Feedback Requested: Infographic

[Ryan Dancey]

This is something I've been working on over the past few days. I think we have produced an amazing amount of stuff for Pathfinder Online but the people we want to reach as we start Early Enrollment are unlikely to really get a sense for the scope of the project in traditional ways.

I've prepared this infographic. I'd like your feedback.

Too much? To little? Topics that should be highlighted that are missed?

Any and all suggestions welcome!

The Infographic

[Ryan Dancey]

I should note this is a lower resolution than the final will be. I just wanted something I could mess with quickly - the more pixels, the slower I can work on it.

[Shaibes]

My only suggestion would be to exercise caution with this. If I were looking at PFO from the outside and saw this infographic, my assumption would be that everything you've highlighted is complete and functional.

There's a balance between drumming up excitement for the game and managing expectations. I'm not sure where the balance point is, but this feels a little on the "excitement" side.

[KarlBob]

Very quick feedback: The white text on an orange background is almost impossible to read on a cell phone screen at this resolution.

Edit: I can barely read any of the smallest text, regardless of the background color.

[DeciusBrutus]

The size of a hex might be better expressed in time than meters, and hexes should be measured across flats, not length and width.

[Ryan Dancey]

Shaibes - everything in that infographic will be working when Early Enrollment begins. Everything on that infographic is working right now except for the limits on training for Reputation in Settlements.

[DeciusBrutus]

Include a part of planned future values:"expected to increase to xxx by 2016".
After telling us how absolutely big it is, tell us how small it is relative to planned development.

[Nihimon]

Much of the text is too small for me to read.

[KarlBob]

The Skills listing is a little confusing, because 8+8+4 =/= 43. It looks like adding another bullet to the nested portion of the list would unbalance the right and left columns, but it would really help if the numbers added up.

In the monster paragraph, I'd suggest adding a comma between 'wilderness' and 'providing'.

In the second PVP paragraph, I'd suggest adding a comma between
'PVP experiences' and 'the game'.

How about 'Characters gain 100XP per hour in real time'?

[Urman]

I'm sure you'll be checking all numbers before going to print, so this is probably redundant to that. But under skills: 10 Crafting, 7 Processing

[Deianira]

Small text is difficult for me to read, and I'm on an iPad not a cellphone.

Also, the white text on the green and orange backgrounds is terrible for me. I realize it's my eyesight (aging is hell... and oh joy, I get to have cataract surgery next spring!), but black text on those backgrounds would offer better contrast for the vision-impaired.

[TEO Alexander Damocles]

Even for the young, that text is really hard to read. The colors might be visually appealing, but you sure can't read the information on it at all.

[KarlBob]

Other than the readability issues, I like it.

[T7V Jazzlvraz]

Under Feats you list "17 Armor", and then, under Gear, "55 Suits of Armor". It's not clear to a stranger what they're learning from the Feat-listing.

[Caldeathe Baequiannia]

Suggest replacing "or purchased at the auction house" with "Or purchased from other players at the auction house"

[Doc || Allegiant Gemstone Co.]

In my opinion, an infographic isn't appropriate for this kind of thing. It's more appropriate for promoting fitness and health gimics.

The vast majority of people who may or may not play this game, IMHO, are going to look for screencasts and videos. People want to see what the game looks like, and what you can do in it.

Posting quantities of things made only tells me that the design staff made a bunch of things, but not really what you can do with those things.

[KarlBob]

MMO gamers who haven't played tabletop Pathfinder may wonder what separates a proficiency from a skill.

The centered text under the scales looks really strange, because the rest of the text in that row is left justified.

[Caldeathe Baequiannia]

Doc || Allegiant Gemstone Co. wrote:

In my opinion, an infographic isn't appropriate for this kind of thing. It's more appropriate for promoting fitness and health gimics.

For me, it depends where it's planned for use. I would be fine seeing this in a printed magazine, but it's not interactive enough for something I encounter online.

[Fafryd]

I think people need to know more about why to play the game. The numbers are interesting, but what is PFO and why do I play this rather than something else? You may like PF the game and then expect PFO to be more like the game online, which it is not.

