Introduction: This post is a deep and detailed look at some suggestions that could revive this game for the first time.
Three VERY important things to keep in mind before starting my English is pretty bad .. everything you see here is a product of google translator and I'm not a good narrator.. I'm only 16 years old but I was documenting review by review, video by video, post after post all the problems of both the new and old players that still hold on to this wonderful game. The third and probably the most important thing is that I am not alone in this, my father (who is a certified digital marketing expert from UNT in Arg) took time to give me a hand in this which is really important to me and I know that for many others. I will not waste your time mentioning things that you already know, such as cheaters or lag / ms, but I will point out two strengths that perhaps you forgot or perhaps did not pay much attention to.
Without further ado, we will list all the problems for new players from highest to lowest:
Bad or No Advertising at all of the game:
Take a look at the past and I want you to look closely at the advertisements for this game. They looked bad, outdated and did not give a clear idea of what this game really was, resulting in a maximum peak of between 5 ~ 6k players (According to official steam statistics) for those of us who know the potential of this game we are surprised by this such a small amount that it only declined to the 500 ~ 600 of today. In summary many could say that this game failed in its graphic section or repetitive gameplay,but the reality is that this is not an objective answer to the problem because if a game starts with bad populity and bad publicity, you get a bad result from the beginning. Here are some of the possible ideas:
.Suitable diffusion of your product with today's new techniques ... Remake your covers on steam, reinvest in advertising, redo your presentation videos because THAT is the face of your game on steam for anyone who decides to give it a try ... hire yotubers or streamers who just talk about the game, both bad and good ... any kind of advertising helps. (I do not know the amount of money they manage for this type of investment, in case it is little and that is why I did not take the adequate time to make this large sum of capital, please continue reading where I point out ideas at more cost- benefit)
.Work with the community and they will work with you. It is important not to leave everything on the shoulders of the CEO and just wait for a big change to appear. It is our responsibility to grant even a minimal amount of help to change this reality ... It is a reality that there are many very talented content creators in the game who (with the right spirit) would be happy to help in projects such as:
APB NEED YOU! > Create tribute video tournaments with a theme that aims to give an idea of the game to new players who replace or simply add to the first image of APB on steam with incredible rewards to help instill them!
Create referral friend systems:> Did you invite a friend and this is the end of the tutorial? HERE! GET SOME FREE TICKETS$! ... did he complete a certain number of missions? $GET SOME TICKETS!$ your friend play a certain number of hours? $$$$TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS!$$$$ ..
As you may already know, these are not new practices, much less ... but they are techniques that were born in games that today have a very important base of players because they trusted their players by giving a little "feedback" to the effort of all of them .. not very big .. but that helps to strengthen the trust between community and company.
Frustration / Abandonment due to confusion or disorientation.
It is a fact that the moment a new player steps on APB by blessed fate coincidences, he must face many factors that end up causing that possible new player to leave frustrated, angry or simply because of the frustration of not understanding absolutely anything around him. for an interface that is not friendly to those who are not so familiar with apb-
A very frequent problem in the reviews of the game (and personally too) was the number of players who complained about how unintuitive the interface of the game was ... being honest when I first played this game I really did not understand practically nothing everything I saw .. Honestly it does not offer a pleasant view or accessible to the new player who ends up disoriented and that potential new player is lost by something as simple as the interface or the little guide there is by the inefficient tutorial.
Possible solutions: There are many examples of creators who contributed their design to the interface to give a more suitable and pleasant view to this game, you can see them in the following links for more details, here is an overview of images: https://www.behance.net/gallery/389596/APB-HUD-Gameplay-UI https://uiofthetiger.tumblr.com/image/158492379003 https://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/237-game-user-interface/
To finalize, I just want to say that these are MY PERSONAL strongest points of why the game goes down in numbers every year ... I know I could mention the hacks, the lag, the matchmaking, the tedious amount of experience required for certain items ... but I think that gives to speak in another post .. I want to end with a message for the community .. let's not leave all this work on the shoulders of the LO workers if they fail, we will also lose part of what unites us to this wonderful game. Gracias Totales.
