Well, we hit our milestone. Ascension 3 went live on the 15th and as of this morning, four players have earned the “Triscending Cohort” medal, which will be awarded to the first ten players who complete Ascension 3. Over the years, players have told us that they really appreciate the medals they can receive which are in game achievements. One of the important aspects of a Free2Play (F2P) game like ours is insuring that there are elements such as achievements which cannot be purchased, only earned. We pay very close attention to the economy of each game to insure that we do not create a pay to win environment. Purchases in game are designed to move players through game elements faster, not to provide an advantage over other players. The medals are an example of something players can only earn through actual gameplay. Looking at the profile page of a long term player shows a kind of scoreboard of all the things the player has done, regardless of their investment level.
Having been around as long as we have though, some of the medals aren’t quite as shiny as we would like. Many were created a long time ago. The game has evolved a lot since then but some elements have not required changes. In the coming months, we hope to start addressing some of these housekeeping issues and refresh some of the graphics. Currently the enemies encountered by players in the Asteroid Belt and Deep Asteroid Belt are the priority, these have become overdue for a refresh. Before we undertake another large development task, there are some smaller elements like these we’d like to address.
Some of these small items can also have a big impact. The addition of Giulietta’s Story to SP was specifically designed to help new players get into the game quickly, picking up near the end of the tutorial. Anything that we can do to bring down entry barriers will increase the number of players in game. Increasing the size of the community is an ongoing priority. Along these lines, I recently opened a conversation about accessibility in our game. We’re looking for feedback on where players have found barriers playing our game from an accessibility standpoint. If you’ve had experiences with games and accessibility, either positive or negative, please leave comments below or join the conversation in game;
http://www.starpirates.net/forums/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=2&thread_id=36519
So that’s all for now. I’m going to jump back into Gates of Camelot for a bit, those darn vikings are invading again…