Is Armageddon slowing down...?

[UnderSeven]

I'm in a leader role.  And lately I've found trying to motivate people, and finding people to motivate is becoming hard.  I don't know if this is really a trend, or all in my head, but despite the fairly nice numbers of players, it feels to me as if the game in general has been gradually slowing.  I've seen people in other realms, but I feel like getting things to happen is becoming more difficult.  Motivation of players seems to be down too.

I've wondered what changes could of caused this (if it's not all in my head).

I have a few ideas, which I'd like to toss out and see what people think.

One, clan consolidation.  It seems there has been a gradual push toward this over the years (we used to have a lot more of them.)  The down side to lots of clans is having just one or two members with nothing to do, the upside is more clans means more conflict more often than not.  I wonder if the fewer clans has affected the level spontanous player run conflicts.

Two, Immortal applications.  I wonder if perhaps offering players the chance to apply hasn't gradually drained from the overall pool of motivated leadership players.  Staff are less likely to just give themselves these roles I imagine since they'd rather see players run the roles.  As a result I imagine it's possible the process of drawing staff from the motivated players could have hurt the player base in the long run (though not in the short run).

I also wonder if a push toward a more structured rp world might have turned off players in the long run.  Granted twinkish behavior is a bad thing, but I'm not convinced it's all bad.  I think a little bit might be a good thing in favor of freedom of rp.  An example would be say someone wants to play a elf who doesn't want to be a thief.  Sure it goes against the racial rp and might be not the best rp, but perhaps for the overall game world, the odd poorly playered concept might be a good thing.   I guess this last point is hard to explain.

[JollyGreenGiant]

There's an ebb and flow to the game.  You might just be in a slow patch right now.  Keep in mind that these things are also localized; just because it's slow where you are doesn't mean it's slow elsewhere.  There are always things going on.  As a leader, when things get slow and you want to change that up a bit, you have two ways to go about it.  You can either tap into existing events, or you can make something happen yourself.  Sometimes I like it when things slow down a bit and I can take stock of the current situation, you might consider the present slowdown an opportunity to make sure everything's in order.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating.  The number one thing you need in a leader role on Armageddon is patience.  Not everyone logs in every day, things usually don't just happen overnight, and unless your goals are all extremely simple, getting from Point A to Point B takes a bit of planning and effort to accomplish.  The more responsibility your character takes on as a leader, the harder it's going to be to accomplish things.

To finish up with a word of advice - make lists, OOC.  Write down people you need to talk to, plots you currently have active, things you want to follow up on, and maybe a line or two on how your character feels about them.  Also make notes on things you'd like to do in the future and goals that you have, even ones that seem wacky or farfetched.  You never know when the opportunity to follow up on something might just present itself to you.  This will not only help you keep track of what you've got going on (because it can be easy to forget things between logins), but also make it very easy to write up reports to the immortals about what's going on.

[Krath]

What JGG Said, Was writing up a post but he beat me to it.

[facehugger]

One, clan consolidation.  It seems there has been a gradual push toward this over the years (we used to have a lot more of them.)  The down side to lots of clans is having just one or two members with nothing to do, the upside is more clans means more conflict more often than not.  I wonder if the fewer clans has affected the level spontanous player run conflicts.

I'm all for this. If you recall, years and years ago, there were far less clans than there are now. And I think a good deal of the problem how easy it has been made to be an independent. Even utter newbies no longer need the support of a clan to survive. So instead of having consolidated groups that can both RP with one another and RP with other groups, you have dozens of individuals spread out.

Two, Immortal applications.  I wonder if perhaps offering players the chance to apply hasn't gradually drained from the overall pool of motivated leadership players.  Staff are less likely to just give themselves these roles I imagine since they'd rather see players run the roles.  As a result I imagine it's possible the process of drawing staff from the motivated players could have hurt the player base in the long run (though not in the short run).

Also agreed. I think a big downside to this is that the application process draws a lot of our better role-players into the staff. And that they're not fully aware of what they're getting themselves in to and end up quickly burnt out, as can be seen by the rather quick turnover of staff we've seen in the last year. (note: this is not a "crack" at anyone who's retired lately... I've had admin experience in the past and know firsthand how overwhelming being on a mud staff can be). And I personally know a couple of these imms who either no longer play a PC, or play far less, because of their burnout.

