How do you convince people to play srb2?

[Eliwood]

I've been finding it rather difficult to convince people who have never played it to play srb2. They always claim it to be "too confusing" and this baffles me as I've played this game for 8+ years and none of the level design has ever confused me (or at least I've never run into any major confusions).

So anyways I guess this topic is simple, how do you convince people who have never played srb2 before, to play srb2 and they stay and like it?

 

[rocky]

Honestly I don't know but I believe that people just try to ignore this kind of games because when I asked people why did they hated the game, their answer was:

"It's too boring and "uncool" ".

And besides, this boring period of time between releases isn't helping at all.

 

[Eliwood]

"It's too boring and "uncool" ".

Yeah I can totally agree with that. That's what everyone else keeps saying too. Like they don't seem to give the game any chance. They just seem to give up with the game within seconds of playing it, or not even play it at all.

 

[21kHzBANK21kHz]

Well it is too confusing. It takes a while to start, and control is very difficult at first. The game tries to recreate Sonic in his Genesis days, but since its in 3D, you now have to factor perception of depth, which will be had for newcomers. You should show an example of good (i dare say "high level") online play, which is the only reason I play nowadays.

 

[That2rb2DUDE]

Yeah what Bank said just show them a video that makes the game look fun to play (online play).

 

[rocky]

But still, there is already a lot of videos featuring online playthrough.

I'm still here on the community because I believe that srb2 manages to be a good game experience and I'm also waiting for the new release.

I think that it's only a mather of time until the 2.1 is released and a lot of people start to download it. But still, I can't figure it out. Why people keep saying that the game is boring if most of them didn't even tested the game?

And the people that do start to actually do something on srb2, they get tired as soon as they finish one level or when they lose a life to a robot. They don't look for secrets or anything. They just lose their will when it comes to the game.

 

[Knuckles MetalMind]

It´s what´s happening with most of the gamers nowadays. I´ve known plenty of people on Xbox360 who just stop playing a videogame after getting stuck at any kind of challenge. If people do that on games which cost 60€, I can only barely think on what would they think of a game like SRB2.

People expect games to be like movies, they don´t expect to repeat nearly any part more than 3 or 4 times. They get bored too fastly. They don´t complete games. They don´t care about unlockables. They don´t replay games. SRB2 can´t and won´t never appeal to this kind of people, and it shouldn´t try. It´s a higly replayable, fun, challenging game with many unlockables.

So that´s the problem, really. If you like challenges, unlockables, or replaying games, and you are into 3D platforming games, you should like this game IMO.

 

[rocky]

I think this is a new generation of people, because this is happening to every single game. We just can't stop this.

 

[Internet Explorer]

To start from another point of view, I think this topic is in lack of sociability.
One can't change someone's personality ; if someone doesn't want to play, you should tolerate its choice. Pushing someone to enter into your opinion isn't a good idea, especially on video game series. Passion is the key.

EDIT : Ho Hinote, yes Crash Bandicoot was a very interesting platform game at these times...

 

[Wombatwarlord777]

I've found that most people my age find Sonic to be childish, probably because most played the Genesis games when they were young and then moved on to other franchises.

On a personal note, the lack of a homing attack in the main game nearly turned me off it. Granted, once I gained a feel for the 3D world and item and enemy placements within it, it was awesome to bounce from Crawla to Crawla with the greatest of ease. But there is a steep learning curve. It helps, though, that Tails and Knuckles are much more forgiving to new players.

 

[Alice]

What an interesting topic however I think this topic can apply many other interest because it does not have to JUST be SRB2. For example, trying to convince someone who doesn't like platforming games to play a different game such as, let's say, Crash Bandicoot might be more difficult instead of convincing them to play an FPS games like Team Fortress 2. It could also apply to many everyday subjects such as convincing a very introverted person to go to a party and likely they'll turn down the offer.

This of course just depends on the person and it's difficult to convince someone who simply cannot tolerate what ever is being thrown at them. I suppose I can say, you can't just force someone into SRB2.

They have to try it out and if they don't like it, then that's based on their preferences. Perhaps you could try convincing them to play it by teaching them how to play the game or show them how you play the game. Sometimes people love to see their friends play a game and if you can inspire them then that might influence them into playing SRB2.

I've convinced a few people to play SRB2 but by telling them it's network compatible; however, I have to teach them how to play and eventually they figured out their own way of playing.

