Where players found us: Month of May

[Nyr]

Congratulations on another successful month and a new record for new accounts!  The following info will be updated after the end of day on Friday, May 31, but let's take some time to see what we have already so that we can get ready for next month's voting!
2012 survey results
April post
March post


Raw data

Total new accounts created:  491
Duplicates (created multiple accounts out of confusion?): 3
New accounts minus the above:  488



Where people came from
(noteworthy results mentioned)

Topmudsites:  87
Themudconnector:  166
Both (specifically mentioned):  4
Google:  62 (note that these can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Search/web:  18 (these also can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Friends/other players/family/co-workers:  33
-- in this subset, one account mentioned by name as "my friend that has been playing for years and wouldn't stop harassing me until I played it"
--"everyone in the house is playing and I want to play too"
-- two "word of mouth" referrals
Reddit:  6
Article in Massively about MUDs:  5
Random forums:  12
--specifically, 3 from wildstar central and at least one from Baystation 12

Miscellaneous funnier or "odd" ones:
St Louis Rams
big bang theory
youtube
permadeath games
my name is Diku and this is a DikuMUD
a posse of cannabalistic turtles told me about this game
butts



Summary

This is a new record--best month for new accounts!  Again, this is mostly because of you guys.  High voting positions (which you supported), word of mouth (from your mouths), and roleplaying and showing off your chops!  However, after two months of data, we can probably attribute at least some of the new accounts to the website itself.  The amount of increase over the first voting drive back in March is staggering.  We were #2 and #2 at that point and we brought in about 240+ new accounts, and at the time, that was an amazing month.  It beat all but two previous months in the history of keeping this data.

We have doubled that for two months consecutively.  So kudos to Morgenes and all of the others that put the work into the new website!

Another interesting metric to point out is our new accounts numbers for the year.  This post details how we did in 2012 (and this one goes over account stats for the past 4 years).  To recap that below:

2009 -- 1481
2010 -- 1865
2011 -- 1325
2012 -- 1631

2013 data for new accounts (compiled from various sources):
January (83), February (123), March (235), April (457), May (491)
2013 total (so far) -- 1459

So yeah, in 5 months, we've beaten 2009 and 2011.



Out of that 488, 97 actually created a character and logged time in the game.  I can get more numbers on rejections and the like after we do maintenance and wipe out accounts from the past month that did not actually create characters.



Player Retention

Last month, I mentioned that the best way to determine real player retention would be to see who did the following:

started playing in x month
is still playing THIS month

To recap, our stats from 2010, 2011, and 2012:

Excluding new staff accounts

2010

January:  1
February:  1
March:  2
April:  3
May:  7
June:  5
July:  3
August:  1
September:  1
October:  2
November:  4
December:  4

2010 Total:  34

2011

January:  2
February:  2
March:  0
April:  5
May:  1
June:  5
July:  2
August:  2
September:  1
October:  3
November:  3
December:  1

2011 Total:  27

2012

January:  4
February:  3
March:  5
April:  7
May:  2
June:  2
July:  1
August:  3
September:  2
October:  1
November:  6
December:  4

2012 Total:  40

I also mentioned that this year would be skewed due to the database issue we had which would've wiped records from 1/23 to 3/28.  Even with that, here's what we have for 2013.

2013

January: 2 (missing 8 days of that month's data)
February:  0 (missing all of that month's data)
March:  1 (missing 27 days of that month's data)
April:  9

2013 Total so far:  12

That's fantastic!



This Month's Players

Now, I also mentioned that we'd have some better numbers on how much people from this month are actually playing once some stats got fixed.  That was done in early May.  Let's take a look back at those 97 players from this month, shall we?

5-6 hours of playtime or less:  70
--Ok, good.  We can find out what is turning off the players that have spent that much time in the game.  A few minutes?  They probably didn't intend to do more than look around.  A few hours?  Something must have occurred, no?  Or something didn't occur.

6+ hours of playtime:  27
--Ok, good.  From this, we can find out who got turned off AFTER putting in a significant time investment, but before being hooked.  Perfect.  So who's hooked this month--at least, so far?

Of the remaining 27 players, I narrowed down who was still logging in as recently as 5 days ago.  That gets us 15 players.  Let's break that down by "last played" and see when they started.

Last Login of 5/25:  1 player
Started 5/23, has played 16 hours

Last login of 5/27:  4 players
Started 5/21, has played almost 8 hours
Started 5/24, has played 10.5 hours
Started 5/18, has played 1 day and almost 10 hours
Started 5/7, has played almost 10 hours

Last login of 5/28:  2 players
Started 5/15, has played 17 hours
Started 5/27, has played almost 13 hours

Last login of 5/29:  4 players
Started 5/27, has played almost 10 hours
Started 5/15, has played 6.5 hours
Started 5/25, has played 10 hours
Started 5/18, has played 4 days and almost 8 hours

Last login of 5/30:  4 players
Started 5/8, has played 5 days and almost 18 hours
Started 5/26, has played 22.5 hours
Started 5/10, has played 7 days and 4.5 hours
Started 5/27, has played 7 hours

You also may have noticed a few new players pop up on the GDB in the past month.  Most (if not all) of those are in the above category.

