Tips on getting your friends interested in the game.

Mahidhar

Member
My college friends and I are students no longer. We used to play Wolfteam back in the day(we are playing it even now occasionally), but we also thought it's time to try out a new FPS. Wolfteam was their first FPS game and I was the one who made the call on that.

Recently, I got most of them(like 5 out of 8) actually interested in the game and have a fun time playing it.

So, while doing this I thought to myself; how many of our community members wanted their friends into this game but just couldn't get them interested in it. Therefore, here are a few rules that I followed to slowly get them into the game. I'll list them below, see if you can find anything useful.

Rule #1: Don't hand them the Bazooka(Legions) yet. Let's face it, if your friends are new to the genre itself(like mine), you do not want to start their gaming careers off with Legions(and instantaneously end them with your friends breaking their finger bones trying to press 6 keys at once).

Start with something simple. There are a number of free FPS games out there(excluding Legions) which are small and easy to get into. Once they are familiar with the killing, dying and respawning parts of the FPS, get them to play different game modes other than deathmatch.

Now we all know there's no tutorial for the game. Your friends won't try to learn from you if they are in-game as they just want to play. So the only thing to do is to try and get them to play a game which is similar to Legions but a lot easier to get into. In this case, I've found that *Tribes: Ass-End* serves as the best "tutorial game". The game is much slower, and there are lot less buttons to press at any given time. Unfortunately, Tribes was not so accommodating for my friends as most of them were having download issues with the client. The game does not even offer an offline installer.

Because of this I had to get them all to play Legions directly. So go with Tribes if your friends are able to get it and if you are able to cope with the slow pace of that game.

Rule #2: Get more than one friend into Legions, seriously. Introducing the game to just one person at a certain time was one of the major mistakes I did back in the day. What I've noticed is that it is actually tougher for you to teach the guy to play even if you two are in a private server.

He will not have the patience to listen to you as his gamer instinct will constantly poke him to just play the game and have fun, and not waste time learning about it. This will leave a bad taste about the game in his mouth and even worse, he'll tell the rest of your friends that it sucks.

By bringing multiple people into the game(I'd say a minimum 3 so it could be a 2v2 with you included), they won't get bored because they got each other to kill or fool around with even if they don't try to learn. They'll atleast get a feel for the game, so it's a start.

Try to have gaming sessions with the minimum 3 people at all times. Otherwise, go play something else. Also, try to avoid public servers for the first few days. I told the guys in the server that my friends are new so they should go easy on them. They targeted them especially because of that.

Rule #3: Start off with simulating a game. Get them all into a private server, if anyone in the community wants to help out, let them but be sure that they'll go easy on the newbies. Start a CTF. Since the game is simulated, none of the experienced players will put much effort and they will barely try to win. Take a minute and explain the newbies how CTF works.

Assign them all with the job of enemy flag stealing. On the other hand, ask the experienced players to eradicate all but one of the newbies. Let him get the flag. Explain to your remaining newbie teammates to receive the flag from the newbie carrier as he's hurting and might drop it, while telling the newbie flag carrier that the button to throw is "Q". Congratulations, your newbie friends leveled up(Final Fantasy Victory Fanfare plays). Level up perk is that they will be passing the flag to each other from now on.

Continue the game, but this time let your friends know what it's like to return the flag. Simulate the game accordingly. Meaning, the experienced players need to get purposely shot by the newbies and lose the flag. Explain to the newbies that the enemy flag carrier has a different icon over his head and that they need to kill him and touch your flag in order to return it. Congratulations, your newbie friends leveled up again. Level up perk allows them to actually shoot the enemy carrier now.

Now they understand the basic method of playing a CTF in Legions without getting bored at all. From now on, they'll play the game this way and instinctively reinvent all the techniques needed to play the game efficiently. They will also listen to what you say from now too.

You don't need to teach them about anything in the game because as they play the game, they will bring all the questions to you. Hope this helps.
 

stefygraff

Private Tester
Did show this game to my friends very long time ago, they all said that its fun and takea a lot of skill- but they also tought that the game is bad because of the beta stage.
 

WildFire

Warrior of Linux
Agree with #1 & #2, #3 is stupid. There's no point 'simulating' games with more experienced players because the experienced played won't do it. While I understand, the reasoning behind it, if I knew I was being put in an 'easy game' with pros who 'go easy' I don't really want to play because I know that they are not trying.

The only way to really get better at the game is to have the interest in the game to learn the game. Sure, make if fun to get into, but they're eventually going to want to get better, and if you're their friend you've got to point them into a limited number of ctf guides, cap videos or any video that be revelevant or spend time with them repeating something until they get better at it (or find the resources themselves. I remember back in the day Xzanth taught me how to basic heavy on flag because I wanted to be there, I wanted to get better.
 

