November / December Player Update, Yearly Review

[Nyr]

I took off the month of December, so I didn't actually compile timely information on November or December's numbers.  I guess we'll do a megapost then!

New Players

2012 survey results
October post
September post
August post
July post
June post
May post
April post
March post


Raw data for November

Total new accounts created:  307
Duplicates (created multiple accounts out of confusion/staff accounts/etc):  2
New accounts minus the above: 305



Where people came from
(noteworthy results mentioned, some might be concurrent)

Topmudsites:  26
Themudconnector: 125
Both:  2
Google:  33 (note that these can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Search/web:  9 (these also can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Friends/other players/family/co-workers/homies:  30
Reddit:  3
Random forums:  14
TVtropes:  2

Miscellaneous funnier or "odd" or even interesting ones:
Your Mom (or rather "iheardaboutitfromyourmother")
Yahoo! Answers
DayZ games (still)



Raw data for December

Total new accounts created:  254
Duplicates (created multiple accounts out of confusion/staff accounts/etc):  4
New accounts minus the above: 250



Where people came from
(noteworthy results mentioned, some might be concurrent)

Topmudsites:  28
Themudconnector: 84
Both:  0
Google:  21 (note that these can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Search/web:  5 (these also can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Friends/other players/family/co-workers/homies:  31
Reddit:  6
Random forums:  13
TVtropes:  2

Miscellaneous funnier or "odd" or even interesting ones:
Cat Rambo's book
in the land of hopes and crossdressing bunnies
IRC channel
Star Citizen forums
On a forum that said this was like DayZ, but I'm calling bullshit rather quickly
My siblings are addicted to this game so, I thought I should give it a try

Voting numbers overall for November and December were lower.  I haven't had time to push voting (school) and I was gone in December...haven't had much time to crunch the numbers.  Luckily, school schedule is easier this next semester, and I think we'll have some interesting metrics to show below that should encourage us to keep up our voting!



Summary

A little copypasta below from previous posts:

An 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), June (464), July (406), August (421), September (434), October (365), November (305), December (250)
2013 total -- 4034

We've set the Armageddon record for most new accounts for any given year!



What matters, however, is how many people actually log in even once to play the game.  This has been a major improvement.  When I first looked at this data in January and February with Calavera, we found that over the course of about 100 accounts created, only 21 actually made it into the game.  Here's what we have for the past two months.

November:  61 new accounts logged into the game
December:  50 new accounts logged into the game

We are (in general) seeing around a 3x to 4x increase in the amount of people that play the game for the first time.



Player Retention

More copypasta.

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
May:  6
June:  8
July:  7
August: 9
September:  7
October: 9
November: 7

2013 Total so far:  65

We're still on a path to increase retention and total playerbase size by a sizable percentage over last year.  If we assume even just 6 players stick from December, we'll end up with retention of 71 players this year, more than 50% higher than 2012 (actually, about 56%).  I am going to redo all of these retention numbers at the end of the year and run new ones so that we know who has sticked not only for the following month (like we are doing above) but how these numbers have changed over time (started in 2011, still playing today, etc).



This Month's Players (December)

More copypasta.  The numbers are new though.

5-6 hours of playtime or less:  50
--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, or something didn't occur.  We will be delving into this over time but probably not immediately.  This is not the most high priority target for our efforts, considering the people that put in more time than this.

6+ hours of playtime:  19
--Ok, good.  From this, we can find out who got turned off AFTER putting in a significant time investment, but before being hooked.  This is probably a better area to look at for the purposes of retention.  They've spent time playing the game but (for whatever reason) they have stopped playing.  This will take time to affect and review efforts.

So who's hooked this month--at least, so far?

Of the remaining 19 players, I narrowed down who was still logging in as recently as, well...let's say this week.  That gives us 4 players.  (Three more are there as well but they're new staffers.)

If you're a new player from the past couple of months 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?

