Executive Summary # 4:

Everything started with the question: "How can we make Warzone more popular"

From what I gathered, the short answer is this 6-step guide below;

1) Make the game more "new-player friendly"

1.1) Terminate Auto-Changing Settings

- Instead of changing player settings automatically, ask players if they wanna change (so many new players quit because they thought Warzone App got broken due to auto-changing start-up screen + so many new players quit because they got overwhelmed by never ending games due to auto-enabling auto-invite)

1.2) Better Tutorials

- Develop detailed tutorials for each official template + For commerce, commanders etc.

1.3) Improve the Level-Up System

- Focus on participation, not wins (new players shouldn't be try-hards) + Make each level-up more rewarding (Coins, articafts, colorful text etc.) + Make all settings accessible to all players (at least for single-player custom games)

1.4) Separate Win-Rate & Ratings System

- WR only effected by: Tourneys, Open Games etc. | Ratings only effected by: QM, Ladders etc. + WR should only be effected by last 100 games (like booting rates)

1.5) Player-friendly GUI

- More emphasis on QM, Less emphasis on Open Games (Open Games are confusing for new players)

1.6) Better, Standardized Official Templates

- Remove: SEAD (on CW), 4FFA (on QM), S2V2 (on WZI Arena) | Add: Diplo templates (on QM), AIs vs Players template (on QM), Small Earth Multi Attack (on CW) etc.

2) Update some old ineffective mechanics

2.1) Improve Matchmaking Systems

- Every player should face people from their skill level

2.2) Better Single-player

- Shorter levels + Rewards for finishing each level (especially with gold star) + Better levels which are similar to official template settings + Superior AI etc.

2.3) Improved "Accidental Commit" System

- i.e. If most of your armies didn't moved, double check the commit button

2.4) Multiple Clan Settings

- When making a new clan, player get to choose if they want capped or uncapped clan but uncapped clans can't play the game competitively (no CW, no CL etc.)

2.5) Rebranding/Renaming

- Go back to WarLight if able to, it will be important on marketing campaign step

2.6) Wheel Spin Cooldown Reduction

- Its currently every 16 hr, let's make it 8 hr (To reduce the coin gap with players from top clans + To encourage players to play more frequently + To increase Fizzer's advertisement revenue)

3) Utilize the community to increase visibility of the game (Youtube, Twitch etc.)

3.1) Find a Voice & Image of Warzone

- Everyone will subscribe to him and help him become popular to increase the visibility of this game

3.2) Warzone Community Newsletter

- All trends, dramas, game changes will be gathered & summarized in a single place to make community more informed and engaging

3.3) More Accessible Information

- All community accumulated knowledge about WZIdle, Official Templates etc. should be gathered in a single place like Fandom/Forum/Drive etc. + Community should work to protect and improve this accumulated knowledge

3.4) Special Clans To Help New Players

- When a new player starts playing the game, game can force that player to go into a clan after the initial tutorial ends, through "Join a clan" page (they can leave the clan whenever they want, its just to show how to join a clan). They can join these new clans dedicated to help new players which will help them understand the game quickly while keeping them engaged with the community

4) Fizzer needs to start an aggressive marketing campaign

5) Fizzer needs to recruit a small developer team to keep the game trendy

6) Maintain the cycle "More players > More revenue > More advertisement" for infinity



Other Suggestions

a) When creating a game, if specifically a 1v1 QM template is used, there can be a an option to search players from QM (with ranking similar to person creates the game) as well. So that players can find another player faster
- Didn't included with the rest because this was too small and convoluted

b) Advanced filtering options for Open Games (you can look for games with specific settings etc.)
- Didn't included with the rest because Open Games already have just a few games, this filtering will make the options feel even less

Edited 3/30/2023 10:20:13

- Yea, that's called advertising, I already summarized it on the executive summary. It's the "4) Fizzer needs to start an aggressive marketing campaign"

My point was more that it does not necessarily have to come from Fizzer, it could come from players messaging content creators themselves, asking them to try out this game, if they know any who might be interested.

My point was more that it does not necessarily have to come from Fizzer, it could come from players messaging content creators themselves, asking them to try out this game, if they know any who might be interested.
- As long as they are not BFF with a popular content creator, they'll still gonna ask money. Making videos aren't easy and most of them are already trying those games for money

World of Tanks Clan Wars work like this:

1. All clans that want play for a territory in single-elimination mode until only one is left.

2. That winner clan plays against the clan that currently holds the territory. The clan that wins this game is now the territory owner (territory has either been conquered or defended).

3. Every territory is assigned a coin value which is being distributed among the clan members everyday.

4. If a clan holds at least one territory, it can attack neighboring territories directly without the single-elimination tournament.

The effect that only elite clans hold any territories is being avoided by limitation of slots as per convenience.

That is one skill-based alternative how clan wars can work, in a so much more fun way.

@veravari I think including a lottery template in CW is madness. SEAD is random, but not random enough to be considered entirely a lottery, and you can still win with bad spawns if your opponent is worse. I also don't agree with the trend of promoting Small Earth templates at the expense of ones on other maps - I think SE gets enough coverage as it is already, and if it's the main map in the house, players will might not even consider trying other maps. I understand it's the simplest/most straightforward map to learn to play on, but the balance between SE and other maps/templates right now is good as it is, in my opinion. Finally, some of the templates you propose are not even established templates anyway, whereas the ones you'll be replacing are already. Of course, new templates can always arise and gain in popularity, but it's not certain that anyone would really want to play your new template designs at all.

@NONO

To this day i have not joined any open game, bc almost all of them look *very sus* to me.

