Raising Server Numbers
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Hey guys, so first off, complaints are important, but lets not turn this into a complaint thread. PREFER, if you are able, to suggest great things happening in COA or that have happened before, that could be done more of, or done again, etc.
So I wanna share a list of permaculture principles, cuz i find they help me design solutions better. And I'll make a SHORT BRIEF suggestion of a fairly SIMPLE and EASY strategy to slowly get numbers (and fun) up a bit.
But if people want to criticize this idea, or give better ones, I'm open to that.
So I will try to post shorter, more frekwent posts in this moment, so I will post said two other posts separately under this, and if the mods don't like this thread they can always delete it or lock it or whatever.
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12 permaculture principles
1 observe and interact
2 catch and store energy
3 obtain a yield
4 apply self-regulaiton and accept feedback
5 use and valuable RENEWABLE resources and services
6 produce no waste (it kind of means find a benefit to every output of the system, whatever those are, or process them in a cycle, like recycling, back into something useful to the system)
7 design from patterns to details
8 integrate rather than segregate
9 use small and slow solutions
10 use and value diversity
11 use edges and value the marginal
12 creatively use and respond to change ("the problem IS the solution", some people may know this better as the metaphor of the chinese character that means both opportunity and risk)[https://permacultureprinciples.com/principles/](link url)
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this might be useful for the more mathematical systems oriented:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_leverage_points](link url)
Contents
1 Leverage points to intervene in a system1.1 12. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards) 1.2 11. The size of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows 1.3 10. Structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport network, population age structures) 1.4 9. Length of delays, relative to the rate of system changes 1.5 8. Strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the effect they are trying to correct against 1.6 7. Gain around driving positive feedback loops 1.7 6. Structure of information flow (who does and does not have access to what kinds of information) 1.8 5. Rules of the system (such as incentives, punishment, constraints) 1.9 4. Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure 1.10 3. Goal of the system 1.11 2. Mindset or paradigm that the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises from 1.12 1. Power to transcend paradigms
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some ideas for city of arabel to get their server numbers up
Ok. So most of the people on the server find COA a great place that they prefer to play, a lot. But the numbers of players are low, and that may be a self-generating feedback loop (a 'positive' feedback loop with a 'negative' outcome) that may cause more players to not show up or to leave.
-people come to play in large part to socialize with other real people in a fictional, theatrical way
-if they don't have this interaction, the fun may be limited
-when less people are on (what would the parameters for this be?) people want to play lessSo, what is one major reason people may not play an awesome game with awesome people, of the people who may be interested in this sort of game?
-other responsibilities that are priorities in their life
What are some solutions to this?
-make people more irresponsible
-adapt different parameters to meet the convenience of many of the people who want to play
-increase the number of people being introduced to the server, when server numbers are higher and the fun is higher (hopefully encouraging people who have the time to spend more time and help generate more fun WHILE STILL respecting their other responsibilities...
---this MAY involve, partly, targetting an audience who has far less responsibilities- possibly university aged folks. This might involve
-----less emotional maturity
-----complete unfamiliarity with the game
-----lack of computer technical ekspertise and knowledge (at least with respect to COA and NWN, at first)
-----lack of knowledge of the game system and setting (city of arabel specific, forgotten realms, dungeons and dragons, and neverwinter nights computer game, for instance)
-in order to adapt to some of these challenges, creating a gentle and supported learning curve in order for people to gain those competencies, will help increase retention/ gaining new numbers (as people bring their friends)
---there are many other ways to increase things and market things, but some of these other issues, including having players who are willing to mentor or support new players (this is a part of INCLUSIVITY- if this does not happen, when most people come, most will not stay. People need to feel VALUED, and to some ekstent, WELCOME and SAFE. This does not need to include EVERY INTERAACTION, ALL THE TIME, but if there is not an ongoing feeling that these eksist in this space, when sought or desired, players can easily find other places to meet these needs (if they cannot, then they may have other struggles in their lives, and COA may not be the best place to meet these needs, and redirecting those people to other IRL supports may be better, etc... this does not mean ekcluding people necessarily, but just not ekspecting COA to be someone's therapy or psychological refuge if they are having serious struggles (although that does not mean people have to ignore these problems or not be supportive; but simply recognizing that is not what this space is designed for or to provide; other services eksist that do this much better).SO WHAT IS MY SIMPLE, EASY SUGGESTION?
Find a time that meets the demographics needs to be able to play, and increase numbers and fun in this time space, keeping it fairly consistent over a longer period of time.
