Where Survey Results: February 2014

[Nyr]

Raw data for February

Total new accounts created:  323
Duplicates (created multiple accounts out of confusion/staff accounts/etc):  1
New accounts minus the above: 322



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

Topmudsites:  31
Themudconnector: 127
Both:  1
Google:  38 (note that these can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Search/web:  17 (these also can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Friends/other players/family/co-workers/homies:  20
Reddit:  4
Random forums:  2
TVtropes:  3

A smattering of some miscellaneous answers:
Dune wikipedia
Turkey
video about everquest mentioned MUDs so I googled it




Login data

Actual logins (created a character that was approved and they logged in):  58
1 hour or less in playtime: 16
1-2 hours of playtime:  10
2-6 hours of playtime:  13
6-20 hours of playtime:  10 (2 logged in as recently as Thursday this week)
20+ hours of playtime:  9 (8 logged in as recently as Monday this week)

GDB Accounts created in January
Of these 10 active/high playtime players above, several have already created GDB accounts and have already been posting.

It looks like doing a two-part review of actual playtime + recent login time is a better way to determine the folks that are presently sticking to the game from the month.

Will send out a survey soon that will go to the most active retained new players, and also a survey that will go to the most active not-retained new accounts, but only a select few.

Still working on getting tools that will track origin, start location, racial choice, length of time in newbie area (if at all), login time window, and possibly playerbase interaction (did they interact with another PC or not).



If you're one of those people above?  Feel free to chime in here!  Getting your perspective on things will hopefully help out future players.

[Desertman]

20+ hours of playtime:  9 (8 logged in as recently as Monday this week)


This is awesome.

I would have a particular interest in the playerbase interaction data and what clans if any they joined that appear to have kept them interested/around.

[FantasyWriter]

What portion of new players that stick around are joining coded clans/staying independent?

[Barsook]

What guides and subguides are played the most?

[Nyr]

What portion of new players that stick around are joining coded clans/staying independent?

Of the 10 selected, as of the time of this writing:

3 are in clans on their first PC
1 was in a clan for the first PC and the last PC but not the two intervening ones
1 was not in a clan for first two PCs, was clanned for the third, not for fourth, clanned for the next two
1 was not in a clan for the first two PCs but is clanned for the third
1 was not in a clan for first PC, was clanned for the second, and not for the next several
3 were never in a clan for any PCs

Hypothesis?  Stated a few times before, but based on a glance at this month, interaction itself is more important than being in a clan, because it's about 50/50 between "all clans" and "never clans" and then a mix of "tried clans at least once" in between those two extremes.  Won't know for sure til we send a survey and ask.

What guides and subguides are played the most?

Can't easily tell guilds and subguilds for this without more tools, but my guess at this point is still that guild/subguild is much less important than interaction.  However, of the above, the first PCs were as follows for origin:

5 Allanak
2 Tuluk
2 None
1 Labyrinth

None pointed to Luir's or Red Storm.

[Timetwister]

20+ hours = linkdead probably.

Also there is no way to know whether these are old players re-creating new/multiple accounts.

[Barsook]

IP addresses could help.

[ShaLeah]

20+ hours = linkdead probably.

Also there is no way to know whether these are old players re-creating new/multiple accounts.

I've been on for 36hrs at a stretch, 20 is nothing!

[Scarecrow]

20+ hours = linkdead probably.

Also there is no way to know whether these are old players re-creating new/multiple accounts.

I've been on for 36hrs at a stretch, 20 is nothing!

Get one of those chairs like Homer Simpson in that episode and you don't even have to leave the computer to use the bathroom.

As for those numbers, they look pretty damn awesome. Also I'm pretty sure staff can tell if someone is linkdead or actually playing.

[X-D]

Any info on past months? say going back like 6 months on the people in those months that made it to the "made PC and played for more then 10 hours"? How many of those are still playing 6 months later?

It has been my experience that people that last 3-6 months actually hang around for years and years. Generally, many people play for 20-30 days, but often they seem to quit just as easily as somebody that played a day or week.

[Nyr]

20+ hours = linkdead probably.

Also there is no way to know whether these are old players re-creating new/multiple accounts.

Um...

20+ hours over the course of a month. It is quite common for players.

Also we check for that.

[Nyr]

Any info on past months? say going back like 6 months on the people in those months that made it to the "made PC and played for more then 10 hours"? How many of those are still playing 6 months later?

It has been my experience that people that last 3-6 months actually hang around for years and years. Generally, many people play for 20-30 days, but often they seem to quit just as easily as somebody that played a day or week.

I did that at the beginning of the year.

[X-D]

Thanks....appears I had missed it.

[number13]

1 hour or less in playtime: 16
1-2 hours of playtime:  10

I'm interested in these guys. Did they log into a ghost town, either due to location or because they logged on off-peak?

[Desertman]

That one new player who chose the Rinth as their first starting location....

[Rathustra]

That one new player who chose the Rinth as their first starting location....

My first PC was a pickpocket in the rinth. I wandered around for an hour solo-RPing then found a dead elf. Then another elf appeared and started shouting in allundean and hassling me, pointing at the corpse. He then killed me. I didn't play again for a year, when I came back and... Made another rinthi pickpocket. Also Belenos had sent me a mud mail giving kudos for my performance. So I guess I had that going for me.

[Nyr]

1 hour or less in playtime: 16
1-2 hours of playtime:  10

I'm interested in these guys. Did they log into a ghost town, either due to location or because they logged on off-peak?

I don't know that they are that interesting.  For a lot of these (especially 1 hour or less) I would imagine they spent most of their time online in the newbie area.  Can't easily tell since the runlogs don't go back that far for the majority of them, but here's what I have found so far.

