Help the Help Files!

[ShannonA]

Folks,

We've tried to provide a wide variety of information to help you find your way around Castle Marrach, using the Skotos parser. We have a tutorial at the web site, tips in game, and help files in game.

First I'd love to know which type of help people have found the most useful (tutorial, help files, tip).

Second, I'd love to know anything these help files are missing. What confused you and would have been easier if there had been better documentation?

Thanks!

Shannon

[stealthkat]

Actually, I was just thinking about that being a technical writer myself. Not that that qualifies me for anything, but explains that I was thinking about it. I approached my first two days at the castle in the following steps:

1. Jump in and play the game. I can't think of one of my customers that actually reads the directions and manuals I so painstakingly write for them. That is, they don't read them before they back themselves into a corner. Being used to working with programs I found the game prompts to be pretty much explanatory for me. I used the tip command a lot once my character was created. Now that I think of it, the first thing I wanted to do once I got the entry field was to log my bugs and typos from the character creation section. However, the syntax displayed for logging bugs and ideas was confusing to me. I read it as when I want to log either one that the syntax was:
bug<space>[message]
with the message in square brackets. It took me quite a while to figure out that the syntax was:
bug<space>"message"
in double quotes.

2. After having quite a bit of trouble talking to the seamstress so I could find out if I could get a blue dress besides the brown gowns because brown just doesn't look good on me...and kudos for the other Leto and Arrion trying to help me out...I decided to read the book given to me at Gen Con (Finally, heh?) This helped a little, but not much with the syntax.

3. Finally I did what I'm always pounding into my customers...read the directions, will ya? The tutorial was great! I would make it mandatory. There are some typos in it, but I didn't record them. I can re-read the thing if you think it necessary and log them for you. I then spent a few hours honing my conversation and manipulation techniques starting with that pesky seamstress.

To wrap up this novella, the big thing I was pondering as I was driving was that there is no documentation on how to "save" your character between game times. The first night I just left Katherine standing in a hallway. Did she stand there, staring blankly all night, ticking people off with her muteness? Did she disappear and reappear when I logged on? I found Froderick in a seemingly suspended state of prayer at the altar in the Solitary Passage on the first floor. I wondered if he was a person who was currently not online. I'm not really concerned with what my character is doing while not online, but I just would like some direction in the matter. Should I always return to my bedroom (or someone else's bedroom if I'm invited), can I just close the window with no worries, etc.

I am also wondering about the text in the session itself. The "Alice" window as the window title is named currently has everything that has gone on with Katherine for the past two days. Is that window able to hold an infinite amount of text? When does it refresh/restart? Does it matter? Am I too uptight and need to go for a drive in the country?

I hope this gives you something to go on!
Kathy aka Stealthkat aka Katherine

[Seidl]

I'd like to see more example syntax, especially when looking at complex objects. Like examining your own feet, or other poses. It would be nice to be able to do things like look pensive or attentive, but I couldn't see a good way to do that.

But, it was a good first night! Looking forward to watching the plot move forward.

-=- Matt

[Zell]

Originally posted by stealthkat:
To wrap up this novella, the big thing I was pondering as I was driving was that there is no documentation on how to "save" your character between game times. The first night I just left Katherine standing in a hallway. Did she stand there, staring blankly all night, ticking people off with her muteness? Did she disappear and reappear when I logged on? I found Froderick in a seemingly suspended state of prayer at the altar in the Solitary Passage on the first floor. I wondered if he was a person who was currently not online. I'm not really concerned with what my character is doing while not online, but I just would like some direction in the matter. Should I always return to my bedroom (or someone else's bedroom if I'm invited), can I just close the window with no worries, etc.

StealthKat,

Thanks for your comments! I'll let Shannon deal with those and stick to answering your questions.

There is never a need to save your character -- it will basically continue to exist within the world in perpetuity. When you close the browser window, Katherine is whisked off into the void -- she continues to exist but she is definitely not standing in the hallway. If you did see somebody mutely hanging about, it's because they did not close the connection but just walked away from their machine.

If you want to explicitly disconnect, you can type 'quit' which shows anybody else in the room the message 'Katherine leaves the world.' as opposed to 'Katherine loses her connection.' which happens when you kill the browser.

We are planning one change to this behaviour: when you've been gone for several hours, logging back on will probably have you reappear in your private room. We'll see if and when this makes it in.


I am also wondering about the text in the session itself. The "Alice" window as the window title is named currently has everything that has gone on with Katherine for the past two days. Is that window able to hold an infinite amount of text? When does it refresh/restart? Does it matter? Am I too uptight and need to go for a drive in the country?

Good question. I'm not sure what the backlog capacity is. I suspect we shall find out. I see no need for a drive in the country, though how can it hurt?

