Interview with danny696, a passionate game player who is also quite active on our forums. Interviewing game players is always interesting as it could help game owners see what they miss, or what should be improved. I let you now with Danny:
My name is Danny and I’m 14 and I live in
Q: Let’s start with what games you are currently playing:
A: Currently I play a range of different games, all with different themes. The game I play the most would be Envy: The Game, This games’ theme is set just after a nuke, when you come out of a building and you can become a human or a zombie. It’s very good and keeps you busy. I also play Tribal Wars, This is set in a tribal age where you build your village and take over other villages, This is a good game but it doesn’t keep you on there for hours as its just clicking things, the other two main games I play is Mafia Death and Deadly Country they both have their own key features like on mafia death a game called The Banker and on Deadly Country, is the first ever game with MTG_CODES on.
Q: Do you play only online games? Specifically web games? If not can you give us an hint of which traditional (PC / Console) games do you play?
A: I’ll play a game on anything, the web, Xbox 360, PS3 even a consol I haven’t been on before, I do enjoy web games the most tho, not sure why I just think that because there are so many web games out there it’s so hard to make a unique one, most of the game I do play on the web are unique and that’s why I play them. I don’t want to play a copy of lets say Torn because torn is unique and a copy is only half as good. So if you are thinking of making a game, make a unique one 
.
Q: What kind of games attract you more and why? (Strategy, RPG, FPS, casual)
A: The game that attracts me the most would be a Strategy game as I like to fell I have archived something or I’m archiving something like when a new mods is added on a game it’s like another level on a consol game and I will give it a go and try and be the best. I mainly play strategy games because it’s hard to compete on a game you don’t want billions of stats, money and crystals in a day of playing you want to accomplish something when you get somewhere.
Q: On the web games, what makes you play a game or not? The look of the home page? The content? The story? What?
A: Well for web games I tend to look at the login and think ‘Do I want to play this game?’ if the answer is yes I will play it but if I think the login and register are not that good I will usually not play the game. If I do register I will see what the game has in features and what the story is like. If I like it ill play it and try my best to become the best.
Q: Where do you find the games you will try? Advertisement, search engine, friends referral, top lists others?
A: I normally look for games that are either told to me and I will refer someone if I find someone in the game or I will go on review sites and forums and look for games that want to be reviewed and review them. If I look at the top 100 lists I normally look for games that appeal to me and that has a good description and banner. Normally if I play a game that’s advertising I won’t play that advertised game, as if the games good enough you shouldn’t have to advertise that much, your players should refer friends and you gain players that way.
Q: How many hours per week in average you play, and, what limits this amount? (Like you would like to play more but?)
A: I would say on average I play about 3 hours on weekdays and about 6 hours a day on a weekend. So I would say I’m a little more than the average player. The reason I don’t play for longer is the fact I have to share the computer but if I had my own computer I would definitively play online games a lot more.
Q: What kind of feature you like more inside a web game, and what will more likely keep you hooked to it? Like chat, community, strong competition, area to discover or more.
A: The thing that keeps my playing a game is probably the ease of use. This may sound silly but if you played on a console game and couldn’t complete the tutorial then what would level 1 be like? So if the template is good and everything is clear and easy to play/use then I think you are a quarter of a way to a good(ish) game. One of the other things a game needs to have is a strong community. What’s a football match without a football? If the players constantly argue then newbies wont find it a nice place to be and will leave. I don’t think games need a chat but it is always nice to communicate with the community faster and in larger numbers than mail. All games competition weather this is set up by the admin or the players, players always like competition, like I have said in previous questions I want to be the best in all games I play, that’s not always possible so if I win a comp I have been the best at something.
Q: Besides gaming you certainly have other activities / hobbies, mind sharing with us what you like to do?
A: The main thing I do out side of the cyber world is play football/soccer. I’m not particularly good at it but its something anyone can do and get better at, I’m watching it as I’m typing this
Q: Do you have some advice to the current game owners of what could be improved to make the games more enjoyable?
A: Yes. Why yes I do, my advice for current game owners would be to make your game as unique as possible, or in a lot of cases as un-McCodes as possible. E.g. if you see a mod on one game don’t think Yes! I’m having that in my game there are plenty of people on forums that have brilliant ideas. Why not use some of them for your game, get unique mods and get a unique game.
Q: Never had a game yourself? Don’t you want to try to make the perfect game for you? And if yes why you stopped or don’t start?
A: I’ve never owned a game and haven’t tried to make one the further I got to making a game was thinking about it. I was thinking about a name and couldn’t come up with one and thought ‘If I can’t think of a name how am I going to think of modifications?’ and then just stopped. If I ever thought about owning/coding a game I would probably try not to make it like any other game I play. E.g. envy the game is a zombie game so that’s one theme I wouldn’t choose just because I couldn’t make it better.
Q: How many years ago did you start to play web games, what was it (if you remember) and what made you start?
A: I started to play games around 5 years ago. My parents always tell me I could play the pre-installed games on windows when I was four but I never remember, the first ever web game I played was Tribal wars after I saw my brother playing it. Then my dad told me about envy around 2-3 years after and then I just wanted to make a game, I googled ‘How to make a game’ a lot of results pointed at McCodes, and CE then this led me to play other games.
Thanks Danny for sharing your time, your thinking and I hope it will be enlightening to other as it has been for me. As I said, we forget some times to simply ask our players what they are looking for, and this was helpful to me as a game owner.
1 User Responded In This Post
Yay! I got mentioned! ^.^
Good job Danny, I know a little more about you now! *stalks*
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