as an eve, child of an eve, child into a growing farm, or a town. Like YAHG was saying, all just working for food.

I love the game and will continue playing, but these are things that long term would turn me off to it.

Anshin · 2018-06-18 21:17:03

I asked a friend and he said the #1 reason he doesn't play anymore is because of the murders. His suggestion was just get rid of the ability to murder. I explained you wanted murder as an option in the game (and I have to agree it has its place), to which he said "medicine then". So medicine, or no PvP at all...

My thoughts:

Start up problems:

- There needs to be more instructions when the game starts up. Most people have no idea what to do.

- Link to https://onetech.info or make something similar that you personally maintain, so that people have any idea about what changes are happening

- Add a tutorial mode (that is always available from the start screen) where they go through the basics of starting a camp, and raising a baby.

- Like it or not baby carrying needs to be a thing. New players especially get frustrated when they die several times in villages then fail to raise their own babies when they spawn as an Eve. It's a Pavlovian negative feedback loop that is driving people away. Being able to work while caring for a baby is essential. Similarly being able to watch someone work while a baby is essential. Real life is like this. We learn from observation.

- Adjust the biome temperatures a bit more interestingly, most are freezing except the desert which is boiling. It would help if there was a good reason to build different types of societies in different biomes, rather than looking for an "all in one" space every time.

- We have food, but I think the starvation rate is too high. Even with the new variety of food your whole life is a mad dash for food.

- We have clothing, but the temperature/hunger rate needs to be explained on start up, and the style range could be expanded to keep people from getting bored.

- Shelter is really lack luster. We need some simple easier building materials so that buildings don't take multiple lifetimes. Even if it's grass huts, people want a space to call their own.

- Expand the tech tree. Several times I've seen people straight up declare they're bored and are quitting.

- More of everything. I know you don't like swap outs, but they keep things interesting. Some people like roses, some people like tulips. Both are good even though they both fill the same niche.

Last edited by Anshin (2018-06-18 21:19:56)

matthy · 2018-06-18 21:27:24

@FounderOne these are pretty good and practical!

Verte · 2018-06-18 21:28:12

I have two ideas to help new players adopt the game.

1) On the login page, you could have an option to play on a tutorial server. To play a mini game with a npc teacher or bubbles with hints to learn the basics: eat a berry, make a sharp stone, dig a wild carrot, make a basket, put things and take off basket, and so on. Each step of learning controls and basic stuffs gives you a point, to complete your mini lesson of survival before being born for real.

2) In the main game, we need a real school, with a black board on wich you can click to learn recipes. I mean a pause button so you don't die reading. And real players-teachers that you could recognise from ther outfit : a special hat (like the toque for the cook), or glasses, something to notify they are willing to have an apprentice.

YAHG · 2018-06-18 21:29:04

Anshin wrote:

- There needs to be more instructions when the game starts up. Most people have no idea what to do.

Loading tips might be a good idea, like in the background during those loading bars.

YAHG · 2018-06-18 21:36:42

jasonrohrer wrote:

Well, YAHG, this may be a longer-term problem with the core design of the game. It's a game where every life is different, and you have to say goodbye to what you worked on when you die.

Problem is that the lives AREN'T actually that different, you have like 3-4 different kinds of life.

Eve camp: Set up farm
Village: Try to set up sustainability
Town: Kill people or be killed mostly, maybe explore a trade.

Then it varies if you are a baby-machine gun vs Man.

People have suggested the biomes having more effects on the settlements often as well as more interesting mechanics for nomadic play.

sc0rp mentioned the gen count of the people before they left, that might be part of it.

Anshin · 2018-06-18 21:52:29

RANDOMLY GENERATED PEOPLE.

The whole idea of a unique life is lessened when there are so few character types.
Would it be possible to divide the characters into parts (eyes, mouth, skin, hair) that are randomly assembled when you spawn?
Then add a whole bunch more options for all those parts!
Could weight based on how full you are also be a thing?

Valences42 · 2018-06-18 21:54:00

Legacy building seems to be an important and intriguing feature, I just feel like it might need more development to combat the nihilism springing forth.

