Zatikon Notes 2010

[mongolian]

Haven't been playing much Zat lately, but here is some feedback that I think could help.  Apoligies ahead of time too as I'm sure most of these idea may have been thought of but it's always good to hear a reminder. There has been growing trends in the game industry with an expanded population of younger players and also more and more women mid-age.  The biggest trend is really is obvious, players have ADD.  Shiny gem games to more social based interactive games may becoming more popular, and that should be a hint that Zatikon should reconsider simplifying it's model. I think the entire game should be simplified but that's an entire project of itself. Alas, with a small player pool, the game needs to harvest more cooperative computer fun and less competitiveness/chess'ness.  Adding an additional game mode and/or changing coop mode to survival/boss mode would be a great start.  A simple step might be making a lite* version where there are only the basic units of the game in the same formats of constructed-random-coop-etc.  So, in both deck builder and picking a game mode you would have to 2 options of lite or pro mode.  Deckbuilder would toggle the two modes. 

Reiterating: get someone who has never played the game and sit them down to watch their responses. Without any explanation or helping them, you will watch how frustrating and confusing things probably are.  Yes, I understand the game is complex, but there are things like trainer, youtube videos and Zatikon lite* that might entice them more.  Maybe if the website and shell of the game looked a bit more medieval with detailed looking.  Just like chess, I'd rather be playing something that looks simple, but people are drawn or repulsed by the graphics.  The units are perfect, but maybe the game board, shell and website could just use a face lift.