Real Time Game Hub - with incentives

[blee]

Gaining momentum with real-time games has been a perpetual challenge. Just spit balling some ideas:

One hub. Merge Create/Join into one screen: jump into a forming match, or set up a custom game, all from the same place. More visibility into who is online to challenge them in a real-time game. Real-time game status banner at the top of the website, including status/countdown to next Prime Time (see next).

Prime Time. Daily windows scheduled around NA, EU, APAC traffic peaks. Games during Prime Time would carry a points bonus, to incentive real-time game play.

First Wave bonus. Be one of the first few players into a forming game and get rewarded for it by getting a points bump.

New medals for real-time play, including a monthly medal for the Real Time Leader, tracked on a live scoreboard showing who's amassed the most real-time points that month. Climb it, hold the top spot, earn the medal.

Play vs AI, in two flavors: Practice, no points, play as much as you want, and Ranked, a skill-matched opponent where you'd be competing for real points at a reduced stake compared to a human match. (Could be linked to from other places as well, not just real-time).

 

[zenon550]

I don’t like the idea of having vs. AI games impact one's overall ratings as I assume that the weaknesses/glitches could be exploited indefinitely for unearned point gains.

Indeed I think I don’t even like the idea of AI games here in general.. in chess for example most people don’t really like playing against computers and people in general are already too isolated.. better to have some chance of friendship and community building by having all games be vs. other humans IMO.

If AI were to be implemented however I would hope it would be trained to mimic human players as much as possible, no blunders out of nowhere unless at lower levels where that’s a thing (and then only human-like blunders), and with various “personality types” that nicely mimic actual humans playing online RISK.

 

[NewSheriffInTown]

Gaining momentum with real-time games has been a perpetual challenge. Just spit balling some ideas:

One hub. Merge Create/Join into one screen: jump into a forming match, or set up a custom game, all from the same place. More visibility into who is online to challenge them in a real-time game. Real-time game status banner at the top of the website, including status/countdown to next Prime Time (see next).

New medals for real-time play, including a monthly medal for the Real Time Leader, tracked on a live scoreboard showing who's amassed the most real-time points that month. Climb it, hold the top spot, earn the medal.

Play vs AI, in two flavors: Practice, no points, play as much as you want, and Ranked, a skill-matched opponent where you'd be competing for real points at a reduced stake compared to a human match. (Could be linked to from other places as well, not just real-time).

I don’t like the idea of having vs. AI games impact one's overall ratings as I assume that the weaknesses/glitches could be exploited indefinitely for unearned point gains.

Indeed I think I don’t even like the idea of AI games here in general.. in chess for example most people don’t really like playing against computers and people in general are already too isolated.. better to have some chance of friendship and community building by having all games be vs. other humans IMO.

If AI were to be implemented however I would hope it would be trained to mimic human players as much as possible, no blunders out of nowhere unless at lower levels where that’s a thing (and then only human-like blunders), and with various “personality types” that nicely mimic actual humans playing online RISK.

Okay, there is a lot to unpack.

1. I like the idea of a real time hub. It would be lot of work and it's the chicken and the egg. Does the hub bring players, or do the player create a need for the hub. I'd like to a see bit more action in the real-time section first before investing the time it takes to create a hub. I'd also put things like medals and other projects first at the moment. But I wouldn't dismiss the hub altogether.
2. We already have medals for Real-time games. Which circles back top the first point about medals being a priority. I mean, there is an incentive already waiting to be revived.
3. AI. I am actually in favour of introducing AI. But with very strict controls.
   • To zenon550's point: AI vs a Player (1v1) would never count for points.
   • Also, AI would be restricted to "practice" games for new players, new maps, or for new settings
   • AI costs money to run, so there would have be a limit, something like: 10 AI practice games per map, per player. That's about 280 games per player. You would have pay if you want more.
   • The goal: AI could teach someone how to play, give tips, etc... all in a practice game
   • AI could never give strategy advice in a real games, or play for points.

I think that would be the best use of AI. Onboarding new players, teaching them new maps, teaching them how to play, and then sending off into the real world to get eaten by real humans.

One day it could be incorporated as a "zombie player" in a multiplayer game. But that is a long long way off. We need to learn to crawl before we can run.

 

[zenon550]

Those AI limitations seem very reasonable to me.

 

[NewSheriffInTown]

@blee ,

So I've done some research into how to improve the RT game situation given our player base and demand. The issue is not the amount of willing players, that is okay(ish), but the issue is getting them to be online and play a game at the same time. So our biggest problem is the way RT games are set up. Currently players can create and join a game whenever they want, and that is too open ended for our situation. The real fix is to have a designated time that all RT players are aware of, and they can gather around play a known game that starts at a known time.

I'm going to rewrite the RT game section and transition it to a fixed schedule of RT games.

The final product should look something like this, where players can choose a timeslot that suits them, and then play an RT game at a known time which they should be ready for. It's like watching a TV show before Netflix came around.

The game size will adjust according to the number of players that have joined, so each game might have between 2 and 6 players. We will run it as a trial for a few weeks and see what participation is like, then we adjust the frequency and sizes of the games as needed.

There will be email warning that a game is approaching (if you signed up) as well as a clock on the main dashboard homepage encouraging other players to join and displaying the next game start time.







By the way, these are all London UK times, and they are based on actual "clicks" by players who joined a RT game in the last couple years. These are our highest activity times and mostly likely going to be our first draft for the schedule.

The code outline is still being hammered out, so we are just in the very very early development stage.

 

[once]

i like this a lot, especially the different game sizes depending on players should bring some variety. it may also be a consideration to rotate maps there (depending on player size?). i think manually set up rt games & fixed time slots could coexist though.