My suggestion is 12-4pm saturdays eastern standard time -4gmt, because it is in the middle of the weekend, so less likely to interfere with peoples' family or work schedules. Keeping the time limited keeps people from having to choose between personal life priorities, and the game, since the game is not bleeding into personal time, because personal time is being respected.Have regular events during this time, switching off between different dm's on different weeks, with a support dm available to take care of other minor tasks; like porting characters who show up late to the event after providing a game hook. Or another way might be an dm character who can create portals, and create a temporary portal in a very accessible place, for instance the spire, that includes a description of where the portal goes, into a safe zone near where the other players will be where someone else (or an npc with scripted instructions, etc) can give further guidance so people can catch up into the game, or find somewhere to group with others. perhaps consecutive portals could be made, or the first portal could be changed to anchor to different locations as the main group moves through their kwest, etc.
So I don't want to get too stuck on specific strategies, and then forget the basic need. The basic need is to include people kwickly and not waste their precious game time when they log on, so they can join in the fun with everyone else very kwickly. FULL STOP.
Schedule the events in advance, advertise them places, especially in one regular thread for events on the forums, and follow up with a summary/chronicle of previous events (possible with some screen shots and logs in more detailed separate posts) so people can catch up on the basic storyline and not be left out too much. Link the summaries/detail event write ups in the upcoming event ads, so people who join in late get up to speed a little bit without other players having to (or choosing not to) get them up to speed (yeah, it doesn't happen enough; might be better to try to do it outside prime game time, instead of in the midst of ekstremely busy time during the game).
The hope for this would be, more new players join up during and around event times, including new players, who, if they have fun and stay interested, may keep coming back, as they are able, sometimes at other times as well... or possibly, hopefully, people find people in their timezones (this could be arranged/linked to factions and dm's and made sort of public/on the forums somewhere with a point of contact so people know who to talk to in game to get into a community on the game with people they can play and have fun with. Once again, this is part of adapting to the players' needs, and inclusivity.)
Some other things that might be able to happen as part of such a 'prime time' scheduled game time event, would be an intro/ tutorial bit immediately preceding the scheduled event, where newbies can introduce their characters and learn some basics, established characters can share who they are and their roles etc.
There can be a post game wrap up as well, that might involved people doing some OOC networking with players, hopefully some of them want to stay involved and connected, but also getting screen shots and bits of the story from people. The post event event could possibly be something like 'an auction' / item rewards etc, that should hopefully be interesting enough to keep other players there, but also a good time for players to keep doing this networking, and trading and talking amongst themselves (possibly in whispers or in tells, etc). People could get recruited into factions, be given rewards or valedictions in character and in game, while this is recorded, and some of it shared in the post game write ups.
Some of this could be ekspanded/ broken into subgroups suitable to different 'cells' or factions etc that work with different peoples' timezones and interests, once the numbers and resources eksist to do so (if this occurs, at some point).
An important part of keeping new players, will be that some conflicts will arise, and conflicts may actually drive new players, who don't have many connections on the server yet, away permanently (and /or their friends on the server with them). That means conflict resolution on the server is fairly important. That does not mean 'being harder on people', either old players or new ones. It means being more skillful at it, which partly means being willing to invest the time, because people CARE enough, and can be patient and gentle with peoples' needs. I'm not sure the server has enough player resources to handle this part right now, yet, and it may be a stickler for losing players. The main thing I would suggest is just to not play favourites with the old players- support the new players publicly, and work things out with the old players, who hopefully are more eksperienced and mature, outside a bit, and follow up overtime to work things out or resolve things so no griefing happens... griefing from old players should be followed up kwickly and harshly (they should know better); with new players they should be given some opportunities to learn the rules first, while feeling like they have some supporters on the server. Hopefully the old players have supporters on the server and don't feel singled out, otherwise treat them the same as new players in some respect. Give old players who make mistakes ekstra opportunties to earn prestige and favour back, possibly outside of prime game time if they are dedicated players who play throughout the week, etc.
These are some suggestions, they may not be the best ideas, just trying to put this all down in one place for the moment.
Solving a conflict, if things aren't clear, may not be the priority; the priority may be that people feel listened to and supported on all sides of a conflict. Conflict on the server could fuel more fun, if responsible players help push things to be fun, and de-escalate conflicts when they get to serious, for instance, with humour, etc.
Try not to separate players too much, or isolate anyone, or they will just leave and feel crappy. Find more constructive forms of conflict, where they can compete, but also earn each others' respect, and develop as players, their characters, and as people.
Thks hope this helps.
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Do another "appless" event - worked a treat
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@solarfall said in Raising Server Numbers:
Do another "appless" event - worked a treat
It was fun, but wouldn't it make the subraces less special if we did it regularly?
