Spiral Knights - Promote use of Wiki and Forum Search function. And, actually try to read.

Promote use of Wiki and Forum Search function. And, actually try to read.

2 replies [Last post]

Tue, 07/10/2012 - 20:55

Evilnut

We have way too many people asking the same old simple questions.

It goes like this.
1. Newbie encounters something he/she does not understand. (How do I craft? How do I get more than 100 mist? How do I get a forum avatar? Which is better, DA or Combuster? Why is CE not free? Why is it so expensive?)
2. Newbie starts a new thread asking the question, or intentionally/unintentionally hijacks another thread to do so.
Then one of the following happens:
3a. Other forum users answers, most often more than one people doing it, regardless of how simple the answer is. There will personal opinions, [accidentally] omitted information, incorrect information, repetition, etc. The thread may eventually come to a final conclusion with the most correct, objective and complete data/solution, but chances are the newbie does not stick around to read them all.
3b. The question went unanswered. The newbie either give up, or bumps his/her thread until an answer is given.

The result of the above process? Instead of being a treasure trove of useful information, it's a big pile of garbage.

But the process can instead go like this:
1. Newbie encounters something he/she does not understand.
2. Newbie uses the search bar in the Wiki or in the forum.
3. Newbie locates information he/she required.

What's different between the two processes?
1. The forum is less cluttered. This helps people searching it to locate relevant information faster, so they don't need to ask the same questions again. A positive feedback loop!
2. Instead of frequent subjective views and omission, newbies will read the articles on Wiki first. The articles of wiki are edited by OOO and the whole community, information there are tested, challenged and examined far more than any forum posts, resulting in a much higher level of accuracy and completeness that the newbies will benefit from.
3. The newbie makes an effort to search first. But don't everyone already make heavy use of search engines (Google/Yahoo/etc.)? Why can't they search here?

What's identical between the two processes?
1. The newbies read text written by someone. ...Why they skip over the tutorial missions written by OOO? I have no idea. Why they prefer to wait for replies to their question threads, then read the replies which may be less objective, less accurate and less complete than what is already in the wiki/forums? I have no idea.

What OOO should do:
1. Promote the Wiki and search function with a heavy hand. Pick up the Wiki and smack the newbies over their heads. Grab the search bar and stab them in the eye.
- Make the Wiki button in the in-game UI *very* obvious.
- Make the search bar in the forum larger and in sharper colors.
- Modify the tutorial missions to include opening up Wiki in browser, e.g. to the main page and starting out guide.

2. Don't let them skip reading the tutorial missions.
- Insert more Hall of Heroes missions for the lower ranks. These won't check for gear, but instead the player have to pass an oral test by the warden to ensure they have acquired the basic knowledge, e.g. energy, damage type, status and crafting.
- Use conversation options, like the one on FSC d25 talking to the sprite, to make the test. Player must answer correctly before they pass these Hall of Heroes tests.
- When answered incorrectly, player is directed to the old "talk-only" missions that provide the relevant information, so the player would re-do those missions and re-learn what they should've known already.

3. Promote Wiki editing
- Fix wiki editing for Steam and Kongregate users, or at least let them know they have to create a new account.
- Those user-created thread containing comprehensive guides? Show recognition to these guide writers, and move the guides to wiki (if the authors haven't done so already).

What the community should do:
1. Stop repeating information to those simple/repetitive questions. Instead, search the wiki/forum and simply reply with a link, and an advice to use the wiki/search function.

Tue, 07/10/2012 - 21:05

Luguiru

Dat impatience

"In earlier points of the mission mainstream the new knight is subject to a test of several relevant things they will need to know and may not continue until they complete it."

I agree to all the other points, but the above paraphrased point especially. It would force people to learn how to play before they can kill themselves when the difficulty suddenly changes. I would help edit the Wiki but I am on a Steam account.

Adding this thread to my index of stuff over there.

Tue, 07/10/2012 - 21:31

Fehzor

Seeing as that new weapons are released very infrequently, I rather like to talk about the difference between the 3 elemental brandishes, and discuss how a random assortment of weapons are as good as a OHKO to the jelly king. Otherwise, there wouldn't be anything to talk about other than the occasional thought of "Hmm, I wonder if poison is ever better than fire.." or "Iron Slug VS Ionized Salt Bomb! Epic battle of the ages!".

Of course, I'm not quite against this purely because I like to talk about the same things over and over- I think that rather than forcing the new players to refer to guides, it would be best to cover such a thing using guilds.

When I joined my first real guild, I was introduced to a lot of cooperation- people would help each other loop arenas (disclaimer; this was a year ago), people would sell recipes for normal prices rather than for profit, and people would of course team up with each other and go on runs. What this means, is that when I joined my guild, if I needed to know what good swords there were, I could just go up to the veterans and take a look at their stuff, I'd see it in action, and I would know. No one wants to read a guide book on what weapons to go with, and no one wants to bother with a search bar. What people do want, is to see the weapons, here an opinion, and then decide for themselves. And I personally believe that it would be much more beneficial for the game if the developers put teamwork and guilds far before going alone into the clockworks to fight fiends with whatever weapon you had read up on.

Now, this isn't to entirely discount the wiki; it has a definite place and many people like to use it. The game already has a link to it if I am correct; what isn't said so much is using the search function.

We've all made the mistake of not searching for something before posting at some point, and it is unreasonable to expect everypony to have been here long enough to know that everyone wants a 5* winmillion. To them, it is a new topic, and regardless of what you put in front of people's faces, they won't listen. Even if there was a screen before posting a new topic that read "PLEASE USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION BEFORE POSTING TO AVOID REDUNDANCY" then people would still manage to ignore it. Rather than trying to get people to search, we need to first compile the information. Why do they post things like that? Because the wiki is non-subjective. What we need is a section on the wiki under every weapon marked for bias with an explanation of how that weapon relates to others. Links to the discussions, if you will- although preferably links to compiled discussions. This won't stop the people who ignore the wiki, but it will stop the ones who are genuinely interested in seeing the views of others, but fall short to pride and skip using the search function.