Lead designer Darren McPherson of EverQuest Next Landmark wants help from the people playing the game during the alpha test.
Ahead of the beta test, McPherson has asked for feedback from players.
He asked people what would most improve a new user’s experience:
-More character customization options (so far 34 percent)
-Better and more clear controls for character and camera (15 percent)
-Clear, established goals for your first few minutes of play (29 percent)
-Easier to identify resources and improvements to crafting (11 percent)
-Refinement of building tools (11 percent)
McPherson said:
“Many of you probably saw the forum thread that was started to gather impressions on the first few minutes of gameplay. We would like to thank everyone who has participated so far and all those who will participate going forward. Your feedback has been very helpful.
“You may be asking yourself – ‘Why do they need my help with this?’ Let me explain.
“Even though we as developers spend a lot of time within the game, we often miss very simple things that make up a new user’s experience. We enter the game often to test something new, to fix a bug or try out a new feature and this repetition makes us accustomed to how things work. Even when playing the game from the beginning, which we did many times pre-Alpha release, this acclimation prevents us from seeing everything.
“Based on your feedback and our own observations we have plans to improve the beginning flow of the game. Sometime in the future we will have a system that will give you hints about aspects of the game. This won’t be a heavy and restricted tutorial system, but instead will give you information based on what you are doing. For example, if you start the game and run to the hub we will give you a small hint saying something like: ‘At a hub you can craft basic items as well as use the portal crystal to move between continents and worlds.’”
