Shorter Arcs getting more Play and more Ratings
By
Aura_Familia,
Posted on: 2009-05-15 13:43 in Mission Architect
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Honestly I think the only real deciding factor on how often people will play your arc is whether or not the current overall is a 5. I ran my newest arc with 3 friends. They all 5 starred it. The next day it had shot up to 12 ratings and still at an overall of 5. Then it went up to 14 ratings and an overall of 4. Stopped getting ratings after that.
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I have an arc where that happened also. It was 4 missions, and had 5 stars for awhile. It dropped down to 4 stars after about 21 plays, and hasn't seen another player for the arc in about 3 weeks.
I think if you can keep your 5 star rating up to about 40 or 50 raters, your longer arc might see more plays. I may try to modify my longer arc, and republish it to get a new arc ID.
Well, if survival of the fitest in AE melts down to One Reall Good Mission, then so be it.
Given the memory limit on an arc, having one very good mission is a great way to spend your time. You can always hit Ouro or devs choice if you want longer arcs.
We'll just have to adjust our thinking in planning missions if we want badges.
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Time is often a factor. I like medium/long arcs myself, but sometimes I'm limited in the amount of time I have on a given night and will look up short arcs just to get a couple in before bedtime.
As to whether single mission arcs are good or not, it varies. I've played some single missions that are more enjoyable than some of the longer ones with regard to story and fun value. I've played some that are not deep, but are definitely clever. I've played some that I'm not sure why they were made to begin with. But that's true of longer arcs as well.
If I enjoy the arc, it doesn't matter what length it is, I will star it accordingly.
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This.
Though I often look for shorter arcs. I just don't have time to play longer arcs or tfs anymore.
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Time is often a factor. I like medium/long arcs myself, but sometimes I'm limited in the amount of time I have on a given night and will look up short arcs just to get a couple in before bedtime.
As to whether single mission arcs are good or not, it varies. I've played some single missions that are more enjoyable than some of the longer ones with regard to story and fun value. I've played some that are not deep, but are definitely clever. I've played some that I'm not sure why they were made to begin with. But that's true of longer arcs as well.
If I enjoy the arc, it doesn't matter what length it is, I will star it accordingly.
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This.
Though I often look for shorter arcs. I just don't have time to play longer arcs or tfs anymore.
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You are aware you don't have to do a MA story arc in one sitting right? If you log off in the middle of it, you'll be on the same mission when you get back as long as they don't take it down.
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Honestly I think the only real deciding factor on how often people will play your arc is whether or not the current overall is a 5. I ran my newest arc with 3 friends. They all 5 starred it. The next day it had shot up to 12 ratings and still at an overall of 5. Then it went up to 14 ratings and an overall of 4. Stopped getting ratings after that.
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Personally, I had every intention of playing yours until I read the description and it said that it pretty much requires a team which will count me out. Thus difficulty, real or assumed, may be another thing that prevents people from doing longer arcs.
There is that too. So many people feel their epic has to culminate with an AV fight that everyone comes to expect ALL long arcs will have one. I specifically put "solo-friendly, no AVs or EBs" in the description for my 5-mission arc that doesn't have them. If I see this in someone else's arc (or if I see that the author has a different arc up that is "not solo-friendly" and warns about it) I will be more likely to play it, especially if I'm on a squishy.
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Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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Honestly I think the only real deciding factor on how often people will play your arc is whether or not the current overall is a 5. I ran my newest arc with 3 friends. They all 5 starred it. The next day it had shot up to 12 ratings and still at an overall of 5. Then it went up to 14 ratings and an overall of 4. Stopped getting ratings after that.
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Personally, I had every intention of playing yours until I read the description and it said that it pretty much requires a team which will count me out. Thus difficulty, real or assumed, may be another thing that prevents people from doing longer arcs.
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I know that factors in too. But aren't you glad that unlike most people, I stated the difficulty in the description rather then you starting and getting clobbered by a Praetorian in the 2nd mission?
For the record I did solo it on heroic with my tanker. But not everyone is a tanker, scrapper, mastermind, or whatever else someone uses for their uber solo build. So I labeled it a team mission.
I think the keyword here is "unlike most people." We really need to have AVs and EBs automatically show up in the description. So many people don't bother to warn about them.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
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If we're going to be catering to the tastes of the majority of the playerbase, I guess we should all be writing single-mission joke arcs full of Rikti, 5th Column and easy custom critters with cute costumes and funny bios. Since that seems to be where the tastes of the playerbase lie.
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Touché.
<QR>
One thing that needs to be considered is the ego and grand idea of the creator. People want to make their stories teh UBERZ and judging by the looks of a few of the responses, have a bit of snobbery when it comes to arcs, so they're going to cram as much into their arc as they can, maximize it, etc. Even though longer arcs do give progressively more tickets per mission, it's going to be a drag for a player or team if they play a three mission arc and it feels like five or six missions long, or they play a five mission arc and it feels like eight or ten missions long. Tack troublesome bosses, ambushes, etc, onto it and it can feel like even more.
