(This is a discussion about hints, not about games, but I wanted to put it adjacent to the HL threads…)
When I launched HL, I decided not to include hints (lotta development work!) nor to build a hint section on the game’s web site. Instead I figured I’d start a thread here and point everybody at it. (The “Help” link on hadeanlands.com/ redirects to the hint thread.)
I figured it was more fun to discuss the game with people than to bang on a web page for hints. In fact this came up during a discussion at a conference this weekend. Dave Gilbert (Wadjet Eye Games) said “If a player leaves my game to get help, I’ve failed.” I replied, “If a player goes to a walkthrough for help, that’s disengaging; but if they go talk to other players, that’s engaging, because they’re talking to other people excited about the game.”
On the other hand, I’ve gotten a couple of comments that the hint thread is now really large, hard to search, and intimidating to newcomers. Everybody is being very careful about spoilers, even in the questions, and so the thing winds up as 35 pages of “I need to SPOILER. I have SPOILER.” “Oh, it looks like you haven’t SPOILER.”
When I set this up, I was thinking of the Counterfeit Monkey thread, which has bubbled on for the past couple of years with apparent success. It’s got some of the searchability problem, but people weren’t as rigorous about questions. You get questions like “I’m trying to pass Roget’s Close” or “I’m also at the university, and I’m trying to get Waterstone’s attention” in cleartext. So it’s a little less opaque.
What do we think about these threads? What do I do about HL hints, going forwards?
The cheap solution is to start a second HL hint thread. This is not entirely ridiculous. HL has been out for just three weeks (!) and the initial discussion burst has quieted down. (Half the posts in the hint thread appeared in the first five days.) If I start a second thread, it will last a good long time before it reaches the magnitude of the first.
Would it makes sense to ask people to leave their questions partially visible? We could agree to regard room names, out-in-the-open ingredients, and rituals named on sheets as not that spoilery. (I’ve already taken a step in this direction by making the map and room names visible up front.)
I could spend time building a web-based hint system, or somebody else could do it. Wikis are always popular. (At least up until they are abandoned spam-traps.) But this gets back to the engagement problem. I want to direct players into the community, and hey, we have a community going on here.