Things are slowly improving with each update:

1.) I feel that the progression from random sprites to named people was a good step in the right direction.

2.) The family tree and last words function was a good thing to add. People love chatting here about their shared experiences. I like reading the stories here. I keep playing in hopes that I will get a good story to share with folks here.

3.) The progression from unnamed graves to named graves was a good thing.

Some things that are feeding the nihilism:

1.) Making Men Matter. Power gaming villages dominating with male infanticide; causing famines with the overpopulation of fertile women. Please consider allowing males to adopt kids and name them. I know it sounds like a little thing, but trust me, people will adore the role-playing opportunities.

To clarify, I completely agree with the random spawning mechanic. It's very interesting. However, being born as a boy into a ladies only village is dis-empowering and could make people (esp. new players) turn into greifers as a result. How many times would a new player have to be starved or verbally assaulted as a male baby to just quit all together? It doesn't leave a very good taste in your mouth. I had a mom call me retarded and left me to die recently. I shrugged it off and started a new game, but what if that happened to a new player? We literally have no idea who we are playing with.

I know you can't stop people from being jerks, but I feel like fatherhood would be a great addition to the game. It would provide further incentive for mothers to keep their sons, and for uncles to adopt unwanted children. Who to better teach an apprentice than someone who is NOT going to pop out babies constantly? I feel like I've learned the most from my in game uncles, to be honest. Also, the dad jokes are real.

2.) Communication. I agree with the current character limit, as it simulates growing up... but I was wondering if multiple options on input might be more optimal. I have to stop running around foraging to type at my brothers and sisters... while I am doing that, I slowly starve trying to teach them or ask questions. Would it be possible to also have a voice-to-type option for those of us with microphones available? I apologize if this has already been inquired upon. Or perhaps, we could still type to talk, but then move with other keys on our keyboard? That may be a better option.

3.) Making murder harder was a good thing, in my opinion, but it has the potential of making backwards-playing greifing even more prevalent. What a tricky thing to code... I know you're doing your best.

4.) People want to matter. We want to feel good about what we are contributing. Right now, some people get attached to things/projects, while stomping on other people. I feel like this is definitely fighting your vision. A way around this might be some way for the deceased player to view the progress of their settlement somehow. This would help them see more of how their actions impacted others. They may be more inspired to do more in the next life.

Maybe a "great granddaughter Cindy Boots and grandson Alastair Boots created the first stone house together" kind of thing? Achievement lists could even be entered by the players themselves into the family tree. Wouldn't that be something! Celebrate the tech tree, don't just endlessly grind through it.

forestglade · 2018-06-18 21:55:10

I'm one of the new players who joined and then was playing a ton within one week. I am also an outlier in many other ways, including this is the first video game I've played since Stardew Valley 1.5 years ago. I generally am not a platform/pc gamer, I just do iphone games. But I enjoy this game because it's different and philosophical.

I've seen seen other gamers try this game and it didn't hook them. And the reason is because it is crazy tough. And then they give up, probably because real life is hard enough and they came to get entertained.

I think despite me whining about griefers, they don't really bother me as much as that there is so little continuity in the game (which I guess the griefers contribute to).
Like family trees die out because people don't play in the late night hours, or cities don't grow beyond a certain tech.

I do think you need more "useless" tech like coloring the hats. It gave me such great satisfaction when I dyed a hat blue and a hat red. Yeah, I don't do it as often as I farm or make stew. But it gives people who's been in the game long enough to try to do something that is a) pretty and b) artistic.

That brings us to artistic expression. This game is your artistic expression. And that's what I'd like to see more in the game, more "useless" art. You know Burners create giant art projects and it takes them months and then they burn it to the ground because art is ephemeral. I want more ways to express that in your game.

Thank you for asking this question.