I hardly think every player thinks like that. I highly disagree myself. For me, Quickmatch is a filler I play when I want a quick game, but if I want something really interesting, Open Games is where it's at. I often create my own games myself, too, and I actually never want them to be skewed in my favor because that isn't fun at all (although there are indeed many hosts who get the advantage from knowing the template they create the game on, especially if it's a 1v1). I understand that some players are happy to play the same templates over and over, knowing they provide the kind of fun they are looking for, but for me (and I think also many others), it's an important part of the game to try new kinds of games and fully utilize the customization features Warzone has to offer. You're clearly a different sort of player than me, and that is fine, but I feel like new players should be given the option to decide for themselves, and be encouraged to at least give Open Games a try before deciding whether or whether they don't want to play it at all.

I am also against diplo games being added to either qm or CW. Again: total minority program. I have not played a single diplo game and never will. If it were foisted on me, I'd boot or insta quit. I don't think I am alone on that.

It wouldn't be "foisted" on you - you can always disable it or not play it, it'd simply be available as an option. I tend to agree that they shouldn't be in QM or CW though, diplos, while I personally enjoy them, are a game within a game, so to say, and only some players are interested in them at all. QM/CW should be for competitive matches, and diplo rarely is competitive, most players would agree. Even if you can play to win one, that often is not really the point. I would definitely like there to be a way to indicate to new players that diplomacy games also exist, and to say "well, if you think if you'd like this type of game, you can try it out", which, again, I feel like should be done by promoting open games to an extent in some way or another, but it is a niche and would feel totally out of place in a competitive setting as far as I'm concerned.

World of Tanks Clan Wars work like this:

1. All clans that want play for a territory in single-elimination mode until only one is left.

2. That winner clan plays against the clan that currently holds the territory. The clan that wins this game is now the territory owner (territory has either been conquered or defended).

3. Every territory is assigned a coin value which is being distributed among the clan members everyday.

4. If a clan holds at least one territory, it can attack neighboring territories directly without the single-elimination tournament.

That seems more fun than the current system. It would definitely make me more invested than I am right now in Clan Wars, which I don't bother to play most of the time, even if I can.

In Hero Wars, Clan Wars work like this:

1) There are 4 leagues;

Gold League - 6 best clans compete in this league

Silver League - 10 best clans (after gold clans) compete in this league

Bronze League - 30 best clans (after silver & gold clans) compete in this league

Qualifying League - Rest of the clans, works like Warzone Clan Wars

2) On the weekdays, all clans battle with 1 clan everyday (fight with 5 clans in a week) in their respective league

3) On Saturday, League Wars happen (like worst clans of Gold League battle against best clans of Silver League to stay on Gold)

4) On Sunday, rewards are distributed to clans depending on their league & their positions on that league

*I didn't bothered explaining how clan vs clan works in that game, game mechanics are too different to explain it quickly

One advantage of the World of Tanks system is that it would also work for MD games. Territories could have not only an assigned coin value, but also an assigned template.

Doesn't that essentially make Hero Wars Clan Work ~= Warzone Clan League?

I guess it would be real time? And with more clans that compete in either clan league or clan wars? With similar number of players in each clan? Why did I even read this?

One advantage of the World of Tanks system is that it would also work for MD games. Territories could not only have an assigned coin value, but also an assigned template.

One advantage of the World of Tanks system is that it would also work for MD games.
I don't know how clans vs clans work in World of Tanks but using territories to show the power of a clan is nice. Its already in this game, so it should be relatively easy to implement.

Territories could not only have an assigned coin value, but also an assigned template.
That's also interesting, certain clans with expertise on certain templates would cluster in certain territories, other clans would try to challenge their domain (templates) and we could watch from a map how's those challenges are going...

@Veravari: Slightly offtopic, but your executive summary is a TLDR. You gotta work on that

Slightly offtopic, but your executive summary is a TLDR. You gotta work on that
- If you think there are meaningless sentences, please specify them. It was shorter before but because I didn't went into enough details (for the sake of shortness), it was creating confusion. This summary is the best combination of "short and descriptive" so far

What new player need is a understanding of the game they are playing. I also play sometimes poker, the setup varies between the couple of pokersites I'm playing. Mostly you get a short tutorial and that's it. Of course you can also read the poker rules. You don't get a whole guide about bluffing and all kinds of playing styles that are also important in poker.

At Warzone you're also getting a short tutorial and in the singleplayer explaination when there are new functions. What would be an improvement is a block on the multiplayer tab with links to tutorials, guides, maybe helpful other players and more useful information. If new players need help, they could ask other people to help. That's already what's happening. The new players need to like a board game like Risk to start with and it's good when they like games as chess. There will always be players who only play 1 or a few games. More important is that the other players who keep playing have fun and could find the block with the helpful information if they need that.

Result is that there is no need to change much and that there is not much work for Fizzer.

About the clans: all clans have to be capped or uncapped. The uncapped clans are way too powerfull. Also for participation in clan wars. The group in Prime moved from a capped clan to a uncapped clan, because it was much easier to have more clan wars participants. So the uncapped clans have a massive advantage over the uncapped clans.

@vena
If new players need help, they could ask other people to help
- Almost all of the new players either don't know where to write for help or too hesitant to ask for help, so no, things don't work that way. But don't worry, I had already written a solution for that (showing them how to join a clan to increase their engagement with the community).

The uncapped clans are way too powerfull
- I know, there is already a part in the summary to address this issue and a suggestion to solve it.

Edited 3/30/2023 13:20:26

I think there must be legal issues about capping uncapped clans (the clan creators would be getting something different than what they paid for)

I think there must be legal issues about capping uncapped clans
- No worries, my suggestion is able to bypass this, even if its an issue