In-game Event/Scenario Registration

[CptTrips]

We now have an in-game login announcement message to let players who don't frequent the BBS know about upcoming events and scenarios.  That is awesome.

I think it needs to be taken a step further.  I should be able to register right then and there through that interface in-game.  Strike while the iron is hot. 

It should all be tied directly through their HTC account.  The player shouldn't have to go to a completely different website, and create a completely different login, just to participate.  It is an extra layer of friction in the process that gives players an excuse to catch the next one instead. 

Scenarios and events are a vital part of the Aces High ecosystem and interfacing with them should be integral through the game UI they are already in, instead of having to remember to go somewhere else later and jump though a bunch of external hoops.

(Yes, I do realize how much work has gone into the AHEvent  website.  It is very well done.  I just don't know if it is the most effective approach to gain maximum engagement rates.)

$0.02,
CptTrips

[CptTrips]

That tab is an in-game html browser right? 

[Wiley]

That's a pretty good idea.

Wiley.

[Shuffler]

Very handy.

[perdue3]

Great idea.

[Volron]

That would make it significantly easier, that is for sure.  Hitech doesn't run that 2nd website, that I'm aware of.  It's done solely by the scenario/fso volunteers?    I just know that currently, if I want to register for an event, I have to go to that 2nd website in order to register.

But what if we take it a step further; "Reminder!  You have registered to participate in <the upcoming event>!  Hope to see you there!".

A reminder that you registered would also be nice.  Sometimes RL just blindsides you in a way where you can still participate, but you'd have forgotten.

[Devil 505]

Great idea. 

[waystin2]

Two thumbs up!

[Spikes]

We now have an in-game login announcement message to let players who don't frequent the BBS know about upcoming events and scenarios.  That is awesome.

I think it needs to be taken a step further.  I should be able to register right then and there through that interface in-game.  Strike while the iron is hot. 

It should all be tied directly through their HTC account.  The player shouldn't have to go to a completely different website, and create a completely different login, just to participate.  It is an extra layer of friction in the process that gives players an excuse to catch the next one instead. 

Scenarios and events are a vital part of the Aces High ecosystem and interfacing with them should be integral through the game UI they are already in, instead of having to remember to go somewhere else later and jump though a bunch of external hoops.

(Yes, I do realize how much work has gone into the AHEvent  website.  It is very well done.  I just don't know if it is the most effective approach to gain maximum engagement rates.)

$0.02,
CptTrips

For as long as I can remember HTC has always wanted AHEvents to be a separate 'entity' from HTC. It might not be the most effective approach, but I don't have hope that anything would change, and it would be a whole lot of work to migrate something over to an HTC-hosted website, but if done properly it would be fantastic to have it integrated into the clipboard and the CM team could 'manage' the backend too and still have the web interface available for everyone.

My other worry with plastering the arena message with events is that it will lose its luster if it is constantly up in the arenas (eg. you login and immediately close it, but if it is only up every so often one would be more inclined to read it).

[CptTrips]

For as long as I can remember HTC has always wanted AHEvents to be a separate 'entity' from HTC.

Special Events being run by a separate player based cadre is a good idea.  HTC doesn't have the manpower to micromanage events.  That doesn't mean HTC can't facilitate that by allowing the Special Events Organization the ability to interface with the customers though the client interface.  There would be some linkage coad required, and the old website doesn't need to go away.  How it all works depends on how things have been implemented, but really HTC just needs to inject something encrypted in the querystring telling the SE site the user has validated and their id. Everything else could pretty much work as-is for the most part.  The other change would be to host some SE provided web content in a html view which they already have the capability to do. I'm not saying it's 3 lines of coad, but it is probably not massive.  People who already have an account on that site and prefer that interface can stay with it.

My other worry with plastering the arena message with events is that it will lose its luster if it is constantly up in the arenas (eg. you login and immediately close it, but if it is only up every so often one would be more inclined to read it).

Well, after a pot of coffee this morning  , I sat down and was thinking some more on this.  I'd like to amend my suggestion.  This might be controversial and I'm sure I'll get accused of trying to stab Hitech in the back, trying to tell him how to run his business, and other thought crimes.  But, whatever.

I think the best place for this stuff isn't the popup nag-screen as you enter the arena.  I think that should be for information particular to that arena they have just entered. 

I think the better place for what I am suggesting is upstream of that. 


The absolute most valuable piece of UI real-estate is that first panel of the clipboard the user sees as he first starts up the game.  In my humble opinion, that INCREDIBLY valuable UI real-estate is being heartbreakingly underutilized.   

Hitech has the right to be proud of his work and I understand the nostalgia of recognizing all the fine folks who helped him build his game over the decades.  However, my brutally honest opinion is that first screen, the prime landing spot, the first thing a a player sees when starting the game is NOT being used to improve the players user experience. I think that is not the best utilization of the resource.

I would suggest something like the following (Don't hate on my graphics.  This is not production, just concept prototyping.):




Clicking register would take the player though the obligatory login validation.  Note:  The client UI should cache the login credentials in memory so if I login once in one area (like account administration, or event registration) I don't have to login again when I go to "Online Arenas". 