Mahidhar

Member
#3 is stupid. There's no point 'simulating' games with more experienced players because the experienced played won't do it. While I understand, the reasoning behind it, if I knew I was being put in an 'easy game' with pros who 'go easy' I don't really want to play because I know that they are not trying.

Two of my friends on Alpha along with me against Karnage and Spider. Take a minute to understand the post before you say "it's not gonna work", IT WORKED! I posted all this because it worked. This is not up for debate. My friends had fun. Them looking forward to our next Legions game session is the proof.

The only way to really get better at the game is to have the interest in the game to learn the game. Sure, make if fun to get into, but they're eventually going to want to get better, and if you're their friend you've got to point them into a limited number of ctf guides, cap videos or any video that be revelevant or spend time with them repeating something until they get better at it (or find the resources themselves. I remember back in the day Xzanth taught me how to basic heavy on flag because I wanted to be there, I wanted to get better.

Stop. You obviously missed the whole "getting your friends interested in the game" part.
 

Synista

Member
if I knew I was being put in an 'easy game' with pros who 'go easy' I don't really want to play because I know that they are not trying.
Two of my friends on Alpha along with me against Karnage and Spider. Take a minute to understand the post before you say "it's not gonna work", IT WORKED! I posted all this because it worked. This is not up for debate. My friends had fun. Them looking forward to our next Legions game session is the proof.

Don't listen to him, it's a basic learning curve. Going up a level too soon when you're not ready you're soon gonna feel like you're not even good at the game which usually results to just quitting it. It's better to take it easy on someone than bully them into learning the skills. After all we all started off playing in nooby servers most of the time. Like for example when I first found this game I was actually in a server with SixDevil, Petrified and Gheist... I didn't know what the hell was going on, I just logged off and went back to watching TV. But then you find out a good player for example Agoria is a very good player and he took it easy on me and helped me understand and learn the game. You need to start off slow, you don't want people hammering you from the start, that's demoralising and no one wants to feel useless.
 
Don't listen to him, it's a basic learning curve. Going up a level too soon when you're not ready you're soon gonna feel like you're not even good at the game which usually results to just quitting it. It's better to take it easy on someone than bully them into learning the skills. After all we all started off playing in nooby servers most of the time. Like for example when I first found this game I was actually in a server with SixDevil, Petrified and Gheist... I didn't know what the hell was going on, I just logged off and went back to watching TV. But then you find out a good player for example Agoria is a very good player and he took it easy on me and helped me understand and learn the game. You need to start off slow, you don't want people hammering you from the start, that's demoralising and no one wants to feel useless.
You aren't going to learn anything by trying to avoid playing against players higher than your own skill level. If it actually gets really bad, just ask someone in the server for some tips on how to play better or what to change, I'm sure I'm not the only one that'd be willing to help anyone that ask for that, sometimes I even offer my help without even being asked which usually does end up with me being cussed at.

There's also no way to start of slow in this game, considering 99% of the community is made up of vets, but then again I don't understand why you would want to. A good example would be how Nept got us all into a private server in T:A, and one by one dominated everyone of us and then told us what we were doing wrong, a week later, we still weren't up there at his level, but we were in the top 95%.

GUIDE ON HOW TO TEACH:
1. Don't get bored and lose interest in the first 5 minutes.
2. Be observant.
3. Don't get frustrated.
4. Don't get angry if they start beating you, they might have the aim down, but there's always something they'll be missing.
5. Don't give them stupid opinions like, "BLASTER SUX, NO ALMOST INSTA OUTRIDERZ!!!11". Let them form their own opinions and play the game the way they want to since after all it is an FPS and the only limit is their own ability.

THINGS TO TEACH: (I can make a way more in-dept guide for this if anybody wants.)
1. Chaingun since it requires the most lead out of all the guns so it's always good practice.
2. Jet managment.
3. How to play against certain weapons.
4. How to take advantage of higher terrain.
5. Give them a quick explanation of the positions. Becareful to not give them mainstream opinions such as, "ONLY OUTRIDERZ CAN CAP CHASE LO ERRYTHING".

I really hope this helps some of you.
 

Synista

Member
You aren't going to learn anything by trying to avoid playing against players higher than your own skill level. If it actually gets really bad, just ask someone in the server for some tips on how to play better or what to change, I'm sure I'm not the only one that'd be willing to help anyone that ask for that, sometimes I even offer my help without even being asked which usually does end up with me being cussed at.