Thecolorthursday · 2018-06-18 22:07:06

interesting

Turnipseed · 2018-06-18 22:24:16

jasonrohrer wrote:

Well, YAHG, this may be a longer-term problem with the core design of the game. It's a game where every life is different, and you have to say goodbye to what you worked on when you die.
The inherent boredom or lack of planning that comes with this core design is something you only face after you've been playing the game for a long time. Though it obviously affects long-term player retention, it's not going to be something that causes new players to bounce off.
Still, it's kinda the core idea of this game. Without that, it's a different game. And there are loads of games where you can keep working on the same thing forever.
This is a game about finding collective meaning in a system of individuals where there is inherently no individual meaning.

I've always avoided tutorials in my games, but maybe I need to bite the bullet on this one.

It dose not need to be much just eating, and crafting an example item. Discovery, teaching, and being taught are the best parts of the game.

I watched someone make burritos yesterday, and it was great!!

Uncle Gus · 2018-06-18 23:45:07

I once had a bit of a brain dump about what I thought were the problems with the game. It's probably somewhat out of date, but if you're curious/desperate/inundated with spare time: click

Some reasonably fundamental/large scale changes that I think would improve the game:

Trade
At the moment it doesn't exist because it isn't necessary. Every village has the same opportunites. I think there should be a few major industries that can't exist in the same place, most probably because they rely on resources spawned in biomes that do not exist within proximity of each other. At the moment it's pretty easy to find a nice intersection between all the biomes. If there were some biomes that could not exist close enough to each other, then there would be need for trade. I have a couple of ideas for how I think this could work. I'll detail them elsewhere. Click

Industries
This is really just a corollary of trade. At the moment, all tech is the same everywhere. It would add a lot of variety if there was a distinct industry associated with the village that you're born into. "Oh, I'm in a coal mining town this time. Cool, I haven't gone coal mining for a while." Someone tells you the farming village is northwest, the iron mining village is east, etc.

Nations
This would probably be the biggest change, but it's one I want to experiment with as a mod at some point. It's probably completely against the overall vision of your game, but I'm throwing it in here for discussion and to generate ideas. People always bring up the topic of war and it's always noted that there is no such concept without a sense of loyalty/belonging to/owning a small portion of the world. My idea is to choose a nation before being born and you are only born to people within that nation. The Eve distributions are started at some distance from each other, but as the spirals grow, they will eventually overlap, leading to conflict.

Fatherhood
This is a recurring one. I've already done it, so I know it can be done fairly easily.

Low tech anti griefing measures
This is my crusade. Again, I've already done this and I know it can be very easily implemented. Low tech, easily accessible measures for incapacitating individuals, requiring multple people to utilise. Griefing is one of the most fundamental problems driving people away from this game.

Lower food consumption when standing still
This one's not really a huge change, but it would definitely help with communication. If you didn't have to worry so much about starving to death while talking to someone, players would be a lot more capable of teaching others, which would help immensely with fostering co-operation and easing the learning curve.

Potjeh · 2018-06-19 00:09:39

I think the problem is paradoxically that people don't spawn as Eve often enough. Well, rather the implication of this, ie the fact that babies spawn too much. When you're going to have 10+ kids, there's really no way to give any of them proper attention. Overly large families also water down the sense of familial attachment. If you only had like four or five kids, you'd try a lot harder to have them survive, and you'd be more inclined to teach them stuff and assign them jobs. So yeah, you'd have a bit more Eve spawns which might not be newbie friendly, but on the flipside they would virtually never get abandoned. This also means slower population growth, so newbies won't be as much of a strain on the local resources.

startafight · 2018-06-19 00:16:56

its just... not an exciting game. im a fan of simulation games so im totally fine with that but the game itself inherently has nothing stimulating. all of the interest and action is created by the players, which means that if someone doesnt put in the time to create a meaningful experience they will leave without one. this manifests in "job?" or "need help?" what the players are *actually* asking is "give me something to work to". in most towns only 1/3 people actually do useful things to keep the system working. ive spent whole lives trying to sort out dirt, crop, and meat systems for the village while a hoard of mothers sit around a camp doing nothing but talking.

currently, talking is the most interesting thing about the game. thats like loading up a book that gives gibberish 70% of the time and produces interesting content that 30% (less for newer players since they dont get to live long enough to experience the fun aspects of the game).

