Warframe | Why Do New Players REALLY Quit?

[FreedomInTruth]

Hey DE Devs, this one's for you...
https://youtu.be/sNn5Cqh8OVY

Hope it helps.

[Illusive Soul]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOaeDHeJ80I

[it's a gabe]

Since we're here, I might as well share why I quit years ago and why I finally came back.

It's money. That's it. I couldn't afford platinum on a minimum wage when I lived in Brazil, nor could I justify the time spent on farming and selling goods to other players. The latter was extremely time-consuming and tedious. I'd spend more time farming stuff for platinum then I would for my own progression, and it took ages to accumulate so much as 50pt.

This game is grindy on a whole other level if you're playing entirely or mostly free and it's a massive slog, and that's coming from someone who likes grinding. No wonder they sell convenience for platinum.

And then I moved to the UK, got a Steam Deck, and thought I'd give Warframe another go to see how it played on the device. I even said out loud, which my husband caught, "I'm not gonna get back into Warframe, no way," but here I am...

I can now afford platinum, so I spend all the time farming stuff to progress my own build, which is fun. I don't much mind the ridiculous crafting times as I don't usually play games over the week thanks to the two-hour commute to and from work, so I can fire it up for 30min tops to farm a few mats and craft what I need and spend more time on the weekend.

All in all, I would not say that this game, despite being free, is that enjoyable if you can't or don't want to spend money on it. You will need platinum to unlock warframe and weapon slots and if farming reactors and forma becomes tedious, that's another barrier to enjoy the game as you won't be able to upgrade your frames and weapons.

[The Commendatore]

The only reason I'm still sticking it out is because I still need roughly 600 more mutagen samples for the Hema research.

Oh, who am I kidding. I only care about Fashion Frame.

[tv]

They aren't reading steam posts OP. We've had the algorithm give us the video already.

[Donut]

I've had ALOT of friends come and go from the game, some have stayed but a majority have left, The biggest reasons being

The grind: New players want to use weapons they like the look of, Being mastery ranked to 10 is kinda annoying for them and the resources required can be pretty rough on the newer guys, Had a mate who was dying to try Supra but the weapon was MR 12? like i get why certain weapons are pretty strong but Supra really isn't MR 12 worthy, then they gotta farm all the resources which can be pretty rough for new players

No clue whats going on: Warframe kinda throws you into the deep end and all of my friends that quit just felt like you were being forced to fight random generic ass enemies for no reason, They didn't learn things like why the orokin became corrupt, why the tenno destroyed them, They don't learn anything about the grineer, corpus or infested outside of a few quotes/stories and being forced to read a document just to learn about a faction is kinda mid, If there was an introduction mission for each faction explaining what they are and why the tenno fight with lotus yapping in the background then that would help them connect with the game

Slow/boring mission types which lead to tedious missions: had a good 4 player friend group going but after awhile it ended up turning into you need x amount of resources? Time to spend 30 minutes playing survival and pressing left click...., What you need oxium? okay lets defend and press Left click, They got a little annoyed with the tedious missions, They did enjoy the Assault and Spy missions alot though

Lack of turtorial: One of them did complain about the lack of a good turtorial, Again your tossed into a random game and told to "shoot" you don't get told how to properly mod weapons/warframes, how to farm resources, and what bosses to farm and where

*Shrug* those are the only reasons i remember them complaining about, there were a few that felt like making plat as a new player was extremely difficult which i can kinda agree

[Chiquita]

Originally posted by it's a gabe:

Since we're here, I might as well share why I quit years ago and why I finally came back.

It's money. That's it. I couldn't afford platinum on a minimum wage when I lived in Brazil, nor could I justify the time spent on farming and selling goods to other players. The latter was extremely time-consuming and tedious. I'd spend more time farming stuff for platinum then I would for my own progression, and it took ages to accumulate so much as 50pt.

This game is grindy on a whole other level if you're playing entirely or mostly free and it's a massive slog, and that's coming from someone who likes grinding. No wonder they sell convenience for platinum.

And then I moved to the UK, got a Steam Deck, and thought I'd give Warframe another go to see how it played on the device. I even said out loud, which my husband caught, "I'm not gonna get back into Warframe, no way," but here I am...

I can now afford platinum, so I spend all the time farming stuff to progress my own build, which is fun. I don't much mind the ridiculous crafting times as I don't usually play games over the week thanks to the two-hour commute to and from work, so I can fire it up for 30min tops to farm a few mats and craft what I need and spend more time on the weekend.

