Discovery Gaming Community

Full Version: Please, don't hide the server rules
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Pages: 1 2 3
After reading this, especially the part quoted below,
' Wrote:Especially when the first pages of the rules is stuff that doenst concern the average player at all, and the really important stufff is hidden somewhere in the middle
...it became quite obvious, that server rules topic itself is a bit hidden. I need to press Page Down two times in 1024x768 resolution to see it. That is, if I already find the correct subforum, which in turn is described "Discussions for Discovery rules and role-playing customs." (Discussion for rules? A mit misleading.) And is seemingly less important than "Welcome" (less important = lower on the page, taking more time to find etc).

The tech topic is for some reason separated from the server rules. And it's called "Official Guidelines of Technology Use" (my dictionary tells me that guideline =/= rule; misleading?).

Ok, this topic in "Welcome" contains a link to the rules, but it is also buried beneath mining and trading. (No wonder why people powermine and buy a cap before they read the rules).

(Yes, some of the people that bother to start a topic there gets some useful link. But not all. Didn't bother to read all the topics and calculate the exact percentage. BTW. Good work, Chet.)
I can only agree.
I even think making the server rules mandatory to play the game would be a good start.
Server rules are in a sticky on the rules section of the forum. Took me all of 2 minutes to find it. I'm not sure what the confusion is really... Do you want the rules to be posted as a forumwide announcement, so they appear on top of every forum?
One of the first things a person should do in any new community is read thoroughly all pinned threads in the rule section. It takes less than a minute to find the rule section. The guidelines for tech use are actually part of the rules via those concerning equipment use.

The problem isn't how hard (or rather, easy) the rules are to find, but rather the lack of concern regarding rules by new players. Those interested in following the rules have no hard time finding them.
They should, quite honestly, have a link visible from all parts of the forum.

They should also be centralised, that is Tech chart and such being on the rules page.
DELETE
' Wrote:One of the first things a person should do in any new community is read thoroughly all pinned threads in the rule section. It takes less than a minute to find the rule section. The guidelines for tech use are actually part of the rules via those concerning equipment use.

The problem isn't how hard (or rather, easy) the rules are to find, but rather the lack of concern regarding rules by new players. Those interested in following the rules have no hard time finding them.

Tell you what: let's hide the rules a little better and introduce a special penalty for not having read them.

In fact I have a "hard time finding them" every time I look for them although I know where to look - because I just don't do this every day. And before that opinion comes up again: I am very much interested in following the rules and I think I did quite well with following them so far.

Having to look for either set of the rules feels to me like having to look for your deceleration-pedal everytime you have to get a car to a full stop.

One of the first things a designer should think is that human behaviour doesn't work according to context.

It is also the reason why almost NO ONE except for those who have legal interests reads the EULAs or Waranty Cards.

The current rule language is hard for a new player. It is intimidating, it is a WALL OF TEXT. Therefore, even for people who read them, they don't make sense immediately.

There is a saying in presentation / information giving biz. You have to give the info you are giving on a two level lower than your understanding basis.

Which is, in this case, to simplify the rules' language for newbies. Perhaps creating a) First read these page with simplified version of rules and having an "advanced rules" section.

It is also how it works in game graphic settings etc. First you give the primary stuff to tingle with, then give other stuff under the advanced tab. Letting the player to digest the idea first.
Rule are fine, but quite ''heavy''.
There should be a shorten version that explain the most important/oftenly breaked rule using an entertaining fashion.

One problem i found over the time is: If the player is either mediocre in english or barely know it, its no wonder it is going to be a problematic player rule wise (and that don't even say a single word in-game).


Rule reading is not mandatory, yet strongly recomended, but even doing so with our current model of rule teaching the result would be negligeable at best.
+Reading a rule =/= understanding it.
' Wrote:One of the first things a person should do in any new community is read thoroughly all pinned threads in the rule section.

Lol.

Thats like 2000 lines of text. If you think people are gonna all read that, I'm sorry but you are a bit out of touch with reality.

The server rules are the last one in the pinned list, and even if you start by reading that you have to read 40 lines about admins and hacking before you come to section 3, which is the first to be of any interest at all to new players. Like 10% of the rule thread contains information that a new player can both put into context and remember as being important at teh beginning of his "chareer", and that important stuff is hidden in the middle of the thread.

Fact is over 95% of people dont even try to read rules, until they break a rule and someone tells them to read them.

Why? Not because they are bad people, but because when you play a new game, you are more interested in trying it out before reading 10 pages and then try it after tyou did that, only to find that you dont like the mod.

And once they try to look for it, they have to click on the "discovery Gaming Communily" link (which is in an easy to miss spot, contains no clue that it may lead to the rules or even be a link at all), then find the rules section among the 30 others, and then find the rules thread which is not first but hidden at the end of the pinned threads in the middle of the page.
Either that or they click on the "popular forums" links which leads them to the rules discussions, they have to go back one level and find the right thread in the middle of the page there.

That is not easy to find.

' Wrote:It takes less than a minute to find the rule section.

If you already know where it is, yeah.

Quote:The guidelines for tech use are actually part of the rules via those concerning equipment use.

In a hard to find rules thread, in a large table that you have to scroll across and remember the line, after understanding the concept of it.

Quote:The problem isn't how hard (or rather, easy) the rules are to find, but rather the lack of concern regarding rules by new players.

Lack of concern is one part of it, but even that part is a reality you should learn to face, and take according measures to deal with it.

Biggest problem is that the equipment rules are contrary to everything the orriginal game was about, and too easy to violate.

There is the problem that there is not much ingame that keeps people from violating rules without knowing it, because just simply buying the stuff that you can appears the most natural thing to do, but its still a rule violation.

Then the rules are too hard to find.

Then they are too long to read, with loads of exceptions and special cases, and the stuff about admins that doesnt concern players is in front.

You know what?

I'm gonna re-write the rules and you people can tell me what you think.

Quote:Those interested in following the rules have no hard time finding them.

I did at the beginning, and its still annoying to find them when I look for them again.

What is so hard about putting a direct link "server rules" at the top navigation bar, or in the first upper left box on the main page?

It would make them so much easier to find.

Pages: 1 2 3