Let's talk about the in-game welcome screen!

Hello all,

I noticed recently that the in-game welcome screen hasn't been updated in some time, and I'll be working to get access to be able to update this myself. What I'd like to know is what you all want to see there.

How often would you like to see it be updated?

Do you read this in-game?

What type of content would be most useful to you on this welcome screen?

Any other conversations about the in-game welcome screen in this thread are welcome and encouraged!

Would like to see a means of disabling it myself.
It has caused at least one death in the last month due to it hogging the system cycles that would have allowed for action to be taken.
Most of the time ( read always) its just a needless wait for it to load so it can be closed.
Unless it's going to be updated every few days or once a week at worst, it's fairly pointless, no ?
Useful information it could display would be, whats new this week, where the latest content is accessible from, how to annoy pallies in 3 easy steps, and zones other than the lobby where players could afk at ..

The welcome screen would be pretty handy and I would read it IF:
1. It has Marketplace specials/deals as the main thing you see.
2. It had updates on the game and when new content was planning on being released.
3. It has Loyalty points and Station cash count on the screen somewhere.

I never read it at all, never have, it seems to me just something I have to close and not care to see ever before I go play. I get all my info from the website and do not care one bit about the welcome screen. I would love to have a activate button option.
[X] Do not show welcome screen again

Also might be nice to have it be able to open it from the EQ button menu. just case some one wanted to see it.

Currently I just close it off as quickly as I can upon login.

To make it relevant I would suggest:

Current or upcoming events (concise, not a big banner)
Expected downtime due to patches
Station store specials or new stuff to look for (concise, not a big banner)

Basically relevant information in a clean and concise layout.

Right now it looks like a 1990's era browser popup window. I keep wondering if my computer is broadcasting my ip address.

Oh boy. You have opened a can of worms.

First off, unfortunately, I think the vast majority of players ignore the Welcome screen and just close it as fast as they can.

They have quite a bit of justification for doing so. The Welcome screen is too busy and too focused on selling Marketplace items rather than being a useful source of information.

So, the first thing is to make it useful and clear. Then, "if you build it, they will come", at least you can hope that once it is better, more people will actually read it.

How often would you like to see it be updated?

Well, since SOE said they want to push out new content every week, I would say a few times a week. With first announcing what is coming, and then providing some info on it. Along with any other important info.

Do you read this in-game?

Pretty much, no. Like I said, it currently is mostly about the new Marketplace items for sale. I very rarely buy anything from the Marketplace. Then we have "Community" which is another word for "Games other than EverQuest". Then there is "Legends of Norrath" which, again, is "Games other than EverQuest".

What type of content would be most useful to you on this welcome screen?

Well, what do people want to know? You know the chart I keep linking people?

• 15th Anniversary Schedule: http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Anniversary#15th_Anniversary_.282014.29

That's what people want to know, in my opinion.

Along with other stuff, like the Celebrate EverQuest turning 15 with contests at EQResource.com , I assume that SOE provided the prizes, so you guys are supporting it. So you could stick that on the Welcome screen.

Threads on the forums here tend to tell you what people want to know. Other ways I learn what people want to know is through my guildmates, but you don't have that option unless you guild and play EQ.

Or can you make it default smaller in size? On small screen laptops like 11inch and smaller screens.... the pop up is huge and takes up the entire screen and sometimes gets stuck and its hard to move the window to be able to close it. This really should be fixed... or a way to disable it...

How often do you want to see this updated?
Very regularly (weekly or monthly +)

Do you read this in game?
The screen is so big that I typically glance it for a quick second and then close it. Unfortunately if you minimize it and reopen, everything goes BLANK so you only get one shot to view it.

What type of content would you like to see updated on this?
In addition to most of what's there, would love to see it updated possibly with a quick list of key things going on in game

• e.g. right now it could be DSH Mechaguardian events + Big Gnomes + Chapterhouse 14th annniversary + 1-13th anniversary events could be listed somehow as a quick bullet list).
• When hardcore heritage comes out it should list start and end dates (including time and time zone).
• When we have bonus exp, it should always list those start/end dates.
• Should also even list the next patch date IMO.
• It should list the current hotzones for each level
• Would love to have it hooked up with our station cash amount (since it takes a while to open the marketplace window).