[Delirium]

Not everyone logs in every day, things usually don't just happen overnight, and unless your goals are all extremely simple, getting from Point A to Point B takes a bit of planning and effort to accomplish.

What JGG said, and I'd even extend this point to non-leader characters. Some people are very easily discouraged by a stumbling block or the fact that they actually have to work hard for something - and even go so far as to claim they "can't get anywhere" or that "nothing ever happens", or "immz are eating my brainz", etc, etc.. I say, it all depends on how determined your character is to get somewhere. If you can't do something one way, try it another. Be creative.

Unless of course you're truly not enjoying yourself OOCly, in which case you should probably take a step back and figure out why not, and go from there.

[My 2 sids]

We all realize things can take time.  What I don't think people realize is that all this time and energy waiting for plotlines that take forever and a day are actually hurting our MUD.  In essence we are driving away every major player that doesn't want to spend six hours a day at the computer.

[JollyGreenGiant]

We all realize things can take time.  What I don't think people realize is that all this time and energy waiting for plotlines that take forever and a day are actually hurting our MUD.  In essence we are driving away every major player that doesn't want to spend six hours a day at the computer.

Do you have anything besides anecdotal evidence to support such a claim?  Because I can provide some equally anecdotal evidence in support of the contrary.  I can run the who command a few times a day for a month, and demonstrate that in fact, the MUD is NOT hemorrhaging players.

What you refer to as "waiting for plotlines that take forever" I call "necessary buildup."  First, quick and easy plots exist.  Second, it is quite possible to log in for less than ten hours a week and still participate in long term plots.  Third and last, I completely disagree with the assertion about driving away major players.  Those are the people who stay, because what they're ultimately interested in are the long-term, richly realized, and beautifully executed plots that exist in Armageddon.

If you'd prefer to defend a city against three pointless orc invasions in a week and feel good about yourself for helping fifty other players slaughter the boss orc with a thousand hitpoints who stood in the city's center challenging everyone to fight him in single combat, may I suggest ... oh, say, every other so-called RP MUD in existence as a viable alternate.

[sjanimal]

Underseven,

You are right.  You are most definitely right.  I've noticed a definite drop off as well.  It's been brought up a few times, and every time it is people just call it a statistical anomoly.

But I think you're right.

I also think you're right about the solution.  I think some people feel that their role playing is constrained and that this detracts from their willingness to log on and get into roles that have a lot of interaction with people.  I know of at least two people this has happened to.

If you're serious about doing anything to change this, PM me.  I'm working on an IMM sponsored project.

[Cuusardo]

Seems to me that things slow down around the holidays because of school (exams, people leaving for vacations, etc.) and because people are just damned busy at this time of year (retail workers especially).  It's not because there's anything wrong with the mud or the players.  People have real lives, you know.

[da mitey warrior]

I've noticed it too.  There's been a slowdown these last few months.  

Let's change it.  Everyone should make a point of either starting a plot, or supporting someone who's trying to start something.  Or trying to kill them. Something.

[Delirium]

If there HAS been a slowdown, I sure as hell haven't noticed. :)

Maybe I'm just lucky enough to be surrounded by kickass, motivated RPers.

[wizturbo]

Ya, I've gotta say a certain region of the world doesn't seem to be lacking right now.

[Cenghiz]

Currently at least one part of the world has great plots running.. Sorrily I will have to leave the area for IC reasons.

[Dan]

Things are certainly -not- slow for me. There is plenty going on, not all the time I am logged in, or even every time I log in, but it is there. Action.

[Kalden]

also wonder if a push toward a more structured rp world might have turned off players in the long run.

I notice that in another game that I play, SoI. Though, I suppose it may just be me. Don't MUD much at all these days.

[Cuusardo]

also wonder if a push toward a more structured rp world might have turned off players in the long run.

I notice that in another game that I play, SoI. Though, I suppose it may just be me. Don't MUD much at all these days.

Roleplay turns off die hard hack and slashers, not people who play Armageddon for the roleplay.

[mansa]

But roleplay is also being creative, and when you can't be creative in certain roles... those roles tend not to be filled regularly.  Could be that a lot of players have writer's block and can't get out of their funk.

[sacac]

Personally, I don't think anyone in Luir's should be able to post in this thread.. But that is just me.
It has definately slowed down in the normal place I play.