Battle Pass vs New Player Experience - Some Thoughts

[BloodyTourist]

Warframe is somewhat ill famed for its New Player Experience already. With the addition of Nightwave this got a lot worse as new players get bombarded with "high level" content challenges on a weekly base. While before a new player had to learn that he did know nothing from his in-game environment he now is fed this in even bigger chunks through challenges he does not understand. Before you only saw the tip of the iceberg this really great game is and you could work your way down all the different game mechanics at your own pace unless you wanted to get too far too fast - while this still is possible, the Nightwave challenges tirelessly remind you of the other 6/7 of the iceberg that is Warframe. Before realizing that in the end this is all about a couple of cosmetics only as everything else won't go away or at least will return on a regular base, quite a few new players will quit playing in frustration.

Why not use the battle pass instead of adding to the new player frustration to ease the new player experience - by locking it away. At first. It would not make a big difference to new players as most of the weekly challenges are beyond their grasp anyway. And then, why not give them OTHER challenges instead that teach them how Warframe actually works. The Dailies e.g. are a good start, teaching a new player e.g. how to combine elemental damage. Well actually the Dailies won't teach you anything - but they could. Instead of just telling new players to kill 150 enemies with e.g. Radiation damage, the Daily could tell them to combine Heat and Electricity and kill x enemies with the resulting radiation damage. Instead of just telling new players to kill 40 enemies aim gliding, tell them how aim gliding works first.

The battle pass system is in place already and it works - more so for the game veterans, significantly less so for the new players. Why not turning this new player ruin into a victory by giving them challenges they actually can do and even learn about the game mechanics while they do so? 

[Kilsety]

I don't know what a / the battle pass is, aside from paid experiences on other games that generally aren't supposed to reward the player with in-game stuff. It's confusing terminology I keep seeing and it makes no sense to me. Maybe DE said it themselves but I am lost every time it's mentioned.. This isn't a battle and it's not a pass/ticket. What's it mean, exactly?

 

In the latest Devstream they stated they will add all previous Series to Nightwave as some form of content for people who missed out to complete for the story, and possibly implied some reward would stick around (namely unique cosmetics, but possibly enough credits to haul in 2 potatoes/auras and a couple helmets). I wouldn't worry much about everything regarding that when it comes to new players. So it'll be fixed in a few ways soon. It's really new content.

I'd enjoy you looking at my own post for your feedback on a few ideas I had, and whether there's any direct conflict for you versus the current Nightwave stuff, or if you have any iterations you'd include yourself to what I've posted. I don't know what new players see in front of them in-game compared to what I wrote, and we need lower MR/newer players to give feedback like you're trying to.

 

Edited May 4, 2019 by Kilsety

[BloodyTourist]

33 minutes ago, Kilsety said:

I don't know what a / the battle pass is, aside from paid experiences on other games that generally aren't supposed to reward the player with in-game stuff. It's confusing terminology I keep seeing and it makes no sense to me. Maybe DE said it themselves but I am lost every time it's mentioned.. This isn't a battle and it's not a pass/ticket. What's it mean, exactly?

..

I'd enjoy you looking at my own post for your feedback on a few ideas I had, and whether there's any direct conflict for you versus the current Nightwave stuff, or if you have any iterations you'd include yourself to what I've posted. I don't know what new players see in front of them in-game compared to what I wrote, and we need lower MR/newer players to give feedback like you're trying to.

Battle Pass: Yes, Nightwave technically is a Battle Pass season (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_pass) similar to what Fortnite is doing (coining this term for a mechanism that is around much longer already) - although a lot fairer (and I am not talking about it being free of charge), especially with the changes DE promises for season 2.
Fair e.g. is not increasing the Standing required for later Battle Pass ranks like you can see in most other Battle Path implementations (where people realize too late that it takes longer and longer, i.e. more and more grind, to reach the later ranks). 

Regarding your post: You are mistaken in assuming Nightwave/Battle Pass has been introduced to encourage socializing - Battle Passes are always implemented to keep players actively in the game. After all, especially free-to-play games are not charity affairs but need to create revenue and they can only create revenue from the people in-game. So you have to encourage people to return to the game regularly where they can consider spending money. Also people tend to pick up games their friends keep playing (ok, there is the socializing 😉). This is not a bad thing in itself - as long as the game and its mechanics are fun and fair.
To be sure I myself enjoyed Nightwave quite a lot with the challenges reminding me of quite a few activities I have not participated in for quite a long time :)

I am just wondering. Here is DE, going to great lengths to implement their vision of a Battle Path to keep players in the game - while by doing so they increase the complexity and accompanying frustration among new players. Something that could be turned around easily with only a few changes in how the Battle Path works.