What's worse is the fact that even if you don't do that, others will, and it will just sour people towards longer arcs, just like a bad experience with specific enemy groups will keep people from doing developer content with them in it.
Edit: Oh, and announcing you're /ignoring someone with a differing viewpoint and/or opinion that you've publicly shown a dislike for based on said viewpoint/opinion is just going to make them the victor in the situation unless you're in a highly centralized area of like-minded individuals. The viewpoints here are obviously shared amongst the localized group, but based on the post above me, I'd say your group is quite localized and specialized, thereby running you the risk of coming off even more in the wrong if someone outside your group happens upon the discussion.
Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.
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Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.
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While that is the case, there is such a thing as too much. After all, there're quite a few people who think Robert Jordan stretched out the Wheel of Time too far.
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Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.
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While that is the case, there is such a thing as too much. After all, there're quite a few people who think Robert Jordan stretched out the Wheel of Time too far.
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And oh how I do wish I had stopped after the first three of that one.
Unless it's fiction in New Yorker, we tend to expect a conclusion to a story. I'd rather have a one joke pony mission than a five mission arc with an unsatisfactory ending.
Having fun is often a balance of finding/making fun and avoiding unfun.
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Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.
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While that is the case, there is such a thing as too much. After all, there're quite a few people who think Robert Jordan stretched out the Wheel of Time too far.
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And oh how I do wish I had stopped after the first three of that one.
Unless it's fiction in New Yorker, we tend to expect a conclusion to a story. I'd rather have a one joke pony mission than a five mission arc with an unsatisfactory ending.
Having fun is often a balance of finding/making fun and avoiding unfun.
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Ahh, there we go. Fun. Not your fun, though. The player's fun. Just because you and your friends enjoy writing something very intricate and detailed, up to and including descriptions of any and all details, doesn't mean the average player will enjoy it or even take time to notice things. I'm not saying aim for the lowest common denominator, but lower your expectations of what people enjoy from what you and others here enjoy, to what the average player enjoys.
I think it still resorts back to only having 3 slots. A lot of us who are working on longer arcs feel like we are more or less "wasting" space with shorter missions, especially with some of MA's limitations. That said, I intend on challenging myself to try to do a 2 mission arc with quality.
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Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.
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I agree. I've got plans for all three of my publishing slots and could write more, I've published one so far. I'm not in a rush to write the other two because I know once they're done and published it's over (except for updates).
If the option were there to buy more slots I would feel less hampered.
Allowing unlimited slots at no cost or for tickets would be a bad idea. The first thing that would happen would be a repeat of how things were before the 5/5 patch... 50 billion farms clogging up the pipes rather than the still too many farms we have now. The people with the most tickets are, by and large, the people who publish farms. It would be like putting up a sign for an 'all the farms you can publish' buffet. Putting a price tag on extra slots is pretty much only going to appeal to SFMA writers.
The extra slots for DC or HOF is a bad joke.
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Honestly I think the only real deciding factor on how often people will play your arc is whether or not the current overall is a 5. I ran my newest arc with 3 friends. They all 5 starred it. The next day it had shot up to 12 ratings and still at an overall of 5. Then it went up to 14 ratings and an overall of 4. Stopped getting ratings after that.
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Personally, I had every intention of playing yours until I read the description and it said that it pretty much requires a team which will count me out. Thus difficulty, real or assumed, may be another thing that prevents people from doing longer arcs.
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This. The more missions an arc have and the most often odds are that somewhere in the arc AVs or EBs will show up.
1) I am not always playing a scrapper or a brute.
2) Building up a team tend to lower Ticket reward ( randomly awarded ) and lenghtening the mission due to increased mobs.
3) A mission that lasts longer than 15 minutes when playing solo is already too long imho.
4) Wether the story is good or not is often not relevant to many players. Many players get their high in CoX by using the combat system and activating flashy powers. Many of them do not care reading at all and that does not make them stupid people or what not.
5) Many players tend to prefer going with what they know and the custom mobs as they are right now tend to be full of bad surprises, especially when you are not playing a strong solo build. And even then, it still is often boring to fight enemies that constantly throw caltrops at you, siphon your speed and spam quicksands.
6) Many long story arcs are simply plain bad, too challenging, have too many objectives, are using annoying maps and annoying mobs, have too much text , too many ambushes, too many AVs, finally just too much of everything and that makes them pure PITA to run. They get an auto 1 star from me.
I guess i must be one of these "like Newspaper mission" person. I like straightforward objectives and i like to get done in a timely manner without having to use multiple trays of inspirations.
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[/ QUOTE ] If the option were there to buy more slots I would feel less hampered.
Allowing unlimited slots at no cost or for tickets would be a bad idea. The first thing that would happen would be a repeat of how things were before the 5/5 patch... 50 billion farms clogging up the pipes rather than the still too many farms we have now. The people with the most tickets are, by and large, the people who publish farms. It would be like putting up a sign for an 'all the farms you can publish' buffet. Putting a price tag on extra slots is pretty much only going to appeal to SFMA writers.
