TLE in the sights of game companies

I had this conversation with a player who wished to remain anonymous.

In summary, is seems that 12 people are play-testing TLE for private reports that go to game companies. The rate games and TLE is below average, but it's biggest turn-off for new players is the tutorial. (0.003% rating)

xxx (yyy) 9:51 PM yes but to new peeps its a turn off the ten + peeps i have spoken to that i grade games with have tried this game they all said the same thing ...good game base ...UI needs work and the ease of operations need to be changed

icydee (Culture) 9:54 PM I agree largely, but we (I) don't have the time or resources.

xxx (yyy) 9:54 PM oh i know...its a work in progress but just so u are aware large gamer sights have caught onto this game and are sending in Rater's to evaluate and study it setups ....and are watching the rate it is modified monthly

icydee (Culture) 9:57 PM really? do you have details?

xxx (yyy) 9:58 PM none that i may give at this time no but there are 12 of us in here

icydee (Culture) 9:58 PM interesting. I will have to update more frequently :) and you class yourself as one?

xxx (yyy) 9:59 PM no the company i send my ratings too classes me as one ...lol

icydee (Culture) 9:59 PM ok, nice. and they pay you?

xxx (yyy) 9:59 PM free games

icydee (Culture) 10:00 PM well, that's almost as nice :)

xxx (yyy) 10:00 PM and other "Benifits" we dont generally let it be known we are even in a game but i like u guys

icydee (Culture) 10:01 PM so you are breaking your 'contract' by even mentioning it to me.

xxx (yyy) 10:01 PM no that option is open to us we just choose not to devuldge it so as not to interupt normall gameplay

icydee (Culture) 10:01 PM all I can say is 'watch this space' I have a few little surprises set for Christmas. or probably next weekend.

xxx (yyy) 10:02 PM cool have u seen what happened to WoW in the past year?

icydee (Culture) 10:03 PM no, I tried to avoid it as much as possible.

xxx (yyy) 10:03 PM they have went from 14.9 million active subscriptions to less then 10 mill

icydee (Culture) 10:03 PM I spend enough time on here without wanting to waste time elsewhere. so what caused the big dip?

xxx (yyy) 10:03 PM lol i hear ya our ratings killed some , their lack of propper game balance did the rest they went from a rating of 9.7 to less then 2.1

icydee (Culture) 10:05 PM wow, that's bad. As a comparison, is their a rating yet for TLE?

xxx (yyy) 10:05 PM yes

icydee (Culture) 10:05 PM and dare I ask what it is?

xxx (yyy) 10:06 PM remember when i began here playing?

icydee (Culture) 10:06 PM no, but I could look it up.

xxx (yyy) 10:06 PM ok do so ...this will give u a timeframe as to the build of our rating

icydee (Culture) 10:07 PM founded 16th Sep not long ago.

xxx (yyy) 10:07 PM yup TLE began at 0 like all games atm your at approx a 4.2

icydee (Culture) 10:08 PM that's promising.

xxx (yyy) 10:08 PM just below average the main thing killing ya

icydee (Culture) 10:08 PM is there somewhere I can go to compare what other sites ratings are?

xxx (yyy) 10:09 PM not with our organisation no ...thats for the raters and game companies only to see atm

icydee (Culture) 10:09 PM ok, I thought it was public ratings.

xxx (yyy) 10:09 PM no

icydee (Culture) 10:09 PM so, what is our biggest problem?

xxx (yyy) 10:10 PM your tutorial

icydee (Culture) 10:10 PM really? that surprises me. or perhaps it does not.

xxx (yyy) 10:10 PM it carries a 78% turn off rate

icydee (Culture) 10:11 PM how much of this can I discuss with JT?

xxx (yyy) 10:11 PM as much as u like ....but dont bring my name into it as yet ...as i am still rating

icydee (Culture) 10:12 PM ok, I am sure I can do that, and thanks for the heads up. I really want to make this game take-off and things like this will really help.

xxx (yyy) 10:12 PM and have not learned all the in's and outs and information locations of this game as yet Icy

icydee (Culture) 10:13 PM can you tell me what use this rating information is put to? considering that it is not public.

xxx (yyy) 10:13 PM remember back when i was discussing the Tutorial with ya in General chat??

icydee (Culture) 10:13 PM sure.

xxx (yyy) 10:14 PM the info we gather is put to use as a option and viability for large game companies to possibly offer buyouts to game rights or viability of game production of its type in future games forthcomming

icydee (Culture) 10:17 PM in other words, buy it or copy it.

xxx (yyy) 10:17 PM if the game is privatly owned and operated ...then if the game is deamed worthy and popular enough with a large player base in steady attendance ...then the better chances are a large company will look to buy the rights no not copy

icydee (Culture) 10:18 PM perhaps I was being cynical :)

xxx (yyy) 10:18 PM they use us to find where the largest intrest in genre's lays sorry my spelling sucks

icydee (Culture) 10:19 PM can you give me examples of other games of this genre that are doing better than TLE?

xxx (yyy) 10:20 PM as to the building/farming type there isnt a whole lot based in space so the closest i can come is to space sim type games Black Prophecy was leading the way in space simulations but fell flat on their face badly when they got greedy they dropped from 9.9 to .001% in less then 2 months

icydee (Culture) 10:22 PM I played eve for a short while

xxx (yyy) 10:22 PM eve is averaging a 6.4% rating

icydee (Culture) 10:22 PM what did Black Prophesy do wrong?