PS: Having almost a thousand daily logins on my clock I am afraid I can't really tell you what new players see in front of them in-game these days 😉 
You can google "new player experience" though and you will find a ton of posts and videos where people complain about the complexity the game is leaving new players alone with once they have completed the starter quests 😞

[Kilsety]

Not sure what you mean. That post was more about people freaking out about Elites not being elite and just a better in-depth look at friendliness within NW. In my post I had ways they can add new layers to the larger content that allow for people to turn on or off their will to grind it out or hold off on it without it being too rewarding. Nightwave is important but it's not the standalone game changer I think you're implying it is. For me, way back, I'd repeat invasions and stuff for fun because I liked the way the missions played out and it was good experience. Nightwave's challenges are really complimentary and a lot of people eliminate a lot in the first night after a reset. Those big ones are weekly so you don't have to try for it. Maybe an hour or two a night, I guess, is too much for a lot of people. And that's not really necessary.This stuff is fast and easy, it looks and feels amazing to give new players this level of access to items.

 

I really, really enjoy doing many things at once on Warframe. Once you get past a lot of quests and have all these systems overlapping, you kind of wish they made it so a Fissure spawning on a Nightmare node combined the two, and by chance, sometimes the Kuva Fort being on top does the same (all 3 being a crazy choice to have for a few minutes). That's the primary reason for Nightwave I think, to integrate old alerts into normal missions and do multiple things at once. And to have access to every reward they'd normally give at any given moment so that there's no ill-timed arrival causing missing out on the free stuff.

 

Nightwave was such an easy implementation with a lot of work involved that I think it's too difficult to assume much from it in the way of an entire Battle Pass.. I know about Dota 2 compendiums and a lot of other stuff and Nightwave is extremely far from that. It's direct content in the game. It's not even close to a Battle Pass. If buying a Prime Access gave you access to the relics instead of an entire bundle, which is meant to emulate Founder packages really, then you'd have something like a Battle Pass on some level I think. This is like.. A weekend alert system that decays through people already finishing group play early (like the invasion tactical alerts, which should also see changes some time in the near future).

 

If you feel there's something lacking in the game after a change like this, by the way, it's either because a huge portion of people did not use the previous system (while using the new one always; this is the case for NW) or because there are now unfilled gaps created that help find tolerance levels of the players for what's missing. If there's new content that isn't there like it was, it'll be there in a more meaningful way at some point. DE has always done that.

[Kilsety]

To piggyback off my previous post:

Quote

If you feel there's something lacking in the game after a change like this, by the way, it's either because a huge portion of people did not use the previous system (while using the new one always; this is the case for NW) or because there are now unfilled gaps created that help find tolerance levels of the players for what's missing.

This part, what is missing? People don't know how to use multi-elemental configurations. The arsenal UI change is coming up. Part of the text for tips on modding is cut off so they've already partly included it. You can ask for tips but they need people to ask questions or answer them without being snarky about "Gizoogle it" solutions. It'll be easier to see newer players dump in time on this and not be an issue. The bigger content like Profit-Taker doesn't need to be giving new players that much affinity for Nightwave instantly, all the time, every month. That'd mean that like.. 80% of the playthrough gets monkeypounded by anyone below MR3-6 more than they can now. Via the rewards, I mean. Disregarding Nightwave, it's still way easier than it was in the past, even with ungated taxis to affinity farm or alerts.. To see what you're missing helps you understand what to get ready for, and I don't think they need to kill Captain Vor 15 times With a Friend for that.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Kilsety

[BloodyTourist]

1. In the post you have linked you wrote: "So I think the main focus should be on an alternative system that encourages socialization without it being heavy on rewards/incentivizing it. That is obviously 100% the reason you put this into Nightwave, and I am totally for it being this way."
From that I gathered that you are perceiving Nightwave as a system to encourage socialization. 

2. As I said, I did enjoy the Nightwave challenges quite a lot and I assume so did you. But unlike new players we have played this game for a couple years already. When looking at new players however, I am afraid that Nightwave totally overwhelms them. New players were struggling with all the rather basic content (as there is a lot to be dealt with right from the beginning) already before Nightwave. With Nightwave shoving challenges at them from basically every aspect of the game without any form of guidance, this is bound to push a lot of the new players to a point beyond their frustration tolerance. 
Plus it is rather annoying for everybody in public missions when new players are joining because of a Nightwave challenge without knowing what to do other than running around like mad and shooting everything in sight 😞

3. No, I do not see Nightwave as a big change in the game mechanics as it just gives you some special stuff for doing special things like it always is in Warframe :).
But I do see Nightwave the way it currently is as an unnecessary increase to the confusion and frustration new players are experiencing once they have completed all starter quests.
And the simplest way to remedy this would be to take it away from new players - even better, to replace the current challenges for new players with actually helpful "new player challenges" that explain game mechanics along the way. Reward tiers of course should be adapted to new players as well and offer useful new player stuff instead of the regular Wolf cosmetics etc.

4. Nightwave is a Battle Pass (season) as
a) It has ranks that require you to level up to get access to the rank-specific rewards and
b) it is available only for a limited time (in this case until May 15).
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_pass