Frontier's Player Retention Strategy

[kilvenny]

Let's face it, there are a group of players happy to fly space ships, frontier do not have to worry about them. There are a group of people who just moan whatever FD do, even if FD gave them what they want, there would be something else wrong, so no point wasting time there. There is a group of players in the middle of those two poles that FD need to be bothered about. If you are not just interested in flying space ships its likely you will head for the content, so BGS or community goals are likely to be points of interest and they have a focus on those two areas.

The fact that they are focused on the BGS in the short term might also mean that either its irrelevant to the future update or its key to it.

Player retention or grabbing new players after at least an 18 month hiatus requires new, but different content. IMHO the only update that makes sense would be some form of interaction in an FPS fashion and even better if faced by aliens.

I am intrigued that they slipped a new status into the BGS and they are now very focused on the BGS.

Face to face conflict with an invading Thargoid force with FPS action would attract a new demographic and likely lure back players.

EDIT: The fact they are focused short term on the new player experience, means that they anticipate new players joining which adds further weight to the FPS argument

 

[Heater]

Op, In short I believe that Fdev, does not have one.
But what they do have is a technical backlog that is so large they have decided to take the base game, fix the bugs and add something "new" and then releases as the next update.

 

[ithinkiam]

I genuinely don't see what the huge problem is here.

ED is working very well *now* and everyone is able to play it *now*. I've been playing it since pretty much day 1 and it is still a joy to play. So what if new updates are delayed? Nothing was set in the stone, the game is still playable today, tomorrow and the day after that...

I really hate the whole have to have new features all the time trends. What's wrong with "if it ain't broke don't fix it " mentality? Sure there are bugs which FDev are still working on and fixing, but the game works as indented and surpasses what is was four years ago.

Unless I'm the only one here who isn't triple elite and fully engineered to the eyeballs there's still plenty of gameplay to keep ya going for another 18 months or more. Easily.

Even if there weren't any more updates, Elite is still a phenomenal game.

Seriously CMDRs get a grip! !

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

I genuinely don't see what the huge problem is here.

ED is working very well *now* and everyone is able to play it *now*. I've been playing it since pretty much day 1 and it is still a joy to play. So what if new updates are delayed? Nothing was set in the stone, the game is still playable today, tomorrow and the day after that...

I really hate the whole have to have new features all the time trends. What's wrong with "if it ain't broke don't fix it " mentality? Sure there are bugs which FDev are still working on and fixing, but the game works as indented and surpasses what is was four years ago.

Unless I'm the only one here who isn't triple elite and fully engineered to the eyeballs there's still plenty of gameplay to keep ya going for another 18 months or more. Easily.

Even if there weren't any more updates, Elite is still a phenomenal game.

Seriously CMDRs get a grip! !

Personally I enjoy the game in my downtime. I’m not into the grind so I just do whatever and relax in my ship. VR makes that an even better experience. I’m happy to wait for a major update, and I appreciate the regular updates and additions being worked on in the meantime. I’ll continue to play as this is all going on.

I think though that for many players, myself included, the requests for more features stems from the potential we see in the game. What’s there now is great, but there’s a lot more it could do that could also be great.

 

[Sirius Agent]

Well, that's a very "glass is half empty" perspective. .

Glass is half empty since Horizons release 3 years ago and fixing Horizons has ended last year (I hope). What do you expect from community? It's not single player game, you can check other online games evolution compare to Elite. New big content updates should be year after year (for money), not three or four years. In my opinion community rage is understandable.

 

[babelfisch]

See, that's my biggest disappointment for Beyond.

It's like (with exploration in particular) they gave us a bunch of tools but forgot to include anything to really do with them.

The FSS just means it takes longer to do some of the stuff you could already do while also negating the gameplay required to investigate specific planets and there's some extra stuff floating around in space which, presumably, you'd still have been able to find using the old disco-scanner.
The new DSS gets a pass here cos it does actually provide a new way to find surface POIs... which were already there.

FDev seem to have a habit of creating "stuff" rather than creating "gameplay".
It's all things that you can see/do once and then tick it off a list.
They seem to struggle to create things that players might have a reason to do and then keep on doing.

The regulard updates in 2019 and 2020 seem to be a good opportunity to adress that problem.

 

[babelfisch]

Nothing could be further from the truth my friend..

18 months of nothing will lead to complete hatred from the game.

Good thing there aren't 18 months of nothing. If you need to make up random claims in order to have an argument it's a good sign that everything is well.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

Glass is half empty since Horizons release 3 years ago and fixing Horizons has ended last year. What do you expect from community?

I expect that each member of the community will react as they will, according to their own experiences, their own desires and expectations for the game, and their own perspectives. You’re entitled to your half empty glass outlook, and others are entitled to remain positive. No one is going to say there aren’t problems that still need addressing, but many are having no problem enjoying the game that Frontier has made regardless. Some of us appreciate the additions overall, and look forward to what’s coming next, which we’re willing to wait for.

 

[Jukelo]

Nothing could be further from the truth my friend..

18 months of nothing will lead to complete hatred from the game. 18 months is a long time to sit waiting to know what 'might' be coming down the frontier tubes. And that's not to mention that the current bugs from the previous release(s) and by and large still untouched.

There's more than a hundred games in just my digital library of games which I haven't played for more than 18 months. There aren't many of them I hate (I don't tend to buy games I'm likely to hate), and none of those I hate because they had no significant updates in 18 months after offering me plenty of fun. A lot of them I would gladly go back to if something new was released that made them feel fresh again. For some of them that wouldn't need to be much, just about anything to put them back to the forefront of my mind really. A bug fix, some tiny cosmetic DLC... or of course a full-fledged expansion.

