Hello all, We recently published a new game that's based on teams playing against each other, unfortunately we still don't have many concurrent users so players play with AI most of the time. Our AI looks like a bot not a cute character for business reasons as we wanted to encourage players to invite others to play with them. However, now I'm wondering if we should make our AI looks like a cute character with a cute name until we get many concurrent players? Or maybe add fake players to give our players the pleasure of playing with people? Please help.
I think you'd have to have damn good AI in order to fool players into thinking it was another player, so there is always a risk that you'd get called out on it.
I think in this situation you're better off spending your time doing marketing and promotion for the game in order to reach a larger audience and get more players in general. Adding fake players is not going to go over well, as Dallan said you're at risk of being called out. Updating the AI character could still be a good idea to do in general so it fits into the game a bit better but if you want more users look for ways to grow your player base.
Yes. Marketing takes time. it could be nice if big portal takes your game and give you a boost, but what if it takes longer and only small publishers takes your game or users coming to your website? So you will tell a user "waiting for another player..."? who won't come in the upcoming 10 seconds...
Definitely not. Because if they find out you're using fake users for any reason? They'll turn on you, it's happened before.
There's no reason to lie. Be patient, if the game is good enough, then you won't even need to advertise it... the current players will spread it on their own. Underhanded or dishonest tactics never win... and are inferior to true skills.
I suggest make some kind of revard system, if you alreday have some followers you can make them invite more people
Can´t they just label them differently and not try to hide the fact that they´re bots? Make them all have some similar characteristics so it´s clear that they are there to make the game more dynamic and interactive until more real users show up? Or is that crazy talk