Where Players Heard About Armageddon -- 2012 Edition

[Calavera]

Of our grand total of 21 new players who actually played the game, we can say the following: 5 played their PC for less than 5 hours of playtime and have yet to log in again. 3 more played for between 5 and 10 hours of playtime but have yet to log in again.

The remaining 13 are where things start to get interesting.

People whose first character died almost always made a new character. This happened in 4 instances. Only once did someone not roll a new character after dying. (Interestingly enough, the one person that did not reroll was PKed at 22 hours played. The others all died to NPCs.)

Removing the guy who was killed and has yet to reroll for a month, we now have 12 accounts that I could honestly call "new players" in the sense of actively playing the game for a sustained period.

[Norcal]

Email -and- account name? Why don't you also get a pint of blood and a family tree while you're at it. Monsters. 

The pint of blood comes later. A liter actually, unless Calavera takes it, as she seems partial to U.K. weights and measures..and maybe pints as well.

[greasygemo]

This explains why I woke up in that bathtub full of ice after registering...

[Barzalene]

So, we have about 10% retention.

[Desertman]

So, we have about 10% retention.

Honestly for Armageddon, I call this a win.

This is a game that can put you through some serious emotional stress. This is also the ONLY game I have ever seen where we have players who still play and enjoy the game after 15+ years.

We might only retain 10% of our players, but of those 10%, I wonder how many go on to play for years?

We might not get all of you, but once we do, you belong to us for life. We are like a strange little cult. In fact, you all creep me out a bit.  

[Barzalene]

I wasn't knocking it.

I think 10% is fine.

[ShaLeah]

This is a game that can put you through some serious emotional stress. This is also the ONLY game I have ever seen where we have players who still play and enjoy the game after 15+ years.

Yep. I'd rather have 10% that are die hard fans, that "get it", that make the world come alive than 30% that just doesn't get it.

We might not get all of you, but once we do, you belong to us for life. We are like a strange little cult. In fact, you all creep me out a bit.  

That is creepy... but sex-ay in a bondage kinda way. I might just have to use that as my new signature.

[Bushranger]

So, we have about 10% retention.

Honestly for Armageddon, I call this a win.

This is a game that can put you through some serious emotional stress. This is also the ONLY game I have ever seen where we have players who still play and enjoy the game after 15+ years.

We might only retain 10% of our players, but of those 10%, I wonder how many go on to play for years?

We might not get all of you, but once we do, you belong to us for life. We are like a strange little cult. In fact, you all creep me out a bit.  

I agree completely. More new players is always welcomed but Armageddon MUD has high standards and a high learning curve that not everyone is going to measure up to. The good news is that those players who do, the 10% of new players we retain, are awesome! IF YOU JOINED WITHIN THE LAST YEAR THAT MEANS YOU! YOU ARE AWESOME!

Armageddon MUD: Blood In, Blood Out!

[flurry]

People whose first character died almost always made a new character.

Conclusion: Make sure that first character dies before they have the chance to log out. 

[Feco]

People whose first character died almost always made a new character.

Conclusion: Make sure that first character dies before they have the chance to log out. 

On it.

[greasygemo]

People whose first character died almost always made a new character.

Conclusion: Make sure that first character dies before they have the chance to log out. 

On it.

Roll Call: The Rententionists.



You belong to Drov.

[Maker]

While many of the variables can likely be tweaked to improve retention rates, someone made the very simple observation earlier that I think should be the primary focus:  10% of 200 is hella better than 10% of 100.  Getting the word out, I believe, has always been the focus of everyone, but probably need to look at more ways we can do it (as Nyr, I think, was suggesting).

[HavokBlue]

I've been plugging Arm in the MUD threads that have started popping up sometimes on /vg/. I know I got at least one or two people to apply so... get the word out!

[Blur]

Take this with a grain of salt, but as a player who floats around from game to game from time to time when I'm looking into a new game, the best place to learn about a game and its community is the forums. Most people who've been around long enough probably don't notice but again compared to other games these forums are pretty hostile and sometimes even just the tone of the posts seem outright toxic from both players and staff. Most people probably don't think its a big deal since we still have helpers available to chat with but chatting with some stranger isn't everyone thing. I know that when i first began I didn't want to bother with it myself.


I am not sure what can be done about this, perhaps nothing. Though sometimes i think there should be a newbie friendly board for new player to ask questions, with the rest of the boards hidden until the newbie gets addicted to the actual game. 


Anyways just food for thought. Good luck to you guys!

[HavokBlue]

Really? As someone who migrated from IRE games, I found THEIR boards to be extremely toxic, full of players openly attacking each other because of things that happened in-game. I mean, our off-topic section gets nasty sometimes, but that's not really anything to do with the game.

[Patuk]

Really? As someone who migrated from IRE games, I found THEIR boards to be extremely toxic, full of players openly attacking each other because of things that happened in-game. I mean, our off-topic section gets nasty sometimes, but that's not really anything to do with the game.

Same, and agreed. They do tend to have good mechanics for newbies though.

[TheBadSeed]

Really? As someone who migrated from IRE games, I found THEIR boards to be extremely toxic, full of players openly attacking each other because of things that happened in-game. I mean, our off-topic section gets nasty sometimes, but that's not really anything to do with the game.

Same, and agreed. They do tend to have good mechanics for newbies though.

Couldn't agree more. I've been part of several online gaming communities, and this is by far the most respectful communications board I've ever seen. It's one of the things that really hooked me when I came back to Arm was seeing this board and how mature the player base is with each other, and with the game.