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You're right, which is a shame because it definitely brought in a good number of people.
As much as I enjoyed appless week it would be like having Christmas every day if we did another so soon.
There definitely needs to me appless weeks in the future, but it's too soon right now.Perhaps appless weeks could be more frequent, but only cover certain app-only things. For example an appless week for the militia and Old Town gangs or for lycans and House Tammarast.
It'd combat the effects of Puffy's argument and still be an appless week. -
I think with certain subraces that's actually fine. Given that both werewolves and wererats are actually supposed to be fairly common in-universe (especially considering that there are a lot of NPC lycan groups around Arabel that are presumably spreading these curses), I'd be all for seeing those permanently moved to a "mini-app" status.
Having those be easier to get actually gets the players to start thinking of lycanthropy as the scary problem it's theoretically supposed to be in-universe. When you OOCly know that a player has to go through a full-fledged app to be a lycanthrope, you're not too terribly worried that you'll end up with a large number of them- but given the viral nature of lycanthropy, your character actually should be worried foremost about the spreading of it. Having them easier to get creates a little more of the "paranoia" that anyone might secretly be a feral beast, and lends itself to cool concepts like the Tammarasts pushing law changes and tests of purity.
On a similar note, dragonborns also don't get that much of a bonus on a regular human and should theoretically be a pretty easy app, but the mere fact that you have to app for them (and apping can be intimidating) means I never saw any of them outside of appless week. I think they could also safely be reduced to a mini-app status without CoA suddenly becoming "City of Dragonborns".
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It is all things to consider, I wouldn't be opposed to making it easier for lycans to spread disease and inflicting other players but then it would need to be reflected in IG behaviour as well that there is a REAL risk of being infected. Also, controlling turning would need to be looked at but am all for it.
In regards of dragonborn, personally I don't see them adding much to the server atm. They need a bit of a server wide goal to push.
I like the idea of appless week with say, 3 spots in a faction.
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@Puffy appless week does work. You could have a host of appless perks, and subraces. They would still be special, just like the other characters. I see them other servers, people play them well.
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We had appless week very recently! Hence why I am not keen on doing it again so soon, it has only been a month or so. :)
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Just limit the number of subraces!
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Just do an appless week for factions and for "special" apps, while not accepting subrace apps except for gang members who want to be lycans
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Appless week brought numbers back for a very very short period of time. People got their fancy subrace and then realized that the point of an app is that it makes sure you actually have a plan that's interesting enough to keep you and other players interested.
Half of the people who made appless subrace didn't have a plan in mind, realized their pc's were boring, got bored themselves and quit.
A solution that brings numbers back for 4 days isn't really a solution.I think a solid metaplot would do a better job of attracting players and retaining them.
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@Chips said in Raising Server Numbers:
Appless week brought numbers back for a very very short period of time. People got their fancy subrace and then realized that the point of an app is that it makes sure you actually have a plan that's interesting enough to keep you and other players interested.
Half of the people who made appless subrace didn't have a plan in mind, realized their pc's were boring, got bored themselves and quit.
A solution that brings numbers back for 4 days isn't really a solution.I think a solid metaplot would do a better job of attracting players and retaining them.
Bingo!
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Gotta say I completely agree. I hopped on the appless week with a PD, no fancy subrace, no craziness, just a way to play a concept I would enjoy and not have to put together an app for the DMs. That said, I went into with a reasoned concept, personal goals, and ideas for both what I and my character wanted to achieve. Here I am, having a great time, and playing a concept that has been almost completely de-railed from what I had originally thought because of plottage.
Looking forward to what the next metaplot would be, yet in the mean time, having fun helping other people with their plots and making some progress on my own in doing so.
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Cobble demons were fun to hunt and hate, playing one wasn't as fun as you'd think. I made my first PC for appless week for the cobble demons, a wererat, and i ended up essentially quitting him for the exact reasons that chips explained.
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I'd rather that than what we have at the moment TBH, at least SOME people would be IG. The most I've seen in game this weekend has been three people.
There isn't the DM coverage to sustain a metaplot at the moment, nothing worse than a plot that starts all guns blazing and just tails off, happened too much recently.
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I believe the strong drop in number has a lot to do with that many of the DMs got very busy RL, I am basically carrying my whole office for 5-6 weeks and am moving in two weeks. Just haven't had the energy for anything CoA related sadly :( Hoping things will calm down soon!
I may re-introduce book a Puffy as well, during these busier periods. :)
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That is fair Puffy, and a good idea. But you Cannot carry the whole Europe time zone on your own. If a second EU based DM could be found however, might also mean less burned out DM.