No, it is going to help. You don't fully avoid it but you don't want to be having your first game getting pummeled now do you? If you read my post properly you would have seen that Agoria offered to help me with the game...

There's also no way to start of slow in this game, considering 99% of the community is made up of vets, but then again I don't understand why you would want to. A good example would be how Nept got us all into a private server in T:A, and one by one dominated everyone of us and then told us what we were doing wrong, a week later, we still weren't up there at his level, but we were in the top 95%

You can start off slow, just take him into an empty server and go from their. I did that with Jedired1 and it helped him a lot. You last sentence is what we're getting at but you've had previous experience of games like T:A for example, Legions: OverDrive. The new people who wouldn't have played this game won't be able to fight like you would have been able to against Nept. We're talking about when they just started the game, if it's been a couple weeks when they've learn to ski then sure you can give them a little ass whooping to show what they're doing wrong. After all, after about 2 months that's what Ajaxis was doing to me and I got better, but you always have to start off slow.
 
You last sentence is what we're getting at but you've had previous experience of games like T:A for example, Legions: OverDrive. The new people who wouldn't have played this game won't be able to fight like you would have been able to against Nept.
That isn't entirely correct, we've had several other Omni's port over from BF3, with not the simplest idea of what Tribes was, but they were still able to hold their own.

No, it is going to help. You don't fully avoid it but you don't want to be having your first game getting pummeled now do you? If you read my post properly you would have seen that Agoria offered to help me with the game...
They aren't going to learn anything if you play on their skill-level. The idea is that you want to be able to play on a skill-set beyond their so they know what to do if they face the same situations.
 

Synista

Member
They aren't going to learn anything if you play on their skill-level. The idea is that you want to be able to play on a skill-set beyond their so they know what to do if they face the same situations.
In my opinion that's what PUBs and PuGs are for. They can learn that through their own experience, just teach them the basics.
 

Mahidhar

Member
What Vybez says is true. For people who play FPS all the time, it may not require as much teaching for them as some others do, but honestly Legions serves heavy punishment to people who are fairly new to the genre. It's a good strategy to "go easy" on people, let them learn at their own pace, while being a challenge to them.

If their skill/ability level is at 1, you don't instantly pit them against someone who's 10. They'll learn nothing by getting slaughtered in 2 secs. Instead you make them fight against a 2 or a 3. They may lose, but they'll get that "I was so close" feeling which will get them interested in playing more. You can become that level 2 or 3 person by simply restraining yourself. Like only choosing to use one weapon.

Once they learned how everything in the game works, introduce them to pick-ups/let them play in team matches. After that, you don't even have to tell them to fight better players, they'll do that on their own.
 

WildFire

Warrior of Linux
Looking back on my previous post #3 was in retrospect, a good idea for new players. Lets take a different look at this argument by thinking about what a new player actually is, and how long do they have to play to not be classed as a new player? That will add some dimension to this argument.
 

Crisis12096

Member
Everytime I try to get someone into the game they take one look and say NOPE. It's something about people people in suits of armor I suppose.

Anyhow, I don't think it matters much how much a new player improves or how fast, compared to (now this is just my opinion) how the community treats them. If they feel welcomed they'll stay, if not they'll leave. Some players have too much pride and refuse to let you go easy on them. Don't then, adapt to how they want to be treated. Everybody has their own pace, just because going easy on one person doesn't mean it'll work for everyone else.
 

Xtreme

shaska's bff
there is no dimension when you show this game to others, be serious. because games are mostly for entertainment, there are not a lot of people who want to invest much effort into learning how to play it. really if there is any interest, it must come from them and not from you trying to help them or simulate something. also new players are always new players until they understand the priorities of given game mode

tips to get friends interested in legions? maybe show them how it is when you play, let them try and don't be surprised if they don't like it ^^
 

Synista

Member
I brought about 10 school friend on Legions back when it was on I:A, about 3 of them moved onto Legions: OverDrive so I know what it takes but I understand not liking people taking it easy on them but the one's who can't swallow up their pride to learn are the ones who usually end up saying bye to the game.
 

Dabbleh

Legions Developer
About.. 12 of my friends... whenever they hear me say, "Oh I'm playing Legions", will go OHHH LEGIONS IS BAD BLAH BLAH BLAA.
 
What Vybez says is true. For people who play FPS all the time, it may not require as much teaching for them as some others do, but honestly Legions serves heavy punishment to people who are fairly new to the genre. It's a good strategy to "go easy" on people, let them learn at their own pace, while being a challenge to them.