Kudos to the staff that facilitate that.

[Calavera]

Take this with a grain of salt, but as a player who floats around from game to game from time to time when I'm looking into a new game, the best place to learn about a game and its community is the forums. Most people who've been around long enough probably don't notice but again compared to other games these forums are pretty hostile and sometimes even just the tone of the posts seem outright toxic from both players and staff. Most people probably don't think its a big deal since we still have helpers available to chat with but chatting with some stranger isn't everyone thing. I know that when i first began I didn't want to bother with it myself.


I am not sure what can be done about this, perhaps nothing. Though sometimes i think there should be a newbie friendly board for new player to ask questions, with the rest of the boards hidden until the newbie gets addicted to the actual game. 


Anyways just food for thought. Good luck to you guys!

We'd be interested in hearing some of the specifics about what you found less-than-welcoming about the boards. We try our best to moderate posts that are offensive or rude, but if it's driving new players away then it could certainly be looked at to see if we're doing enough.

I also like the idea of a new players' board and will bring this up with the game's Producers.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Maso]

Take this with a grain of salt, but as a player who floats around from game to game from time to time when I'm looking into a new game, the best place to learn about a game and its community is the forums. Most people who've been around long enough probably don't notice but again compared to other games these forums are pretty hostile and sometimes even just the tone of the posts seem outright toxic from both players and staff. Most people probably don't think its a big deal since we still have helpers available to chat with but chatting with some stranger isn't everyone thing. I know that when i first began I didn't want to bother with it myself.

This made me sad....We're...we're...MEAN, GUYS. 

Seriously, I thought we were a pretty welcoming bunch, but it's saddening to hear that from an outside perspective. If I had to make a GUESS....and like...put myself in newb shoes (which I feel like anyway a lot of the time when I ask questions that are dumb for a 6-year player to be asking...)....It's the culture of "Duh. That question was asked 10 years ago, HERE:". It's well irritating.

Newbie board ftw. Chatting with a helper doesn't replace being part of the community.

[Nyr]

Newbie board ftw. Chatting with a helper doesn't replace being part of the community.

That's true.  We do have a newbie board, though.

Ask the Players
Are you a new player with questions? Post them here, and they'll be answered as soon as possible. Please avoid discussions of the magick code unless it's something everyone should know.

And from the stickied post at the top:
     

Welcome to the Newbie Help Forum
« on: September 19, 2002, 08:26:47 PM »
     
Ask your questions here, and don't worry whether or not they sound stupid -- we've all been newbies ourselves at one point or another.

No flames!

It's possible we could rename it to "Newbie Help Forum", move it up the list, and clean it up a bit to make it clear that this is for newbies to ask questions.  I don't think anyone lights into newbies like you're suggesting, though.

[Nyr]

A quick poll of other staffers reveals that pretty much none of us realized that.  Since Ask the Players has become (mostly?) its own thing lately, perhaps it would be better to have a separate newbie help forum.

[Orin]

I think that would be a worthy addition or modification to the GDB.  Ask the Players has its own feel to it, which isn't exclusive to newbie questions.

[Maso]

I'm not suggesting that anyone 'lights' (I've never heard that before) into newbies, just that they could possibly fall victim to the 'you should know better' attitude that can be directed toward more veteran players.

[benegesseritwitch]

Newbie perspective/opinion:

I understood "Ask the Players" as the "ask your noob questions here" board, so no confusion there. I think another board would be redundant and add clutter. A clarification--or maybe subboard,  I guess--in "Ask the Players" is all that's needed, if that.

This made me sad....We're...we're...MEAN, GUYS.  

Seriously, I thought we were a pretty welcoming bunch, but it's saddening to hear that from an outside perspective. If I had to make a GUESS....and like...put myself in newb shoes (which I feel like anyway a lot of the time when I ask questions that are dumb for a 6-year player to be asking...)....It's the culture of "Duh. That question was asked 10 years ago, HERE:". It's well irritating.

Newbie board ftw. Chatting with a helper doesn't replace being part of the community.

I was afraid of this attitude, to be completely honest, but anytime I asked a question, I never encountered it.

As for the boards in general, they do take some getting used to, like any board. It's just a matter of lurking for a while to get a feel for what's allowed and what's not, and not taking it personally if you're corrected. I found I needed to tone down my normal snark (in case it was construed as trolling) as well as reduce any speculative posts (in case they were construed as revealing game secrets I inadvertently stumbled upon).

I've just found that this board has a higher standard for all that sort of thing. It ruffled my feathers a bit at first--and it's a big reason why  my post count is so low--but I'm getting used to it, and it's a good thing. It's the reason why the boards have lasted so long.

[Norcal]

Having a new players board seems like a really good idea.  It would be good to include a seperate link to it on the home screen, and an encouragement for new players to join it.  

When I started playing, I read through a lot of the docs before I created my first PC, but I never got into the boards until my second PC, when I wanted access to the clan boards.  In part, this delay was due to my own insecurity and being overwhelmed with the initial learning curve of Arm. I missed out on a lot and an encouragement to check out the boards would have been super helpful.

Until recently, I have avoided posting much outside of clan boards, frankly because some of you guys are pretty awesome players, and I felt I did not have much to say.  However I have never felt attacked or looked down upon, even though some of my posts might be a little strange.  I think that in general, the community is respectful and the staff vigilant. Some folks just need a nudge to jump in and test the water, and a new players board would be a great place to start.

Oh..and don't call it a noob board. That term makes some people feel like breeds, or even worse, someone from Allanak.