[levinj]

I'm one of the new players from December.

I've never played on Armageddon before, but I've played other RPIs, just as some background. For that reason, the syntax wasn't overwhelming to me, which helped a lot.

I've been on winter break the whole time, which allowed me to devote a lot more playing time than I normally would.

But the biggest reason I was retained was that literally five minutes after entering the game, a player came into my tavern and grabbed me by the hand and started showing me around. I have no idea if this was deliberate or a fluke, but it absolutely caused me to stay here and opened me up to wonderful IC experiences.

So - players, keep being kind to us newbs!

[negativespace]

I'm fresh out of the January oven.

Here are the specifics as to how I got into this. When I was in middle school I dabbled in playing MUDs, without really sticking to any of them - partially because at the time, it seemed playing a female character in these things brought some creepy harrassment, not in an IC way either. The idea of roleplaying sounded really interesting to me but I didn't quite have the patience to learn everything.  Fast forward to now: my meatspace D&D campaigns have wrapped up and I was itching for some more RP, with a more serious tone. I just thought "Hey, do people play MUDs anymore?" and decided to look up what the best MUDs these days are. I came upon a review of Armageddon, I think it was on TMC. It sold me by describing some of the exploits the reviewer's character had gone through. Sounded riveting, and appealed to my desire in collaborating to create emotive and memorable stories. I know there're regulations for talking about IC sensitive stuff, but getting to hear at least some of the old stories was necessary in pulling me here. I'm hoping I can find more stories to tell others and get them trying the game, if they have the same motivations.

I haven't even played for a month, but here's what I think so far. In a lot of ways, this is like my dream game. I still struggle with some of the syntax, but for the most part it's okay. Mainly putting my weapons off my hand and then brandished and then worn messes me up a bit, I find the code for that a bit fiddly. I got past a lot of learning frustration I think because I'm kind of a neurotic information sponge who wants to get everything before I jump in and humiliate myself, haha, but I can see why other new players might struggle to get to the tasty meat of the game.
People are friendlier than I had imagined, which is great. I did spend my first days just wandering around exploring the city and testing code stuff. I'm getting plenty of interaction from a clan. Some of which is overwhelming too, 'cause I have some social anxiety, but knowing IC judgement =/= OOC judgement helps lots. Plus playing a naive dummy. Already, me and my character have been through some emotional highs and lows, and that's great. Even when we end up doing something stupid, I can remind myself that I'm creating story opportunities and fun for other players too.  The high quality RP is great to be around but it is certainly intimidating. Overall it's been a positive (if tense!) experience and I think I'll be sticking around... if I don't suffer from a heart attack out on the sands, haha.

[JustAnotherGuy]

I'm fresh out of the January oven.

Here are the specifics as to how I got into this. When I was in middle school I dabbled in playing MUDs, without really sticking to any of them - partially because at the time, it seemed playing a female character in these things brought some creepy harrassment, not in an IC way either. The idea of roleplaying sounded really interesting to me but I didn't quite have the patience to learn everything.  Fast forward to now: my meatspace D&D campaigns have wrapped up and I was itching for some more RP, with a more serious tone. I just thought "Hey, do people play MUDs anymore?" and decided to look up what the best MUDs these days are. I came upon a review of Armageddon, I think it was on TMC. It sold me by describing some of the exploits the reviewer's character had gone through. Sounded riveting, and appealed to my desire in collaborating to create emotive and memorable stories. I know there're regulations for talking about IC sensitive stuff, but getting to hear at least some of the old stories was necessary in pulling me here. I'm hoping I can find more stories to tell others and get them trying the game, if they have the same motivations.