Create a company, create and join a settlement, battle for territorial control etc. Whatever people are meant to do.

The game is not that much about exploring or adventure right now. As someone said above, you need to tell people why to play now but also allude to what you are working towards in the medium/long term.

[KarlBob]

Fafryd wrote:

I think people need to know more about why to play the game. The numbers are interesting, but what is PFO and why do I play this rather than something else? You may like PF the game and then expect PFO to be more like the game online, which it is not.

Create a company, create and join a settlement, battle for territorial control etc. Whatever people are meant to do.

The game is not that much about exploring or adventure right now. As someone said above, you need to tell people why to play now but also allude to what you are working towards in the medium/long term.

There could be a trio: An infographic showing what's in the game at EE, a pitch explaining what PFO players can accomplish during EE, and a description of what's to come in OE and beyond.

[Ryan Dancey]

Yes, there will be lots of different kinds of marketing pieces. This is just one piece.

[Atheory]

Here is my 2-cents worth of non-refundable thoughts

1) Do away with the orange color, maybe yellow with black text.

2) I think its time to cut the cord with the table-top references, while its sweet to pay homage to that sector, you're not building a TT game. If any reference should be made, it should be made to the world of golarion.

3) In the green section, get rid of the "9 Levels" that really says nothing, especially to those not accustomed to TT. The average player will only care about the number of spells anyway. The 9 levels they will discover while in game what that actually means.

4) regarding the roles, an emphasis could be placed on the ability to customize your character by being able to train into any role at any time. XP permitting of course.

5) I don't understand the reason for the red block of text. You should be promoting PVP as a positive thing. War of the towers? Besiege settlements?

6) describing the parameters of the map (hexes and what not) should be done away. Instead focusing on describing the massive landscape without instancing. Or however would be best to describe it that way. Or just put it bluntly, "the map is huge, traverse it if you dare"

[Nightdrifter]

I thought hexes were 680m from side to side and 780m from corner to corner. This seems like something that wouldn't be likely to change.

I also recall being ~1.68 km south of Thornkeep once and then running one hex north and being ~1 km south of Thornkeep which is consistent with 680m, not 400m.

[Caldeathe Baequiannia]

Nightdrifter wrote:

I thought hexes were 680m from side to side and 780m from corner to corner. This seems like something that wouldn't be likely to change.

This is correct. 400 metres is the length of one side of a hex. The closest thing to "across" would be the diameter of a circle that contains the same area, which would be about 725 metres.

[Schedim]

Wargamer standard (if there are such ting) is just giving the distance across from side to side. From that it is also simple to calculate all the other interesting parameters, such as Area etc.

And I belive it was one of the first suggestions above...

[KarlBob]

The playing area could be stated as "An 876km by 765km map, divided into 234 hexes." That way the total can remain in the familiar 'X by Y' format, without having to apply an 'X by Y' description to a hexagonal shape.

[feldrol]

White font on orange background is difficult to read.
I had to download and zoom in to be able to read this area.

The sentence "The roles recognise ... choices" is quite complex and i am not sure it conveys the fact you can build your character by cherry picking feats from every trainer.

Beside from that I like it.

[AvenaOats]

Doc || Allegiant Gemstone Co. wrote:

In my opinion, an infographic isn't appropriate for this kind of thing. It's more appropriate for promoting fitness and health gimics.

The vast majority of people who may or may not play this game, IMHO, are going to look for screencasts and videos. People want to see what the game looks like, and what you can do in it.

Posting quantities of things made only tells me that the design staff made a bunch of things, but not really what you can do with those things.

It's additional to not exclusive to. And of course it purports to show that the devs care that the players care how hard they've been working. I think that's the gist of this ie communication and that is worthwhile.

Of course I'd expect GW to do the things you suggest (screencasts/vids/inside the devs world) etc etc.

I'd hope there would be a lot of lore dished out to begin with to get players "in the mood" also. Ie more on the river kingdoms and how the world of Golarion is supposed to work.

=

To suggest:-

Ideally there'd be some tech info on the game too in the infograph. gives it more than "fluffy numbers" imo ie balances it.

Also the hex map size ideally would include a total size of map comparison with RL that people can relate to?