All in all, I would not say that this game, despite being free, is that enjoyable if you can't or don't want to spend money on it. You will need platinum to unlock warframe and weapon slots and if farming reactors and forma becomes tedious, that's another barrier to enjoy the game as you won't be able to upgrade your frames and weapons.

you can get 50 just from a few relics alone, so if it took you ages its not because of the game.

[Daniel]

I recently quit the game. Life happens, people change and it's hard to find time to play when you're an adult.

Warframe is an amazing "endless" game, our lives and time are not.

Time is the problem. Stop playing Warframe and dedicate more time to your families, they will thank you, Warframe devs won't.

Have a nice day!

[Imniscor]

I am the oldest player account, October 28th 2012 founder.
Mostly played non-steam.

Still play Warframe because the competition is worse.
- Destiny and Outriders are worse, less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- Anthem had good movement but failed in all the rest.
- The Division has less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- Warhammer Darktide/Vermintide less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, poor melee. You have 3 spells/skills but can equip only 1 at time.
- Helldivers 2 has less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- Borderlands has less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- The First Descendant, the new Looter Shooter already has less classes, only 2 skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.

So Warframe is not a good game.
Its not even an average game because of so many different currencies that you have to grind which screams bad game design.
Most skills in Warframe are repetitive and copy paste from one frame to another.
Out of 4 skills, most frames only have 1 or 2 really useful, so its a fake choice.
Enemies are generic and AI is bad.
When they introduced the Operator and his schools I hated it, then hated Riven Mods, then hated the fake "open worlds" which are just big maps but not really open, then hated Duviri, then hated the 2 nerfs to Exodia Contagion, then hated the fact that I have to do stupid quests to access new weapons.

Warframe fails so much in so many areas but the competition is so much worse that it makes Warframe look like its worth playing.

I miss Hellgate London, which had its flaws but it was so much fun.

[Toantesfo]

My time in game has gone down by at least 90% recently because as Imniscor says I've just hated all the new content for quite a while now and it's finally worn down all the good will my early experiences built up.

I find grind is mostly down in newer content (minus pathos clamps) and the pity system is welcome but just don't care enough to complete dante collection, protea prime and Jade.

One thing I miss is large scale things, when we had to rebuild a relay I thought maybe they were going to make it a resource sink, players could donate millions of unused trash to gain special glyphs, clans could construct certain items like reactors, grav systems, docking bays etc and get a plaque with the clan name inside the relay and tghe event could've lasted months. Instead we got a new resource, a new blueprint that were useful for about 1 hour and one ♥♥♥♥ boss fight I can't even remember.

[skullman69]

Originally posted by Imniscor:

I am the oldest player account, October 28th 2012 founder.
Mostly played non-steam.

Still play Warframe because the competition is worse.
- Destiny and Outriders are worse, less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- Anthem had good movement but failed in all the rest.
- The Division has less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- Warhammer Darktide/Vermintide less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, poor melee. You have 3 spells/skills but can equip only 1 at time.
- Helldivers 2 has less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- Borderlands has less classes, less skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.
- The First Descendant, the new Looter Shooter already has less classes, only 2 skills/spells, less maps, less weapons, poor movement, barely no melee.

So Warframe is not a good game.
Its not even an average game because of so many different currencies that you have to grind which screams bad game design.
Most skills in Warframe are repetitive and copy paste from one frame to another.
Out of 4 skills, most frames only have 1 or 2 really useful, so its a fake choice.
Enemies are generic and AI is bad.
When they introduced the Operator and his schools I hated it, then hated Riven Mods, then hated the fake "open worlds" which are just big maps but not really open, then hated Duviri, then hated the 2 nerfs to Exodia Contagion, then hated the fact that I have to do stupid quests to access new weapons.

Warframe fails so much in so many areas but the competition is so much worse that it makes Warframe look like its worth playing.

I miss Hellgate London, which had its flaws but it was so much fun.

Try Raid so you really can hate life. Forced to play & Pay. Endless bombardment of micro-transaction banners whenever you click on anything,

[GreedRecycler]

I think the biggest reason new players quit is because they never learned how to reliably trade for platinum. This is of course not the player's fault as there is hardly any explanations for it.