• 1 got through the newbie area, went into the Gaj, looked around, then walked back east and quit.  There were people there, no one had a chance to interact before they left.  Total time:  25 minutes of play.  Not exactly peak time play but not exactly the most off-peak time (5:45 PM).
• Another got through the newbie area, entered the Firestorm, looked around, walked outside, walked back inside and quit.  Total time:  47 minutes of play.  This was off-peak, around 8 or 9 AM, I didn't check to see if anyone was there.
• Another got through the newbie area, entered Red Storm, looked around for a while, then quit out after about 20 total minutes of login time during an off peak period (8 AM or so).  They came back around 10 AM, wandered around Red Storm for a while, then quit out again.  They came back the next day around 11:30 AM, wandered around for a while, eventually went out to go kill a beetle.  That didn't go that well.  They ran into a PC finally, they talked for a bit, then they quit out later on.  Total time:  1 hour, 37 minutes, all off-peak, and all outside of high-interaction areas.
• Another spent a lot of time in the newbie area and eventually quit when they got to the Gaj dorm.  Total time:  1hr 55 minutes of play.  This was post/during peak times.

At a minimum, I'm in favor of restricting first character point location to Allanak or Tuluk and fixing the OOC issue of start location in Tuluk (even if at the cost of IC restrictions being eased for the Sanctuary).  Playability will occasionally need to trump the IC parts of things, and this might be one of those cases.

[Delusion]

I've seen a system elsewhere where players receive an echo telling them if a new character has shown up in their location. No names or short descriptions or anything, just a 'there's a new character about'. Perhaps something like that, with a toggle for those who don't want it, and an advisory to new players that they may want to stay around the starting tavern for just a little while, would be beneficial?

[Daar]

20+ hours = linkdead probably.

Also there is no way to know whether these are old players re-creating new/multiple accounts.

I've been on for 36hrs at a stretch, 20 is nothing!

I really like this game. but i have 4 kids here.
I didnt play for a week now, because everytime i get involved in events with other PC's i have to go AFK.
Like when my son wakes up or my girls fight again.
And when they finally sleep i can focus on the game. (after OOC'ing 3 times "gone brb son")
Then my wife is pissed because im so focused on the game, trying to catch up with the spam.

I cant just finish killing a monster and be afk like in other games and listen to my family.
I fell in love with arm.
But it takes too much attention.I can only play it when im alone.
No reason for me to quit.
But I will be more of a casual player.

[Nyr]

I think that poster was under the impression this was referring to people that were online for 20+ hours straight, which is actually not true.  20+ hours from all logins from that player over the course of the month, rather!

Nothing wrong with being a casual player at all.  It is easier to do that now than it was before, at least, and some roles will be more conducive to that.  If you need help with figuring out what'll work for your playstyle, that can definitely be discussed.

[IntuitiveApathy]

At a minimum, I'm in favor of restricting first character point location to Allanak or Tuluk and fixing the OOC issue of start location in Tuluk (even if at the cost of IC restrictions being eased for the Sanctuary).  Playability will occasionally need to trump the IC parts of things, and this might be one of those cases.

I would give this my

[FantasyWriter]

20+ hours = linkdead probably.

Also there is no way to know whether these are old players re-creating new/multiple accounts.

I've been on for 36hrs at a stretch, 20 is nothing!

I really like this game. but i have 4 kids here.
I didnt play for a week now, because everytime i get involved in events with other PC's i have to go AFK.
Like when my son wakes up or my girls fight again.
And when they finally sleep i can focus on the game. (after OOC'ing 3 times "gone brb son")
Then my wife is pissed because im so focused on the game, trying to catch up with the spam.

I cant just finish killing a monster and be afk like in other games and listen to my family.
I fell in love with arm.
But it takes too much attention.I can only play it when im alone.
No reason for me to quit.
But I will be more of a casual player.

This is part of why I usually choose to play independent characters.  Also, I generally find a magick users, merchants and other combat-light roles more preferable to a interruption-heavy lifestyle. I feel bad when I have to AFk in the middle of a scene and sometimes it takes me four or five minutes to get back to the console.

[Bogre]

Fixing the Tuluk newbies to start in the Sanctuary would probably be the best.

[Patuk]

Fixing the Tuluk newbies to start in the Sanctuary would probably be the best.

Ever since we have this origin thing where you can start in Tuluk but be a foreigner, I think the sanctuary isn't going to work.

[Nyr]

Fixing the Tuluk newbies to start in the Sanctuary would probably be the best.

Ever since we have this origin thing where you can start in Tuluk but be a foreigner, I think the sanctuary isn't going to work.

All part of the plan.  If you start in the Sanctuary and can never leave, you will be forced to play with the nobles.  You will learn, southerner, what it means to be Tuluki.

[solera]

I really like this game. but i have 4 kids here.
I didnt play for a week now, because everytime i get involved in events with other PC's i have to go AFK.
Like when my son wakes up or my girls fight again.
And when they finally sleep i can focus on the game. (after OOC'ing 3 times "gone brb son")
Then my wife is pissed because im so focused on the game, trying to catch up with the spam.

I cant just finish killing a monster and be afk like in other games and listen to my family.
I fell in love with arm.
But it takes too much attention.I can only play it when im alone.
No reason for me to quit.
But I will be more of a casual player.

This may be fairly common with new players that seem to drop off. It was certainly my experience. I loved the game from the start but my family soon hated it. Even when I cut down my (moderate) hours, they could see it in my eyes. I dropped  my young PC after a few months in the game, picked her up two years later and  played for quite a few years for 1/2 to 1 hr before work, and a few hours at the weekend.
The best things about graphic games is the pause button!
My point is, short term I didn't stick, but long term, I'm still here.