Maybe after that some encrypted token can be injected into the querystring sent to the registration form proving the user had validated and their gameId.  From there things could flow as usual.







Again, I think the goal would be to facilitate and expose an interface for the existing model through the client UI.  Not to totally replace the current SE server.  Old war-horse can still use the interface they are used to.  Maybe something like this would help reduce the friction and lower the barriers to help get new players involved in the best experience Aces High has to offer.


$0.02.

[steely07]

I think this idea (or something similar) would be very helpful to the Events community, nice one Sir!

As to the other point mentioned (moving the Events "stuff" from a separate site to something under HT's control), this is also an excellent idea, from personal knowledge, the backend of the Events website, where the logs are received and parsed was coad-ed by some very talented players that no longer play the game, this leaves the Events staff in a dire situation if anything goes wrong, as they (while more intelligent and good-looking than the average player) are not coad-ers themselves, and have to deal with a lot of legacy stuff that no-one understands anymore, also, they don't have total control of the server it lives on either, so a good old-fashioned reboot to see if that fixes it isn't possible.

I realise HT has more fun things he's working on, but tighter integration into the Events side of things I think could only be a good thing!

Salute

Steely

[CptTrips]

Special events are run by people who are not part of HTC.  We are all player volunteers doing our thing as an independent, self-managed group.

We have no ability to do anything to the interface to AH.  The most we've been able to do is to create the content for the Arena Message in melee arena.  That was an avenue for us starting about 6-12 months ago.

I understand the Events team is independent of HTC.  I understand you yourselves can't modify the UI.  What I am suggested Hitech would have to add some code to the client to facilitate this.  Let me fill in a little more detail on stuff I may have glossed over:

1.  The client has the ability to display web content.  The help panels are web content.  The pop-out video panel is web content.  Your arena pop-out when you log in is displaying web content.

2.  The web content for the Events page you can see in the scrollable arena of the mockup above, would be web content living on the Events server that the Web viewer in the client is pointing at and displaying.  However the content is created and maintained by the Events team.  HTC would merely be displaying web content you create directly in the client first clipboard panel where players can more easily see it.

3.  When a user clicks the register button (creating a navigation request to the next page) in the web page you created, the client web control, I assume, has the ability to intercept that navigation request and first perform the login validation, then as it goes to load the next registration page, which the SE teams creates maintains and hosts on their server, the HTC client would inject an additional encrypted token in the querystring (the data that gets passed along to the webpage being loaded) and that page has the ability to decrypt the token and verify that the user was validated and is given the in-game player id that is registering.  From there you are off to the races.

4.  HTC has to add the framework to display the SE web content on the front panel, but from there, all the content is created and maintained and hosted by the SE team, it is just displayed by the web viewer in the game client.  HTC just displays your web content and provides the login validation.

I think what I'm suggesting would provide the maximum support for the Special Events with a minimum of effort.

HTC benefits financially from the Special Events.  It is a major part of the value that justifies a user keeping an account.  I'm sure there are many old war-horse that ONLY keep an account so they can play in the Scenarios.  It is completely in HTC's interest to fully support the Special Events as first-class citizens in their ecosystem.   

,
CptTrips


[edit]  I never really stated it explicitly, but in the mockup, everywhere you see a panel with the scrollbars, I'm implying that is a web viewer control displaying external web content.  So in the mockup above, it would be displaying external web pages created and hosted by the SE team.
 



   

[FLS]

Or just add an events/scenario button that opens your default browser to the current or next scenario page.

[CptTrips]

Or just add an events/scenario button that opens your default browser to the current or next scenario page.

As a user, it was annoying for me to have to go through another website creating an account, managing yet another password, waiting for confirmation email and access, to play a scenario for a game I already have a login for.  Every layer of friction you add, is less players choosing to participate.

Adding an unnoticed button to open a browser is not the same as displaying the information about upcoming event directly in their face when they start the game.

[edit]

I think there are two fundamental design goals that any suggestion needs to solve to improve things.

1.  Information about upcoming events should be placed directly under the nose of users, directly though the game-client so that they can not possibly fail to notice in the course of their normal logon/play workflow.  It needs to be explicit and directly visible.  You can't rely on them to remember to go to some external website later and it is very rude to dump them out of the game client they are in to bring up an external browser. 

2.  Once they know about the event, you want to provide as seamless and frictionless and pleasant a user experience as possible to get them registered.  They have already gone through the trouble of setting up a login account for Aces High and they are sitting right there in that client.  Don't make them have to go through that whole process again.   That's rude.  If that is more work, then so be it.  The goal is not to make things easier for the developer.  The goal is to make things more enjoyable for the user. This is entertainment software, not the DMV. 

That said, if you can do it with the minimal effort without sacrificing the user experience, then fine.  But if any price is paid, the balance should be tipped in favor of make things nicer for the user even if that means extra work for developers. 



 

[hitech]

Few notes for your thinking.

First you can already test web pages threw squad MOTD pages. simply make the first line url in the text file you upload.

2nd there are many hooks into AH that are call like javascript , things like send dot command.

3rd don't forget there is also a swing out page available. Also selectable from the web content header.

HiTech