to keep players busy and interested a major goal needs to be set. the bell was a cool update when it first came out, but now its just a pile of rocks that does nothing to contribute. a city can do without it and its only made when everyones just bored. i think this is why some ppl suggest npcs that you could attack and fight. but personally, i think itd change if we could spawn closer to one another.

i remember in a past life i spawned in a village close to another and my first decree as queen was to attack it. it created drama and gave people *purpose* which then makes the game fun and diverse. people need to be in contact with other people in order to create this kind of human drama (which is what ohol is really about). because we spawn so far from everything and everyone, and always start new towns only to see them fail, we dont get far. in order to give a chance at change and something interesting (beyond sporadic murderers), we need to be able to access one another.

this is why humans developed trade routes and faster modes of transportation. but currently our mode of transportation is frankly garbage. a horse is more trouble than its really worth and i see most of them being used for short-distance trips (like to fill a well or whatever). we cant even hunt on horses or get off them and expect them to stay. so how can we expect to lead large expeditions out to scout or even trade with neighbors?

tldr: there is no purpose to this game besides trying to keep the towns from dying off. we need to be in contact with random towns in order to create more excitement and variation of experiences that allow players an opportunity to create the fun. in order to do this we need reliable transportation

Last edited by startafight (2018-06-19 02:59:31)

ryanb · 2018-06-19 01:08:38

What about providing a tip at the end of each life. It can be in the form of a recipe that the player hasn't accomplished yet.

You could mark transitions as "key" transitions that would show up upon death. You can sort these based on depth to show the easiest first. At the beginning it would be as simple as making thread or a sharp stone, then rope, hatchet, etc.

This would help beginners learn the game. More experienced players could use the harder transitions as a challenge to encourage playing. Another benefit is existing players will see new tech when an update comes out.

The important part is to track what key transitions the player has already accomplished so they always see something new to do upon death.

Last edited by ryanb (2018-06-19 01:09:48)

YAHG · 2018-06-19 01:11:19

ryanb wrote:

What about providing a tip at the end of each life. It can be in the form of a recipe that the player hasn't accomplished yet.
You could mark transitions as "key" transitions that would show up upon death. You can sort these based on depth to show the easiest first. At the beginning it would be as simple as making thread or a sharp stone, then rope, hatchet, etc.
This would help beginners learn the game. More experienced players could use the harder transitions as a challenge to encourage playing. Another benefit is existing players will see new tech when an update comes out.
The important part is to track what key transitions the player has already accomplished so they always see something new to do upon death.

This sounds like a much better way than random tips.

TammiKat · 2018-06-19 01:13:51

When I first bought OHOL I was likely one of the players that played 40 hours in the first week, that was probably four or five months ago now. Now I play maybe once a week just to check out the new updates and that's it.

The reason I adored this game when I first got it was because it was such a massive change in pace from every other game I was playing at the time. I liked that it was difficult and I had to figure things out myself, no hand holding. One of the first lives I lived to old age I was as a second or third gen in a little startup town, but by the end of my life we already had steel tools and were making rabbit-carrot pies for Africa, I learned a lot in that life just by watching and helping where I could. I think a massive problem with the pool of new players is that, unfortunately, many of them aren't as smart as the average bear. On multiple occasions I've had to explain to players how to get a carrot out of a basket and eat it, and on a few occasions failed, and had the kid starve while holding a basket of carrots. This game has a two button input. How hard can it be, honestly? Then when they learn how to successfully eat the carrot, the game turns into carrot eating simulator. A few times I've tried teaching people how to smith, they nodded along "yup", "okay" as I explained the process and showed them how to do it, then I say "now you try it" and they don't even know where to start. It's like these people don't even want to play, they just want to stand there eating carrots till they die.

Anyway returning to the question. On new players; you said you "want to make sure that each and every person who buys the game gets substantial value from it." and you "feel like some people are falling through the cracks." The thing about OHOL is that it really is a true challenge. Things could go wrong at anytime, staying alive requires constant adaptation, split second decision making and a keen sense of priority. As a new player getting thrown straight into the mix, those first hours can be hectic and punishing, but once you get your feet on the ground and start feeling the game out, succeeding in OHOL and living that first life to old age is extremely rewarding.

