So how are player numbers holding up?
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Im not currently playing here because I have not liked some of the changes that have been made but thats me and im happy where i am playing.
I do check the forums and try to see how the server is going and as far as ive read the player numbers are dropping and im wondering if this is in fact true?
Or does it just seem this way in certain timezones? -
currently numbers are down a bit, but this is seasonal as finals season. However it is variable as people are still logging for events at specific times so i imagine that it is transient.
Expect numbers to increase again over the next few weeks i think
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The numbers are actually great. Always someone to interact with in my opinion, they are way up compared to fall.
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You should consider coming back , there is a lot going on right now and many opportunities for new characters
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I think you need to revisit what you are seeing. Numbers are good, we are good, server is good.
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By the way, it's always good to hear criticisms about changes that are made with the server, so feel free to post in suggestions, or directly to DMs.
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Usually three or four people on when I play, sometimes a little more for a short time depending on the day. It is consistent though, so that's good. Certainly a lot going on!
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I think we might want to worry, This week I have seen at least 5 people post in the out of game leaving thread. I think we should all take a look into what is making them leave and see if as a community change that. if we look into it and nothing is wrong then we are ok but if something is driving people off of the server then we need to find it and fix it.
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I was just in game for the best part of an hour, 6pm to 7pm GMT. Prime time on a Sunday for Europeans, and I was the sole person in game. This can't be attributed to seasonal trends.
Would be very curious as to what could be done to bring people back to the server to invest their time in Arabel again. So, anyone presently not playing, on the fence or unmotivated to log in, what can be done?
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If I may be as so bold to say Lavish. People end up leaving because they inevitably have a bad experience with something or another in game. This experience bad enough that it out weighs the good experiences they may have been experiencing, mind you, so much so that they decide to stay away or take a short break. When they speak out about said experience or reasons why they have had a bad experience, it's usually counter acted by others who have gone through a similar experience, but have not had a bad time, so they claim nothing is wrong or needs to be changed. Understandably, this causes those who had the bad experience to think "Oh, so it's not going to change? Okay." so they simply don't come back.
This is how I feel right now, anyways.
In this example, I suppose you could say that it feels like the mentality we have is "This server just isn't suited for everyone." versus that of "How can we change the experience to suit everyone better, or at least, for the newer players?"
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Without knowing anything about your actual problem, let me mention that it is probably not a general sentiment because, well, it would likely be much better received.
Except what I see lately are small stings here and there instead of a search for a solution.
I might be completely wrong in this, but one way or another, this is rather unrelated to this thread, which is about actual numbers, not reasons, and what measures to be taken to bring people back after being absent for a long amount of time, not some sever and fresh misunderstanding or argument.
Finding solution for the first case -long absence- is a hard one to start, as you need to investigate reasons, reach out for old players, provide solutions for problems of great variance, ect.
Finding a solution for the second case -being hurt- is not at all easy, but much more clear in terms of actions to be taken, such as desire to get over it on both sides, investigation of one's own feelings on both sides, finding ways to express them on both sides, and reminding yourself that this place is built around providing fun to other players. On every possible sides ever.
Please consider this before getting tedious. Sorry posting this, but I don't see your comments coming to a fruitful ending. Only thing I see is that you love playing here and you probably aren't willing to get the hell out of here just because of perceiving someone being a dick. And that's a good thing, really. We need everyone.
And now, we are back on topic, right? -
Right. I'm not trying to derail this topic or make it about me. I'm just saying, I was with the group of people that had some of the members leave, and when I made a suggestion about it concerning some of the issues, there was just some backlash as their usually is, of people arguing for or against both sides. It's just very frustrating when an issue arises and when you speak out to bring attention to it, others who may or may not have been effected by said issue, go against changes, that's all.
With that said, even though it was spawned from a joke, I think we're on the right track by introducing things like quest difficulty indicators and such, or maybe a way to hint at what sort of party composition a group might want for certain tasks. I say this because I think one of the issues with retaining players, especially new ones, is how they're going along and then BAM, they unknowingly get dragged into minotaurs after they had just done crypt cleaning. It's a pretty big leap that can make you feel disappointed after a day's worth of questing and interaction if you end up dying.
It seems like there's still a handful of activity each day though, and hopefully with the summer coming about there will be more people IG.
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I may be beating a dead horse, or pointing out the obvious, but to me, server activity depends very much on meta-stories and from that, dm activity.
To honest, I think at least in the Europe timezones, we lack a stronger DM presence, if we are to ensure an increase in player numbers.