If you're a new player from this month and you're in the categories mentioned above, feel free to chime in here or elsewhere on the forums if you haven't already!  We'd love to hear from you.  What almost turned you off to the game?  What has hooked you?  

[Fredd]

Yeah, I have noticed a lot of noobs that seem to be sticking around. And I mean ALOT (of course it could be 5 of them dying and remaking new pc's in the same area, and dying again... LOL) But still, this is awesome. Last night I saw 81 people on at like 11pm est. With no RPT.

[Fujikoma]

Turn offs:
RP enforced.
Emote when using skills suggested.
Sometimes have to do things you know will get you killed.
Relentless skill grinding strongly frowned upon.
Lot of judgmental GDB posts.
Approval wait times.
Karma system.
Secrecy about skills.
Sheer size of the things needing to be read before even trying to play the game.

Oddly, I'm ambivalent about all these. As those would be part what got me hooked, honestly.

Turn ons:
Permadeath (love me a challenge)

Some games have a guest option, if you don't have an account, so you can get a look at the game world without making any sort of commitment. On one mud I played previously, one person managed to complete all the necessary quests and requirements to be a wizard before the mud reset, with a guest character, as a personal challenge. It was quite the thing, I've heard.

I think the ability to just sit in a major tavern, not able to interact, be seen, or ooc in any way, and observe would be a good way to get a glimpse of what is offered, though, it could be abused. Maybe if you had to have an account to enter this mystical ghost mode, so you can be monitored, and you would have something to do while waiting for your character to be approved. Of course, it would have to notify the person that anything specific besides what's on the boards is OOC knowledge and to be kept separate from IC knowledge.

EDIT: Just stuck in the bar, options being, listen bar, listen table, listen 2.table...

2.EDIT: Oh, right, approvals can't happen while you're logged in to your account, but, someone could nudge you and say "Hey creep, log off so we can approve your crappy character.", and then you'd know, hey, it's about that time.

[Khommie]

Yay!  I'm the guy who put Bay12.  More accurately it was the Baystation 12.

[Wug]

Thank you space mans.

[mansa]

Have you new players read this section of the website: http://armageddon.org/intro/walkthrough.php ?

Somehow we need to convert new accounts into new characters.

[number13]

How often is the Live Help link used? The walkthrough is really nice, but how often is that page viewed?  Are new players able to find the logs?

My suggestion, right on the homepage, front and center, is a really obvious box with stuff that shows off how the game is played: Firstly links without distracting surrounding text to the newbie tutorials you most want the prospective player to see (the quickstart, walkthrough,  RP information).

Then, there could be links to logs, right on the homepage, that include the commands the PoV character's player has typed.  The logs could be anointed with tooltips about the how the game works and how the world works. For example, when the PoV character receives a message from the Way, hovering over the message opens up a tooltip with a terse description of the Way and links to the appropriate documentation.

The logs don't have to be actual, real logs. They can be tailored to the needs of the tutorial, and perhaps follow a single PoV character through common situations: tavern sitting, shopping/buying something from a PC elf, getting a job with the Byn, sparring, drawing a templar's attention, and then some sort of contract that ends with the PoV character seeing the Mantis Head.

edit: I really, really don't have time today, but I'll make little jsFiddle on the weekend to show off what I mean, exactly.

[Nyr]

Somehow we need to convert new accounts into new characters.

I listed the retention figures in the OP above and we have discussed this extensively in the past.  We don't need to (and we probably don't want to) convert all new accounts into new characters.  We need to hook the people that put in the effort to make characters.  Once we do that more effectively, we'll be in a better position.

April lists this out pretty well.

If what held true in April holds true in May, here's what we have (give or take--these are rough estimates based on last month's proportions until we do maintenance and wipe out accounts that didn't make characters):

~50% of our new accounts did not attempt to create a character--at all
~10-15% of our new accounts submitted applications that were beyond repair and required rejection

These two groups?  I don't think we want to target them.  No offense intended to the 54% but they didn't even try to create a character; we have no way to really know what caliber of player this is and it is a major unknown.  No offense intended to the 14% but they submitted stuff like "the shadowy metal dude" or "the mysterious stranger."  Even fixing those kinds of applications is iffy.

~7% of our new accounts created a character and had character approval, but they still had not logged in at the time of collecting statistics.

We can and should do something about these.  They've done well--we approved them, after all!  They just haven't logged in!  A reminder message template to be manually (or automatically?) fired off a couple days after an approval (but prior to actual login) would be swell.