How often would you like to see it be updated?
twice weekly would be nice, bi-weekly would be acceptable
Do you read this in-game?
Not realy, on ocasion ill glance at it but for updated information but as you stated, it doesnt update so ill glance if anything seems changed or not.
What type of content would be most useful to you on this welcome screen?
I would make it a general communication about whats going on, whats planned and what is some cool stuff happening. IE right now i would something like a notice of sorts

ITS THE 15TH EQ ANNIVERSY !!! HUZZAAA!!!!1!!!

Help WANTED:
Gribler crank shaft (or what ever the big gnomes task guy is) Needs YOUR help! GIANT ORGE SKELYS ARE ATTACK AKANON!! AKKK!
Pezero has been working to hard and is trying to take a day off and is seeking you to help do his job your help to gain such a day! Seek him out in (zone)

Rummors are rampent!
Rummors are told of strange happenings with in the planes of the gods! whats happening your dedicated reporter (some rogue name) is investigating more Look for things to come. . . if he makes it back!

When I log in, I want to immediately close it, get it out of the way, and do my thing.

Most of the times I have glanced at it, things didn't load properly or in a timely manner anyway, and the information is redundant, so I knew where to look later for more detail.

If I were you, I would use it to try to help encourage more players to participate on the forums. It could list the most active threads on the forums or something.

I think we all like statistics, so that would be a cool feature, actually. You could have an opportunity for some comedy there. How many rangers died today? (All of them) Show percentages for classes at various level ranges, most popular races, show a percentage breakdown for the most popular Heroic Adventures, all kinds of things we might all find interesting (while sneaky advertisements and Marketplace sales seep into our brains) lol =)

What I would idealy like

... calander with several functions
...... content release and events from soe
....... guild calander function catagory
...... fellowship catagory
..... server event catagory .. gm events

Link to update notes

Photo of new player studio items

Global leader boards

Links to discussions.. like new aa thread... stuff like that

Cool global ingame event articals

Could squeeze this down a little to either the top 3 hotzones, or the one most relevant to your level and the one above and below it.

another vote for "make it so i don't have to ever see it again".

i get the purpose of the welcome screen in a general sense, i just think that it's redundant and that the information you could provide in the welcome screen would be better served being links or highlighted boxes of information on the Patcher window.
as someone who reads the forums and keeps up with gaming news related to SOE, there's never been a darn thing in that welcome window i didn't already know.
now obviously not everyone is that way, so again i do get the point of having an information window available, but i've never seen it as anything besides a hinderance to my actually playing EQ.

It could be put where clicking it moves you to another tab with them all so it doesn't take up a ton of room, which i assume is your point.

People have dug deep enough to find a way to make it not pop up, in the past. I can't find the most recent thread on it now, but I think there is a very large contingent of people for which it doesn't matter what content or how awesome the welcome screen may be, they would love to never see it again.

On my 13 inch laptop without the latest and greatest specs, it is a hassle for me. I find the links to the posts in News and Announcements in the patcher to be more than adequate.

I have a large monitor and it still takes up most of my space.

I do see that it has value and as I said I do glance at it quickly every time I log in. However, as others have said it tends to be more oriented to what SoE wants from us in some aspects and less what we want. If the welcome screen can get to a happy medium, a better blend of the two, it will definitely be useful.

I'd almost see this as a poll (on these forums or in game) as to the various items included now and whether we want them to continue. Would also love the option to customize it ourselves.

I want it to NOT be forced on me. I wouldnt mind a small window, low impact text only, that alerts me the window has updates and let me decide myself when/if to open it.

I rarely ever look at it, I close it as soon as I'm able to - usually before it even finishes loading.

I'd love a way to disable it. The only way I personally would find this useful is if it had an address bar and could be used as an in game browser.

1. Never.
2. No.
3. Nothing.

There is nothing that a slowly loading in game pop-up window is the best source of information.

Link on Launchpad, Patch Notes screen even if it's not technically a Patch Note, EQ motd, server motd and these Forums. From there eqresource, guild websites, guild chat, ;general and such will spread information far more effectively than a Welcome Screen ever could.

I suspect that this is something that is marketing driven (thus the first page of this showing Marketplace items), and as such it's probably intentional that it's functioning the way that it does.

I'll definitely chat with the team to see if this is an option, but I don't believe this is something that will be easy to change.

I could probably fit something like this on the "Latest News" or "Community" tab. Let me play around with it, since I'm not sure how much space I have to fit a calender of events here.

Even if a calender of events CAN'T fit here, I agree it would be something useful to players to have in-game (or on the website or forums, if in-game isn't an option).