That does not mean that we need a dm to run quests or shower us with loot every single day. But I have in the last year or two, had an experience of every single major “server changing event” had occurred in Time Zones favoring the non-European players. If such occurs for a month or two, then it changes little. But if what you can accomplish, and “who you are” on the server, comes down to the time zone you play in, rather than what you do IG, then an imbalance starts to occur.This imbalance has gotten increasingly worse in 2016 and especially in 2017. I see three challenges from the DM dead zones vs DM active zones.
A) If you wish to be somebody beyond random Joe adventurer as a European, you need to be insanely lucky, or insanely persistent to achieve things in dm dead zones. If you cannot find a dm to help you run events to push your agenda, but the “other guys do”, then you are slowly but surely outplayed, both in terms of RP power (They meet NPCs, you don’t), but also loot (DM rewards for quests), and EXP (Surviving a DM quest will earn you a much easier time getting higher levels.)
B) With the decrease in loot power dropping from quests, but more importantly, with the EXP nerf, the imbalances between those who play in DM active time zones, vs. those who must rely on scripted quests have become MASSIVE.
C) DMs just make it more fun. Scripted quests can be fun. But lets face it, a well-run DM quest will beat any scripted quest.
If you wish an example of the above:
I earned about 750 exp, from February to April. I had achieved level 9, and played perhaps 2-4 hours a day. I spent those two hours getting people involved, pushing plots etc. But I stayed level 9. By April, I was able to find a few days to “enter” the American time zones. The plot pushing players in those time zones were all level 10-12, and had achieved great things, epic loot etc.
Hells, a blade had in one month (No hard blows at Thune, he is amazing) earned enough power to outrank me by 2 or 3 tiers.I am content with what I have, and I have (Pure Edinsumar style, the man who built Eveningstar) carved my own little kingdom in my faction. But I do often wonder what I could have achieved with my current PC, if I had been able to participate in the major story arcs, rather than only push them from afar.
To conclude, I think the dead zone has made players either migrated to other servers with a more active euro time zone, or have given up.
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Just to make sure, the above is not a "DMs killed Europe CoA". It is just an observation.
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To be fair, my PC at that time was like "Shortlisted candidate for Cabinet Ministry joins army after reversals in battle!"
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I would love to help with the lack of euro DMs. But I cant do much about it. Every time you take a new guy to fill the DM boots, you loose an active, amazing player IG, with a huge risk of him burning out or leaving the server after that (some consider becoming a DM the final stepping Stone, nothing else)
Sadly, scheduling events ahead has taken its toll, seeing the player numbers go crazy everytime there is a DM event prescheduled. With lack of DMs no longer pulling random events from their hats, Players no longer expect the unexpected and therefore dont bother logging in.
Still, there are players IG. Two guys IG can still turn into a party and create massive fun together. They just need to be inclusive of eachother and think outside the box if at the time you didnt see any reason to interract with the other player IG. Two players can quickly turn into three… Then four... Five, and so forth, if players are having fun together.
You dont need a DM to have fun.
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I did not mean you have to have a dm all the time to have fun sheep. Not in the least, actually. My point was rather, that if the gap continues for too long, then sooner or later it becomes the A server and the B server. And I reckon that is what has killed the timezone.
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Didnt say you suggested that, Olouthsauce. My post was aimed in similar direction. I wholly agree with you on the lack of a stronger DM presence, of which random DM events have been the keyfactor in breeding said presence for the playerbase.
But like I also said, we cant do much about it. So have fun with what players are still playing during those times. If you do that, a DM will catch up with you having a blast and will try to make it there to give you a hand with it!
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This discussion comes up at least 2-3 times a year.
Numbers are fine (there are always lulls and highs)
People get busy (RL, school, moving, bad internet etc)
DMs will be back (we'll always have Spiffy, thank god he isn't in school like scrub Arkham)
The server is not dead (it's immortal)Now get back to playing!
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Yes, numbers are definitely down compared to two months ago. People are talking about the reasons; to me personally there simply isn't enough interesting stuff going IG to make it worthy logging in and staying around. A few mechanical changes like resetting the spell alterations made playing concepts that depended on them boring. Not enough DMs to create/push plots through events and NPC possessions is also a big detriment, esp. on a server with generally low player numbers you cannot expect players themselves to create enough content to keep themselves entertained and CoA has always been more about DM presence than other servers like EfU or Arelith.
Anyway, I agree this is seasonal lull and these discussions occur repeatedly.