The fact is that some people are willing to put up the hard yards and figure things out for themselves. They enjoy being challenged because it encourages mental cognition which promotes intelligence, problem solving and good judgment which are traits they value within themselves, but some people... well some people just want to stand there eating carrots till they die. The question is which group of people do you as a creator want to cater to. Make the game easier and you risk losing players that crave the challenge. Keep it how it is and players looking for an easy click-click game will continue to fall through the cracks.

On player retention; I really agree with what YAHG said. I once thought that this was a game about legacy, making your mark, leaving a piece of yourself behind for your descendants to benefit from. I once started an extremely long family line, I was Eve Kingsley, I founded a small settlement and was lucky enough to have children that knew what they were doing. The next day I logged on and was born to the Kingsley Clan, still going strong about 15 hours later. The experience was surreal. Even though I had founded that place, I found myself strangely alienated from it. It was completely different to how I left it, a few times I questioned whether it was even the same place at all. The only thing separating it from other villages I'd been born into was my last name and the kiln and forge I'd built right on the border of a swamp and desert. Nothing personal. No legacy. Villages are all the same, you don't really belong to any of them. Even though I should have been proud at how far my family had come and how well they were doing, I felt the same thing I feel when I'm born into any prosperous village. Bored. I realized then that even though I had founded the village, I played a minuscule part in making it what it was, and anything else I did in that life would ultimately be completely insignificant and meaningless. After this experience I really dropped off of this game. What was the point? But maybe that is the point.

On reflection, this epiphany is likely the symbolic end-game that it seems you're striving towards. Everyone dies, nothing you do matters, we're all just cogs in a machine that can be expended and replaced at any time. That's reality. If this is what you want the CORE experience of OHOL to be, you've hit the nail on the head. If not, well I guess the message was lost in translation.

forestglade · 2018-06-19 01:20:02

TammiKat wrote:

I once started an extremely long family line, I was Eve Kingsley, I founded a small settlement and was lucky enough to have children that knew what they were doing. The next day I logged on and was born to the Kingsley Clan, still going strong about 15 hours later. The experience was surreal. Even though I had founded that place, I found myself strangely alienated from it. It was completely different to how I left it, a few times I questioned whether it was even the same place at all. The only thing separating it from other villages I'd been born into was my last name and the kiln and forge I'd built right on the border of a swamp and desert. Nothing personal. No legacy. Villages are all the same, you don't really belong to any of them. Even though I should have been proud at how far my family had come and how well they were doing, I felt the same thing I feel when I'm born into any prosperous village. Bored. I realized then that even though I had founded the village, I played a minuscule part in making it what it was, and anything else I did in that life would ultimately be completely insignificant and meaningless. After this experience I really dropped off of this game. What was the point? But maybe that is the point.

You realize that the same thing would happen in real life if you born 30 generations later to your family. Your epiphany is the reason I love this game. It makes me look at life in a more macro sense.

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2018-06-18 19:14:38

What's missing from the CORE experience?

#2 2018-06-18 20:05:35

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#3 2018-06-18 20:06:09

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#4 2018-06-18 20:11:36

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#5 2018-06-18 20:13:47

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#6 2018-06-18 20:13:52

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#7 2018-06-18 20:22:35

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#8 2018-06-18 21:03:00

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#9 2018-06-18 21:17:03

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#10 2018-06-18 21:27:24

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#11 2018-06-18 21:28:12

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#12 2018-06-18 21:29:04

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#13 2018-06-18 21:36:42

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#14 2018-06-18 21:52:29

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#15 2018-06-18 21:54:00

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#16 2018-06-18 21:55:10

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#17 2018-06-18 22:07:06

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#18 2018-06-18 22:24:16

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#19 2018-06-18 23:45:07

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#20 2018-06-19 00:09:39

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#21 2018-06-19 00:16:56

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#22 2018-06-19 01:08:38

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#23 2018-06-19 01:11:19

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#24 2018-06-19 01:13:51

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

#25 2018-06-19 01:20:02

Re: What's missing from the CORE experience?

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