xxx (yyy) 10:23 PM got greedy

icydee (Culture) 10:23 PM started charging too much to play the game?

xxx (yyy) 10:23 PM BP is a FTP FTP= Free to play they made the game borderline playable to noncash gammers and boosted the payers too far up causing a seveare unballance

icydee (Culture) 10:25 PM how do you think TLE fairs in that respect?

xxx (yyy) 10:25 PM as far as PVP vs PVE goes yer pretty ballanced

icydee (Culture) 10:26 PM PVE? Player vs AI?

xxx (yyy) 10:26 PM as far as having to Buy things to get the game really going ...average yes PVE = Player vs Enviroment

icydee (Culture) 10:27 PM well, perhaps the DeL can improve matters allowing players to make a little money selling to them. that's not been possible up until now.

xxx (yyy) 10:27 PM that was a good step in the right direction but u have to get new players past the front door now

icydee (Culture) 10:28 PM yes, I can see that, the numbers have been fairly static for some time.

xxx (yyy) 10:28 PM yes its yer turorial

icydee (Culture) 10:29 PM ok, thanks. I think there will need to be some discussion about what can be done.

xxx (yyy) 10:29 PM its aggrovating, extreamly hard to follow, in the mail system, with all the other spam flooding into it not sure how to say what i am thinking i'll say it this way

icydee (Culture) 10:31 PM that's OK, it has given me some ideas.

xxx (yyy) 10:32 PM Seperate the Tutorial from mail would be a enormous improvement 2

icydee (Culture) 10:32 PM yes, I have been thinking as you chatted, about having a pop-up window, always-on-top that would update and give step by step instructions.

xxx (yyy) 10:32 PM u have a good idea forming here with the DeLambert AI ... suggestion involving them in the tutorial ...to become the new players friend all the way thru the entire game

icydee (Culture) 10:34 PM well, that's sort of what the original tutorial did with the 'lancunians' but it was not really developed very much.

xxx (yyy) 10:34 PM it shows

icydee (Culture) 10:34 PM but i can see that the DeL could do 'preferential' trades with anyone going through the tutorial which could not be taken by anyone else. ore even seen by anyone else.

xxx (yyy) 10:35 PM u can still use them in the new setup ....

icydee (Culture) 10:35 PM allowing new players to get involved in trading and earning a little E for themselves.

xxx (yyy) 10:35 PM yup thats a start may i suggest a story line type thing here?

icydee (Culture) 10:36 PM sure, go ahead.

xxx (yyy) 10:36 PM just as maybe an idea for you ""Player creates a new empire logging in for the first time" he is greeted by the Lacunians and DeLambert Empires the Lacunians Empire is here to help you in informational growth and developement the DeLambert Empire is here to assist with Trade Viablity and planetary growth and development break** question for u

icydee (Culture) 10:39 PM sure.

xxx (yyy) 10:39 PM just seeing what i wrote there being a new player no matter the age ....did u understand it with ease or difficulty?

icydee (Culture) 10:40 PM understand the game? when I first played?

xxx (yyy) 10:40 PM no no from my example story intro baseline i just gave

icydee (Culture) 10:42 PM I am hesitant, because the 'lancunians' have no presence other than in the tutorial and in the one-for-one trade and no-one really wants to trade at the one-for-one trade cost so they are pretty useless really.

xxx (yyy) 10:42 PM ok so u have a useless AI taking up space

icydee (Culture) 10:43 PM The DeL however were invented to provide more of a challange to bigger players. the Lancunians could be re-factored, but they would still have no 'presence', i.e.they don't have any colonies.

xxx (yyy) 10:43 PM ok stop and think a min please about what u just told me

icydee (Culture) 10:44 PM I have done nothing but think! :)

xxx (yyy) 10:44 PM but yer thinking is in the wrong direction i am seeing here ok u created the DeLambert for whome? simple answers plz

icydee (Culture) 10:45 PM I tried to create them for most players, but recognise that they are out of the reach of most players (who would want to attack them) but the trading system is for everyone.

xxx (yyy) 10:45 PM gonna have ya realise yer own pathway so the DeLambert is more for Established players?

icydee (Culture) 10:46 PM that's how they started yes.

xxx (yyy) 10:46 PM ok

icydee (Culture) 10:47 PM because the Trel, Diab etc are now push-overs.

xxx (yyy) 10:47 PM the defunct Lacunians is for who?

icydee (Culture) 10:47 PM they were only for the tutorial, I have given them no thought personally since I finished the tutorial.

xxx (yyy) 10:47 PM exactly hence why yer player base is stagnat nothing there to capture the emaginations of new players looking for a game you want to grow the game correct?

icydee (Culture) 10:49 PM players need to progress, as I see it they outgrow the Lancunians and then they start interacting with other players and alliances and the other AI. I see nothing wrong with that so long as there are more and more challanges as they progress.

xxx (yyy) 10:50 PM yes thats true but

icydee (Culture) 10:50 PM but I do see that the tutorial leaves something to be desired.

xxx (yyy) 10:50 PM i just looked at some figures here in the 12 testers assigned to TLE the tutorial taes a .003% desirablity as to the ease of use and understandabilility rates** that needs to be at minimum a 5% rating just to have a game grow 20%

icydee (Culture) 10:54 PM I would dearly like to continue to chat, but I really need to get to bed. Is there any chance we can take this up again another time?