Where players found us for April

[Nyr]

Raw data for April

Total new accounts created:  213
Duplicates (created multiple accounts out of confusion/staff accounts/etc):  4
New accounts minus the above: 209



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

Topmudsites:  13
Themudconnector: 48
Google:  30 (note that these can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC or may be otherwise concurrent with the above)
Search/web: 6 (these also can probably be attributed to either TMS or TMC)
Friends/other players/family/co-workers/homies:  24
Reddit:  20
Random forums:  11
TVtropes:  2

A smattering of some miscellaneous answers:
I am looking for an alternative to (another mud), it's min/maxing crap



Login data

Actual logins (created a character that was approved and they logged in):  47
1 hour or less in playtime: 22
1-2 hours of playtime:  6
2-6 hours of playtime:  8
6-20 hours of playtime:  6 (4 logged in as recently as last week)
20+ hours of playtime:  1 (pretty damn active)


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.

We've created a survey that goes out to the top retained players + the top unretained players, that will go out this weekend if I have time to put that together.

We had lower turnout in terms of all new accounts, and comparing it to the previous month, it looks like the culprit is a combination of TMC and TMS voting.  IE, just last month we had almost 60 MORE TMC accounts, and nearly 100 more accounts total.  The higher our rankings, the more our game is visible, etc.  Could be other factors but that's too hard to tell at this point.

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.

[Kol]

Heh heh, that one hat has 20+ hours, I like. Even if we do get 100+ new accounts each month, as long as we retain one player, we're doing something right!

[Harmless]

I had a feeling our new player count would drop when our voting did. I guess people got busy.

THAT'S WHY YOU SHOULD NOW ---

[Reiloth]

we at #13

[number13]

I wish that blurb on TMS read differently. Maybe:

"Online since 1991, Armageddon MUD is the ongoing story of harsh desert world, with a rabidly dedicated player base. Role playing is mandatory and intensive. Death is permanent. Player conflict is unrestricted. For over 20 years, we have been telling a story of murder, corruption, and betrayal with real consequences for characters. We love it when new players join the game, but expect little hand-holding -- the world is unrelentingly hostile. Completely free to play."

Play off the popularity of Dark Souls, Dwarf Fortress, etc, by emphasizing that this is the Hard Mode game.

[Giled]

For the record, I'm pretty sure I'm that "pretty darn active" one... if there is some perspective I can offer, I'd be happy to.

[Desertman]

For the record, I'm pretty sure I'm that "pretty darn active" one... if there is some perspective I can offer, I'd be happy to.

Cool.

What's your favorite thing about the game so far and your least favorite thing?

If there was one thing as a new player that you would change what would it be?

[Kol]

What was it that drew you to this game in the first place, and how easy was the process of joining for you?

Was there anything about it you thought would have made the process easier, and why?

And finally, Are you having a good time? 

[Giled]

What's your favorite thing about the game so far and your least favorite thing?

I'd say my favorite thing is all of you. Even with my glaring command syntax mistakes (and a swath of other mistakes that I keep finding as I go), everyone is there to either: A) Use a simple OOC and offer a suggestion, or B) offering the requisite amount of shame that leaves me coursing through the help files for where I've goofed.

(Bear in mind this is just a product of my incredibly new perspective on the game)
My least favorite thing at this point would be what it costs to learn. I was lucky enough to stumble on someone to show me the ropes of how to scrape by and make enough money to keep fed, but I'd imagine not everyone would be so lucky. Had I not been shown my options like I was, I'd likely have bailed, sitting and waiting to die while people laugh isn't the most fun expenditure of time.

Additionally, everyone seems to have a good handle on how the game works, and is able to balance realistically improving a character with codedly improving it. As a new player I can spend all my hard earned 'sid in an instant, and craft it all up with a list of fancy emotes, but then I'm left broke and with a pocket full of broken pieces from attempts at crafting, and no appreciable skill gain (oops, you should have spaced those tries out, newbie).

If there was one thing as a new player that you would change what would it be?

There's a million things I'd go back and change about my first characters already, but it's honestly all my fault for not combing the help files. The information is there, I was just too eager to get in and try everything out instead of actually sitting down and reading what I was choosing. That's mainly a carryover of my MUD career, make a character, log in and go go go... That doesn't work in Zalanthas.

I also don't know what you'd do to combat that. Everything seems to be spelled out, you just have to know where to look, it's just -knowing- where to look that is/was a struggle for me. I've seen a ton of MUDs claim to have some complex system that enforces their RP and is unique, and on and on, this is the one I've stumbled on that delivered in spades.

[solera]

Thanks for that Giled, and welcome too. 

Did you use the Helper chat?

[Giled]

What was it that drew you to this game in the first place, and how easy was the process of joining for you?

Honestly I just stood up an old code base that I spent my childhood playing up on a home server and reintroduced myself to MUDding in general, found a lot of old friends and got the good feelings rushing back from hours and days spent in a world outside our own.
Then as things tend to go, everyone left and I was looking at an empty server. I don't remember what source led me to try it out here, but I hurriedly threw together an application, and got rapidly denied for trying to incorporate a nautical background (which is undeniably laughable at this point, but admittedly I read the minimum amount of direction). I submitted a second application, which is most likely equally terrible, but a staff member corrected all my egregious errors and and I was off and running in little time. So I would say it was easy in that after my initial attempt was rejected, the staff worked with me to fix it, dumb as I was (am)

Was there anything about it you thought would have made the process easier, and why?

Not unless you can make reading enough to have a sense of the world mandatory and not drive people away, which sounds like a tall order. As I said before, I would have made an entirely different character and feasible back story if I could, fortunately subsequent deaths make that a possibility!

And finally, Are you having a good time? 

Absolutely! I'd prefer to helping everyone have an equally good time, but I still have so much to learn.

[Giled]

Thanks for that Giled, and welcome too. 

Did you use the Helper chat?

I've used it a few times at this point. Everyone's been equally helpful / pushing towards finding things out IG, which has been equal parts helpful / who do I talk to about -this- one