 

[Sirius Agent]

There's more than a hundred games in just my digital library of games which I haven't played for more than 18 months. There aren't many of them I hate (I don't tend to buy games I'm likely to hate), and none of those I hate because they had no significant updates in 18 months after offering me plenty of fun. A lot of them I would gladly go back to if something new was released that made them feel fresh again. For some of them that wouldn't need to be much, just about anything to put them back to the forefront of my mind really. A bug fix, some tiny cosmetic DLC... or of course a full-fledged expansion.

How many of those games you have are mmo games without updates? Multiplayer games without regular new content are mostly dead now.

 

[vagabond07]

The best way to release the news would have been a simultaneous forum post, stream/video, and 2019 road map.

This “silence gives us flexibility” approach is making the community crazy. Even the LEP holders are at this point. That is the community that has stood by Fdev FOREVER.

Again, they give us this news via a forum post right before the weekend.

 

[Whitehair]

How many of those games you have are mmo games without updates? Multiplayer games without regular new content are mostly dead now.

Then it is nice to know that FD have announced regular updates to Elite: Dangerous at least for the rest of this year!

 

[Sylow]

We just don't know. And because we don't know, "doom" gets the upper hand. It is up to FD to counter the doom with details. Otherwise it's all speculation.

Now honestly: and if FD would announce today that we'd get planetary landing at the end of this week and space legs at the end of this month, it would take the community less than 10 minutes till somebody would figure out that FD didn't announce anything yet for next month and would loudly declare that the game is doomed.

Shouting doom is deep into some peoples genes here, no matter what FD actually does.

 

[Whitehair]

This “silence gives us flexibility” approach is making the community crazy. Even the LEP holders are at this point.

No I'm not going crazy from their approach. I'm quite happy about things in fact.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Like the community update post, the title of the background simulation post was listed as one of three

I interpret the "(01/03)" as meaning this was an update dated on the first day of the third month, not that it was the first of three updates in that series.

Next is the currently mysterious mention of development supported events.

Based on my experience of Beyond - where 3.1 and 3.2 were in many ways more interesting patches for me than 3.0 and 3.3 were - I'm actually more interested in these and the minor content patches than whatever the big thing in 18 months turns out to be.

New features are all very well, but there's a lot that could be done with the existing features with a bit of effort that would for me add more interest to the universe than "now you can also do sandboxy stuff in an atmosphere" would.

I don't foresee problems with player retention spelling the doom of Elite.

Well, on a non-subscription game, player retention is nowhere near as big a deal anyway. People can drop in and out without really affecting the bottom line very much at all - and there's also no barrier to them returning in having to resubscribe: they can just decide "I haven't played Elite for six months, I feel like a bit of spaceship flying again" and do that.

 

[Sirius Agent]

Then it is nice to know that FD have announced regular updates to Elite: Dangerous at least for the rest of this year!

Where do you see sentence of new content update in this year? Please show me. It's just fixes like in last year. Copy-pasted ships are not new gameplay content, because they don't bring nothing new to gameplay. Especially worst tier ships than ships we have (people who play this game since the begining) .

 

[vagabond07]

Nothing could be further from the truth my friend..

18 months of nothing will lead to complete hatred from the game. 18 months is a long time to sit waiting to know what 'might' be coming down the frontier tubes. And that's not to mention that the current bugs from the previous release(s) and by and large still untouched.

18 months is a long time for players to pick up new titles and forget about Elite. What they won't forget is the prevalent toxicity by both the complainers and the defending white knights.

Since it's release, Frontier have proven time and time again, they cannot do clean releases. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that persuades me otherwise than what ever they produce in 2 years time will be another mess of bugs.

You are correct that FD don't have to counter anything.

But if they want a player base to purchase their 18 months of development, it is incumbent on them to keep that payer base interest. Note the 'payer' !!

With this 18 month release news and the massive unfixed bugs of 3 months I think I might wait to purchase the update till it proves clean or is cleaned up.

 

[Whitehair]

Where do you see sentence of new content update in this year? Please show me.

Sure. It's easy enough to find if you actually read the announcement post:

Regular updates

In addition to the weekly and monthly activity happening in Elite, we will also be releasing a series of updates roughly every 3-4 months. The first two of these updates will primarily focus on new player and welcoming experiences, and we will also be introducing a number of quality of life improvements for the entire player base, of which we will have more news on in the coming weeks. This will help ensure that new players are able to better progress through the game, and therefore help bring more players through to our very awesome, very welcoming community. We will also have additional game tweaks, benefits and bug fixes for all players. In the subsequent updates we will be focusing on bringing in new features, perks and content, including a range of exciting new additions to the game that will build up to this new era.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

The best way to release the news would have been a simultaneous forum post, stream/video, and 2019 road map.

This “silence gives us flexibility” approach is making the community crazy. Even the LEP holders are at this point. That is the community that has stood by Fdev FOREVER.

Again, they give us this news via a forum post right before the weekend.

They almost certainly will speak on this in a stream, possibly giving a few more details. I don’t know that they consider a roadmap to be very viable or wise at this relatively early stage, as some development items will likely still be fluid and therefore subject to change or replacement. In any case I don’t see the need for these to be immediately simultaneous, as long as there’s some fairly regular updates on the works in progress that are solid enough to advertise.

As for this announcement being made just before the weekend, I can’t see the issue people are having with that, as if there’s some time critical action or response that the community needs to make. There’s plenty of time to digest this and give our feedback before anything is actually released.

 

[Sirius Agent]

Sure. It's easy enough to find if you actually read the announcement post:

Really? There's only about "The first two of these updates will primarily focus on new player and welcoming experiences, and we will also be introducing a number of quality of life improvements for the entire player base" -nothing like new tutorial I guess and fixes with changed tools for old content like in last year?
You are really that much deluded and naive to think, that in this year will be something really new to keep old players in game?