The extra slots for DC or HOF is a bad joke.
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Agreed
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Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.
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While that is the case, there is such a thing as too much. After all, there're quite a few people who think Robert Jordan stretched out the Wheel of Time too far.
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Yes, he did. Because he put in a bunch of boring crap that nobody cared about and had nothing to do with the main story. If you make a 5-mission arc and mission 3 and 4 go off on a tangent that has nothing to do with the main story, then you have the Wheel of Time of MA. But if every mission builds on the one before, every mission contributes to the story, then there's nothing wrong with using 5 missions.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.
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I actually think it is as hard to make a good, tight, fun short arc as it is a longer one.
I made a four parter that was my first arc that I made during open beta (it has changed a lot since then), What pretty quickly became apparent was that many players often do not want to invest the time into longer arcs. So, I made a one mission arc and it ended up being one of just two arcs to hit Hall of Fame on test. It was just easier to get people to invest 15 minutes and I found it did help in getting my longer arc played. So, shorter arcs, can be beneficial and for me at least it is satisfying to get your arc played no matter the length.
WN
Check out one of my most recent arcs:
457506 - A Very Special Episode - An abandoned TV, a missing kid's TV show host and more
416951 - The Ms. Manners Task Force - More wacky villains, Wannabes. things in poor taste
or one of my other arcs including two 2010 Player's Choice Winners and an2009 Official AE Awards Nominee for Best Original Story
Ok I play alot of short arcs. Maybe even 80%. Although lately I have been trying to do more longer ones that are advertised on MA arc finder channel. The thing is I want to do as many different arcs as I can. Play alot of peoples arcs. If I play a long arc I will only get to play 1 or 2 peoples arc in a play session. With so many arcs to choose from, it's hard for these long arcs to get alot of play. Afterall which ones do you choose? And if you have a team good luck keeping all members to stay for the whole long arc. I wonder how many people (and I'm not referring to you the_alt_holic) complain about not getting their long arc played, but they themselves are not playing the long arcs very much?
ARC # 2517 "Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting"
ARC# 102898 "The Great Sewer Rescue"
The reason me and my friends play shorter story arcs is because we are bit tired of running (solo and team) into these really tedious long story arcs. Custom mobs that look like crap with stupid power picks and tedious missions (defeat alls on huge maps.) When we're "stuck" with an arc like that for 5 missions, me and my mates notice the fun suddenly turning into a chore. I have only seen few long arcs that are interesting enough to sit through.
With shorter arcs we get to see more different things in shorter time. And if we do not fancy the arc, atleast it will be over soon.
Oh and not to mention the frustration of breezing through a long arc solo only to meet a joke EB in the end. 2k damage meelee and 1k ranged.
Reminds me of this one arc I did when AE was new. 5 missions full of push-over mobs, easy stuff. In the end however I met mr. broadsword/storm EB with build up, -acc, immob, fly, headsplitter with insane damage and ambushes coming everytime his HP dropped.
Not to mention the entire fight went down on a small map, so yeah, it wasn't worth it.
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Something I've started to do is search through arcs that have no ratings or plays -- it's ridiculous how many of those there are -- to see what looks good.
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I'm working on that too. I'm giving the authors feedback and so far they have thanked me.
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Even if nobody preferred any arc length over any other, shorter arcs would still get more play. A short arc that takes 15 minutes is going to get eight times as much play as a long arc that takes 2 hours, and that's just with people playing arcs randomly.
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Wait, that makes no sense. If all arcs are selected at random, short arcs will get picked no more often than long arcs. The only difference is how quickly they get finished and another arc randomly chosen.
...
Sorry, couldn't just let that slip past my mathematical fascism 
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I got curious, and poked at a spreadsheet version of this. I need to see if I can get this to properly convert to Google, but I found that for an exactly 50% difference, it did mostly converge, but it took a *long* time for the initial boost to become less relevant. (I ran out to 1,000 ticks of 15 min, which is more than 10 days.)
Given that I think that the average player is at least slightly more likely to play shorter arcs, and that things like server resets / maintainence happen on a shorter timeframe than the settling time, short arcs *do* have a statistical advantage, if you're concerned with number of plays. (And this doesn't even account for people more likely to have sudden changes of plans and dropping a longer one.)
Of course, this matters less now, given the announced MA badge changes.
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Time is often a factor. I like medium/long arcs myself, but sometimes I'm limited in the amount of time I have on a given night and will look up short arcs just to get a couple in before bedtime.
As to whether single mission arcs are good or not, it varies. I've played some single missions that are more enjoyable than some of the longer ones with regard to story and fun value. I've played some that are not deep, but are definitely clever. I've played some that I'm not sure why they were made to begin with. But that's true of longer arcs as well.
If I enjoy the arc, it doesn't matter what length it is, I will star it accordingly.