New players, Conversion and Retention

[tramsan]

I believe the July 8 sub would be what's left of your trial. There were some issues with the billing partner changing things on their end without hiving enough notice, and one of the symptoms was that a lot of players who shouldn't got te "time to pay" notification.

[Fratricide]

actually you can use the same window for guild, group, etc... for the chat channels you have to use /chat <channel name> command... though if the chat channel has a space in it, you are pretty much out of luck, like New Player Assistance channel... has 2 spaces and thus cannot be done in that way. This is why we made our potential guild member channel with an _ in the middle so I could use the /chat command.

[metagruen]

Although I actively stopped playing HZ half a year ago maybe and went over to WoW I keep watching the forums and development of the game.
And I just made trial char last week to check out how the game was going.
I will not start again bickering about Unity.
But from a new player / veteran point of view the reasons why I left HZ and why I do not plan to return at this point are still the same as they always were. And regardless of what other people say, I know a lot of other players feel the same.

- the new player experience is MUCH better than when I started. New tutorial, New Trismus revamp and Lesser Aradoth.
- Lairs - I guess since housing became part of a good MMORPG not just MMOG lairs must be the best invention since sliced bread.
- Dragons - It's really a completely different experience than Biped
and all of the other good things we all know (multiclassing, crafting, etc..)

But left aside the good things I know about it, there is still the client performance.
After thinking and debating a lot I still come to the conclusion. It's not the missing quests, nor repetetive gameplay (you have that in every MMORPG). It's the "feel" of the gameplay.
The client is just too slow.
Istaria is a beautiful world (with details and viewing distance high) but when I returned to Istaria last week and still had to wait a minute until my Quest NPC was loaded so I could see him I knew what was the big pain.
Starting the game takes long.
Porting is faster now, but still takes long.
Combat animations - they rock..... if they are displayed.

So, due to the slow graphic drawing the whole gameplay feels "slowed" down.
If you know what I mean, just download the WoW trial, make a new gnome char and run/jump down the hills and kill mobs. That feels "fast" and "natural".
In HZ you chop from one place to the other.
So, my biggest complain is the speed issue.
Movement, combat... this is all to slow.
Why are there no "fast moving" things like mounts? I do not need a mount, but as a multi 100 I would definetely appreciate a speed increase to move faster.
If the HZ combat and overall running around was as fast as in WoW, I guess a lot more players would have fun in Istaria.

Then add more mobs. Do not make clustered spawns like the Fire Opal Golem Field in Saritova for example.. I mean.. you run around for 5 minutes without encountering ANYONE... no NPC... no Mob.. no animal.. and then ... SQISSSH you are in a field with 20 golems at once.
NIce to farm. But not enjoyable.
Istaria is huge... it could live with a few more mobs.

After that has been adressed, all the other things could come as sugar on top.

When I joined back then it was the Dryad Events. Where people were searching for the clues, etc... we had a serverwide meeting at the Rainbow Island.. etc...
But you cannot make such big events every 2-3 months.
And you need a lot of players to contribute.
Although I would love to see more of these events for a brighter HZ future.

So summarized for the lazy readers:
Make the game run faster. :=)

and yeah I know the new blight client is know to be more fast. But is it enough?

[WillT]

Vanguard?? Corpse runs and raids? HA HA HA no.

I'm a new player, going from free trial to paid membership. While a number of things cause concern (billing issues, client stability and player population, particularly), I'm enjoying myself greatly.

Among other things, I love having an involved and visual craft system. I've played WoW, which was alright, City of Heroes, which had NO craft system, and EQ, with a craft system I hated. Oh, and Eve Online, which had a much more involved system, but one that was about as exciting as chartered accountancy.

One of the things I really like is the size and dynamism of the world. Sure, it's not as dynamic as they perhaps claimed as goals, but it's a heck of a lot more than other games.

The only direct gameplay complaint I have is a common one; mobility. It never ceases to amaze me that a character capable of blowing up giant animate rocks (golems) can't manage to scale rocks and other landscape features. Not as bad as some games (GW, I'm looking at YOU), but a far cry from others. About average, though.

Which, among a half dozen other reasons, is why I chose a dragon.

Player housing, crafting, dragons, and Peter Beagle are the reasons I started, and much of why I'm staying.

[Nerodia]

I've played and strayed and played , repeat. Been back for about 3 months. There are still many many enjoyable aspects to this world. What I have been encouraged about lately is the amount of new friends I have made that weathered the trial and decided to stay.

I hope the trend continues

Nerodia Snaps