I haven't even played for a month, but here's what I think so far. In a lot of ways, this is like my dream game. I still struggle with some of the syntax, but for the most part it's okay. Mainly putting my weapons off my hand and then brandished and then worn messes me up a bit, I find the code for that a bit fiddly. I got past a lot of learning frustration I think because I'm kind of a neurotic information sponge who wants to get everything before I jump in and humiliate myself, haha, but I can see why other new players might struggle to get to the tasty meat of the game.
People are friendlier than I had imagined, which is great. I did spend my first days just wandering around exploring the city and testing code stuff. I'm getting plenty of interaction from a clan. Some of which is overwhelming too, 'cause I have some social anxiety, but knowing IC judgement =/= OOC judgement helps lots. Plus playing a naive dummy. Already, me and my character have been through some emotional highs and lows, and that's great. Even when we end up doing something stupid, I can remind myself that I'm creating story opportunities and fun for other players too.  The high quality RP is great to be around but it is certainly intimidating. Overall it's been a positive (if tense!) experience and I think I'll be sticking around... if I don't suffer from a heart attack out on the sands, haha.

Hey there, glad to hear you're enjoying the game.  I wanted to help out with the syntax issue you're having though.  There is an easier way to deal with weapon instead of wielding and removing and such, the commands are:  DRAW and SHEATH.  For example you can use the draw command like this:  draw obsidian.sword -- and you will draw the obsidian sword that you have on your belt.  You can use the sheath command this way:  sheath obsidian.sword -- and what will happen is you will sheath that obsidian sword on your belt, if there is no space it will tell you so you can then try this:  sheath obsidian.sword back  -- this will put the sword on your back, if the sword is able to be sheathed on your back.  Typically larger weapons can fit on your back.  (You can find out with the ASSESS command.)  I used examples like obsidian.sword to show you can use a period (.) to have multiple keywords in a command (EXTREMELY helpful), but you can just use 'draw sword' or 'sheath sword' if you don't need to worry about it.  This should save you a bunch of time and effort when dealing with combat.

[Fujikoma]

I know when I started the thing that got me hooked was my first player interaction where I was led out down the road and almost killed. Then I spent RL days tavern sitting, waiting for that damned Byn Sarge to show up . When they finally did, things took off and it was wild, fun times with some really sad things happening, but also some hilarious interactions that really kept my attention, along with some serious and righteous IC rage and bloodshed, right up until a giant monster pinched him into a fine, red paste . (I don't think that's too specific)

So yeah, I think it's been damn near a year now. Good times. Still lots of stuff I need to work on, but it'll get there. I think the key was someone showed up and said "Hey, you! What are you doing? What are your plans? Here, pay me some obsidian pieces so I can lead you to your demise and take your boots- *ahem* I mean, take you to the city where you can join the Byn."

EDIT: One thing that has kept me around longer than the first couple characters has been positive staff interaction, despite what a pain in the butt I might be at times, quicker approval times (Possibly due in part to me getting better at creating character apps), and allowing me to try out neat and fun stuff with the special request tool (sometimes I feel like I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew, but I figure that's how we learn). Still, I know those special apps are going to run out soon, so I better get my crap together if I want to play certain guilds in the near future.

[whitt]

Not a new account in November/December, but I didn't play at all until then.  (First Character Created, I don't even remember when and died of old age before I came back to see what the game was actually about).  I almost walked away again after my second PC.  I just got hired on to a position, was getting some training from my IG mentor,  and I was just getting into the game.  We went out into the desert for a fight.  The speedwalking twinkery of that combat was such a turn-off that I insisted the winner kill my character too.  For all the awesomeness of the RP in the city, I was disgusted that this was how combat should work in an RPI.  I'm not certain yet that this won't be my experience every time I see combat between PCs.

I stuck around because, well, there isn't really another RPI out there that I know of right now.  Glad I did as I continue to enjoy the RP here.  That's not really fair.  I love the RP here.  The clan I'm in has been a blast.  I just hope that when I hit another batch of PvP, which is inevitable, it won't sour the experience the same way.  Hopefully the combat will eventually match the level of RP that the rest of the game is known for.

