Why Haven & Hearth isn't popular?

[Teleskop]

the game is crappily advertised,typing SURVIVAL SANDBOX MMO doesnt lead anyhow to the game page,if some big youtuber would make a video about the game then it would receive a big boom

[Ysh]

When you do build it, they will come to it. Haven is not built sufficient yet.

[Zeler]

It is still in alpha (although 7 years already).
Meaning, some core mechanics are not yet finalized.
We see progress on that which is good.
No marketing and PR
This is understandable due to beforementioned.
At some point game should be finalized and core updates should come once per 6 month and without wipe.
There is progress on that too.
Steep learning curve
It is ok, when you can learn inside of game (Messages, popups, journals). It is not ok, when you have to go to wikis and forums to understand basic things. A bit arguable because some people receive lots of pleasure from discovering new things in game. Personally I would go for big red message "READ ALL INGAME TEXTS" and then put all detailed descriptions in those ingame texts.
Also changed to better.
Unobvious controls
Reading forums on how to viewtopic.php?f=42&t=42999#p533705 is a big NO-NO in gamedev. All that MUST be inside of game.
Obstacles avoiding. It is pain. Everything smaller than a wagon should be walked around automatically. No excuses.
Lots of 'monkey work'
All mechanics which are dull, repetitive and long should be possibly avoided by ingame means. I mean - farm, silk, walls, flour, animal feeding, milking, shearing, smelter refueling are really fun, nice and ok. First 10 times. Maybe first 20 times. After that you puke of them. Give player a goal. An ultra-expensive long-lasting goal:"You build this super building from steel, gold and troll skull and now no more manual farming". and the player knows that chores can be ended, he just has to play a bit more.
Lack of endgame content
This is questionable to me (go and raid someone if you have nothing else to do), but pleople complain that a lot.
Daily quests may help.
Ingame events like architecture contest, fishing contest with hats awards.
Colosseum/Hero/Olypmics system stolen from L2 or any other ladder-based competition.
'Raid bosses'/'epic quests'
Achievements (yeah, buzzword, but that gives people a goal
Niche game with scary teaser.
By teaser I mean 4-6 words to describe the game. For Hafen it is "Perma-death, full-loot, crafting, sandbox MMORPG".
While the features themselves I consider perfect (not playing any other MMOS because they are boring cartoons), explanation of them to new user could be done in a less scary way.
After seeing the home page, download page, character creation sequence a new player must have the following thoughuts:
"I can be safe. Even my items can. But I have to be smart and provident to minimize my losses."
"I can pass up to 60% of my progress to my next chars if I die. And death is really rare if played carefully. But yes, my character dies permanently."
"This game is a challenge, a survival challenge, so I have to be careful about everything - caves, water, monsters and _especially_ other people"

Great post. Devs should pay a lot of attention to it.

[Potjeh]

IMO the main obstacle to casuals is that monkeywork, and the bulk of the population of a healthy MMO should be casuals.

[shubla]

I dont think its good idea to advert hnh.
Its not suitable for majority of gamers.

[Kaios]

It always bothered me that haven and hearth isn't as popular as its counter-part clone Salem

same, fuck salem

[LadyV]

Well it requires long term investment at minimal and in the short run the more you can invest the better you will do. Add this to multiple characters if you truly want to prosper. Most gamers want a game they can burn through and be done with by the time the next one comes out. Toss in the attitude of a few haven gamers akin to reaching for a dogs food while its eating and you get the idea.

We have plenty of nice people here and most enjoy long term development but simply put its not everyone's cup of tea. If Haven were made for mass market what we enjoy about it would be gone.

[Ozzy123]

the game is crappily advertised,typing SURVIVAL SANDBOX MMO doesnt lead anyhow to the game page,if some big youtuber would make a video about the game then it would receive a big boom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fIyvNvpXU

I think that video brought hmm like 0 players

[Kaios]

it's kind of funny actually people still occasionally see Pro Jared's video and come check out the game, Pro Jared did more advertising for this game in his brief time playing than jorb & loftar have ever done they might as well give the guy a cut of the profits

reminds me of another post I made not long ago

[Teleskop]

the game is crappily advertised,typing SURVIVAL SANDBOX MMO doesnt lead anyhow to the game page,if some big youtuber would make a video about the game then it would receive a big boom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fIyvNvpXU

I think that video brought hmm like 0 players

you like being spanked

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