Again, you cannot force someone to play a game if they don't want to. My best bet is to play with your friends and teach them how to play. If they don't know what they're doing and you're not helping them, then you are not convincing them and they'll be confused with their unanswered questions.

That's legitimately your job though. I've had trouble convincing people to play anything but found out teaching them how to play and playing with them helps a lot.

Good luck!

 

[21kHzBANK21kHz]

Someone could develop passion overtime, they have to get into the game first.

 

[Cue]

And besides, this boring period of time between releases isn't helping at all.

This, so much this. It really should be more releasing steady, small additions to it rather than lots and lots of large additions with huge gaps. The latter is just asking for community stagnation. Updates bring people back to see what happened while they were gone, but if it takes 2 years to actually get that update out then everything just falls through and people forget it exists.

 

[rocky]

Exactly. And honestly, everytime I get the chance to talk about gaming, I start talking about SRB2 so that people know that the game actually exists.

I told them already that the game is going through a netcode fix, but they don't care. And I can't blame them. If you are waiting for a game to get a new release, will you wait 2 years?

 

[Cue]

I told them already that the game is going through a netcode fix, but they don't care. And I can't blame them. If you are waiting for a game to get a new release, will you wait 2 years?

Only if the new release would be worth the wait.

 

[Rob]

Ok, can I point out something here? Because I really think a lot of you aren't grasping an important factor.

We are not a professional game company. Regular small updates are not practical because so many things change and wind up going in and out of beta because there isn't actually a set system in place for making shit for the game. Deciding what we want in a bulk update is a lot easier than deciding what we want in tiny updates, especially when you consider that tiny updates would probably be stuff not worth updating for in the first place. I assure you that if we did frequent, small updates, there would be chaos and we'd spend more time fixing the small updates than making actual content for the next major one.

 

[SomariTheAdventurer]

"Hey man, I installed this awesome game called Sonic Robo Blast 2! You should try it!"

"Okay."

"What'd ya think?"

"I didn't install it, but it looks confusing."

This went on for weeks, then I gave up.

 

[Shane]

I typically invite people over to play and take them through the single player with split screen and two PlayStation 3 controllers. In my opinion, the default setup for the game isn't natural to most gamers. I prefer to set my controls up to the classic Quake style when using a mouse and keyboard. I found that made the game much more playable.

I digress, If someone doesn't like it, they don't like it. No amount of pushing or shoving will fix that. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you like it if they told you to play a game and you walked into it clueless? Even when I introduced this game with my nephew, who has been actively playing the 3D Sonic series, he was confused at first.

Be patient. Help them through learning it. If they don't like it, don't force it. I'll leave you with an analogy I've given to others with similar situations to this, "If I give you a glass of water, you're more likely to drink it than if I splash it in your face."

 

[VelocitOni]

Everyone I try to show SRB2 to a friend, they get completely turned off by it's awful default control scheme and the weird (and slippery) feel itself. Not only do most new players initially choose Sonic for obvious reasons, consequently getting frustrated with how he handles (the crazy thok doesn't help much either); but when they pick Tails he's equally as slippery, even when flying, if not worse. Hah, and I don't dare try to show it to people at night. Green Flower Zone's soundtrack is practically a lullaby that contributes to the 'first-sight' boring factor of the game.

Honestly, you guys underestimate just how many casual new players have and use gamepads, people don't think of actually using a keyboard + mouse setup for a Sonic game when it's mentioned, nor would they want to either (It's also a flaming middle-finger for anyone with a laptop). What should just be done is make setting up a gamepad more obvious: Rather than have them look through multiple options and find that they can select their gamepad for use after an hour of searching, have it enabled by default when plugged in. A second would be to have better default controls for the gamepad itself.

Joysticks are NOT fun, at least to me, when using gamepads for this. My scheme is set up as (SNES setup): D-pad for movement, B to jump, Y to spin, and shoulder triggers for strafing. It's simple and to the point to get them started (strafing should be there right from the get-go to get them adjusted, playing SRB2 in any way, shape, or form without it is literal hell).