If their skill/ability level is at 1, you don't instantly pit them against someone who's 10. They'll learn nothing by getting slaughtered in 2 secs. Instead you make them fight against a 2 or a 3. They may lose, but they'll get that "I was so close" feeling which will get them interested in playing more. You can become that level 2 or 3 person by simply restraining yourself. Like only choosing to use one weapon.

Once they learned how everything in the game works, introduce them to pick-ups/let them play in team matches. After that, you don't even have to tell them to fight better players, they'll do that on their own.
I'm just looking at the game from a much more strict and competitive view, your method will probably work better if it's a casual gamer that's only gonna be playing for fun.
 

Mahidhar

Member
My friends have seen me play Legions on my computer a number of times, and most times I got this from them; "Play something else". The reason for them to say that is really simple, they were not able to comprehend the game's pace(which is both a positive and a negative of Legions). And if they didn't get bored from that, handing over the reigns to them without explaining things to them, will. For a person looking at the monitor while you play, Legions will simply seem chaotic especially when they have no clue about the game type and game mechanics, let alone keeping up with the happenings in the game. So before we conclude that someone lacks interest in the game, we should atleast be sure that that person has understood the basics of the game.

Remember that Legions has no introductory sequence, no on-screen gameplay tips(not even the direly needed "press q to throw flag" message when one has the flag) and no proper tutorial videos(if any). To top it off, we have the common point whoring idiot "pro" who just loves to snipe/MA/provide other means of painful and embarrasing deaths to unsuspecting rookies, not to mention the barrage of taunts that follow after his every kill. These are some of the natural barriers that will make it even more harder for the newbie to log in to the game, a second time.

We cannot control the initial amount of interest a person shows in the game, that depends on their tastes, their take on the concept and the gameplay. Heck, I've known some people in 57th who didn't play the game not because they didn't like it, it's because they felt that it was too fast for them. I won't blame them as they're normally used to slower games. But if someone says that Legions looks cool or that they want try it out, that's when you provide them with a proper introduction to the game, and not instantly throw them into pubs. You can't expect them to maintain interest like that, let alone have fun.

The point of my post is simple. Player interest(interest to keep playing, not their initial analysis of the game) and their willingness to learn must be secondary to us(Legions community). Our primary concern(atleast until the issue of tutorial and basic training is resolved) must be to make Legions seem as less "assholish" as possible. Decimating them, when they can't even make out where the rocket came from is not going to help increase their skill in anyway, it will simply repel them from the game.

If neither the game nor it's community(forum/in-game) can be accomodating to the rookies, you can be sure when I say that it won't matter if the game goes on Steam.
 

Mahidhar

Member
My friends have seen me play Legions on my computer a number of times, and most times I got this from them; "Play something else". The reason for them to say that is really simple, they were not able to comprehend the game's pace(which is both a positive and a negative of Legions). And if they didn't get bored from that, handing over the reigns to them without explaining things to them, will. For a person looking at the monitor while you play, Legions will simply seem chaotic especially when they have no clue about the game type and game mechanics, let alone keeping up with the happenings in the game. So before we conclude that someone lacks interest in the game, we should atleast be sure that that person has understood the basics of the game.

Remember that Legions has no introductory sequence, no on-screen gameplay tips(not even the direly needed "press q to throw flag" message when one has the flag) and no proper tutorial videos(if any). To top it off, we have the common point whoring idiot "pro" who just loves to snipe/MA/provide other means of painful and embarrasing deaths to unsuspecting rookies, not to mention the barrage of taunts that follow after his every kill. These are some of the natural barriers that will make it even more harder for the newbie to log in to the game, a second time.

We cannot control the initial amount of interest a person shows in the game, that depends on their tastes, their take on the concept and the gameplay. Heck, I've known some people in 57th who didn't play the game not because they didn't like it, it's because they felt that it was too fast for them. I won't blame them as they're normally used to slower games. But if someone says that Legions looks cool or that they want try it out, that's when you provide them with a proper introduction to the game, and not instantly throw them into pubs. You can't expect them to maintain interest like that, let alone have fun.

The point of my post is simple. Player interest(interest to keep playing, not their initial analysis of the game) and their willingness to learn must be secondary to us(Legions community). Our primary concern(atleast until the issue of tutorial and basic training is resolved) must be to make Legions seem as less "assholish" as possible. Decimating them, when they can't even make out where the rocket came from is not going to help increase their skill in anyway, it will simply repel them from the game.

If neither the game nor it's community(forum/in-game) can be accomodating to the rookies, you can be sure when I say that it won't matter if the game goes on Steam.
 
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