Again, thanks a lot for your comments. :-)

Zell

[stealthkat]

Me again. Hopefully you don't get sick of me. http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif

I met a character yesterday whose very name alone would make it unlikely that my meek and shy character would do anything but avoid him. Since you can't make peple -yet- read the player's guide or run throught he tutorial, I suggest repeating the bullet items on page four under the "Names" section of the the Player's Guide at the point where you name your character. I can think of several ways to diplay this information:
- in a separate pop-up window, so as not to intrude too much on the original screen or intrude too much so that the fragile bubble between reality and virtual reality is broken.
- as an unobtrusive link on the page itself.

I know you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it read. At least this would be leading the horse really, really close to the water and saying, "If you don't read anything else, you really should read this."

[stealthkat]

And one more for the day...

I am finding it to be a challenge to include adjectives/adverbs in my role playing. This is due in part to the speed that conversations are going at versus my laptop and brain capabilities, and partly due to the fact that I simply am not used to describing my actions in such detail. I am used to reading such things, but not actually typing them. The <command> <letter> help display is great! However, by the time I find the word I want (depending on the letter) my opportunity for reply is usually past.

I offer up the following ideas for consideration:
- Something be added somewhere, the advanced part of the tutorial perhaps, about suggesting a player practice this 'art' of descriptive role playing. This is a skill which is learned much like riding a bike. It takes a bit to get your bearings, but once you've practiced, you are on your way.

- I don't recall if there is an explanation like, "Don't just curtsy. Curtsy gracefully. Curtsy awkwardly. Curtsy beautifully." I really liked the storyline example given in the tutorial, but my concentration upon reading it was to pick up the base action usage I would need just to function. Now I'm concerned with how do I function with style.

In closing - I promise, really - as more words are added to the display lists, those lists are only going to get harder to read through. I know that many rhyming web sites display their results in the format <word, word, word, etc.> like your display is currently. However we have the added challenge of slipping that perfect word into the role playing at that perfect moment. Perhaps an easy-to-scan format could be adopted to those word list displays such as columns of words...I'm not sure, but anything to make finding words quicker would be appreciated.

http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif

[ShannonA]

Kathy & Matt:

Thanks much for the comments. Zell already replied to most of the technical issues, but a few other things:

* I realized yesterday that there was more documentation needed on the complex commands, as Matt states, because *I* was having some troubles with a few(!). So, yeah, that'll be in.

Some prime things I saw:

With the seamstress, it was easy to end up with a number of identical items in a room: "Do you mean the tunic, the tunic, the tunic, the tunic, or the tunic?" Since they're all identical, it doesn't really matter, but you need syntax nonetheless: "get first tunic".

You had to know to use "my" to refer to your body parts. "shake head" -- "do you mean your head or Leto's head or Arrion's head?" -- "shake my head".

(Some of these may eventually be cleaned up in the parser.)

And then there are just complexities: "look at third seamstress' dress"

Anything else?

* I'm going to write some documentation up on the CNPCs (computer NPCs) as it's well known that they're slightly unintuitive. This should help, and they should get smarter as time goes on.

* My proof-reading wife went through the tutorial yesterday and I have a small set of corrections to make, so hopefully it will be typo free sometime early next week.

Please, I'd love to hear more opinions on which parts of the help system (help, tutorials, tips) were useful, which were confusing, and what else you'd like to see documented.

Shannon

[Erica]

The most common suggestion I've heard in game seems to be others (myself included) with a wish list, a list of all the verbs (or at least the common ones) and the proper prompting of them. I realize this is a monumnetal sized task to ask for, but this or at least a little more clarification on proper prompts (as listed above with the

bug<space>"text"


would be a definate bonus.

[Seidl]

I was actually having a lot of trouble getting the help system to work at all. The general response to "help [command]" was "no help available". Maybe that would be a good place to put examples? I was having no luck tring to clap my hands for example. I could clap, but not clap my hands. so maybe "help [foo]" could give examples on using [foo]?

-=- Matt aka. Martel

[stealthkat]

I read through a portion of the online help files last night. I thought they were very good. I was able to practice certain body movements in my chamber like shaking my hair, shaking my head, and holding my hand. I agree with the others that a verb list would also be nice. However, in the meantime I have been finding it very amusing to watch for what other players do...every now and then someone discovers a 'new' verb. For example, last night Robert discovered how to lean which we were all quite excited about. I saw Brahm do something like shuffle his feet once, and I am still on my quest to remember what it was.

I may sound completely crazy for this, but it has been a pleasure to read your documentation and instructions. It is not that common, in my world anyway, to find clear, concise, easy to understand help.

Kathy