The point is of getting them to learn mouse is better when they're introduced to match after likely playing the SP campaign, which will come naturally. I use mouse for multiplayer and the pad for everything else. They'll learn switching between the two like this is an option unless they're a laptop user, and this thought process of using the mouse and keyboard for everything will eventually move onto them playing SP. I don't know much about the perfect mouse setup, but for those oddballs who would actually walk into a Sonic game using that? Sure make a good default setup for them too.

You can't keep passing SRB2 off as a Sonic game when it feels like the regular DOOM fps with sped up physics, it just doesn't work. People walk into this expecting Sonic and get hit in the face with lord-knows-what. So the best thing to do is make it as easy as possible to get acquainted with the controls the easy way: using the tools they're likely to walk in with, and easing them later on into the game's style; NOT just saying "it's not professional so not everyone will like it".

How about fixing the frustration of new players coming in rather than ignoring it since you've been playing for 8+ years and mastered it like the back of your hand and think it's nothing. New players shouldn't even SEE the options screen so frequently (not to mention most of the useless actions there that won't help them until they learn what most of the multiplayer stuff is and how it works helps at all), they should be able to jump right in with actual polish. This is what the game fails to get right for introducing people, and no amount of tweaking Green Flower Zone's layout infinitely will help this.

The problem lies solely with it's controls.






EDIT: Oh look I repeated myself a lot, welp.

 

[Shane]

Keep in mind that I'm talking only about the PC version since it seems we're talking about that version, and that's the only version I'm actually familiar with.

What should just be done is make setting up a gamepad more obvious: Rather than have them look through multiple options and find that they can select their gamepad for use after an hour of searching, have it enabled by default when plugged in. A second would be to have better default controls for the gamepad itself.

If I'm not mistaken, aren't the joypads enabled by default as long as they're plugged in before it's launched? It's been so long that I can't remember. I agree that having the options laid out in a more streamlined fashion would help newer players, but I wouldn't necessarily call the current system cryptic. I go to options, control options then setup joypad. It's not the worst way to setup a controller.

PC gamers walk in to games knowing that they need to do a little more work to tweak the game to make it just how they want it. It's sort of the nature of our hobby. It's obvious to laptop users that any fast-paced gaming with a track pad isn't ideal. Most people who own laptops expecting to game either play slower paced games or have bought a mouse or joypad to better meet the needs of faster paced games.

You can't keep passing SRB2 off as a Sonic game when it feels like the regular DOOM fps with sped up physics, it just doesn't work. People walk into this expecting Sonic and get hit in the face with lord-knows-what. So the best thing to do is make it as easy as possible to get acquainted with the controls the easy way: using the tools they're likely to walk in with, and easing them later on into the game's style; NOT just saying "it's not professional so not everyone will like it".

I still stand by saying if someone doesn't like it, they won't.

SRB2 is built off of Doom legacy. It's still essentially going to be Doom, any way you slice it. What has been done with SRB2 is an impressive showcase of something I'm sure most people didn't even think the Doom engine was capable of. Rewriting core elements of the engine, such as its way of handling physics and input, is something that is very time consuming.

In essence, it is Doom with different physics. Not to undermine anyone's efforts, mind you. Another phrase that quickly comes to mind is, "it's not professional, it's a fan game." The developers for SRB2 aren't getting any funding for their time spent working on it. We all have our daily lives to attend to, and while we all hold a special place in our hearts for our hobbies, they're still hobbies. I'm not saying this as an excuse for laziness, either.

New players shouldn't even SEE the options screen so frequently (not to mention most of the useless actions there that won't help them until they learn what most of the multiplayer stuff is and how it works helps at all), they should be able to jump right in with actual polish. This is what the game fails to get right for introducing people, and no amount of tweaking Green Flower Zone's layout infinitely will help this.

I agree that the best games are ones where anyone can just pick it up and play. I also agree that, once again, a more streamlined options menu would be nice. A lot of options also offer a certain level of flexibility that most PC gamers lust after and many PC gamers will go to the options before ever starting a new game.

The problem lies solely with it's controls.

If you walk into SRB2 expecting something like Sonic Adventure, then yes. This could very well be the problem. The controls can be alienating, but it is an issue that we all seem to have overcome, so it's obviously not impossible.

If you're going to introduce someone to SRB2 and want them to like it, you should try to help them overcome their issues. Even if you try to help them and they still don't like it, you shouldn't take it personally.

Edit: I also wanted to give props to Hinote's post earlier. It's pretty much the best answer Eliwood could get.