Ingame registration: the discussion

[Matthias]

Hi!

LVP never has had ingame registration, the reason why is because we want people to have a valid email address linked to their account. This email address is used for disputes, password resets, import announcements, etc. We're looking to changing this now. We hope this will lower the barrier for new players on LVP.

So, we're looking for a way to allow ingame registration while still have users with a validated email address. This is where you come in. We've come up with some ideas of ourselves:

• Players can only deposit a certain amount of money before they have to validate their email address.
  
• Players can only log in x times before they have to validate their email address.
  
• Have some sort of information message on the screen that becomes increasingly annoying as long as they haven't validated their email address.
  
  
• Players need to validate their email address before they become a regular.
  

If you have any other ideas or comments, please post them below!

On behalf of the Las Venturas Playground management team,
Matthias

[Xilent]

It's a very good idea, it's more easy for the new players to register directly on the server than to register on the website.
I have a same idea: players need to validate their email address to have acces at all commands and features,they will can use just few commands.

[Lucy]

Great idea!
Going to share my views on your points now:

Players can only deposit a certain amount of money before they have to validate their email address.
Great idea. +1.
Maybe make the limit like 50 million? Or 10 million?

Players can only log in x times before they have to validate their email address.
Hmmm, not too sure about this one. What if a player constantly times out due to a network issue or whatnot? Could demotivate some people from sticking around.

Have some sort of information message on the screen that becomes increasingly annoying as long as they haven't validated their email address.
I think this would also work in a demotivating manner, if people are annoyed they're more inclined to say "meh, screw this, this is annoying" and just leave. I don't think it's wise to display a message that's increasingly annoying. However, it would be nice to display a subtle reminder - that together with the banklimit and regular status should do the trick IMO.

Players need to validate their email address before they become a regular.

+1.

It's a very good idea, it's more easy for the new players to register directly on the server than to register on the website.
I have a same idea: players need to validate their email address to have acces at all commands and features,they will can use just few commands.

Also a good idea, Xilent! +1.

[cake]

Players can only log in x times before they have to validate their email address.
Hmmm, not too sure about this one. What if a player constantly times out due to a network issue or whatnot? Could demotivate some people from sticking around.

I don't like this approach either, but mainly because of my bad experience with software only usuable for x tries. But if you would to implement it, you can easily identify if a player is timing out, or actually quiting with help of http://wiki.sa-mp.com/wiki/OnPlayerDisconnect (see Reasons).

[Lucy]

I don't like this approach either, but mainly because of my bad experience with software only usuable for x tries. But if you would to implement it, you can easily identify if a player is timing out, or actually quiting with help of http://wiki.sa-mp.com/wiki/OnPlayerDisconnect (see Reasons).

In that case, their amount of "Quit's" should be counted instead of the amount of logins. Because if a player logs in after a timeout, and only the logins are being counted... don't think I have to elaborate

[Beaner]

Finally!

• Players can only deposit a certain amount of money before they have to validate their email address.

Along with that, I feel there should be more restrictions. Some ideas are:

- Limit the amount of money in case of /withdraw.
- Limit the number of properties such players can buy.
- Make the skin selection menu accessible only after validation. I realize this could annoy players, but administrators can always change skins for such players and give them a reminder.
- Limit the amount of ammo that can be bought with each weapon. We already have some options in the weapons menu. Again, this might seem trivial, but players should realize the importance of validation.
- Restrict the use of vehicle tuning shops.

I'll update this list if I come up with something later.

We should let unregistered players access all the features more freely. Restrictions like these should affect registered users whose e-mails aren't validated, as they would obviously realize the limitations, and make it a point to validate.

• Players can only log in x times before they have to validate their email address.

Hmmm, not too sure about this one. What if a player constantly times out due to a network issue or whatnot? Could demotivate some people from sticking around.

How about giving them some time instead? Up to 3 days, maybe?

• Have some sort of information message on the screen that becomes increasingly annoying as long as they haven't validated their email address.

Or display reminders (as messages) when such players try to access the aforementioned restricted features.
For example, if a player buys a property or tries to withdraw cash, a message like "Remember: You may only buy x amount of properties unless you validate your e-mail address!" could be displayed.

• Players need to validate their email address before they become a regular.

This goes without saying, as regular status is attained after 50 hours of game play. The regular status in this case shouldn't matter, since players are likely to be given limited time or login attempts.

In addition to all this, it'd be nice to offer some perks as well. Update players' bank accounts with x amount of cash after validation, maybe? Not sure what else can be done, since we don't have houses or personal vehicles.

We should also look into multilingual support when it comes to explaining the registration/validation process. I don't have any ideas as to how, but I feel it's something worth looking into.

[George]

• Players need to validate their email address before they become a regular.
  

This sounds like a good option. So, in return for, firstly, playing 50 hours, and secondly, verifying their email address, they get the perks of the "regular" upgrade. Maybe once this is all said and done, we can look at adding some more features for those with regular status, to make email verification even more worthwhile.

I can't remember how the link between forum.sa-mp.nl and sa-mp.nl works (e.g. when the two get linked) and this might also be something to keep in mind to help ensure this doesn't cause any problems.

[Matthias]

For the record, what I posted were just suggestions, we wouldn't implement all of them, or maybe even just one of them . I'd like to hear yours! Thanks for the feedback so far.

[Joeri]

I really like the idea to limit their bank until they validate. Its simple and, most likely, effective. The questions that remain are:

#1: What should the limit be?
The limit will determine how soon after registering they will have to validate.

#2: How to we communicate that there is a limit in place?
Upon registration, login, bank, only when they reach the limit? How do we phrase it?
We don't want to be to annoying but we really want them to validate.

What I also would really like is that all this can be done in one single session. Join, register and validate without having to rejoin like you have to do now. Would this be difficult to achieve?

Also, it should be possible to resend the validation mail to another mail address in case they mistyped theirs from within the gamemode.


We have to keep in mind that validating emails is a hassle but we are requiring it to offer them a service to reset their password, which otherwise would be way more difficult and time consuming for us.

[Deer_Hunter]

Just allow in-game registration damnit.