That leaves us with the remainder of about 20-25%--people that actually created characters and logged into the game.  This is where I have statistics again for May.  We know that 97 people (at the time of collecting stats) created characters (right now it's 101).  These are the people we need to worry about and target.  Why?  Well, for one, the number of these people is about four to five times what it used to be.  As with all things considered for a volunteer effort, we must be conscious of the effort involved for the benefit desired.  Targeting people that are a complete unknown may not be a good idea and has no firm benefits.  Targeting people that are a known variable, now that's much easier!

I think we should aim for the players that are just outside and just inside of the "hooked" range first.  That's about 50 players total--people ranging from "put a few hours in but haven't played since" to "put many hours in and still playing".  The ones that are playing and joining into things can give us feedback.  The ones that gave up can give us passive feedback by having us review the logs to see what happened (or did not happen) to keep them away. 

[Nyr]

How often is the Live Help link used?

Funny, I actually have statistics on this.

1/1/2012 - 2/28/2013
845 total helper chat sessions (over a year and two months)

3/1/2013 - 5/31/2013 (voting drive period)
400 total helper chat sessions (over three months)

...probably safe to say we could use another helper or two?

My suggestion, right on the homepage, front and center, is a really obvious box with stuff that shows off how the game is played: Firstly links without distracting surrounding text to the newbie tutorials you most want the prospective player to see (the quickstart, walkthrough,  RP information).

Then, there could be links to logs, right on the homepage, that include the commands the PoV character's player has typed.  The logs could be anointed with tooltips about the how the game works and how the world works. For example, when the PoV character receives a message from the Way, hovering over the message opens up a tooltip with a terse description of the Way and links to the appropriate documentation.

The logs don't have to be actual, real logs. They can be tailored to the needs of the tutorial, and perhaps follow a single PoV character through common situations: tavern sitting, shopping/buying something from a PC elf, getting a job with the Byn, sparring, drawing a templar's attention, and then some sort of contract that ends with the PoV character seeing the Mantis Head.

edit: I really, really don't have time today, but I'll make little jsFiddle on the weekend to show off what I mean, exactly.

Good ideas, thank you for the feedback.

[Derain]

Meh how does one become a helper.. not that you would let me.

[Nyr]

You could put in a publicity request for it if you would like to help.

[Barsook]

You could put in a publicity request for it if you would like to help.

We need more meat and ideas for sure.

[Barzalene]

Oh, there's a request thing. NM

[phrase]

Just out of curiosity, are there staff or players around on this mud that have been there since the very beginning?

[Morrolan]

Just out of curiosity, are there staff or players around on this mud that have been there since the very beginning?

Very beginning? Not quite. But I do remember Steinal, and being able to see stats. I think it was 1992. And shadowdancers. (A class that's gone by the wayside.)

[Wastrel]

Thank you for running such an interesting mud. As a former "pro" gamer (lol) I can say there really is nothing like Armageddon. Its so hardcore. Its literally the most hardcore gaming experience I can think of. I think its a template for the future. When the technology advances to a certain point, making worlds like Armageddon will be commonplace. You have a real gem here.

[ShaLeah]

Thank you for running such an interesting mud. As a former "pro" gamer (lol) I can say there really is nothing like Armageddon. Its so hardcore. Its literally the most hardcore gaming experience I can think of. I think its a template for the future. When the technology advances to a certain point, making worlds like Armageddon will be commonplace. You have a real gem here.

My new favorite newbie.

[Morrolan]

"pro" gamer

When I first started teaching in South Korea, I was talking with a 5th grade student, and asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.

"Pro gamer."

"You want to be a programmer?"

(looking at me like I'm an idiot) "No. Pro gamer."

>think They have those here?

[Nyr]

Yay!  I'm the guy who put Bay12.  More accurately it was the Baystation 12.

Corrected, and welcome!

[Ender]

I whipped up a couple charts illustrating what our recent drive has done.  2013 data from Feb - Mar is missing because of the outage.





This week is important because it's the first week it looks like there's a possibility we may not beat 2012 numbers.  But at Tuesday we're already at 203 unique logins, and at 27 new accounts made this week last year, we're already set to beat that with 26 new accounts already this week.

[Nyr]

...are you a wizard?

[Gimfalisette]

I think we should aim for the players that are just outside and just inside of the "hooked" range first.  That's about 50 players total--people ranging from "put a few hours in but haven't played since" to "put many hours in and still playing".  The ones that are playing and joining into things can give us feedback.  The ones that gave up can give us passive feedback by having us review the logs to see what happened (or did not happen) to keep them away. 

This. Players who have put in the effort to get through the complicated and often confusing character-generation process are the ones to target. They are the real potentials. The raw number of new accounts is a good number to know, but it's not where the actual conversion rate is important. Conversion rate from "made first character" to "actually tried playing" is critical.

[Maso]

I'm excited to see what the average players online is going to look like during the summer hols. Have they started yet?

[Barsook]

They did, I think.