Throughout playing the game, you can absolutely obtain prime parts, Ayatan sculptures, Riven, Mods that you can get from your syndicate faction to sell. But new players don't know this, there is that myth where you need money to get plat reliably when it couldn't be further away from the truth.

Using third-party sites to trade is also a MUST. This goes to show how poorly trading is in base game without Warframe Market, and how poorly trading is explained to new players, not even an auction house? And no, standing in a relay hoping someone just so happens to want what you have on display is NOT good trading.

It's a shame really, because once you make it a habit, you can reliably earn platinum just by playing the game and trading everyday. Then you will always have some disposable plat for Forma, decorations, Fashion frame, etc...

[Plata0Plomo]

because reasons the main one Saryn junction XD

[Drago]

Players I used to help who quit often said a few things: 1. the game was seemed too grindy 2. Progression didn't seem very well paced (progression is essentially both the methods by which the player grows in power, and advances story in the game) 3. and the players often felt forced to play a certain way to be considered playing well in the game. Now, I think all of us hate grinding for the sake of grinding but we all deal with it in different ways. Progression is an issue with the game, and often new players felt tricked that leveling up their warframe wasn't a real power booster but rather just unlocked mod points which represented the real level up system for the most part (the mods they had to either be given, buy in trades or gamble or be given) and just using better weapons or prime warframes instead of base models. The story acts as a gate for new players as does the mastery system while you can buy gear without mastery if you grab it for platinum or real money (prime access( without help getting through some of those earlier missions and help familiarizing with basic mods and activities to grow in strength some players just quit and tried other games.

I think some other players and influencers have put it simply in that if a game requires too large of investment to feel like you can really enjoy the game, and get good of your own power, there is a failing of the game's pacing. Perhaps this is the real reason, perhaps the game just needs a better progression system with mods and story giving options instead of choosing between raw power or conditional power (which you need to hunt down through often later missions) but either way, for some players, left to their own devices without assistance the game would chase them away into moving on.

[Katzh]

I'm fairly sure Duviri made new players quit even faster.
it's a horrible first impression.

[Firefrye]

I recently had a similar conversation and wrote down a few of my thoughts about why new players leave.
- Crafting times are an issue for new players, but are a largely NON issue for mid game players and veterans are hooked and willing to deal with them because there's so much to do in the game. New players however quickly run into the issue of wanting to try the literal HUNDREDS of weapons and over 50 frames... but then run into a farm to get the parts, a farm to get the resources, and somewhere between 12 and 84 IRL hours of crafting time for their new shiny weapon or frame. This SUCKS. Once they have a bunch of items crafting, the time it takes to try out and level one lets the next one finish... but the first few are PAINFUL.
- I would agree to a SIGNIFICANT decrease or outright removal of crafting times on BASE frames and weapons, or the addition of new player "tokens" for instant-crafting at no plat cost for their first 1-2 additional frames (maybe any frame with the BP from a quest should have no craft time? like in the Sacrifice?)
- We have NO WHERE near enough weapon/frame slots at base because this number has not changed since the game was released a decade ago. Give us +1 frame and +2 weapon slots every 3 mastery levels (up to 11 and 22 at the current highest possible MR) to help ease the pain of 50+ (and growing) frames and literal HUNDREDS of weapons
- New player energy economy is still GARBAGE even with the new dreamer aura -> I want the "Lotus power surge" from the intro quest added as a LONG cooldown ability on button #5 that either maxes the players energy or makes the next 3-4 abilities free (maybe a 5min cooldown) -> this is of course replaced by operator and all it's own abilities which INCLUDE energy generation and other utility -> this also lets vets talk about their "5th ability" and say that you'll eventually unlock "more options" without spoiling anything
- Right clicking a mission node on the map should bring up a drop table of mission and secondary objective rewards for that node (like bounties do). No need for drop rates, just give them rarities or rotation labels -> this is to help players FIND mods and other items they want to farm
- There should be another "intro" style quest about "increasing your power" that requires the player to buy a specific weapon blueprint from the market (quest discount) and craft it (with a mission to raid a stash for the materials), then sends them to Maroo to run the Weekly treasure hunt in a quest-only crippled vault (no timer and fewer traps) and rewards them the stars to fill it. Then has maroo (Or Lotus, or Ordis) tell the operator to level their Serration and install it. "Continue spending your endo to upgrade your mods because this is where the true power of your equipment comes from."