[Fujikoma]

Not a new account in November/December, but I didn't play at all until then.  (First Character Created, I don't even remember when and died of old age before I came back to see what the game was actually about).  I almost walked away again after my second PC.  I just got hired on to a position, was getting some training from my IG mentor,  and I was just getting into the game.  We went out into the desert for a fight.  The speedwalking twinkery of that combat was such a turn-off that I insisted the winner kill my character too.  For all the awesomeness of the RP in the city, I was disgusted that this was how combat should work in an RPI.  I'm not certain yet that this won't be my experience every time I see combat between PCs.

I stuck around because, well, there isn't really another RPI out there that I know of right now.  Glad I did as I continue to enjoy the RP here.  That's not really fair.  I love the RP here.  The clan I'm in has been a blast.  I just hope that when I hit another batch of PvP, which is inevitable, it won't sour the experience the same way.  Hopefully the combat will eventually match the level of RP that the rest of the game is known for.

Not to be too critical of your post, just some observations from a combat-twinking-nut.

Try participating in a massive battle involving a mantis clutch or a gith horde sometime, really gets the blood pumping, when those numbers start -rapidly- dropping and my character is screaming and crying for help, the panic attack alone almost kills me IRL . Probably speedwalking twinkery to keep you from getting killed your first time out, sadly, seems like the opposite happened. Combat is -serious- business. Every now and then you will get a staff animation that you may be able to emote and interact with before it kills you, but mostly it's random, wandering NPCs of widely varying ability scores, like the inevitable tregil of steel, and taking chances with those things instead of keeping your wits about you is going to net you an early grave. Typing a flowery flourish emote then may lead you to having to just send it half done and flee without calling for retreat, leaving the hapless newb to be inst-gibbed by the Tek-possessed Gortok of destruction, but if you're in the middle of some kind of large, organized event, and you think maybe you're going to die anyway (or even if you don't think you're going to die if you just keep twinking), try something fun and memorable, you may find yourself surprised and highly amused.

[whitt]

Not to be too critical of your post, just some observations from a combat-twinking-nut.

None of the above was relevant to my post.  I know all about screen scroll and multi-player / multi-mob combat and the total chaos it involves.  While it is worse because I haven't found a way to seperate the sdescs from the rest of the scramble (yet) this isn't what bothered me.  Nor was it death to an aggro NPC getting overzealous, or even improper clanning getting me killed.  This was one PC v one PC with a newb attached.  I won't go into detail because it's neither appropriate nor important any more (unless staff wants to PM me to discuss), but it did involve arrows, racing around the desert, a very brief period where all the actors were in the same "room", fleeing, and more arrows.  We should have been in Dune Buggies with Sniper Rifles, not in a wide open desert with primitive weapons.  Check that.  Dune Buggies couldn't maneuver like this.  I've said too much.

[Fujikoma]

Not to be too critical of your post, just some observations from a combat-twinking-nut.

None of the above was relevant to my post.  I know all about screen scroll and multi-player / multi-mob combat and the total chaos it involves.  While it is worse because I haven't found a way to seperate the sdescs from the rest of the scramble (yet) this isn't what bothered me.  Nor was it death to an aggro NPC getting overzealous, or even improper clanning getting me killed.  This was one PC v one PC with a newb attached.  I won't go into detail because it's neither appropriate nor important any more (unless staff wants to PM me to discuss), but it did involve arrows, racing around the desert, a very brief period where all the actors were in the same "room", fleeing, and more arrows.  We should have been in Dune Buggies with Sniper Rifles, not in a wide open desert with primitive weapons.  Check that.  Dune Buggies couldn't maneuver like this.  I've said too much.

I see, that does sound like a bad time. I'm sorry I misinterpreted the meaning. I've not had a persistent enough raider to shoot me more than once, though I have been clubbed, gicked, and generally beat, chopped, slashed and stabbed to feck and back, though I generally got the courtesy of an emote or two and an exchange of words first, except for one time.