Heads up, this will be a long and thorough post.

Firstly, this post is based on observations of a newcomer, not for veteran players. I'm sure a lot of people will want to disagree with me, but these are issues that I personally found while coming to this game. Why does this matter? Because retention of new users should never be overlooked. This site flourishes off of user-driven markets. The more players that stick with the game, the better the game will be. 

Secondly, these suggestions will seem pedantic and small. This is on purpose. There have been many studies that suggest newcomers won't spend more than a minute or two on a new site. This being a browser-based game, there's A LOT of information to be processed in order to orient the newcomer. The new user knows this, which means PrisonBlock has to pitch the feeling of "Hey, this is a new game with a lot of information, but it will be worth your time to learn it.". Once the game starts looking too confusing/overwhelming, they're going to drop it. So it's important to make everything as simple and gradual for the new user. Every little annoyance adds up quickly.

The Mentor System

The first introduction I received as a new player was a message mentioning I could go to the mentors for help or proceed on to a tutorial. Personally, I don't want to deal with a mentor, I don't know if I will like this game, I don't even know what questions to ask them, I don't want to have to wait for their responses. So I skipped to the tutorial. But what I didn't know I was skipping, was this (arguably the most helpful) section for new beginners:

Summary:

• Optional (so don't keep the most helpful section solely in this location)

In my opinion, this should be one of the most prominent things a new beginner sees. Perhaps as a module on the left, or on the tutorial page.

The Tutorial 

The image for the tutorial makes it look like there are two different guides, a Learn to survive page and a New Tutorial. 

Reading sections such as Committing Crimes, the instructions were somewhat clear, however, I still couldn't figure out where the hell the crimes could be committed. There should be direct links in EVERY section to help the new beginners orient themselves with the location of the website. 

Once I read the tutorial and felt comfortable with the game, I had to keep scrolling down to find different sections of the prison. There didn't seem to be a way to disable the large tutorial banner on the side, so I had to create a special adblock rule just to get rid of it. 

Summary:

• Shrink or Crop the Tutorial banner
• Place direct links to locations in tutorial modules
• Place a disable/enable option for users who don't need or want it

The Wiki

After reading the tutorial, I still had many questions so I headed on to the wiki...Essentially, I found it overly generic. I would like to be able to view specific numbers and specific items. For instance, a new beginner has no idea what the level thresholds are. Beginning and doing a crime, you just get a failure without even a hint at what caused the failure. I was attempting jobs with like 20-speed wondering wtf was happening. The same thing goes for attacking players. Spying never really gets explained. There should be a couple more guides at least to playing, or strategies listed. Items & Amenities should have their own pages with related links. The wiki is meant to be a direct, black and white assessment of the game. 

There should NEVER be generic & bland speech. It should be direct and objective. Example ( Spying: Spying allows you to find out information about players without them knowing, although it comes at a price and isn't always complete.) 

Summary:

• Add precise game information
• Use direct language
• Add more gameplay guides & strategies

Additional Miscellaneous Suggestions:

-(I know Mufasa said fuck future flash game development, but just thought I would let it known) The games haven't worked for me, all get stuck on "Fetching Session". I searched forums and other sites without explanation. (Tried on three different browsers). 

-Without strategies given, it was questionable whether or not I should be spending resources on things like the prison yard(Was I leveling up too quickly? What are the recommended stats?). 

- The marketplace could use a better explanation. I didn't know whether or not items were specifically listed at a single prison, I didn't know people had their own market listing page, I didn't know whether certain items were protected Etc. 

-I think the game could benefit from having a separate 

for the shoutbox being displayed at all times. I was working on a script for it when someone said all scripts are not allowed. 

There were a few other things I wanted to note, but I can't remember them and I'm getting too damn tired/complacent. This isn't meant to bitch about anything. This is meant to be helpful content for the developer(s). People pay lots of money for assessments to further their agenda. 

Interesting read thank you...

Thanks for taking the time to write this since I missed your reply in shoutbox yesterday. Onboarding is always a tough one, and I'll admit, I'm not all thay great at it -- especially since seeing through the eyes of someone new to something is hard for someone who actually created the "something".

That said, on to your points.

The mentor system, I get how that could be a little off-putting, so perhaps it shouldn't be RIGHT in your face. A little confused on the screenshot though. Can you explain how you missed that?

A "hide" tutorial link thing would be useful. As for direct links to crimes, I think in the current format (browsing the prison visually), that is a bit hard since it's not a list of crimes, but I'll keep that in mind for the future. Perhaps as simple as explaining how to find them.

On the generic wiki, I think improvements can be made more in-game. For example, if you're new and fail a crime, perhaps a message saying "increase XXX to have a better chance!" would be better.

-- The games are essentially dead. Really, the links should be removed.

-- "I think the game could benefit from having a separate -- for the shoutbox being displayed at all times." - some text seems to be missing there

Because I didn't want to use the Mentors, I never went to that link. So the small additional guides and what not were posted on the mentor page, but nowhere else. II think also placing those links perhaps at the very end of the tutorial would be more beneficial.

My bad, I wrote a small html div tag. I think the game could benefit from having a seperate div on the side or bottom of the page that always displays the shoutbox. So regardless of where you're at (prison yard, infirm, etc.) you can always chat.

Ah gotcha. I think we actually had something like that at one point. Honestly forget why it was removed

Some well thought out idea's and perspective to the game, thanks spitfire.

I like some of the ideas but the shoutbox one doesn't seem good to me.

I'm not a computer genius so maybe im far off on this point but many people(especially oversea players) tend to have trouble with the game moving fast enough for them. To add the shoutbox to every screen seems like it would make it even more difficult to load quickly. Also a very high percentage of players you will never see in the shoutbox so I think you are over valuing its need to be on every page. If you are in the infirm you are just going to sit on that page and chat? Seems simple enough to just click the link at top of page. Maybe if this idea is implemented there could be an option in account settings to enable/disable it.

The shoutbox on every page would annoy me. Sometimes i dont wanna see the crap in there

The links to the crime thing interests me. When i was new i enjoyed looking for the new crimes... but since then technology has changed so much... and how people want to engage has changed. Would people really prefer a list of crime links rather than exploring to find them on their own... or would it be helpful in new jersey and then searchable in other prisons

The crime locations are listed in the wiki, tells you exactly where to find them. I always try to answer noobs best I can, but personally im not a read something person, im hands on so I also tell them the best way to figure out this game is to explore the prison, click on each link. The game isn't very complicated, there only a few spots to look. When I first started I just dove in, took me about 5-10 minutes to figure everything out.

Yeah i aren't a read a whole lot of info person either... i like to just figure it out... and chat with people about it... there is a lot more information than when i started to be sure... I had no idea where i could find it either, back then nothing was even stickied in the forums... The shoutbox can be a not great place for noobs as they can end up asking questions there and recieve bullshit info or are called dupes the forums where a good place to source info as there was a record of the discussions and people could see what was considered good support