The journal is a good help file. Though, that's really what it is.
Most people who use MS Word never went into the help file or hardly read it.
I'm the primary software developer for a system with over 2500 users. People we're surveyed on the help content. Which is largely the same as the journal. Over 70% never went into it.
Most asked someone for help.
Its a matter of making a something that's intuitive.
I think it'd be a good idea for TFP to look at some of the earliest streamer videos of A17. Watch when they are confused, happened with I think all of them on Max Stamina and Health management that I watched.
Watch where they move their mouse when they're stuck and figuring things out. Listen to what they're saying. "I thought I read in the forums..." I've heard while the streamer didn't even bother to look at the journal.
Just my thoughts. But if TFP aimed to put help content in the places a person first looks to find information, you'll have way better usability feedback.
The first thing I saw was people hovered over their health and stamina bars. Looking for a tool tip. Sticks out like a sore thumb in many the first A17 videos.
I so agree with the above. Watching early streaming videos is a great idea to see where more explanation is needed, and where people automatically look for that information.
I, unlike my husband, am not stubborn about reading help files, but I honestly never noticed the pen.
I also find that when you click on a skill that isn't unlockable, I expect to see the reason why it isn't unlockable in the description, not by hovering over the lock. I'm not sure if I'm alone in this regard, but watching streamers, especially brand new players is good user testing to find out this and more.
I simply eat whenever I notice my max stamina has dropped below 100. Is that what you mean by micromanaging?
Hmm, let me try and explain what I mean.
In earlier alphas, if we heard our characters tummy rumble, etc, we knew we were getting dangerously low on food, but now I'm getting orange icons on my screen telling me the character is starving even when the food bar (Red's Hud mod) is above 50%. Sometimes even around 80%. I don't know why my character seems to need to constantly have a full belly in order to be able to be at peak stamina. In my mind, this is micromanaging.
Thing is, I love this game enough to overlook things like that and keep playing. Other people like my friend and husband don't have the patience for that. For example, I know my husband's intent is to go mining because that's what he loves, but if he can't even chop a tree down without taking a break and wheezing heavily, he's not sticking around for the rest of the game. It's not because he's lazy or wants to be superman at the start. The amount of tedious mining he's done in previous alphas shows he loves grinding, but then he also knew that the more he did it, the better he would get at it (learn by doing) so didn't seem like a grind. I'm veering off though. The point is it seems from these 2 cases at least, that when you are on a downward spiral of dying in this game, it's hard to get back to normal. That is why I suggest respawning the character with half their food like previous Alphas did. I imagine that will make it easier for players who keep dying repeatedly.