Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

abruptor
Posts: 36
Joined: 18 Sep 2015 22:34
Country: Sweden

Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by abruptor »

I've been doing some field studies in Korea the last couple of days and I got a pretty good idea why turf hasn't become anything here.
1. The maps are crap, no roads are marked out and the images are really crappy. This in combination with that Seoul is built up narrow alleys with a lot of dead ends makes back-tracking the default thing.
2. Dead zones, of the 13 zones I went to 3 were unreachable. Behind fences, in a building or on the railroad track.
3. Too long distance between zones. I walked the densest area of Seoul, which still is so sparse that it becomes frustratingly boring. Combine that with the two above and you have a recipe for frustration.

I know that these aren't the main reasons that there are no players here, but they're a symptom of it. I don't think you can launch turf in any region without a couple of entusiasts that have local knowledge and can build interesting turf courses. This is why it's critical that the turf crew connect with players in other regions and help them build an interesting game over there (read Finland for example).
hazzard
Posts: 372
Joined: 13 Mar 2015 10:45
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by hazzard »

the app translated to their langugage is also one of the main reasons i think. And yeah compare the cities there to sweden is crazy look how big and dense seoul is not even stockholm comes close to that.. But i dont know really why i cant really say that our closes neighbour Denmark has that many players usually when i see someone its a swedish turfer there gathering extra points, even Norway and Finland doesnt seem to have that many players.

And i said this before most people worldwide even asia play ingress now there are so many events worldwide called "anomalies" closest to this is in turf bonanzas where people gather together and do stuff ingame, where in turf there is 1 zone and 200m to next one, ingress can have 5-10 or even more on dense areas so there is less walking but more to do and turf is solo play 100% there is no benefits playing as couples or more people as nobody wants to stare on a screen with a block timer until u can take the zone, sorry thats really the downsides to this game also.

They had the chance launch there when they first made zones there a few years ago but years went by and very few players seemed to even play there, i dont know if the app is even available in the asian google play market today ?
abruptor
Posts: 36
Joined: 18 Sep 2015 22:34
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by abruptor »

That Ingress is being played is not an argument against Turf in a territory, rather against it. Having tried Ingress I feel like it's two very different games, and there's room for both. I don't think Turf will ever become a game played by millions and millions, but then again the current mechanics would not work then either. If you have more than 100 very active players in a city you would run out of zones quite rapidly.

In my honest opinion localization is not the most important aspect either, having made games for many years I know it helps sales but it's not totally necessary to get a small player base in a region.

To launch a game in a new region I think the following steps are the best:
1. Find a local player that is keen on starting it up.
2. Start placing zones. Rather than full coverage that a central area and placing 100-200 zones densely within that area. Work with the local player to ensure good locations and routes.
3. As soon as a few player joins, capture those players' input and start placing zones around where they live. So that they can talk to neighbours about it.
4. Repeart 3.

When I started playing turf the reason I got hooked was that there was a turf about 100 m from where I live, and then another one 200 m further away and so forth. If the second turf would have been 1 km or more away I don't think I would be playing today.
hazzard
Posts: 372
Joined: 13 Mar 2015 10:45
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by hazzard »

abruptor wrote:That Ingress is being played is not an argument against Turf in a territory, rather against it. Having tried Ingress I feel like it's two very different games, and there's room for both. I don't think Turf will ever become a game played by millions and millions, but then again the current mechanics would not work then either. If you have more than 100 very active players in a city you would run out of zones quite rapidly.

In my honest opinion localization is not the most important aspect either, having made games for many years I know it helps sales but it's not totally necessary to get a small player base in a region.

To launch a game in a new region I think the following steps are the best:
1. Find a local player that is keen on starting it up.
2. Start placing zones. Rather than full coverage that a central area and placing 100-200 zones densely within that area. Work with the local player to ensure good locations and routes.
3. As soon as a few player joins, capture those players' input and start placing zones around where they live. So that they can talk to neighbours about it.
4. Repeart 3.

When I started playing turf the reason I got hooked was that there was a turf about 100 m from where I live, and then another one 200 m further away and so forth. If the second turf would have been 1 km or more away I don't think I would be playing today.
Actually you are wrong, asian people are very friendly and ingress you can as i said play solo or with entire teams together and organize and do fun things without silly block timers, and the huge portal density compard to turf 1 zone every 200m is the problem turf never evolved much or will its just aint gonna happen nobody will bother with turf in asia im not trying to be mean but its also the devs fault they had the chance when they launched zones many years ago where ingress didnt exist back then but not much happend so why not focus on other countries instead ?

Problem with turf you can only play it solo nothing else, the more you lvlup the more block time you have, do you actually think anyone find the block timers fun ? so even if a family would play and lvl up their accounts it wouldnt be fun to have long wait block timers this is a feature many in sweden would like to able to play together and share the zones point or something but i havent read much about this if it ever gonna be possible.. I would be suprised if one could get even 100 people active there i really doubt it..

I think we are beating a dead horse here with the current point system it would take many people to bump up zones, a few people wont change much im afraid but if u have some good ideas i would suggest mailing them to the devs rather then write here.. not much response from them anyway.
hazzard
Posts: 372
Joined: 13 Mar 2015 10:45
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by hazzard »

Image

this is how big the game is.. why should anyone play this game i might ask ? dont see why..
abruptor
Posts: 36
Joined: 18 Sep 2015 22:34
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by abruptor »

hazzard, do you see as your mission to work against any thoughts on how to spread turf?
abruptor
Posts: 36
Joined: 18 Sep 2015 22:34
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by abruptor »

Actually you are wrong, asian people are very friendly
I can't see where I claimed the opposite. I have been to Korea, Japan and China over 20 times the last three years and have the greatest admiration to the people over there.
hazzard
Posts: 372
Joined: 13 Mar 2015 10:45
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by hazzard »

No im just saying that its very hard to expand in asia... , some things are maybe just not meant to happen ? we cant even get that many people in scandinavia to play. I have no problem if suddenly whole Asia started play it would be fun too see on the map for a change but i think devs should focus on the US and Europe instead, easier due to the languge and all that.. but what is stopping you from try expand there? give it a shot if u have something that can get them start play then do it.
hazzard
Posts: 372
Joined: 13 Mar 2015 10:45
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by hazzard »

abruptor wrote:
Actually you are wrong, asian people are very friendly
I can't see where I claimed the opposite. I have been to Korea, Japan and China over 20 times the last three years and have the greatest admiration to the people over there.
sorry i wrote wrong, i meant social where in this game it can be a big benefit if you are social and ask for help you can get it in many ways, in turf there are no benefits saying hello to anyone or ask for help because nobody can help u getting more points really in a good way or change the way how u play.
abruptor
Posts: 36
Joined: 18 Sep 2015 22:34
Country: Sweden

Re: Why didn't turf take off in Korea?

Post by abruptor »

Ok, sorry for lashing out. I just got a little offended there :)

In regards to the social aspect of turf, I couldn't agree more. However, as I mentioned earlier I don't think turf in it's current shape and form can sustain the same number of players that ingress has.
If we take Tokyo, for example, there is 32M people living there. Let's say that turf get's to the same level of participation as it is in Sweden right now. It would mean that roughly 2000 players would be quite active there. Given the density of the city the turfs would pretty much be blocked all the time.

The challenge of spreading turf is not to get everyone to play, it's to get a little core group actively playing.

A friend of mine is already actively working on trying to get it started in Tokyo. I'm pretty confident that there will be a crew of players over there by the end of the year. As long as he gets sufficient support with zone creation.

Korea is a lost cause though, due to the reasons above (IMHO).
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